Agner`s CPU blog

No compiler is able to generate so many different instructions from high-level language, and few programmers, if any, are competent to use them all in assembly code or intrinsic functions. However, most of the instructions appear to be useful and they may be used in specially designed function libraries.

Many of the older instructions are now obsolete as they have been replaced by new more efficient instructions, but the old instructions are still supported for the sake of compatibility with legacy software. AMD has removed some of their obsolete instructions from their new processors, but Intel processors still support even the most obscure undocumented instructions dating back to the first 8086 processor.

The x86 instruction set was initially developed at a time when CISC design was technologically optimal. This instruction set with its many extensions is now a confusing hodgepodge witnessing a long history of changing technologies, short-sighted decisions, patches, changing priorities, and changing marketing fads.

Other instruction sets such as ARM, etc., are not quite as messy. This is not because of better foresight from the designers but simply because of a shorter history. The ARM instruction set also has patches, and it will certainly need more patches in the future when extensions are needed.

Some of the problems could perhaps have been avoided if the design process was open and transparent. Decisions about new instructions and extensions are typically kept as business secrets for competitive reasons. When a new instruction set extension is finally published, it is too late to change anything in case an outsider comes up with a better proposal.

I have been following this development for many years and I have often been frustrated to watch the tortuous results. I can't help thinking about what an ideal computer design would look like if we could start from scratch with no concern for backward compatibility, but using the knowledge and experience we have collected through all these years. Well - I have done more than just thinking. I have published some of my ideas and got a lot of useful feedback and new ideas from the users of this forum. The result is a new instruction set and computer system that I call ForwardCom (Forward Compatible Computer System). ForwardCom is neither RISC nor CISC, but a hybrid with few instructions but many variants of each instruction. It has vector registers with variable length, where each vector register contains information about its own length. It is designed so that existing software can take advantage of unlimited future extensions of the vector length without the need for new instructions and recompilation. Hence the name "forward compatible". The instruction format is standardized and the complexity is limited in order to enable a simple pipeline design.

All the necessary software tools for ForwardCom have been designed. You can see it all at www.forwardcom.info including the many innovative features. No hardware or FPGA implementation has been developed yet.

I don't expect the mainstream computer market to make a radical change of technology even if it might appear to be collapsing under its own weight. The cost of replacing all legacy software would simply be unsurmountable. But the ForwardCom project can still be useful as a sandbox for experiments and university projects. I have already got the first request from a student who wants to do such a project. It might also be useful for niche products where backward compatibility is not needed, for example large vector processors.