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  3. Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

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  • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

    Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

    If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

    bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB This user is from outside of this forum
    bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB This user is from outside of this forum
    bitchboss@marcella.masto.host
    wrote last edited by
    #21

    @ryanc

    A whole bunch of registers. If you run out of it, You might considder to stop using Macro Assembler and write GWBasic programs...

    RAX, RBX, RCX, RDX, EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX, RDI, RSI, RBP, RSP, EDI, ESI, EBP, ESP, R8-R15, CS, DS, ES, FS, GS, SS, RIP, EIP, RFLAGS, EFLAGS, CR0-CR4, DR0-DR7, MSRs, SIMD, XMM0-XMM15, YMM0-YMM15, ZMM0-ZMM31, MM0--MM7,
    ST0-ST7, MXCSR.

    dascandy@infosec.exchangeD 1 Reply Last reply
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    • R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
    • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

      Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

      If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

      timwardcam@c.imT This user is from outside of this forum
      timwardcam@c.imT This user is from outside of this forum
      timwardcam@c.im
      wrote last edited by
      #22

      @ryanc Even for a Z80 it's not a trivial answer. (Yes I do know someone who wrote some code that used the R register.)

      lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizzaL 1 Reply Last reply
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      • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

        Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

        If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

        halcy@icosahedron.websiteH This user is from outside of this forum
        halcy@icosahedron.websiteH This user is from outside of this forum
        halcy@icosahedron.website
        wrote last edited by
        #23

        @ryanc oh, that’s easy, actually. The answer is precisely one less than whatever the ideal number for your workload would be.

        1 Reply Last reply
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        • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

          Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

          If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

          indigoviolet@tech.lgbtI This user is from outside of this forum
          indigoviolet@tech.lgbtI This user is from outside of this forum
          indigoviolet@tech.lgbt
          wrote last edited by
          #24

          @ryanc (xkcd 2867)

          1 Reply Last reply
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          • javierg@mstdn.socialJ javierg@mstdn.social

            @ryanc
            Long ago, I was starting to understand register renaming (the phrase "register file" gave me existencial doubts), and then they came with hyperthreading...
            Now I feel CPU architecture is purely a spectator sport.

            arrjay@tacobelllabs.netA This user is from outside of this forum
            arrjay@tacobelllabs.netA This user is from outside of this forum
            arrjay@tacobelllabs.net
            wrote last edited by
            #25

            @javierg @ryanc register usage is certainly a speculative sport

            1 Reply Last reply
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            • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

              Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

              If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

              gunstick@mastodon.opencloud.luG This user is from outside of this forum
              gunstick@mastodon.opencloud.luG This user is from outside of this forum
              gunstick@mastodon.opencloud.lu
              wrote last edited by
              #26

              @ryanc easier question:
              How many registers does the Motorola 68000 have?
              It is also not 16.

              1 Reply Last reply
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              • bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB bitchboss@marcella.masto.host

                @ryanc

                A whole bunch of registers. If you run out of it, You might considder to stop using Macro Assembler and write GWBasic programs...

                RAX, RBX, RCX, RDX, EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX, RDI, RSI, RBP, RSP, EDI, ESI, EBP, ESP, R8-R15, CS, DS, ES, FS, GS, SS, RIP, EIP, RFLAGS, EFLAGS, CR0-CR4, DR0-DR7, MSRs, SIMD, XMM0-XMM15, YMM0-YMM15, ZMM0-ZMM31, MM0--MM7,
                ST0-ST7, MXCSR.

                dascandy@infosec.exchangeD This user is from outside of this forum
                dascandy@infosec.exchangeD This user is from outside of this forum
                dascandy@infosec.exchange
                wrote last edited by
                #27

                @ryanc @bitchboss you forgot ah, al, ch, cl, dh, dl, bh, bl, dil, sil, spl and bpl. And of course r8l, r8w etc.

                bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB 1 Reply Last reply
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                • hp@mastodon.tmm.cxH This user is from outside of this forum
                  hp@mastodon.tmm.cxH This user is from outside of this forum
                  hp@mastodon.tmm.cx
                  wrote last edited by
                  #28

                  @kaye @ryanc I thought it the most important rule of CPU architectures was to be a PDP-11 and have fun.

                  1 Reply Last reply
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                  • dascandy@infosec.exchangeD dascandy@infosec.exchange

                    @ryanc @bitchboss you forgot ah, al, ch, cl, dh, dl, bh, bl, dil, sil, spl and bpl. And of course r8l, r8w etc.

                    bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB This user is from outside of this forum
                    bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB This user is from outside of this forum
                    bitchboss@marcella.masto.host
                    wrote last edited by
                    #29

                    @dascandy @ryanc

                    Damn... Are those 8/16 bitters still in use?

                    gsuberland@chaos.socialG 1 Reply Last reply
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                    • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                      Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                      If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                      keinna@plasmatrap.comK This user is from outside of this forum
                      keinna@plasmatrap.comK This user is from outside of this forum
                      keinna@plasmatrap.com
                      wrote last edited by
                      #30

                      @ryanc@infosec.exchange more than one

                      1 Reply Last reply
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                      • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                        Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                        If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                        dalias@hachyderm.ioD This user is from outside of this forum
                        dalias@hachyderm.ioD This user is from outside of this forum
                        dalias@hachyderm.io
                        wrote last edited by
                        #31

                        @ryanc It depends a lot on what you mean by registers and which execution domain you're talking about.

                        ryanc@infosec.exchangeR 1 Reply Last reply
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                        • nspace@infosec.exchangeN nspace@infosec.exchange

                          @gsuberland @ryanc we have microcode for amd too 😛 and it works on the newest cpus unlike on intel. there are a lot of internal registes you can access only through microcode

                          pixx@merveilles.townP This user is from outside of this forum
                          pixx@merveilles.townP This user is from outside of this forum
                          pixx@merveilles.town
                          wrote last edited by
                          #32

                          @nspace
                          Ooh, links?
                          @gsuberland @ryanc

                          nspace@infosec.exchangeN 1 Reply Last reply
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                          • dalias@hachyderm.ioD dalias@hachyderm.io

                            @ryanc It depends a lot on what you mean by registers and which execution domain you're talking about.

                            ryanc@infosec.exchangeR This user is from outside of this forum
                            ryanc@infosec.exchangeR This user is from outside of this forum
                            ryanc@infosec.exchange
                            wrote last edited by
                            #33

                            @dalias yes

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                              Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                              If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                              kentenmakto@mastodon.ieK This user is from outside of this forum
                              kentenmakto@mastodon.ieK This user is from outside of this forum
                              kentenmakto@mastodon.ie
                              wrote last edited by
                              #34

                              @ryanc Related: I grew up thinking the 6502 had three registers.

                              Then I saw someone say X and Y weren't registers at all.

                              Then I saw someone else say the first 256 bytes of RAM *were* registers.

                              1 Reply Last reply
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                              • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                                Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                                If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                                stompyrobot@mastodon.gamedev.placeS This user is from outside of this forum
                                stompyrobot@mastodon.gamedev.placeS This user is from outside of this forum
                                stompyrobot@mastodon.gamedev.place
                                wrote last edited by
                                #35

                                @ryanc
                                You *can* talk about "architectural registers" though. But even there, there are a bunch of special purpose registers, so what counts as a "register?"

                                1 Reply Last reply
                                0
                                • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                                  Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                                  If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                                  compod@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                                  compod@mastodon.socialC This user is from outside of this forum
                                  compod@mastodon.social
                                  wrote last edited by
                                  #36

                                  @ryanc having looked into that blog post: complicated. Very complicated. (To quote the Doctor)

                                  1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • bitchboss@marcella.masto.hostB bitchboss@marcella.masto.host

                                    @dascandy @ryanc

                                    Damn... Are those 8/16 bitters still in use?

                                    gsuberland@chaos.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                                    gsuberland@chaos.socialG This user is from outside of this forum
                                    gsuberland@chaos.social
                                    wrote last edited by
                                    #37

                                    @bitchboss @dascandy @ryanc yup, you even get them for the extended GPRs in x64

                                    dascandy@infosec.exchangeD 1 Reply Last reply
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                                    • ryanc@infosec.exchangeR ryanc@infosec.exchange

                                      Saw a blog post titled "How many registers does an x86-64 CPU have?" and my immediate thought was "it's impossible to know and a sin to ask".

                                      If you think the answer is 16, by the way, no it is not.

                                      israajamal@mastodon.socialI This user is from outside of this forum
                                      israajamal@mastodon.socialI This user is from outside of this forum
                                      israajamal@mastodon.social
                                      wrote last edited by
                                      #38

                                      @ryanc please help me and support me 🇵🇸 #freepalestine

                                      1 Reply Last reply
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                                      • timwardcam@c.imT timwardcam@c.im

                                        @ryanc Even for a Z80 it's not a trivial answer. (Yes I do know someone who wrote some code that used the R register.)

                                        lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizzaL This user is from outside of this forum
                                        lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizzaL This user is from outside of this forum
                                        lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizza
                                        wrote last edited by
                                        #39

                                        @TimWardCam @ryanc, let's see… from what I remember:

                                        8-bit registers (treatable as 16-bit pairs): A, F, B, C, D, E, H, L.
                                        16-bit registers (treatable as 8-bit halves): IX, IY.
                                        8-bit registers: I, R.
                                        16-bit registers: AF', BC', DE', HL', SP, PC.

                                        18 registers in total. I'm specifically not counting different views as distinct registers: AF is counted as A and F, but IXH and IXL are counted as IX.

                                        Yes, some aspects of this are… somewhat arbitrary. I could count BC, DE and HL as three rather than six and it wouldn't be wrong. I could count AF that way too – and it probably does match the other pairs in terms of the actual hardware design (and it could reasonably be called FA as, looking at the opcode patterns, it makes sense for A to be the lower 8 bits).

                                        Now. Have I missed anything…?

                                        timwardcam@c.imT 1 Reply Last reply
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                                        • lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizzaL lp0_on_fire@social.linux.pizza

                                          @TimWardCam @ryanc, let's see… from what I remember:

                                          8-bit registers (treatable as 16-bit pairs): A, F, B, C, D, E, H, L.
                                          16-bit registers (treatable as 8-bit halves): IX, IY.
                                          8-bit registers: I, R.
                                          16-bit registers: AF', BC', DE', HL', SP, PC.

                                          18 registers in total. I'm specifically not counting different views as distinct registers: AF is counted as A and F, but IXH and IXL are counted as IX.

                                          Yes, some aspects of this are… somewhat arbitrary. I could count BC, DE and HL as three rather than six and it wouldn't be wrong. I could count AF that way too – and it probably does match the other pairs in terms of the actual hardware design (and it could reasonably be called FA as, looking at the opcode patterns, it makes sense for A to be the lower 8 bits).

                                          Now. Have I missed anything…?

                                          timwardcam@c.imT This user is from outside of this forum
                                          timwardcam@c.imT This user is from outside of this forum
                                          timwardcam@c.im
                                          wrote last edited by
                                          #40

                                          @lp0_on_fire @ryanc Most people never come across R. I knew someone who bult a Rugby clock with no RAM, using just the registers as memory, and to find enough space they needed to use the top few bits of the R register (the bottom few bits cycled too fast to be useful).

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