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| en:multiasm:paarm [2025/12/02 22:06] – eriks.klavins | en:multiasm:paarm [2026/01/09 19:03] (current) – pczekalski |
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| The ARM processor “world” is huge – only through individual investigation can it be explored and its potential realised. In this book, we will present key ideas for what needs to be investigated in more depth to unlock the exact processor's full potential and features. The primary resource for this book is the ARM official homepage at https://developer.arm.com/documentation, which includes all its resources and documentation. | The ARM processor “world” is huge – only through individual investigation can it be explored and its potential realised. In this book, we will present key ideas for what needs to be investigated in more depth to unlock the exact processor's full potential and features. The primary resource for this book is the ARM official homepage at https://developer.arm.com/documentation, which includes all its resources and documentation. |
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| Mobile devices tend to use Cortex-A series processors. As the instruction set is very similar to that of the Cortex series (of course, with minor differences), we will use a Raspberry Pi 5 as a mobile device to learn its architecture. The A64 instruction set will be used in assembly language. The Raspberry Pi 5 uses BCM2712, an ARM Cortex-A76 processor based on the ARMv8.2 architecture. The processor architecture includes many useful features to speed up applications. Currently, the Raspberry Pi 5 has NEON with an integrated floating-point unit, but only half-precision. The architecture has an optional L3 cache, and the BCM2712 on the Raspberry Pi 5 has 2MB of it. All specifics are available in the BCM2712 datasheet. | Mobile devices tend to use Cortex-A series processors. As the instruction set is very similar to that of the Cortex series (with minor differences), we will use a Raspberry Pi 5 as a mobile device to learn about its architecture. The A64 instruction set will be used in assembly language. The Raspberry Pi 5 uses BCM2712, an ARM Cortex-A76 processor based on the ARMv8.2 architecture. The processor architecture includes many useful features to speed up applications. Currently, the Raspberry Pi 5 has NEON with an integrated floating-point unit, but only half-precision. The architecture has an optional L3 cache, and the BCM2712 on the Raspberry Pi 5 has 2MB of it. All specifics are available in the BCM2712 datasheet. |
| Note that ARM typically uses registers to manipulate data. There are no operations that directly manipulate data in memory. All the data must be loaded into the processor's general-purpose registers. All manipulations are performed directly on those registers containing data, and the data can finally be stored back in memory. | Note that ARM typically uses registers to manipulate data. There are no operations that directly manipulate data in memory. All the data must be loaded into the processor's general-purpose registers. All manipulations are performed directly on those registers containing data, and the data can finally be stored back in memory. |
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| | <WRAP excludefrompdf> |
| | More information is presented in the following chapters: |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_1]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_2]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_3]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_4]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_5]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_6]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_7]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_8]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_9]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_10]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_11]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_12]] |
| | * [[en:multiasm:paarm:chapter_5_15]] |
| | </WRAP> |
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