I hope this article helped you understand a little more of the background behind the move made by both AMD and Intel to x86-64. It’s really not much of an advantage over x86-32, other than the gain in memory addressing, and the extra registers which make the last mainstream CISC architecture more RISC like.
I’d prefer to see the extermination of this well worn architecture, and see it replaced by something more in line with what we know today. Starting fresh would be a much better option performance-wise than constantly trying to deal with improving an archaic design such as x86 without breaking compatibility.
Unfortunately, some of the more outstanding issues have been dealt with, and the life of this instruction set has been extended yet again. Somehow I have a feeling in 10 years I’ll be writing a similar article on how x86-64 moved to x86-128. But we’ll find out in 10 years.
| DISCLAIMER: The content provided in this article is not warranted or guaranteed by Developer Shed, Inc. The content provided is intended for entertainment and/or educational purposes in order to introduce to the reader key ideas, concepts, and/or product reviews. As such it is incumbent upon the reader to employ real-world tactics for security and implementation of best practices. We are not liable for any negative consequences that may result from implementing any information covered in our articles or tutorials. If this is a hardware review, it is not recommended to open and/or modify your hardware. |
