a clear, standards-non-disruptive, atomic and non-intrusive path to
extend the POWER ISA.
-## Overview
+## Overview
-The PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is an abstract model of a
+The PowerPC Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) is an abstract model of a
computer. This is what programmers use when they write programs for the machine,
-even if indirectly via a compiler for a high level language. We must be
-conservative in how we add to the ISA to:
-
-* not break existing programs
+even if indirectly via a compiler for a high level language. We must be
+conservative in how we add to the ISA to:
+
+* not break existing programs
* be mindful as to how others may wish to add to the ISA in the future
-
-This document describes our strategy.
-
-
-## ISA modes and escape sequences
-
-New chips usually need to be able to run older (legacy) software that is
-incompatible with the latest and greatest ISA. Eg: 64 bit chip must be able to
+
+This document describes our strategy.
+
+
+## ISA modes and escape sequences
+
+New chips usually need to be able to run older (legacy) software that is
+incompatible with the latest and greatest ISA. Eg: 64 bit chip must be able to
run older 16 bit and 32 bit software.
-
-To enable backwards compatability the CPU will be set into 'legacy' mode. This
-is done with an ISA Mode switch, also known as ISA Muxing or ISA Namespaces.
-
-The operating system is able to quickly change between 'modern' ISA mode and
-various legacy modes.
-
-Another technique is an ISA escape-sequence. This is a type of mode that is
+
+To enable backwards compatability the CPU will be set into 'legacy' mode. This
+is done with an ISA Mode switch, also known as ISA Muxing or ISA Namespaces.
+
+The operating system is able to quickly change between 'modern' ISA mode and
+various legacy modes.
+
+Another technique is an ISA escape-sequence. This is a type of mode that is
only operational for a short time, unlike 32 or 64 bit which would be for the
-entire run of a program.
+entire run of a program.
+
-
## What are we adding to the ISA
-
-When high quality graphical display were developed the CPUs at the time were
-shown to not be able to run the display fast enough. The solution was the use of
+
+When high quality graphical display were developed the CPUs at the time were
+shown to not be able to run the display fast enough. The solution was the use of
Graphics cards, these are specialised computers that are good at rendering
pixels; often by doing the same thing in different parts of the screen at the
same time (in parallel). These specialised computers are called Graphical
-Processing Units (GPUs).
-
+Processing Units (GPUs).
+
The parallelism of some GPUs is thousands. This has led to GPUs being used to
solve non graphical problems where high parallelism is useful.
-
+
**break**
# Letter regarding ISAMUX / NS