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by GrumpyYoungMan 1500 days ago
Contrary to some sibling posts, datapath width isn't really the limiting factor for comprehension IMO; everything is "wider" but not more difficult to understand. For example, undergraduate computer engineering students could and did design pipelined in-order 32 bit processors as part of their studies.

At least IMO superscalar + out of order execution was when things really became too complex to hold comprehension of the entire processor in one's head.

1 comments

> datapath width isn't really the limiting factor for comprehension IMO

People reckon that changing the head gaskets on an old Rover V8 engine is a complicated and scary job but it's exactly the same as doing it on an old Mini A-series engine, you've just got to do two of them and they're twice as big.