SuperScalar Architecture

What is a Superscalar Architecture?
• A superscalar architecture is one in which several instructions can be initiated simultaneously and executed independently.

• Pipelining allows several instructions to be executed at the same time, but they have to be in different pipeline stages at a given moment.
• Superscalar architectures include all features of pipelining but, in addition, there can be several instructions executing simultaneously in the same pipeline stage.
They have the ability to initiate multiple instructions during the same clock cycle.

Superscalar Architectures


• Superscalar architectures allow several instructions to be issued and completed per clock cycle.
• A superscalar architecture consists of a number of pipelines that are working in parallel.
• Depending on the number and kind of parallel units available, a certain number of instructions can be executed in parallel.
• In the following example a floating point and two integer operations can be issued and executed simultaneously; each unit is pipelined and can execute several operations in different pipeline stages.