The IA32 Specification

The IA32 specification (also sometimes referred to as the IA32 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture) is comprised of the three volume documentation set consisting of:

• IA32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 1: Basic Architecture.

• IA32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference.

• IA32 Intel® Architecture Software Developer's Manual Volume 3: System Programming Guide.

Much of the actual processor implementation is outside the scope of the specification. The following are some examples:

• Whether or not a processor implements any caches and, if so, the number of, size of, and architecture of the caches is processor design-specific.

• Whether or not a processor implements any special-purpose caches to accelerate Paging and, if so, the number of, size of, and architecture of those caches is processor design-specific.

• The number of execution units is processor design-specific.

• The type of bus that connects the processor to the system is processor design-specific.