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A complex instruction set computer is a computer architecture in which single instructions can execute several low-level operations or are capable of multi-step operations or addressing modes within single instructions. The term was retroactively coined in contrast to reduced instruction set computer (RISC) and has therefore become something of an umbrella term for everything that is not RISC, where the typical differentiating characteristic is that most RISC designs use uniform instruction length for almost all instructions, and employ strictly separate load and store instructions.
In computer programming, a macro is a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input should be mapped to a replacement output. Applying a macro to an input is known as macro expansion. The input and output may be a sequence of lexical tokens or characters, or a syntax tree. Character macros are supported in software applications to make it easy to invoke common command sequences. Token and tree macros are supported in some programming languages to enable code reuse or to extend the language, sometimes for domain-specific languages.
A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program used to test and debug other programs. The main use of a debugger is to run the target program under controlled conditions that permit the programmer to track its execution and monitor changes in computer resources that may indicate malfunctioning code. Typical debugging facilities include the ability to run or halt the target program at specific points, display the contents of memory, CPU registers or storage devices, and modify memory or register contents in order to enter selected test data that might be a cause of faulty program execution.
In computer science, an interpreter is a computer program that directly executes instructions written in a programming or scripting language, without requiring them previously to have been compiled into a machine language program. An interpreter generally uses one of the following strategies for program execution:
- Parse the source code and perform its behavior directly;
- Translate source code into some efficient intermediate representation or object code and immediately execute that;
- Explicitly execute stored precompiled bytecode made by a compiler and matched with the interpreter's Virtual Machine.
In computer science, a preprocessor is a program that processes its input data to produce output that is used as input in another program. The output is said to be a preprocessed form of the input data, which is often used by some subsequent programs like compilers. The amount and kind of processing done depends on the nature of the preprocessor; some preprocessors are only capable of performing relatively simple textual substitutions and macro expansions, while others have the power of full-fledged programming languages.
Bytecode is a form of instruction set designed for efficient execution by a software interpreter. Unlike human-readable source code, bytecodes are compact numeric codes, constants, and references that encode the result of compiler parsing and performing semantic analysis of things like type, scope, and nesting depths of program objects.
In computing, code generation is part of the process chain of a compiler and converts intermediate representation of source code into a form that can be readily executed by the target system.
A programming paradigm is a relatively high-level way to structure and conceptualize the implementation of a computer program. A programming language can be classified as supporting one or more paradigms.
In computer science, compile time describes the time window during which a language's statements are converted into binary instructions for the processor to execute. The term is used as an adjective to describe concepts related to the context of program compilation, as opposed to concepts related to the context of program execution (runtime). For example, compile-time requirements are programming language requirements that must be met by source code before compilation and compile-time properties are properties of the program that can be reasoned about during compilation. The actual length of time it takes to compile a program is usually referred to as compilation time.
In computer programming, a type system is a logical system comprising a set of rules that assigns a property called a type to every term. Usually the terms are various language constructs of a computer program, such as variables, expressions, functions, or modules. A type system dictates the operations that can be performed on a term. For variables, the type system determines the allowed values of that term. Type systems formalize and enforce the otherwise implicit categories the programmer uses for algebraic data types, data structures, or other components.
In computer science, self-modifying code is code that alters its own instructions while it is executing – usually to reduce the instruction path length and improve performance or simply to reduce otherwise repetitively similar code, thus simplifying maintenance. The term is usually only applied to code where the self-modification is intentional, not in situations where code accidentally modifies itself due to an error such as a buffer overflow.
Metaprogramming is a programming technique in which computer programs have the ability to treat other programs as their data. It means that a program can be designed to read, generate, analyse or transform other programs, and even modify itself while running. In some cases, this allows programmers to minimize the number of lines of code to express a solution, in turn reducing development time. It also allows programs a greater flexibility to efficiently handle new situations without recompilation.
Execution in computer and software engineering is the process by which a computer or virtual machine interpret and acts on the instructions of a computer program. Each instruction of a program is a description of a particular action which must be carried out, in order for a specific problem to be solved. Execution involves repeatedly following a "fetch–decode–execute" cycle for each instruction done by control unit. As the executing machine follows the instructions, specific effects are produced in accordance with the semantics of those instructions.
An intermediate representation (IR) is the data structure or code used internally by a compiler or virtual machine to represent source code. An IR is designed to be conducive to further processing, such as optimization and translation. A "good" IR must be accurate – capable of representing the source code without loss of information – and independent of any particular source or target language. An IR may take one of several forms: an in-memory data structure, or a special tuple- or stack-based code readable by the program. In the latter case it is also called an intermediate language.
In computer science, instruction selection is the stage of a compiler backend that transforms its middle-level intermediate representation (IR) into a low-level IR. In a typical compiler, instruction selection precedes both instruction scheduling and register allocation; hence its output IR has an infinite set of pseudo-registers and may still be – and typically is – subject to peephole optimization. Otherwise, it closely resembles the target machine code, bytecode, or assembly language.
A program transformation is any operation that takes a computer program and generates another program. In many cases the transformed program is required to be semantically equivalent to the original, relative to a particular formal semantics and in fewer cases the transformations result in programs that semantically differ from the original in predictable ways.
The history of general-purpose CPUs is a continuation of the earlier history of computing hardware.
Explicit data graph execution, or EDGE, is a type of instruction set architecture (ISA) which intends to improve computing performance compared to common processors like the Intel x86 line. EDGE combines many individual instructions into a larger group known as a "hyperblock". Hyperblocks are designed to be able to easily run in parallel.
The Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) from Microsoft runs on top of the Common Language Runtime (CLR) and provides computer language services for dynamic languages. These services include:
This is a list of the individual topics in Electronics, Mathematics, and Integrated Circuits that together make up the Computer Engineering field. The organization is by topic to create an effective Study Guide for this field. The contents match the full body of topics and detail information expected of a person identifying themselves as a Computer Engineering expert as laid out by the National Council of Examiners for Engineering and Surveying. It is a comprehensive list and superset of the computer engineering topics generally dealt with at any one time.
References
- A. V. Aho, M. Ganapathi, and S. W. K. Tjiang. Code generation using tree matching and dynamic programming. ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, 11(4):491-516, October 1989.
- Robert Giegerich and Susan L. Graham, editors. Code Generation - Concepts, Tools, Techniques. Workshops in Computing. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1992.
- ↑ "BURS-Based Instruction Set Selection" by Dmitri Boulytchev
