What is the impact of register count on processor performance and cost?

[Rizz84]

Hello Friends,
I wana ask that if two processors Processor01 and Processor02 have same number of components but Processor01 had 16 registers on the other hand Processor02 has 64 registers. Which processor is best in terms of its speed, size and cost?

Take Care

 

[phinds]

Hello Friends,
I wana ask that if two processors Processor01 and Processor02 have same number of components but Processor01 had 16 registers on the other hand Processor02 has 64 registers. Which processor is best in terms of its speed, size and cost?

Take Care

poorly defined question

best for what?

what FUNCTIONALITY differences are there?

Numerous other pertinent questions.

VERY vague question

 

[jim hardy]

get a TI99 TMS99 has as many registers as you tell it it has.

 

[phinds]

get a TI99 TMS99 has as many registers as you tell it it has.

Uh ... in what way is this an answer to the OP's question?

 

[Kholdstare]

Assuming you wanted to know, which is better between a 16-bit processor and a 64-bit processor, 64-bit will be faster, have larger size and higher cost.

N.B.: An N-bit processor does not necessarily mean it has N registers. It means almost all of its registers have width of N-bits (in other words can store N-bit data).

 

[jim hardy]

here would be an answer from 1970's .

a large number of registers is a covenience to the programmer.
it eases multitasking because in a context switch one must preserve the stack so he can return to the interrupted process.

so in a realtime(interrupt driven) environment one may realize a benefit from a lot of registers. less CPU time wasted storing and retrieving stacks and less stack overflow crashes.

some machines can use ANY memory location as a register.
some have only one set of registers.
i liked the old TMS99 micro bcause you assign any memory location as the beginning of the stack and it operates from there. in the hands of a good programmer it excelled at context switching.

i think your question is about machine architecture, and it's analogous to a building: more bricks isn't necessarily better. It's how are they arranged?

cost of the processor is probably trivial compared to software cost.

to you newer guys - is my basic premise still true?

i'm sure i don't even have the vocabulary to discuss the new stuff.

[ smart RS232 ports? What's next ! ]