Chapter 1 examines the x86-64’s core architecture from the perspective of an application program. It opens with a brief historical overview of the x86 platform in order to provide a frame of reference for subsequent content. This is followed by a review of fundamental, numeric, and SIMD data types. X86-64 core architecture is examined next, which includes explanations of processor register sets, status flags, instruction operands, and memory addressing modes. The chapter concludes with an overview of the core x86-64 instruction set.
Unlike high-level languages such ...
