what is a superscalar and what is its advantages

[slimfigure8]

Could anybody shed some light on what a superscalar CPU is and how it differs from other CPUs.

Many thanks

 

[ceh4702]

Usually CPU technical jargon is used with SuperScalar and Super Pipelined. SuperPipelined refers to the number of pathways thru the processor. Each pipe is process simultaneously during the the clock cycle. SuperScalar is a term used to describe a situation where there is a Co-Processor with its own pipelines. In the Athlon there are Pipelines in the processor and then in the Co-Processor there are more pipelines. Usually the Co-Processor does the more complex operations like floating point computations, division, etc. Additionally there are operations or commands that are hard wired into the processor's pathways, and there are other instructions which are complex and stored on a read-only memory area of the CPU. Some explanations of this in AMD's thorough technical descriptions of the athlon CPU Architecture. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[ceh4702]

The more pipelines there are the more instructions can be processed in a given clock cycle. There is a section in the CPU which predicts what comes next and the processor tries to use algorithms to predict what to do ahead of time before it actually reads the insturctions. In programs the same things are often done over and over. The CPU often stores code in a buffer or in the Burst Pipeline Cache if it is to be repeated continuously. This all works together to speed things up. The Athlon also has 2 processing cycles per clock Cycle. Once in the upswing and once in the downswing. A clock Cycle is produced by the clock on the mother board and resembles a square wave pattern. Usually most Universities teach this in a basic Computer Hardware Class or a class in switches and gates in a hardware/software degree or computer science degree. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.