Register files and register windows
Register files have one word line per entry per port, one bit line per bit of width per read port, and two bit lines per bit of width per write port. Larger register files are then sometimes constructed by tiling mirrored and rotated simple arrays. Sense amps, which convert low-swing read bitlines into full-swing logic levels, are usually at the bottom (by convention). That is, a single word line, which runs horizontally, causes a row of bit cells to put their data on bit lines, which run vertically. The usual layout convention is that a simple array is read out vertically. The MODCOMP and the later 8051-compatible processors use bits in the program status word to select the currently active register bank. However, context switching is a totally different mechanism to ARM's register bank within the registers. X86 processors use context switching and fast interrupt for switching between instruction, decoder, GPRs and register files, if there is more than one, before the instruction is issued, but this is only existing on processors that support superscalar. Notably, Fast Interrupt Request (FIQ) mode has its own bank of registers for R8 to R12, with the architecture also providing a private stack pointer (R13) for every interrupt mode.
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While all modes always share the same physical registers for the first eight general-purpose registers, R0 to R7, the physical register which the banked registers, R8 to R14, point to depends on the operating mode the processor is in.
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A processor may have more than one register bank.ĪRM processors have both banked and unbanked registers. Register files may be clubbed together as register banks. The register file is part of the architecture and visible to the programmer, as opposed to the concept of transparent caches. More complicated CPUs use register renaming, so that the mapping of which physical entry stores a particular architectural register changes dynamically during execution. In simpler CPUs, these architectural registers correspond one-for-one to the entries in a physical register file (PRF) within the CPU. The instruction set architecture of a CPU will almost always define a set of registers which are used to stage data between memory and the functional units on the chip. Such RAMs are distinguished by having dedicated read and write ports, whereas ordinary multiported SRAMs will usually read and write through the same ports. Modern integrated circuit-based register files are usually implemented by way of fast static RAMs with multiple ports. Register banking is the method of using a single name to access multiple different physical registers depending on the operating mode. JSTOR ( August 2015) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)Ī register file is an array of processor registers in a central processing unit (CPU).
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