PDF document. AMD64 Architecture Programmer’s Manual, Volume 2: System Programming. AMD64 Architecture Tech Docs. The AMD64 architecture is a simple yet powerful 64-bit, backward-compatible extension of the industry-standard ( legacy ) x86 architecture. It adds 64-bit addressing and expands register resources to support higher performance for recompiled 64-bit programs, while supporting legacy 16-bit and 32-bit applications and operating systems without modification or recompilation. The need for a 64-bit x86 architecture is driven by applications that address large amounts of virtual and physical memory, such as high-performance servers, database management systems, and CAD tools. These applications benefit from both 64-bit addresses and an increased number of registers. The small number of registers available in the legacy x86 architecture limits performance in computationintensive applications. Increasing the number of registers provides a performance boost to many such applications. This book is a multivolume work entitled The ( Official ) AMD64 Architecture Programmer’s Manual. This table lists each volume: Volume 1: Application Programming ( 24592 ), Volume 2: System Programming ( 24593 ), Volume 3: General-Purpose and System Instructions ( 24594 ), Volume 4: 128-Bit Media Instructions ( 26568 ), Volume 5: 64-Bit Media and x87 Floating-Point Instructions ( 26569 ). This volume ( Volume 2 ) is intended for programmers writing operating systems, loaders, linkers, device drivers, or system utilities. It assumes an understanding of AMD64 architecture application level programming as described in Volume 1. This volume describes the AMD64 architecture’s resources and functions that are managed by system software, including operating-mode control, memory management, interrupts and exceptions, task and state-change management, system-management mode ( including power management ), multiprocessor support, debugging, and processor initialization.

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