Modern Processor Architectures and Instruction Sets
Most modern personal computers contain a processor supporting either the Intel or AMD version of the x86 32-bit and x64 64-bit architectures. In contrast, almost all smartphones, smartwatches, tablets, and many embedded systems contain ARM 32-bit or 64-bit processors. This chapter takes a detailed look at the registers and instruction sets of these processor families.
After completing this chapter, you will understand the high-level architectures and unique attributes of the x86, x64, 32-bit ARM, and 64-bit ARM registers, instruction sets, assembly languages, and key aspects of legacy features supported in these architectures.
This chapter covers the following topics:
- x86 architecture and instruction set
- x64 architecture and instruction set
- 32-bit ARM architecture and instruction set
- 64-bit ARM architecture and instruction set
