Superscalar Processor

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What Does Superscalar Processor Mean?

A superscalar processor is a specific type of microprocessor that uses instruction-level parallelism to help to facilitate more than one instruction executed during a clock cycle. This depends on analysis of the instructions to be carried out and the use of multiple execution units to triage these instructions.

Techopedia Explains Superscalar Processor

Along with developments like the superscalar design that use microprocessor innovation to speed up the implementation of multiple instructions, the microprocessor industry has also seen the emergence of multicore design, where builders simply incorporate more than one processor or core into a multicore CPU.

Superscalar is different, because the execution units are not separate processors. This leads to superscalar being described as “second-generation RISC” (reduced instruction set computing) – the idea behind RISC is that computers can operate quickly with a reduced instruction set.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert
Margaret Rouse
Technology Expert

Margaret is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.

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