There are different types of central processing units (CPUs) available for computers. These CPU types don’t really differ in terms of hardware and processing architecture. Most of them perform the basic tasks of a CPU, such as reading and writing data, basic arithmetic, and address hopping. However, they may differ in terms of bus size and processor architecture. There are several types of computer processor hardware available, two of which are scalar and superscalar processors.
Woman doing handstand with a computer
A processor that executes scalar data is called a scalar processor. Using fixed-point operands, scalar processors execute complete instructions, even in their simplest state. The most powerful scalar processors usually perform floating point and integer operations. Recently produced scalar processors contain a floating point unit and an integer unit, all on the same CPU chip. Most of these modern scalar processors use 32-bit type instructions.
The superscalar processor, on the other hand, executes multiple instructions at once due to its large number of pipes. This CPU structure implements instruction-level parallelism, which is a form of parallelism in computer hardware, within a single computer processor. This means that it can enable fast CPU performance that is not even remotely possible on other processors that do not implement instruction-level parallelism. Instead of executing one instruction at a time, a superscalar processor uses its redundant functional units to execute multiple instructions. These functional units are not separate CPU cores, but extension features of a single CPU, such as multipliers, bit shifters, and arithmetic logic units (ALUs).
The differences between scalar and superscalar processors generally come down to quantity and speed. A scalar processor, considered the simplest of all processors, works on one or two items of computer data at a given time. The superscalar processor works with multiple instructions and multiple groups of multiple data elements at the same time. Scalar and superscalar processors work the same way in terms of how they handle data, but the difference is in how many manipulations and data elements they can handle at any given time. Superscalar processors can handle multiple instructions and data elements, while the scalar processor simply cannot, making the former a more powerful processor than the latter.
Scalar and superscalar processors have some similarities to vector processors. Like a scalar processor, a vector processor also executes a single instruction at a time, but instead of just handling one data item, its single instruction can access multiple data items. Like the superscalar processor, a vector processor has several redundant functional units that allow it to handle multiple data elements, but can only work on a single instruction at a time. In essence, a superscalar processor is a combination of a scalar processor and a vector processor.
