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Concept
Register file
Summary
A register file is an array of processor registers in a central processing unit (CPU). Register banking is the method of using a single name to access multiple different physical registers depending on the operating mode. Modern integrated circuit-based register files are usually implemented by way of fast static RAMs with multiple ports. Such RAMs are distinguished by having dedicated read and write ports, whereas ordinary multiported SRAMs will usually read and write through the same ports.
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. In simpler CPUs, these architectural registers correspond one-for-one to the entries in a physical register file (PRF) within the CPU. More complicated CPUs use register renaming, so that the mapping of which physical entry stores a particular architectural register changes dynamically during execution. The register file is part of the architecture and visible to the programmer, as opposed to the concept of transparent caches.
Register files may be clubbed together as register banks. A processor may have more than one register bank.
ARM processors have both banked and unbanked registers. 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. 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.
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. However, context switching is a totally different mechanism to ARM's register bank within the registers.
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