From owner-freebsd-ia32@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Oct 18 18:20:39 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-ia32@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-ia32@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E009C16A4C2 for ; Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:20:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from asmrookie@gmail.com) Received: from wx-out-0506.google.com (wx-out-0506.google.com [66.249.82.231]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8FDEF43E9E for ; Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:16:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from asmrookie@gmail.com) Received: by wx-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id t4so349552wxc for ; Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:16:23 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references:x-google-sender-auth; b=GJ0GrNLDhZaqyUTD7iKEX/qfxC0xuGVrp4XkmtZix9dOrGdrNZmKUCaqwo3SzCMY/fiKXKfkhjCNr3+jnMyt3A/zxglqyG7mqrJMXvYEoKq1dVuKgbcF4nVKuvYhWX6u3DhJeWYDG7InSFw/uql1HtD3W8ZANFbHDlt2tOAUc6g= Received: by 10.70.16.6 with SMTP id 6mr16508722wxp; Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:16:23 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.70.12.2 with HTTP; Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:16:23 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <3bbf2fe10610181116w64407a43j83e1acfa16c6c9d5@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 20:16:23 +0200 From: "Attilio Rao" Sender: asmrookie@gmail.com To: "ranjith kumar" In-Reply-To: <20061016151137.56240.qmail@web58405.mail.re3.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <20061016151137.56240.qmail@web58405.mail.re3.yahoo.com> X-Google-Sender-Auth: c285a2528cebfbfc Cc: freebsd-ia32@freebsd.org Subject: Re: hard-ware prefetching X-BeenThere: freebsd-ia32@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD on the IA-32 platform List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:20:40 -0000 2006/10/16, ranjith kumar : > Hi everyone, > I am new to this mailing list. > > > I have just started reading about architectural > features of "pentium-4". > > I have following questions: > > 1) I have read "IA-32 software developers manuals". > No information has been given about hardware > prefetching. > Can anyone suggest some material which explains > more details about "hardware prefetching" (pentium4 if > possible). You have to look at this: http://www.intel.com/design/Pentium4/documentation.htm#manuals and possibly give a look at the "Pentium 4 optimizations manual". BTW, even if I'm not aware of what informations do you need about prefetching, P4 offers prefetch[n]-nta instructions that you can find in the "IA32 Architecture Manual, vol 2". Prefetching can be emulated in someway... but it needs a better explanatory here. > 2) This is a non-technical question. > Does Intel company reveals all details about its > processors(say pentium-4) like what is the exact > dynamic branching algorithm used to predict > conditional branches...etc? You can find some descriptions in every good book about computer architectures... Attilio -- Peace can only be achieved by understanding - A. Einstein