AMD Athlon™ Processor x86 Code Optimization

22007E/0 — November 1999

VectorPath

E n try

Point D e c o d e

M R O M

D e c o d e

 

D e c o d e

I-C A C H E

16 bytes

 

D e c o d e

D e c o d e

D e c o d e

D e c o d e

D e c o d e

3

M a c ro O p s

DirectPath

Qu a d w o rd Q u eu e

D e c o d e

D e c o d e

F E T C H S C A N A L IG N 1 /

A L IG N 2 /

E D E C /

1

 

M E C T L

M E R O M

M E D E C

2

3

4

5

Figure 5. Fetch/Scan/Align/Decode Pipeline Hardware

ID E C

6

The most common x86 instructions flow through the DirectPath pipeline stages and are decoded by hardware. The less common instructions, which require microcode assistance, flow through the VectorPath. Although the DirectPath decodes the common x86 instructions, it also contains VectorPath instruction data, which allows it to maintain dispatch order at the end of cycle 5.

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

D ir e c t P a th

 

 

 

A L IG N 1

A L IG N 2

E D E C

F E T C H

S C A N

 

ID E C

 

M E C T L

M E R O M

M E S E Q

 

V e c to r P a th

 

 

Figure 6. Fetch/Scan/Align/Decode Pipeline Stages

142

Fetch and Decode Pipeline Stages

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AMD x86 manual C T L R O M