How Modern CPUs Work

Aron Schatz writes "ASE Labs explains how a typical single-cycle and multi-cycle CPU operate in today's world and some of the pitfalls associated with them. The assumptions given in the article are based on a RISC architecture, MIPS to be exact. You can read the article here."

credit where it is due

[Anonymous Coward]

When the author of the article says MIPS, he means DLX, and where he says ASE Labs explains, he means Hennessy & Patterson explain. That's not to say there is no value in repeating the stuff for people who don't have the book, but he should at least give reference to the place he took most of the material from. For anyone who cares, chapter 3 of the second edition of Hennessy & Patterson's "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" covers the same topic, using the same simple five stage pipeline.

Not really that relevant.

[Hast]

Sure it's a nice intro to pipelining for those that haven't taken an introduction to computer engineering; but it doesn't have that much to do with how a modern CPU works.

It is true that modern CPUs use pipelining, but the basic model described here is only used if you want to try and implement your own CPU for fun. Modern CPUs are super-scalar monsters with out-of-order execution and custom internal micro code. But I guess you'll have to start somewhere.

If you want look at what a real modern CPU looks like I recommend Hannibal's excellent CPU articles over at ArsTechnica [arstechnica.com]. He has gone over quite a few different architectures as well as the CPUs found in the X360 and PS3. Interesting reading for all! There are also some articles on stuff like cache and memory architecture.