Re:Why is Apple's M1 chip so fast?
by FeepingCreature on Monday November 30, 2020 @05:10PM
(#25259681)
So what stops x86 from adding the micro-ops as a dedicated alternate instruction set, Thumb style? Maybe with the implication that Intel will not hold the instruction set stable between chips, pushing vendors to compile to it on the fly?
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Mirco Ops are usually much wider than instructions of the ISA. They are usually not multiple of 8 bits wide either.
An dedicated alternative instruction set would be possible but that would take die space and make x86_64+mine even harder to decode.