super scalar

The term superscalar occurs in processor architectures and is used for processors that execute instructions in parallel. These are usually the processors that provide the highest computing power in a processor family. Such processors have several functional units for instructions and can process sequential program instructions, which can be executed independently of each other, in parallel at instruction level.

The instruction logic of a superscalar processor examines the sequential programs with regard to the possibility of being able to issue these within a cycle. If the program offers sufficient possibilities for parallel processing, then a superscalar processor can execute one instruction on each execution unit in each cycle. This would realize one instruction per clock pulse, which is equivalent to the performance of "1".

Therefore, superscalar processors can run programs originally written for sequential processors. Since they use parallel processing at instruction level, they run the same programs much faster. An improvement in the performance of superscalar CPUs can be achieved by using the SMT technique, Simultaneous Multithreading (SMT).

Superscalar CPUs are used in workstations and powerful personalcomputers.

In Intel processors, the pipeline concept is implemented in all microprocessors from the 8086 onwards.