Intel® Processor Information on the Web

For the most updates, errata, and the latest information on Intel® processors, explore the resources available at http://developer.intel.com. The following sections describe processor manuals for IA-32 architecture processors.

IA-32 Intel® Architecture Manuals

The IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual consists of three volumes that describe the architecture and programming environment of all IA-32 Intel® Architecture processors. Volumes 1 and 2 are aimed at application programmers who are writing programs to run under existing operating systems or executives.

• IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer’s Manual Volume 1: Basic Architecture, describes the basic architecture and programming environment of an IA-32 processor.

• IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference, describes the instruction set of the processor and the opcode structure.

• IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer’s Manual, Volume 3: System Programming Guide, describes the operating-system support environment of an IA-32 processor, including memory management, protection, task management, interrupt and exception handling, and system management mode. It also provides IA-32 processor compatibility information. This volume is aimed at operating-system and BIOS designers and programmers.

Please refer to all three volumes when evaluating your design needs.

The Intel Pentium® 4 and Intel® Xeon(TM) Processor Optimization Reference Manual, provides information on Intel NetBurst® microarchitecture, and describes code optimization techniques to enable you to tune your application for highly optimized results, specifically when run on Pentium® III processors and IA-32 processors based on the Intel NetBurst microarchitecture.

IA-32 architecture manuals are available for download at: http://developer.intel.com/design/Pentium4/documentation.htm#manuals

Reference and optimization information relevant to IA-32 architecture processors may be included in this help system.

Itanium® Architecture Manuals

The following documents on the Itanium architecture are available:

• Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual Vol. 1 rev. 2.0: Application Architecture, contains detailed Itanium architecture information for application software development including support for IA-32 instruction compatibility. Describes optimization techniques to generate high performance software.

• Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual Vol. 2 rev. 2.0: System Architecture, defines the Itanium architecture for system software, including system level resources and programming state; it also contains information on efficient use of system architecture and resources in the form of System Programmers' Guide.

• Intel Itanium Architecture Software Developer's Manual Vol. 3 rev. 2.0: Instruction Set Reference, provides a comprehensive reference to the Itanium instruction set and instruction format/encoding. It also covers IA-32 instruction set behavior on Itanium processors.

• Intel Itanium Processor Reference Manual for Software Development, describes model-specific architectural features along with description of implementation specific features of the Itanium processor, the first processor in the Itanium Processor Family. This document was formerly titled Volume 4: Itanium Processor Programmer's Guide.

• Intel Itanium Processor Reference Manual for Software Optimization, describes the implementation of Itanium processor’s architecture that are relevant to developers of compilers and performance software. The document contains detailed information on microarchitecture features including cache hierarchies, memory management details and instruction execution latencies to enable development of high performance Itanium®-based applications. This document was formerly titled Itanium Processor Microarchitecture Reference.

Itanium processor manuals are available for download at:  http://developer.intel.com/design/itanium/manuals.htm

Reference and optimization information relevant to Itanium processors may be included in this help system.