The Anatomy of a High-Performance Microprocessor: A Systems Perspective [Hardcover]

Bruce Shriver (Author), Bennett Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0818684003 | ISBN-13: 978-0818684005

"A rare look into high-performance main-stream processors exposed with clarity and elegance". —Harold Stone, NEC Research Institute

"A unique combination of a very well developed, scholarly, thorough, long-term, perspective with detailed hands-on insight into actual current industrial practices". —Tore Larsen, Princeton University and University of Tromso

"There are few books on the market which can compete with this text either in the technical depth of the presentation, or the completeness of the coverage". —Ron Hoelzeman, University of Pittsburgh

"The best and easiest way to learn how the latest superscalar microprocessors really work. Not only are the microarchitectural features well presented, but they are presented along with a historical context which shows that the new microprocessors have inherited much from the supercomputers of the 60's and 70's". —Edmund Gallizzi, Eckerd College

This work describes in detail the microarchitecture of a high-performance microprocessor, giving an integrated treatment of platform and systems issues relating to the design and implementation of microprocessor-based systems. Unique in content and approach, the accompanying interactive CD-ROM provides multiple books and a wide variety of materials:

• Complete data books
• Articles from journals and conference proceedings
• Manuscripts of important historical interest
• IEEE and Industry standards
• VHDL and Verilog simulators
• Numerous video and audio clips
• Complete text of the book, including figures and tables

Shriver and Smith use AMD's K6 3D microprocessor as a "case study" basis for discussions on microarchitecture issues and increasingly important industry specfications and platforms on systems issues. This book is an important reference for individuals building systems using microprocessors and readers looking for significant insights into fundamental design guidelines that transcend the design, implementation, and use of a specific microprocessor. Practitioners, academics, and technical and product managers alike will benefit from this detailed overview of microprocessors, platforms, and systems for years in the future.

The main sections:

• Microprocessors, Platforms, and Systems
• A Microarchitecture Case Study
• The K6 3D Microarchitecture
• Technology Components of Platform Architecture
• Platform Memory Technology
• Platform Optimization Techniques and Directions

System Requirements:
All of the material on the companion CD-ROM, except for the three simulators, can be used on any system with the following:

• A CD-ROM reader, a video board, and a sound card
• Acrobat Reader with Search Version 3.01 or higher
• All of the standard plug-ins installed including the Search, Movie, and Weblink plug-ins
• Adobe Acrobat Readers with Search Version 3.01 for Windows systems and some versions of Unix are included on the companion CD-ROM. The Acrobat Reader with Search for Mac systems, as well as for the operating systems with which the Reader or the Reader with Search (strongly recommended) can be used, is available on Adobe's Web-site
• UNIX users may have to install a .MOV and . (see inside front flap)

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Overview of the Companion CD-ROM
Technical Presentations
10 presentations focusing on various book topics (e.g., Instruction Set Architectures, Instruction Level Parallelism, Rambus and Direct DRAM, Platform Components for 3D Graphics)

Video Clips
21 video clips where engineers and scientists respond to questions related to the design and implementation of a contemporary microprocessor, the AMD K6 3D

Simulators
HDL simulators with comprehensive manuals and tutorials: VHDL, Verilog, and a combined timing diagram editor and test vector generators. The reader can write simulations of the architectural elements discussed in the book

Hypertext Version of the Book
A completely hypertexted copy of the book, not just the obvious hyperlinks like the table of contents, list of figures and tables, and glossary/index, but also key figures are linked to the describing elements in the figures. All of the material on the CD-ROM is hyperlinked within the book.

Articles from Professional Society Periodicals and Conference Proceedings
45 articles from professional society periodicals and conference proceedings (e.g., Computer, IEEE Micro, IEEE Design & Test of Computers, IEEE Transactions on Computers, IEEE Journal of Solid State Circuits, IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Workshops on Microprogramming, International Symposia on Microarchitecture, International Solid State Circuits Conference)

Reports and Documents such as Specifications, Product Data Sheets, University and Government Reports, and Industry and IEEE Standards
Over 30 complete databooks, datasheets, white papers, specifications, and standards - both important IEEE standards and "de facto" industrial standards, 18 articles from respected industrial publications (e.g., IBM Journal of Research and Development and the Microprocessor Report)

Audio Clips
Over a dozen audio clips on key topics in the book (e.g., various platform, system, and architectural issues)

About the Author

Bruce Shriver received his PhD in Computer Science from SUNY/Buffalo. He has published and lectured internationally in the design and implementation of computer hardware and software systems. Shriver was made an IEEE Fellow for his work in Computer Systems Organization and Microprogramming. He was president of the IEEE Computer Society in 1992. He has been editor-in-chief of Computer and IEEE Software and the program or general chair of over 35 international meetings. Bruce was Department Group Manager of Software Technology at IBM's T. J. Watson Research Center. He was Vice-President for Research at the University of Southwestern Louisiana where he also held an Eminent Scholar Chair in Computer Science. He is an adjunct professor of Computer Science at the University of Tromso in Norway. Shriver is currently a consultant in high-performance computer systems (hardware and software), as well as intellectual property and related areas. Bruce Shriver ca be contacted at: http://www.genesis2.com/genesis2/

Bennett Smith is a consultant in microprocessors, computing-platforms, and related intellectual property. He is co-inventor on three branch-prediction patents. He is also a registered patent agent and has written specifications or contributed strategic claims in over 20 issued patents since 1993. Smith received his BSEE in 1980 from Texas A&M and subsequently worked as an IC designer at Texas Instruments and Hewlett-Packard. In 1984, he received his MSEE from UC Berkeley, where he studied microprocessor logic design and wrote his thesis under Nick Tredennick. He worked on processor projects during 1984-1989 at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center (on the Micro/370) and at NexGen (on the Nx586, as employee number 6). Smith did design and intellectual property consulting during 1989-1992 for Tredennick, Incorporated. He managed NexGen's intellectual property activities during 1993-1995. He is an IEEE member, is married, has four children, and lives and works in Palo Alto, California. Bennett Smith can be contacted at: http://www.wbsmith.com/

Product Details

• Hardcover: 546 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Pr (June 4, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0818684003
• ISBN-13: 978-0818684005
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7.9 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,185,613 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book, fantastic CD-ROM, a bit unbalanced., May 20, 2000

By 

Tom Verbeure - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Anatomy of a High-Performance Microprocessor: A Systems Perspective (Hardcover)

Being an ASIC designer, I bought this book to improve my understanding of the architecture and techniques used in high performance design. Looking at the book alone, I have a mixed feeling: the chapters that are dedicated inner workings of a processor completely satisfied my expectations. They include an in-depth description of all the main blocks that make a high-end processor or memory system work: register renaming, instruction decoding and scheduling, cache operation etc. This is really very excellent material! On the other hand, I consider the chapters dedicated to the system perspective to be of much lower quality and not in line with the title of the book. In a bit more than 100 pages, the author describes almost all other aspects of a modern PC, including Total-Cost-of-Ownership, Windows Qualification, Ethernet principles, Internet connectivity and even VESA Local Bus standard. Obviously, it is impossible to discuss such a wide range of topics in such a limited space. This flaw is compensated by a fantastic CD-ROM that contains an overwhelming library with a selection of research papers, articles from magazines, interviews and even a VHDL and Verilog simulator! Conclusion: I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the secrets of a modern microprocessor. The removal of chapters about system aspects would have resulted in a 5 star rating.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good reference on high-performance microprocessor design, May 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Anatomy of a High-Performance Microprocessor: A Systems Perspective (Hardcover)

This book is indeed an anatomy of high-performance processor design. In classic computer architecture books like Hennesey and Patterson's, it covers topics like out-of-order execution and speculative execution mechanisms, but only in abstract and algorithmic levels. This book uses an actual K6 microarchitecture as a foundation and explains these difficult concepts in RTL with pseudo code illustration. This can really help someone with purely ASIC background (knowledge of HDL) to fully understand the implementation of a RISC core with out-of-order and speculative execution capabilities

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Detailed and clear book with a dynamite CD-ROM, November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Anatomy of a High-Performance Microprocessor: A Systems Perspective (Hardcover)

This is a very well made book and CD-ROM. The book is both clear and detailed. The title can be read to narrowly though. In addition to going through the K6 3D microprocessor, the book has a wealth of information on related issues. Among other things, I found it very interesting to read the perspectives provided by six of the IEEE/ACM Eckert-Mauchly award winners on significant past and present books/papers/lectures/events. The book has many pointers to the CD-ROM, and let me tell you, the CD-ROM is dynamite. It includes the hypertext version of the book, technical presentations, audio and video clips of the people behind the K6 3D, three demo simulators, and many technical research papers. The CD-ROM has provided me with many hours of browsing. I browse and check things using the CD-ROM, but I try to understand them with the book in front of me. The good integration between book and CD-ROM makes this natural. By the way, I even found the classic 1946 Princeton paper "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument" by Burks, Goldstine, and von Neumann on the CD-ROM. It still makes for great reading.