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The number of instructions per second is an approximate indicator of the likely performance of the processor. The number of instructions executed per clock is not a constant for a given processor; it depends on how the particular software being run interacts with the processor, and indeed the entire machine, particularly the memory hierarchy .
In computer architecture, cycles per instruction (aka clock cycles per instruction, clocks per instruction, or CPI) is one aspect of a processor's performance: the average number of clock cycles per instruction for a program or program fragment. [1] It is the multiplicative inverse of instructions per cycle.
The term is commonly used in association with a metric prefix (k, M, G, T, P, or E) to form kilo instructions per second (kIPS), mega instructions per second (MIPS), giga instructions per second (GIPS) and so on. Formerly TIPS was used occasionally for "thousand IPS".
The instruction cycle (also known as the fetch–decode–execute cycle, or simply the fetch–execute cycle) is the cycle that the central processing unit (CPU) follows from boot-up until the computer has shut down in order to process instructions. It is composed of three main stages: the fetch stage, the decode stage, and the execute stage.
In computer engineering, instruction pipelining is a technique for implementing instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. Pipelining attempts to keep every part of the processor busy with some instruction by dividing incoming instructions into a series of sequential steps (the eponymous "pipeline") performed by different processor units with different parts of instructions ...
Generally speaking, however, complex instructions inflate the number of clock cycles per instruction because they must be decoded into simpler micro-operations actually performed by the hardware. After converting X86 binary to the micro-operations used internally, the total number of operations is close to what is produced for a comparable RISC ...
C = A+B needs four instructions. 3-operand, allowing better reuse of data: [11] CISC — It becomes either a single instruction: add a,b,c. C = A+B needs one instruction. CISC — Or, on machines limited to two memory operands per instruction, move a,reg1; add reg1,b,c; C = A+B needs two instructions.
The instructions are usually part of an executable program, often stored as a computer file and executed on the processor. The x86 instruction set has been extended several times, introducing wider registers and datatypes as well as new functionality.