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The x86 instruction set refers to the set of instructions that x86-compatible microprocessors support. 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 ...
The 3DNow! instruction set extension was introduced in the AMD K6-2, mainly adding support for floating-point SIMD instructions using the MMX registers (two FP32 components in a 64-bit vector register). The instructions were mainly promoted by AMD, but were supported on some non-AMD CPUs as well.
x86 (also known as 80x86 [3] or the 8086 family [4]) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures [a] initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088.
The x86 instruction set has several times been extended with SIMD (Single instruction, multiple data) instruction set extensions.These extensions, starting from the MMX instruction set extension introduced with Pentium MMX in 1997, typically define sets of wide registers and instructions that subdivide these registers into fixed-size lanes and perform a computation for each lane in parallel.
The x86 instruction set includes string load, store, move, scan and compare instructions (lods, stos, movs, scas and cmps) which perform each operation to a specified size (b for 8-bit byte, w for 16-bit word, d for 32-bit double word) then increments/decrements (depending on DF, direction flag) the implicit address register (si for lods, di ...
x87 is a floating-point-related subset of the x86 architecture instruction set. It originated as an extension of the 8086 instruction set in the form of optional floating-point coprocessors that work in tandem with corresponding x86 CPUs. These microchips have names ending in "87".
The INT3 instruction is a one-byte-instruction defined for use by debuggers to temporarily replace an instruction in a running program in order to set a code breakpoint. The more general INT XXh instructions are encoded using two bytes. This makes them unsuitable for use in patching instructions (which can be one byte long); see SIGTRAP.
Reading and writing to these registers is handled by the rdmsr and wrmsr instructions, respectively. As these are privileged instructions, they can be executed only by the operating system. Use of the Linux msr kernel module creates a pseudo file "/dev/cpu/ x /msr" (with a unique x for each processor or processor core).