Term of the Moment
downsample
Definition: microarchitecture
Created for a specific CPU or GPU, a microarchitecture defines the on-board caches and interconnections. It also includes the transistor size (see process technology).
Architecture vs. Microarchitecture
The architecture of a CPU or GPU defines the set of machine instructions and how they are fetched and executed. For example, in Intel's family of x86 CPUs, x86 is the instruction architecture, while Sapphire Rapids, Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake are some of the microarchitectures. See cache, CPU, GPU and x86.
Early Intel Examples
Architecture vs. Microarchitecture
The architecture of a CPU or GPU defines the set of machine instructions and how they are fetched and executed. For example, in Intel's family of x86 CPUs, x86 is the instruction architecture, while Sapphire Rapids, Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake are some of the microarchitectures. See cache, CPU, GPU and x86.
Since 1979, Intel has created numerous microarchitectures for its x86 CPUs. For example, P5 was the first microarchitecture used in Intel's Pentium chips. Starting in 2008, Nehalem was used in Core i CPUs. See Intel microarchitectures.