By: Peter (not.delete@this.likely.com), October 31, 2008 3:50 pm
Room: Moderated Discussions
Peter (not@likely.com) on 10/31/08 wrote:
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>I would expect that the processor would do an aligned 16-byte fetch and then send
>the critical first word from this fetch directly from a line-fill buffer past the
>instruction cache into the fetch buffer.
This comment refers to the very first fetch when you miss the cache. Subsequent fetches from the cache would still be aligned on a 16-byte boundary and the critical first word picked out.
I would expect it is done this way - I'm not an x86 designer so don't know if they choose to do something different.
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>I would expect that the processor would do an aligned 16-byte fetch and then send
>the critical first word from this fetch directly from a line-fill buffer past the
>instruction cache into the fetch buffer.
This comment refers to the very first fetch when you miss the cache. Subsequent fetches from the cache would still be aligned on a 16-byte boundary and the critical first word picked out.
I would expect it is done this way - I'm not an x86 designer so don't know if they choose to do something different.