High-performance microprocessor architectures

Over the past few years, microprocessor designs have undergone an evolution process shaped largely by improvements in LSI circuit technology and experiences gained from the very large user community. By and large, most microprocessors have internal architectures that are patterned after classical CPU structures. This trend is changing rapidly. High-performance LSI microprocessors are emerging at a slow but steady pace, with architectural features borrowed from larger and more powerful computers. This paper examines aspects of pipelined concurrency and microprogramming as applied to LSI microprocessors, for the purpose of enhancing performance.