Q. Hardware required for superscalar processing?
For applying superscalar processing a number of special hardware should be offered that is discussed below:
• The necessity of data path is increased with degree of superscalar processing. Imagine one instruction size is 32 bit and we have 2-degree superscalar processor then 64 data path from instruction memory is needed and 2 instruction registers are needed too.
• Numerous execution units are required too for implementing multiple instructions and to steer clear of resource conflicts.
Data dependency would be increased in superscalar processing if enough hardware isn't provided. The extra hardware provided is known as hardware machine parallelism. Hardware parallelism certifies resource is accessible in hardware to use parallelism. Another option is to use the instruction level parallelism inbuilt in the code. This is done by transforming source code by an optimizing compiler such that it decreases resource conflicts and the dependency in resulting code.
Various popular commercial processors have been implemented with superscalar Architecture such as DEC 21064, MIPS R4000, Power PC, Pentium, IBM RS/6000 etc.