The central processing unit (CPU) is the portion of a computer system that carries out the instructions of a computer program, to perform the basic arithmetical, logical, and input/output operations of the system. The CPU plays a role somewhat analogous to the brain in the computer. The term has been in use in the computer industry at least since the early 1960s. The form, design and implementation of CPUs have changed dramatically since the earliest examples, but their fundamental operation remains much the same.

On large machines, CPUs require one or more printed circuit boards. On personal computers and small workstations, the CPU is housed in a single chip called a microprocessor. Since the 1970s the microprocessor class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other CPU implementations. Modern CPUs are large scale integrated circuits in small, rectangular packages, with multiple connecting pins.

Two typical components of a CPU are the arithmetic logic unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logical operations, and the control unit (CU), which extracts instructions from memory and decodes and executes them, calling on the ALU when necessary.

Not all computational systems rely on a central processing unit. An array processor or vector processor has multiple parallel computing elements, with no one unit considered the "center". In the distributed computing model, problems are solved by a distributed interconnected set of processors.

History

Computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired in order to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers." Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a software (computer program) execution device, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.

The idea of a stored-program computer was already present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished sooner. On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC''. It was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949. EDVAC was designed to perform a certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types. These instructions could be combined to create useful programs for the EDVAC to run. Significantly, the programs written for EDVAC were stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the physical wiring of the computer. This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task. With von Neumann's design, the program, or software, that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the contents of the memory.

Early CPUs were custom-designed as a part of a larger, sometimes one-of-a-kind, computer. However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of mass-produced processors that are made for many purposes. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers. Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in everything from automobiles to cell phones and children's toys.

While von Neumann is most often credited with the design of the stored-program computer because of his design of EDVAC, others before him, such as Konrad Zuse, had suggested and implemented similar ideas. The so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC, also utilized a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory. The key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard architectures is that the latter separates the storage and treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former uses the same memory space for both. Most modern CPUs are primarily von Neumann in design, but elements of the Harvard architecture are commonly seen as well.

electrical relays and vacuum tubes (thermionic valves) were commonly used as switching elements; a useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of a system is dependant on the speed of the switches. Tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the (slower, but earlier) Harvard Mark I failed very rarely. In the end, tube based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems. Most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs (see below for a discussion of clock rate). Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, limited largely by the speed of the switching devices they were built with.

Overview

The control unit

The control unit of the CPU contains circuitry that uses electrical signals to direct the entire computer system to carry out stored program instructions. The control unit does not execute program instructions; rather, it directs other parts of the system to do so. The control unit must communicate with both the arithmetic/logic unit and memory.

Discrete transistor and integrated circuit CPUs

The design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable electronic devices. The first such improvement came with the advent of the transistor. Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable, and fragile switching elements like vacuum tubes and electrical relays. With this improvement more complex and reliable CPUs were built onto one or several printed circuit boards containing discrete (individual) components.

During this period, a method of manufacturing many transistors in a compact space gained popularity. The integrated circuit (IC) allowed a large number of transistors to be manufactured on a single semiconductor-based die, or "chip." At first only very basic non-specialized digital circuits such as NOR gates were miniaturized into ICs. CPUs based upon these "building block" ICs are generally referred to as "small-scale integration" (SSI) devices. SSI ICs, such as the ones used in the Apollo guidance computer, usually contained transistor counts numbering in multiples of ten. To build an entire CPU out of SSI ICs required thousands of individual chips, but still consumed much less space and power than earlier discrete transistor designs. As microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number of transistors were placed on ICs, thus decreasing the quantity of individual ICs needed for a complete CPU. MSI and LSI (medium- and large-scale integration) ICs increased transistor counts to hundreds, and then thousands.

In 1964 IBM introduced its System/360 computer architecture which was used in a series of computers that could run the same programs with different speed and performance. This was significant at a time when most electronic computers were incompatible with one another, even those made by the same manufacturer. To facilitate this improvement, IBM utilized the concept of a microprogram (often called "microcode"), which still sees widespread usage in modern CPUs. The System/360 architecture was so popular that it dominated the mainframe computer market for decades and left a legacy that is still continued by similar modern computers like the IBM zSeries. In the same year (1964), Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced another influential computer aimed at the scientific and research markets, the PDP-8. DEC would later introduce the extremely popular PDP-11 line that originally was built with SSI ICs but was eventually implemented with LSI components once these became practical. In stark contrast with its SSI and MSI predecessors, the first LSI implementation of the PDP-11 contained a CPU composed of only four LSI integrated circuits.

Transistor-based computers had several distinct advantages over their predecessors. Aside from facilitating increased reliability and lower power consumption, transistors also allowed CPUs to operate at much higher speeds because of the short switching time of a transistor in comparison to a tube or relay. Thanks to both the increased reliability as well as the dramatically increased speed of the switching elements (which were almost exclusively transistors by this time), CPU clock rates in the tens of megahertz were obtained during this period. Additionally while discrete transistor and IC CPUs were in heavy usage, new high-performance designs like SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) vector processors began to appear. These early experimental designs later gave rise to the era of specialized supercomputers like those made by Cray Inc.

Microprocessors

In the 1970s the fundamental inventions by Federico Faggin (Silicon Gate MOS ICs with self aligned gates along with his new random logic design methodology) significantly affected the design and implementation of CPUs forever. Since the introduction of the first commercially available microprocessor (the Intel 4004), in 1970 and the first widely used microprocessor (the Intel 8080) in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software. Combined with the advent and eventual vast success of the now ubiquitous personal computer, the term ''CPU'' is now applied almost exclusively to microprocessors. Several CPUs can be combined in a single processing chip.

Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards. Microprocessors, on the other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one. The overall smaller CPU size as a result of being implemented on a single die means faster switching time because of physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance. This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz. Additionally, as the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased, the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU has increased dramatically. This widely observed trend is described by Moore's law, which has proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity to date.

While the complexity, size, construction, and general form of CPUs have changed drastically over the past sixty years, it is notable that the basic design and function has not changed much at all. Almost all common CPUs today can be very accurately described as von Neumann stored-program machines. As the aforementioned Moore's law continues to hold true, concerns have arisen about the limits of integrated circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of electronic gates is causing the effects of phenomena like electromigration and subthreshold leakage to become much more significant. These newer concerns are among the many factors causing researchers to investigate new methods of computing such as the quantum computer, as well as to expand the usage of parallelism and other methods that extend the usefulness of the classical von Neumann model.

Operation

The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions called a program. The program is represented by a series of numbers that are kept in some kind of computer memory. There are four steps that nearly all CPUs use in their operation: fetch, decode, execute, and writeback.

The first step, fetch, involves retrieving an instruction (which is represented by a number or sequence of numbers) from program memory. The location in program memory is determined by a program counter (PC), which stores a number that identifies the current position in the program. After an instruction is fetched, the PC is incremented by the length of the instruction word in terms of memory units. Often, the instruction to be fetched must be retrieved from relatively slow memory, causing the CPU to stall while waiting for the instruction to be returned. This issue is largely addressed in modern processors by caches and pipeline architectures (see below).

The instruction that the CPU fetches from memory is used to determine what the CPU is to do. In the decode step, the instruction is broken up into parts that have significance to other portions of the CPU. The way in which the numerical instruction value is interpreted is defined by the CPU's instruction set architecture (ISA). Often, one group of numbers in the instruction, called the opcode, indicates which operation to perform. The remaining parts of the number usually provide information required for that instruction, such as operands for an addition operation. Such operands may be given as a constant value (called an immediate value), or as a place to locate a value: a register or a memory address, as determined by some addressing mode. In older designs the portions of the CPU responsible for instruction decoding were unchangeable hardware devices. However, in more abstract and complicated CPUs and ISAs, a microprogram is often used to assist in translating instructions into various configuration signals for the CPU. This microprogram is sometimes rewritable so that it can be modified to change the way the CPU decodes instructions even after it has been manufactured.

After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is performed. During this step, various portions of the CPU are connected so they can perform the desired operation. If, for instance, an addition operation was requested, the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) will be connected to a set of inputs and a set of outputs. The inputs provide the numbers to be added, and the outputs will contain the final sum. The ALU contains the circuitry to perform simple arithmetic and logical operations on the inputs (like addition and bitwise operations). If the addition operation produces a result too large for the CPU to handle, an arithmetic overflow flag in a flags register may also be set.

The final step, writeback, simply "writes back" the results of the execute step to some form of memory. Very often the results are written to some internal CPU register for quick access by subsequent instructions. In other cases results may be written to slower, but cheaper and larger, main memory. Some types of instructions manipulate the program counter rather than directly produce result data. These are generally called "jumps" and facilitate behavior like loops, conditional program execution (through the use of a conditional jump), and functions in programs. Many instructions will also change the state of digits in a "flags" register. These flags can be used to influence how a program behaves, since they often indicate the outcome of various operations. For example, one type of "compare" instruction considers two values and sets a number in the flags register according to which one is greater. This flag could then be used by a later jump instruction to determine program flow.

After the execution of the instruction and writeback of the resulting data, the entire process repeats, with the next instruction cycle normally fetching the next-in-sequence instruction because of the incremented value in the program counter. If the completed instruction was a jump, the program counter will be modified to contain the address of the instruction that was jumped to, and program execution continues normally. In more complex CPUs than the one described here, multiple instructions can be fetched, decoded, and executed simultaneously. This section describes what is generally referred to as the "classic RISC pipeline", which in fact is quite common among the simple CPUs used in many electronic devices (often called microcontroller). It largely ignores the important role of CPU cache, and therefore the access stage of the pipeline.

Design and implementation

Integer range

The way a CPU represents numbers is a design choice that affects the most basic ways in which the device functions. Some early digital computers used an electrical model of the common decimal (base ten) numeral system to represent numbers internally. A few other computers have used more exotic numeral systems like ternary (base three). Nearly all modern CPUs represent numbers in binary form, with each digit being represented by some two-valued physical quantity such as a "high" or "low" voltage.

Related to number representation is the size and precision of numbers that a CPU can represent. In the case of a binary CPU, a ''bit'' refers to one significant place in the numbers a CPU deals with. The number of bits (or numeral places) a CPU uses to represent numbers is often called "word size", "bit width", "data path width", or "integer precision" when dealing with strictly integer numbers (as opposed to Floating point). This number differs between architectures, and often within different parts of the very same CPU. For example, an 8-bit CPU deals with a range of numbers that can be represented by eight binary digits (each digit having two possible values), that is, 2⁸ or 256 discrete numbers. In effect, integer size sets a hardware limit on the range of integers the software run by the CPU can utilize.

Integer range can also affect the number of locations in memory the CPU can address (locate). For example, if a binary CPU uses 32 bits to represent a memory address, and each memory address represents one octet (8 bits), the maximum quantity of memory that CPU can address is 2³² octets, or 4 GiB. This is a very simple view of CPU address space, and many designs use more complex addressing methods like paging in order to locate more memory than their integer range would allow with a flat address space.

Higher levels of integer range require more structures to deal with the additional digits, and therefore more complexity, size, power usage, and general expense. It is not at all uncommon, therefore, to see 4- or 8-bit microcontrollers used in modern applications, even though CPUs with much higher range (such as 16, 32, 64, even 128-bit) are available. The simpler microcontrollers are usually cheaper, use less power, and therefore generate less heat, all of which can be major design considerations for electronic devices. However, in higher-end applications, the benefits afforded by the extra range (most often the additional address space) are more significant and often affect design choices. To gain some of the advantages afforded by both lower and higher bit lengths, many CPUs are designed with different bit widths for different portions of the device. For example, the IBM System/370 used a CPU that was primarily 32 bit, but it used 128-bit precision inside its floating point units to facilitate greater accuracy and range in floating point numbers. Many later CPU designs use similar mixed bit width, especially when the processor is meant for general-purpose usage where a reasonable balance of integer and floating point capability is required.

Clock rate

The clock rate is the speed at which a microprocessor executes instructions. Every computer contains an internal clock that regulates the rate at which instructions are executed and synchronizes all the various computer components. The CPU requires a fixed number of clock ticks (or clock cycles) to execute each instruction. The faster the clock, the more instructions the CPU can execute per second.

Most CPUs, and indeed most sequential logic devices, are synchronous in nature. That is, they are designed and operate on assumptions about a synchronization signal. This signal, known as a clock signal, usually takes the form of a periodic square wave. By calculating the maximum time that electrical signals can move in various branches of a CPU's many circuits, the designers can select an appropriate period for the clock signal.

This period must be longer than the amount of time it takes for a signal to move, or propagate, in the worst-case scenario. In setting the clock period to a value well above the worst-case propagation delay, it is possible to design the entire CPU and the way it moves data around the "edges" of the rising and falling clock signal. This has the advantage of simplifying the CPU significantly, both from a design perspective and a component-count perspective. However, it also carries the disadvantage that the entire CPU must wait on its slowest elements, even though some portions of it are much faster. This limitation has largely been compensated for by various methods of increasing CPU parallelism. (see below)

However, architectural improvements alone do not solve all of the drawbacks of globally synchronous CPUs. For example, a clock signal is subject to the delays of any other electrical signal. Higher clock rates in increasingly complex CPUs make it more difficult to keep the clock signal in phase (synchronized) throughout the entire unit. This has led many modern CPUs to require multiple identical clock signals to be provided in order to avoid delaying a single signal significantly enough to cause the CPU to malfunction. Another major issue as clock rates increase dramatically is the amount of heat that is dissipated by the CPU. The constantly changing clock causes many components to switch regardless of whether they are being used at that time. In general, a component that is switching uses more energy than an element in a static state. Therefore, as clock rate increases, so does heat dissipation, causing the CPU to require more effective cooling solutions.

One method of dealing with the switching of unneeded components is called clock gating, which involves turning off the clock signal to unneeded components (effectively disabling them). However, this is often regarded as difficult to implement and therefore does not see common usage outside of very low-power designs. One notable late CPU design that uses clock gating is that of the IBM PowerPC-based Xbox 360. It utilizes extensive clock gating in order to reduce the power requirements of the aforementioned videogame console in which it is used. Another method of addressing some of the problems with a global clock signal is the removal of the clock signal altogether. While removing the global clock signal makes the design process considerably more complex in many ways, asynchronous (or clockless) designs carry marked advantages in power consumption and heat dissipation in comparison with similar synchronous designs. While somewhat uncommon, entire asynchronous CPUs have been built without utilizing a global clock signal. Two notable examples of this are the ARM compliant AMULET and the MIPS R3000 compatible MiniMIPS. Rather than totally removing the clock signal, some CPU designs allow certain portions of the device to be asynchronous, such as using asynchronous ALUs in conjunction with superscalar pipelining to achieve some arithmetic performance gains. While it is not altogether clear whether totally asynchronous designs can perform at a comparable or better level than their synchronous counterparts, it is evident that they do at least excel in simpler math operations. This, combined with their excellent power consumption and heat dissipation properties, makes them very suitable for embedded computers.

Parallelism

The description of the basic operation of a CPU offered in the previous section describes the simplest form that a CPU can take. This type of CPU, usually referred to as ''subscalar'', operates on and executes one instruction on one or two pieces of data at a time.

This process gives rise to an inherent inefficiency in subscalar CPUs. Since only one instruction is executed at a time, the entire CPU must wait for that instruction to complete before proceeding to the next instruction. As a result, the subscalar CPU gets "hung up" on instructions which take more than one clock cycle to complete execution. Even adding a second execution unit (see below) does not improve performance much; rather than one pathway being hung up, now two pathways are hung up and the number of unused transistors is increased. This design, wherein the CPU's execution resources can operate on only one instruction at a time, can only possibly reach ''scalar'' performance (one instruction per clock). However, the performance is nearly always subscalar (less than one instruction per cycle).

Attempts to achieve scalar and better performance have resulted in a variety of design methodologies that cause the CPU to behave less linearly and more in parallel. When referring to parallelism in CPUs, two terms are generally used to classify these design techniques. Instruction level parallelism (ILP) seeks to increase the rate at which instructions are executed within a CPU (that is, to increase the utilization of on-die execution resources), and thread level parallelism (TLP) purposes to increase the number of threads (effectively individual programs) that a CPU can execute simultaneously. Each methodology differs both in the ways in which they are implemented, as well as the relative effectiveness they afford in increasing the CPU's performance for an application.

Instruction level parallelism

One of the simplest methods used to accomplish increased parallelism is to begin the first steps of instruction fetching and decoding before the prior instruction finishes executing. This is the simplest form of a technique known as instruction pipelining, and is utilized in almost all modern general-purpose CPUs. Pipelining allows more than one instruction to be executed at any given time by breaking down the execution pathway into discrete stages. This separation can be compared to an assembly line, in which an instruction is made more complete at each stage until it exits the execution pipeline and is retired.

Pipelining does, however, introduce the possibility for a situation where the result of the previous operation is needed to complete the next operation; a condition often termed data dependency conflict. To cope with this, additional care must be taken to check for these sorts of conditions and delay a portion of the instruction pipeline if this occurs. Naturally, accomplishing this requires additional circuitry, so pipelined processors are more complex than subscalar ones (though not very significantly so). A pipelined processor can become very nearly scalar, inhibited only by pipeline stalls (an instruction spending more than one clock cycle in a stage).

Further improvement upon the idea of instruction pipelining led to the development of a method that decreases the idle time of CPU components even further. Designs that are said to be ''superscalar'' include a long instruction pipeline and multiple identical execution units. In a superscalar pipeline, multiple instructions are read and passed to a dispatcher, which decides whether or not the instructions can be executed in parallel (simultaneously). If so they are dispatched to available execution units, resulting in the ability for several instructions to be executed simultaneously. In general, the more instructions a superscalar CPU is able to dispatch simultaneously to waiting execution units, the more instructions will be completed in a given cycle.

Most of the difficulty in the design of a superscalar CPU architecture lies in creating an effective dispatcher. The dispatcher needs to be able to quickly and correctly determine whether instructions can be executed in parallel, as well as dispatch them in such a way as to keep as many execution units busy as possible. This requires that the instruction pipeline is filled as often as possible and gives rise to the need in superscalar architectures for significant amounts of CPU cache. It also makes hazard-avoiding techniques like branch prediction, speculative execution, and out-of-order execution crucial to maintaining high levels of performance. By attempting to predict which branch (or path) a conditional instruction will take, the CPU can minimize the number of times that the entire pipeline must wait until a conditional instruction is completed. Speculative execution often provides modest performance increases by executing portions of code that may not be needed after a conditional operation completes. Out-of-order execution somewhat rearranges the order in which instructions are executed to reduce delays due to data dependencies. Also in case of Single Instructions Multiple Data — a case when a lot of data from the same type has to be processed, modern processors can disable parts of the pipeline so that when a single instruction is executed many times, the CPU skips the fetch and decode phases and thus greatly increases performance on certain occasions, especially in highly monotonous program engines such as video creation software and photo processing.

In the case where a portion of the CPU is superscalar and part is not, the part which is not suffers a performance penalty due to scheduling stalls. The Intel P5 Pentium had two superscalar ALUs which could accept one instruction per clock each, but its FPU could not accept one instruction per clock. Thus the P5 was integer superscalar but not floating point superscalar. Intel's successor to the P5 architecture, P6, added superscalar capabilities to its floating point features, and therefore afforded a significant increase in floating point instruction performance.

Both simple pipelining and superscalar design increase a CPU's ILP by allowing a single processor to complete execution of instructions at rates surpassing one instruction per cycle (IPC). Most modern CPU designs are at least somewhat superscalar, and nearly all general purpose CPUs designed in the last decade are superscalar. In later years some of the emphasis in designing high-ILP computers has been moved out of the CPU's hardware and into its software interface, or ISA. The strategy of the very long instruction word (VLIW) causes some ILP to become implied directly by the software, reducing the amount of work the CPU must perform to boost ILP and thereby reducing the design's complexity.

Thread-level parallelism

Another strategy of achieving performance is to execute multiple programs or threads in parallel. This area of research is known as parallel computing. In Flynn's taxonomy, this strategy is known as Multiple Instructions-Multiple Data or MIMD.

One technology used for this purpose was multiprocessing (MP). The initial flavor of this technology is known as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), where a small number of CPUs share a coherent view of their memory system. In this scheme, each CPU has additional hardware to maintain a constantly up-to-date view of memory. By avoiding stale views of memory, the CPUs can cooperate on the same program and programs can migrate from one CPU to another. To increase the number of cooperating CPUs beyond a handful, schemes such as non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and directory-based coherence protocols were introduced in the 1990s. SMP systems are limited to a small number of CPUs while NUMA systems have been built with thousands of processors. Initially, multiprocessing was built using multiple discrete CPUs and boards to implement the interconnect between the processors. When the processors and their interconnect are all implemented on a single silicon chip, the technology is known as a multi-core microprocessor.

It was later recognized that finer-grain parallelism existed with a single program. A single program might have several threads (or functions) that could be executed separately or in parallel. Some of the earliest examples of this technology implemented input/output processing such as direct memory access as a separate thread from the computation thread. A more general approach to this technology was introduced in the 1970s when systems were designed to run multiple computation threads in parallel. This technology is known as multi-threading (MT). This approach is considered more cost-effective than multiprocessing, as only a small number of components within a CPU is replicated in order to support MT as opposed to the entire CPU in the case of MP. In MT, the execution units and the memory system including the caches are shared among multiple threads. The downside of MT is that the hardware support for multithreading is more visible to software than that of MP and thus supervisor software like operating systems have to undergo larger changes to support MT. One type of MT that was implemented is known as block multithreading, where one thread is executed until it is stalled waiting for data to return from external memory. In this scheme, the CPU would then quickly switch to another thread which is ready to run, the switch often done in one CPU clock cycle, such as the UltraSPARC Technology. Another type of MT is known as simultaneous multithreading, where instructions of multiple threads are executed in parallel within one CPU clock cycle.

For several decades from the 1970s to early 2000s, the focus in designing high performance general purpose CPUs was largely on achieving high ILP through technologies such as pipelining, caches, superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, etc. This trend culminated in large, power-hungry CPUs such as the Intel Pentium 4. By the early 2000s, CPU designers were thwarted from achieving higher performance from ILP techniques due to the growing disparity between CPU operating frequencies and main memory operating frequencies as well as escalating CPU power dissipation owing to more esoteric ILP techniques.

CPU designers then borrowed ideas from commercial computing markets such as transaction processing, where the aggregate performance of multiple programs, also known as throughput computing, was more important than the performance of a single thread or program.

This reversal of emphasis is evidenced by the proliferation of dual and multiple core CMP (chip-level multiprocessing) designs and notably, Intel's newer designs resembling its less superscalar P6 architecture. Late designs in several processor families exhibit CMP, including the x86-64 Opteron and Athlon 64 X2, the SPARC UltraSPARC T1, IBM POWER4 and POWER5, as well as several video game console CPUs like the Xbox 360's triple-core PowerPC design, and the PS3's 7-core Cell microprocessor.

Data parallelism

A less common but increasingly important paradigm of CPUs (and indeed, computing in general) deals with data parallelism. The processors discussed earlier are all referred to as some type of scalar device. As the name implies, vector processors deal with multiple pieces of data in the context of one instruction. This contrasts with scalar processors, which deal with one piece of data for every instruction. Using Flynn's taxonomy, these two schemes of dealing with data are generally referred to as SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) and SISD (single instruction, single data), respectively. The great utility in creating CPUs that deal with vectors of data lies in optimizing tasks that tend to require the same operation (for example, a sum or a dot product) to be performed on a large set of data. Some classic examples of these types of tasks are multimedia applications (images, video, and sound), as well as many types of scientific and engineering tasks. Whereas a scalar CPU must complete the entire process of fetching, decoding, and executing each instruction and value in a set of data, a vector CPU can perform a single operation on a comparatively large set of data with one instruction. Of course, this is only possible when the application tends to require many steps which apply one operation to a large set of data.

Most early vector CPUs, such as the Cray-1, were associated almost exclusively with scientific research and cryptography applications. However, as multimedia has largely shifted to digital media, the need for some form of SIMD in general-purpose CPUs has become significant. Shortly after inclusion of floating point execution units started to become commonplace in general-purpose processors, specifications for and implementations of SIMD execution units also began to appear for general-purpose CPUs. Some of these early SIMD specifications like HP's Multimedia Acceleration eXtensions (MAX) and Intel's MMX were integer-only. This proved to be a significant impediment for some software developers, since many of the applications that benefit from SIMD primarily deal with floating point numbers. Progressively, these early designs were refined and remade into some of the common, modern SIMD specifications, which are usually associated with one ISA. Some notable modern examples are Intel's SSE and the PowerPC-related AltiVec (also known as VMX).

Performance

The ''performance'' or ''speed'' of a processor depends on the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz) and the instructions per clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the instructions per second (IPS) that the CPU can perform. Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads consist of a mix of instructions and applications, some of which take longer to execute than others. The performance of the memory hierarchy also greatly affects processor performance, an issue barely considered in MIPS calculations. Because of these problems, various standardized tests, often called "benchmarks" for this purpose—such as SPECint -- have been developed to attempt to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.

Processing performance of computers is increased by using multi-core processors, which essentially is plugging two or more individual processors (called ''cores'' in this sense) into one integrated circuit. Ideally, a dual core processor would be nearly twice as powerful as a single core processor. In practice, however, the performance gain is far less, only about fifty percent, due to imperfect software algorithms and implementation.

See also

Notes

References

External links

;Microprocessor designers

Advanced Micro Devices - Advanced Micro Devices, a designer of primarily x86-compatible personal computer CPUs.

ARM Ltd - ARM Ltd, one of the few CPU designers that profits solely by licensing their designs rather than manufacturing them. ARM architecture microprocessors are among the most popular in the world for embedded applications.

Freescale Semiconductor (formerly of Motorola) - Freescale Semiconductor, designer of several embedded and SoC PowerPC based processors.

IBM Microelectronics - Microelectronics division of IBM, which is responsible for many POWER and PowerPC based designs, including many of the CPUs utilized in late video game consoles.

Intel Corp - Intel, a maker of several notable CPU lines, including IA-32 and IA-64. Also a producer of various peripheral chips for use with their CPUs.

Microchip Technology Inc. - Microchip, developers of the 8 and 16-bit short pipleine RISC and DSP microcontrollers.

MIPS Technologies - MIPS Technologies, developers of the MIPS architecture, a pioneer in RISC designs.

NEC Electronics - NEC Electronics, developers of the 78K0 8-bit Architecture, 78K0R 16-bit Architecture, and V850 32-bit Architecture.

Sun Microsystems - Sun Microsystems, developers of the SPARC architecture, a RISC design.

Texas Instruments - Texas Instruments semiconductor division. Designs and manufactures several types of low-power microcontrollers among their many other semiconductor products.

Transmeta - Transmeta Corporation. Creators of low-power x86 compatibles like Crusoe and Efficeon.

VIA Technologies - Taiwanese maker of low-power x86-compatible CPUs.

;Further reading

25 Microchips that shook the world - an article by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers

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Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
Name	Sean Connery
Birth name	Thomas Sean Connery
Birth date	August 25, 1930
Birth place	Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1954–2006, 2010
Spouse	Diane Cilento (m. 1962-73)Micheline Roquebrune(m. 1975-present)
Relatives	Neil Connery (brother)
Website	http://www.seanconnery.com }}

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (one of them being a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award) and three Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award and a Henrietta Award).

Connery is best-known for portraying the character James Bond, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983 (six "official" EON productions films and the non-official ''Thunderball'' remake, ''Never Say Never Again''). In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in ''The Untouchables''. His film career also includes such films as ''Marnie'', ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'', ''The Hunt for Red October'', ''Highlander'', ''Murder on the Orient Express'', ''Dragonheart'', and ''The Rock''. He was knighted in July 2000. Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot". In 1989, he was proclaimed "Sexiest Man Alive" by ''People'' magazine, and in 1999, at age 69, he was voted "Sexiest Man of the Century".

Early life

Connery's great grand parents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid 19th century. Thomas Sean Connery, named Thomas after his grandfather, was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, to Euphemia "Effie" (née Maclean), a cleaning woman, and Joseph Connery, a factory worker and lorry driver. Both his mother's parents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife and Uig on the Isle of Skye. His father was a Roman Catholic Scot, while his mother was a Protestant. He has a younger brother, Neil (b. 1938). Connery claims he was called Sean, his middle name, long before becoming an actor, explaining that when he was young he had an Irish friend named Séamus and that those who knew them both had decided to call Connery by his middle name whenever both were present. He was, however, generally referred to in his youth as "Tommy". Although he was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching his full adult height of 6 ft 2 inches (188 cm) at 18. He was known during his teen years as "Big Tam", and claims to have lost his virginity to an adult woman in an ATS uniform at the age of 14.

Connery's first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society. He then joined the Royal Navy during which time he opted for two tattoos that are described on his official website as "unlike many tattoos, his were not frivolous - his tattoos reflect two of his lifelong commitments: his family and Scotland. After six decades, his tattoos still reflect those two ideas: One tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads "Mum and Dad," and the other is self explanatory, "Scotland Forever."

Connery was later discharged from the navy on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer,a condition which was hereditary and had affected most of the males in the family in generations before him. Afterwards, he returned to the co-op, then worked as, among other things, a lorry driver, a lifeguard at Portobello swimming baths, a labourer, an artist's model for the Edinburgh College of Art, after a suggestion by former Mr. Scotland, Archie Brennan. and a coffin polisher. The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour,

Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18 and from 1951 time trained heavily with Ellington, a former gym instructor in the British army. While his official website claims he was third in the 1950 Mr. Universe contest, most sources place him in the 1953 competition, either third in the Junior class or failing to place in the Tall Man classification. One of the other competitors mentioned that auditions were being held for a production of ''South Pacific''; and Connery landed a small part. While in Edinburgh, Connery was targeted by the notorious Valdor gang, one of the most ruthless gangs in the city. He was first approached by them in a billiard hall on Lothian Street where he prevented them from stealing from his jacket and was later followed by six gang members to a 15 ft high balcony at the Palais. There Connery launched an attack single-handedly against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and the other by a biceps and cracked their heads together. From then on he was treated with great respect by the gang and gained a reputation as a "hard man".

Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days. He was offered a trial with East Fife. While on tour with ''South Pacific'', Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby was impressed with his physical prowess and offered Connery a contract worth £25 a week immediately after the game. Connery admits that he was tempted to accept, but he recalls, "I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves."

Career

1950s

Looking to pick up some extra money, Connery helped out backstage at the King's Theatre in late 1951. He became interested in the proceedings, and a career was launched.

In 1957, Connery played Spike, a minor gangster with a speech impediment in Montgomery Tully's ''No Road Back'' alongside Skip Homeier, Paul Carpenter, Patricia Dainton and Norman Wooland. He then played a rogue lorry driver Johnny Yates in Cy Endfield's ''Hell Drivers'' (1957) alongside Stanley Baker, Herbert Lom, Peggy Cummins and Patrick McGoohan. Later in 1957 Connery appeared in Terence Young's poorly received MGM action picture ''Action of the Tiger'' opposite Van Johnson, Martine Carol, Herbert Lom and Gustavo Rojo; the film was shot on location in southern Spain. He also had a minor role in Gerald Thomas's thriller ''Time Lock'' (1957) as a welder, appearing alongside Robert Beatty, Lee Patterson, Betty McDowall and Vincent Winter, which commenced filming on December 1, 1956 at Beaconsfield Studios.

In 1958 he had a major role in the melodrama ''Another Time, Another Place'' (1958) as a British reporter named Mark Trevor, caught in a love affair opposite Lana Turner and Barry Sullivan. During filming, star Lana Turner's possessive gangster boyfriend, Johnny Stompanato, who was visiting from Los Angeles, believed she was having an affair with Connery. He stormed onto the set and pointed a gun at Connery, only to have Connery disarm him and knock him flat on his back, causing Stompanato to be banned from the set. Connery later recounted that he had to lie low for a while after receiving threats from men linked to Stompanato's boss, Mickey Cohen.

In 1959, Connery landed a leading role in Robert Stevenson's Walt Disney Productions film ''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' (1959) alongside Albert Sharpe, Janet Munro, and Jimmy O'Dea. The film is a tale about a wily Irishman and his battle of wits with leprechauns. Upon the film's initial release, A. H. Weiler of the ''New York Times'' praised the cast (save Connery whom he described as "merely tall, dark, and handsome") and thought the film an "overpoweringly charming concoction of standard Gaelic tall stories, fantasy and romance.". In his book ''The Disney Films'', film critic and historian Leonard Maltin stated that, "''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' is not only one of Disney's best films, but is certainly one of the best fantasies ever put on film."

He also had a prominent television role in Rudolph Cartier's 1961 production of ''Anna Karenina'' for BBC Television, in which he co-starred with Claire Bloom.

James Bond: 1962–71, 1983

Connery's breakthrough came in the role of secret agent James Bond. He played the character in the first five Bond films: ''Dr. No'' (1962), ''From Russia with Love'' (1963), ''Goldfinger'' (1964), ''Thunderball'' (1965), and ''You Only Live Twice'' (1967) -- then appeared again as Bond in ''Diamonds Are Forever'' (1971) and ''Never Say Never Again'' (1983). All seven films were commercially successful.

James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, originally doubted Connery's casting, saying, "He's not what I envisioned of James Bond looks" and "I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt-man," adding that Connery (muscular, 6' 2", and a Scot) was unrefined. However, Fleming's girlfriend told him Connery had the requisite sexual charisma. Fleming changed his mind after the successful ''Dr. No'' premiere; he was so impressed, he created a half-Scottish, half-Swiss heritage for the literary James Bond in the later novels.

Connery's portrayal of Bond owes much to stylistic tutelage from director Terence Young, polishing the actor while using his physical grace and presence for the action. Robert Cotton wrote in one Connery biography that Lois Maxwell (the first Miss Moneypenny) noticed, "Terence took Sean under his wing. He took him to dinner, showed him how to walk, how to talk, even how to eat." Cotton wrote, "Some cast members remarked that Connery was simply doing a Terence Young impression, but Young and Connery knew they were on the right track."

In 2005, ''From Russia with Love'' was adapted by Electronic Arts into a video game, titled ''James Bond 007: From Russia with Love'', which featured all-new voice work by Connery as well as his likeness, and those of several of the film's supporting cast.

Beyond Bond

While making the Bond films, Connery also starred in other acclaimed films such as Alfred Hitchcock's ''Marnie'' (1964) and ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974). Apart from ''The Man Who Would Be King'' and ''The Wind and the Lion'', both released in 1975, most of Connery's successes in the next decade were as part of ensemble casts in films such as ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974) with Vanessa Redgrave and John Gielgud and ''A Bridge Too Far'' (1977) co-starring Dirk Bogarde and Laurence Olivier.

In 1981, Connery appeared in the film ''Time Bandits'' as Agamemnon. The casting choice derives from a joke Michael Palin included in the script, in which he describes the character removing his mask as being "Sean Connery — or someone of equal but cheaper stature". When shown the script, Connery was happy to play the supporting role.

After his experience with ''Never Say Never Again'' in 1983 and the following court case, Connery became unhappy with the major studios and for two years did not make any films. Following the successful European production ''The Name of the Rose'' (1986), for which he won a BAFTA award, Connery's interest in more commercial material was revived. That same year, a supporting role in ''Highlander'' showcased his ability to play older mentors to younger leads, which would become a recurring role in many of his later films. The following year, his acclaimed performance as a hard-nosed Irish-born cop in ''The Untouchables'' (1987) earned him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his sole nomination throughout his career. His subsequent box-office hits included ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' (1989), in which he played Henry Jones Sr., the title character's father, ''The Hunt for Red October'' (1990) (where he was reportedly called in at two weeks' notice), ''The Russia House'' (1990), ''The Rock'' (1996), and ''Entrapment'' (1999). In 1996, he voiced the role of Draco the dragon in the animated film ''Dragonheart''. Both ''Last Crusade'' and ''The Rock'' alluded to his James Bond days. Steven Spielberg and George Lucas wanted "the father of Indiana Jones" (although Connery is only 12 years older than Ford) to be Connery since Bond directly inspired the ''Indiana Jones'' series, while his character in ''The Rock'', John Patrick Mason, was a British secret service agent imprisoned since the 1960s. In 1998, Sean Connery received a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award.

In recent years, Connery's films have included several box office and critical disappointments such as ''First Knight'' (1995), ''The Avengers'' (1998), and ''The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'' (2003), but he also received positive reviews, including his performance in ''Finding Forrester'' (2000). He also later received a Crystal Globe for outstanding artistic contribution to world cinema.

Retirement

Connery stated in interviews for the film (included on the DVD release) that he was offered a role in ''The Lord of the Rings'' series, declining it due to "not understanding the script." CNN reported that the actor was offered up to 15% of the worldwide box office receipts to play Gandalf, which had he accepted, could have earned him as much as $400 million for the trilogy. After the series went on to become a huge hit, Connery decided to accept the lead role in ''League of Extraordinary Gentlemen'', despite not "understanding" it either. In July 2005, it was reported that he had decided to retire from film-making, following disillusionment with the "idiots now making films in Hollywood" and the turmoil making the 2003 film.

In September 2004, media reports indicated that Connery intended to retire after pulling out of ''Josiah's Canon'', which was set for a 2005 release. However, in a December 2004 interview with ''The Scotsman'' newspaper from his home in the Bahamas, Connery explained he had taken a break from acting in order to concentrate on writing his autobiography. At the Tartan Day celebrations in New York in March 2006, Connery again confirmed his retirement from acting, and stated that he is now writing a history book. On 25 August 2008, his 78th birthday, Connery unveiled his autobiography, ''Being a Scot'', co-written with Murray Grigor.

He was planning to star in an $80 million movie about Saladin and the Crusades that would be filmed in Jordan before the producer Moustapha Akkad was killed in the 2005 Amman bombings. When Connery received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award on 8 June 2006, he again confirmed his retirement from acting. On 7 June 2007, he denied rumours that he would appear in the fourth ''Indiana Jones'' film, stating that "retirement is just too much damned fun".

Connery returned to voice acting, playing the title character in the animated short ''Sir Billi the Vet'', and in 2005 he recorded voiceovers for a new video game version of his Bond film ''From Russia with Love''. In an interview on the game disc, Connery stated that he was very happy that the producers of the game (EA Games) had approached him to voice Bond and that he hoped to do another one in the near future. In 2010, he reprised his role as the title character in the animated film ''Sir Billi'', serving also as executive producer.

In April 2011, his spokesman confirmed that Connery has retired from making public appearances.

In the film ''Transformers: Dark of the Moon'', the character Sentinel Prime's features were mostly based on Connery. When Leonard Nimoy was to voice the role, however, the effects were altered to incorporate Nimoy's acting as well.

Personal life

Connery dated an attractive blonde named Julie Hamilton in the 1950s; given his rugged appearance and rough charm she initially thought he was the most appalling person and was not attracted to him until she saw him in a kilt. He also shared a mutual attraction with black jazz singer Maxine Daniels, whom he met at the Empire Theatre and made a pass at her, only to be informed by her that she was already happily married with a baby daughter. Connery was married to actress Diane Cilento from 1962 to 1973. They had a son, actor Jason Connery. Connery has been married to Moroccan-French painter Micheline Roquebrune (born 1929) since 1975.

Connery, a keen golfer, owned the Domaine de Terre Blanche in the South of France for twenty years (from 1979) where he planned to build his dream golf course on the of land but the dream was not realised until he sold it to German billionaire Dietmar Hopp in 1999. Connery has also always had an interest in football. He presently supports Rangers F.C. having previously been a Celtic F.C. fan. Commenting on his change of allegiance, Connery stated "I've always supported the team I thought played the best soccer...religious affiliations in sport mean nothing to me." He has been awarded the rank of Shodan in Kyokushin karate.

Connery was knighted in July 2000.

Scottish National Party

Connery is a member of the Scottish National Party, a centre-left political party campaigning for Scottish independence, and has supported the party financially and through personal appearances. In 2008, Connery said in the ''Scottish Sunday Express'' he believed that Scotland will become an independent country within his lifetime and praised the work of the SNP in a minority government after having won the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary elections. Connery has been frequently criticised for remaining outspoken on UK politics while living as a tax exile in the Bahamas. He was also criticised for accepting a knighthood from the Labour government, despite being a vocal critic of it. He has donated thousands of pounds to the SNP and has sworn not to return to Scotland until it is independent.

Health

In 1993, news that Connery was undergoing radiation treatment for an undisclosed throat ailment sparked media reports that the actor was suffering from throat cancer following years of heavy smoking, and he was falsely declared dead by the Japanese and South African news agencies. Connery immediately appeared on the ''Late Show with David Letterman'' to deny all of this. In a February 1995 interview with ''Entertainment Weekly'', he said that the radiation treatment was to remove nodules from his vocal cords. (His father, a heavy smoker, died from throat cancer in 1972.) In 2003, he had surgery to remove cataracts from both eyes. On 12 March 2006, he announced he was recovering from surgery in January to remove a kidney tumour. In 2008, he chipped a bone in his shoulder after falling while playing golf. In October 2009, he told ''Wine Spectator'' magazine that he has been diagnosed with a heart condition.

Tribute

Connery has been polled as "The Greatest Living Scot". A bronze bust sculpture of Connery was placed in the capital city of Estonia.

Connery shared a Henrietta Award with Charles Bronson for "World Film Favorite – Male" in 1972.

Filmography

''No Road Back'' ''Hell Drivers (film) ''Action of the Tiger'' ''Time Lock'' ''Another Time, Another Place (1958 film) '''' ''Darby O'Gill and the Little People'' ''Tarzan's Greatest Adventure'' ''On the Fiddle'' '''' '''' ''Dr. No (film) ''From Russia with Love (film) ''Marnie (film) ''Woman of Straw'' ''Goldfinger (film) '''' ''Thunderball (film) '''' '''' ''You Only Live Twice (film) '''' ''Shalako (film) '''' '''' '''' ''Diamonds Are Forever (film) ''España campo de golf'' '''' ''Zardoz'' ''Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) ''Ransom (1975 film) '''' '''' '''' ''Robin and Marian'' '''' '''' '''' ''Meteor (film) ''Cuba (film) ''Outland (film) ''Time Bandits'' ''G'olé!'' ''Five Days One Summer'' ''Wrong Is Right'' ''Sean Connery's Edinburgh'' ''Never Say Never Again'' ''Sword of the Valiant'' ''Highlander (film) '''' '''' '''' ''Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade'' ''Family Business (film) '''' '''' ''Highlander II: The Quickening'' ''Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves'' ''Medicine Man (film) ''Rising Sun (film) '''' ''Just Cause (film) ''First Knight'' ''Dragonheart'' '''' '''' ''Playing by Heart'' ''Entrapment (film) ''Finding Forrester'' '''' ''From Russia with Love (video game)

Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1954	''Lilacs in the Spring''	Undetermined role
1957	|	Spike
1957	Hell Drivers'' ||	Johnny Kates
1957	|	Mike
1957	|	Welder #2
1958	Another Time, Another Place'' ||	Mark Trevor
1958	|	RMS Titanic deck hand	uncredited
1959	|	Michael McBride
1959	|	O'Bannion
1961	|	Pedlar Pascoe
1961	|	Paddy Damion
1962	|	Pte. Flanagan
1962	Dr. No'' ||	James Bond (character)>James Bond
1963	From Russia with Love'' ||	James Bond
1964	Marnie'' ||	Mark Rutland
1964	|	Anthony Richmond
1964	Goldfinger'' ||	James Bond
1965	|	Trooper Joe Roberts
1965	Thunderball'' ||	James Bond
1966	|	Himself	(cameo)
1966	|	Samson Shillitoe
1967	You Only Live Twice'' ||	James Bond
1967	|	Himself	(Director; documentary)
1968	Shalako'' ||	Moses Zebulon 'Shalako' Carlin
1970	|	Jack Kehoe
1971	|	Roald Amundsen
1971	|	John Anderson
1971	Diamonds Are Forever'' ||	James Bond
1972	|	Himself	(short subject)
1973	|	Detective Sergeant Johnson
1974	|	Zed
1974	Murder on the Orient Express'' ||	Colonel Arbuthnot
1975	Ransom'' ||	Nils Tahlvik
1975	|	Himself	(documentary)
1975	|	Mulai Ahmed er Raisuni>Mulay Achmed Mohammed el-Raisuli the Magnificent
1975	|	Daniel Dravot
1976	|	Robin Hood
1976	|	Khalil Abdul-Muhsen
1977	|	Maj. Gen. Roy Urquhart
1979	|	Edward Pierce/John Simms/Geoffrey
1979	Meteor'' ||	Dr. Paul Bradley
1979	Cuba'' ||	Maj. Robert Dapes
1981	Outland'' ||	Marshal William T. O'Niel	Nominated — Saturn Award for Best Actor
1981	|	Agamemnon>King Agamemnon/Fireman
1982	|	Narrator	(documentary)
1982	|	Douglas Meredith
1982	|	Patrick Hale
1983	|	Himself	(short subject)
1983	|	James Bond	(Unofficial James Bond film)
1984	|	Green Knight>The Green Knight
1986	Highlander'' ||	Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez
1986	|	William of Baskerville	BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1987	|	Jim Malone
1988	|	Lt. Col. Alan Caldwell
1989	|	Henry Jones, Sr.>Professor Henry Jones Senior
1989	Family Business'' ||	Jessie McMullen
1990	|	Captain Marko Ramius	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1990	|	Bartholomew 'Barley' Scott Blair
1991	|	Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez
1991	|	King Richard I	(uncredited cameo)
1992	Medicine Man'' ||	Dr. Robert Campbell
1993	Rising Sun'' ||	Capt. John Connor	(also executive producer)
1994	|	Dr. Alex Murray
1995	Just Cause'' ||	Paul Armstrong	(also executive producer)
1995	|	King Arthur
1996	|	Draco	(voice)
1996	|	Capt. John Patrick Mason (Ret.)	(also executive producer)
1998	|	Sir August de Wynter
1998	|	Paul
1999	Entrapment'' ||	Robert MacDougal	(also producer)
2000	|	William Forrester
2003	|	Allan Quatermain	(also executive producer)
2005	From Russia with Love'' ||	James Bond	(voice and likeness) video game

References

Bibliography

External links

BBC: Sean Connery Biography (1999)

Profile @ Turner Classic Movies

Photographs and literature

Category:1930 births Category:Actors awarded British knighthoods Category:European Film Awards winners (people) Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Best Actor BAFTA Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Academy Award winners Category:Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe (film) winners Category:Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners Category:Knights Bachelor Category:Légion d'honneur recipients Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:People from Edinburgh Category:Royal Navy sailors Category:Scottish people of Irish descent Category:Scottish bodybuilders Category:Scottish film actors Category:Scottish film producers Category:Scottish nationalists Category:Scottish stage actors Category:Scottish television actors Category:Scottish actors Category:Scottish voice actors Category:Living people Category:20th-century actors Category:21st-century actors Category:Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic F.C. players Category:British film actors Category:British bodybuilders

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Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
Name	Joe Satriani
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	Joseph Satriani
Alias	Satch
Born	July 15, 1956Westbury, New York
Instrument	Guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals, harmonica, banjo, harp
Genre	Rock, hard rock, instrumental rock, blues
Occupation	Musician, songwriter, producer, guitar instructor
Years active	1978–present
Associated acts	Alice Cooper, Mick Jagger, Deep Purple, Steve Vai, G3, Sammy Hagar, Chickenfoot, Jason Becker
Label	Sony, Epic, Relativity
Website	Official website
Notable instruments	Ibanez Joe Satriani Signature model}}

Joseph "Joe" Satriani (born July 15, 1956 in Westbury, New York) is an Italian American instrumental rock guitarist and multi-instrumentalist, with multiple Grammy Award nominations. Early in his career, Satriani worked as a guitar instructor, and some of his former students have achieved fame with their guitar skills (Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan, Alex Skolnick). Satriani has been a driving force in the music credited to other musicians throughout his career, as a founder of the ever-changing touring trio, G3, as well as performing in various positions with other musicians.

In 1988, Satriani was recruited by Mick Jagger as lead guitarist for Jagger's first solo tour. Later, in 1994, Satriani was the lead guitarist for Deep Purple. Satriani worked with a range of guitarists from several musical genres, including Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Larry LaLonde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brian May, Patrick Rondat, Andy Timmons, Paul Gilbert, Adrian Legg, and Robert Fripp through the annual G3 Jam Concerts. He is currently the lead guitarist for the supergroup Chickenfoot.

He is heavily influenced by blues-rock guitar icons such as Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Ritchie Blackmore and Jeff Beck, but possesses his own easily recognizable style. Since 1988, Satriani has been using his own signature guitar, the Ibanez JS Series, which is widely sold in stores. He also has a signature series amplifier, the Peavey JSX (although he has since returned to using Marshall amplifiers); a signature Vox amPlug headphone amp; and various signature Vox effects pedals including the "Satchurator" distortion, the "Time Machine" delay, the "Big Bad Wah" wah and the "Ice 9" overdrive.

Biography

Satriani was inspired to play guitar at age fourteen soon after learning of the death of Jimi Hendrix. He has been said to have heard the news during a football training session, where he confronted his coach and announced that he was quitting to become a guitarist. In 1974, Satriani studied music with jazz guitarist Billy Bauer and with reclusive jazz pianist Lennie Tristano. The technically demanding Tristano greatly influenced Satriani's playing. Satriani began teaching guitar, with his most notable student at the time being fellow Long Island native Steve Vai. While he was teaching Vai, he was attending Five Towns College for studies in music.

In 1978 Satriani moved to Berkeley, California to pursue a music career. Soon after arriving in California, he resumed teaching. His students included Steve Vai, Kirk Hammett of Metallica, David Bryson of Counting Crows, Kevin Cadogan from Third Eye Blind, Larry LaLonde of Primus / Possessed, Alex Skolnick of Testament, Rick Hunolt (ex-Exodus), Phil Kettner of Lääz Rockit, Geoff Tyson of T-Ride, Charlie Hunter and David Turin.

1980s

Satriani started playing in a San Francisco-based band called the Squares, where he continued to network and make musical connections (Squares sound man John Cuniberti co-produced his second album). He was eventually invited to join the Greg Kihn Band, who were on the downside of their career, but whose generosity helped Satriani pay off the overwhelming credit card debt from recording his first album. When his friend and former student Steve Vai gained fame playing with David Lee Roth in 1986, Vai raved about Satriani in several interviews with guitar magazines, including ''Guitar World'' magazine. In 1987, Satriani's second album ''Surfing with the Alien'' produced popular radio hits and was the first all-instrumental release to chart so highly in many years. In 1988 Satriani helped produce the EP ''The Eyes of Horror'' for the death metal band Possessed.

In 1989, Satriani released the album ''Flying in a Blue Dream''. It was said to be inspired by the death of his father, who died in 1989 during the recording of the album. "One Big Rush" was featured on the soundtrack to the Cameron Crowe movie ''Say Anything...''. "The Forgotten Part II" was featured on a Labatt Blue commercial in Canada in 1993. "Can't Slow Down" featured in a car-chase sequence in the Don Johnson starring show ''Nash Bridges''.

1990s

In 1992, Satriani released ''The Extremist'', his most critically acclaimed and commercially successful album to date. Radio stations across the country were quick to pick up on "Summer Song," which got a major boost when Sony used it in a major commercial campaign for their Discman portable CD players. "Cryin'," "Friends," and the title track were also regional hits on radio.

In late 1993, Satriani joined Deep Purple as a temporary replacement for departed guitarist Ritchie Blackmore during the band's Japanese tour. The concerts were a success, and Satriani was asked to join the band permanently but he declined, having just signed a multi-album solo deal with Sony, so Steve Morse took the guitarist slot in Deep Purple.

G3

In 1996, Satriani founded the G3, a concert tour intended to feature a power trio consisting of three instrumental rock guitarists. The original lineup featured Satriani, Vai, and Eric Johnson. The G3 tour has continued periodically since its inaugural version, where Satriani is the only permanent member, featuring differing second and third members. Other guitarists who have performed in such a G3 configuration include among others: Yngwie Malmsteen, John Petrucci, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Robert Fripp, Andy Timmons, Uli Jon Roth, Michael Schenker, Adrian Legg and Paul Gilbert.

In 1998 Satriani recorded and released ''Crystal Planet'', which went back to a sound more reminiscent of his late '80s work. Planet was followed up with ''Engines of Creation'', one of his more experimental works featuring the 'Electronica' genre of music. During the subsequent tour, a pair of shows at the Fillmore in San Francisco were recorded in December 2000 and released as ''Live in San Francisco'', a two-disc live album and DVD.

2000 and beyond

Over the next several years, Satriani regularly recorded and released evolving music, including ''Strange Beautiful Music'' in 2002 and ''Is There Love in Space?'' in 2004.

In May 2005, Satriani toured India for the first time, playing concerts in Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

In 2006 Satriani recorded and released ''Super Colossal'' and ''Satriani Live!'', another two-disc live album and DVD recorded May 3, 2006 at the Grove in Anaheim, CA.

On August 7, 2007 Epic/Legacy Recordings re-released ''Surfing with the Alien'' to celebrate the 20th anniversary of its release. This was a two-disc set that includes a remastered album and a DVD of a previously never-before-seen live show filmed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1988.

Satriani's next album, titled ''Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock'', was released on April 1, 2008.

Satriani released a live DVD recording of a concert in Paris titled ''Live In Paris: I Just Wanna Rock'' and a companion 2 CD set on February 2, 2010.

In March 2010 Satriani participated with other guitarists in the Experience Hendrix Tribute Tour, performing music written and inspired by Jimi Hendrix. In April, Satriani and the rest of Chickenfoot voiced themselves in an episode of the animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force. In May 2010, through his website, Satriani announced he was about to enter the studio to record a solo album, and dates were also released for an autumn tour. He also said that demos had been recorded for a second Chickenfoot album.

In May 2010, Satriani joined Sound Strike, a movement led by Rage Against the Machine singer Zack de la Rocha protesting Arizona SB1070. As a result, Satriani refuses to perform live in Arizona.

Satriani released his 14th studio album, titled ''Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards'', on October 5, 2010.

Copyright infringement lawsuit against Coldplay

On December 4, 2008 Satriani filed a copyright infringement suit against Coldplay in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.

Satriani's suit asserts that the Coldplay song "Viva la Vida" includes "substantial original portions" of the Satriani song "If I Could Fly" from his 2004 album, ''Is There Love in Space?''. The Coldplay song in question received two Grammy Awards for "Song of the Year." Coldplay denied the allegation. An unspecified settlement was ultimately reached between the parties.

Other work

Satriani is also credited on many other albums, including guitar duties on shock-rocker Alice Cooper's 1991 album ''Hey Stoopid'', Spinal Tap's 1992 album ''Break Like the Wind'', Blue Öyster Cult's 1988 album ''Imaginos'', band members Stu Hamm and Gregg Bissonette's solo albums. Interestingly, he was credited with singing background vocals on the 1986 debut album by Crowded House. In 2003, he played lead guitar on The Yardbirds's CD release ''Birdland''. In 2006 he made appearances on tracks for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan's solo CD/DVD dual disc ''Gillan's Inn''. On Dream Theater's 2007 album, ''Systematic Chaos'', Satriani contributed spoken lyrics to the song "Repentance." Satriani contributed a guitar solo to Jordan Rudess' 2004 solo release ''Rhythm of Time''. He also composed much of the soundtrack for the racing video game ''NASCAR 06: Total Team Control'' and contributed to ''Sega Rally Championship''.

He featured in the 2006 Christopher Guest film ''For Your Consideration'' as the guitarist in the band that played for the late-night show.

Chickenfoot

It was revealed on May 29, 2008 that Satriani is involved in a new hard rock band called ''Chickenfoot'' with former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith. The band features Hagar on vocals, Satriani on guitar, Anthony on bass and Smith on drums. Their debut album was released on June 5, 2009. The first single and video released from this album is the track "Oh Yeah," which was also played on the Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien on June 5, 2009. Satriani received a writing credit on each of the songs featured on the band's self-titled debut album. When Broken Records magazine asked Satriani in volume 1 issue 3, about his new band, he enthusiastically mentioned that "it was great fun" and it gives him a "kick in the music bone" to be playing with such great talent. He said it felt quite natural to step back and play more rhythm guitar than solo guitar.

Technique and influence

Satriani is recognized as a technically advanced rock guitarist, and is a guitar virtuoso. He has mastered many performance techniques on the instrument, including legato, two-handed tapping and arpeggio tapping, volumes swells, harmonics, and extreme whammy bar effects. During fast passages, Satriani favors a legato technique (achieved primarily through hammer-ons and pull-offs) that yields smooth and flowing runs. He is also adept at other speed-related techniques such as rapid alternate picking and sweep picking, but does not often use them.

Satriani has received 14 Grammy nominations and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide. Many of his fans and friends call him "Satch," short for "Satriani."

An influential guitarist himself, Satriani has many influences, including jazz guitarists Django Reinhardt, Wes Montgomery, Allan Holdsworth and Charlie Christian, and rock guitarists Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Ritchie Blackmore.

Equipment

Satriani has endorsed Ibanez's JS Series guitars, and Peavey's JSX amplifier. Both lines were designed specifically as signature products for Satriani. The Ibanez JS100 was based on, and replaced, the Ibanez 540 Radius model that Satriani first endorsed. However, Satriani uses a variety of gear. Many of his guitars are made by Ibanez, including the JS1000, and JS1200. These guitars typically feature the DiMarzio PAF Pro (which he used up until 1993 in both the neck and bridge positions), the DiMarzio Fred (which he used in the bridge position from 1993 to 2005), and the Mo' Joe and the Paf Joe (which he uses in the bridge and neck positions, respectively, from 2005 to present day). The JS line of guitars is his signature line with the JS1000, JS1200, JS2400, JSBDG, and JS20th using Ibanez's original Edge double locking tremolo bridge. The JS100 and JS120s both use Ibanez's Edge 3 tremolo bridge. The JS1600 is a fixed bridge guitar with no tremolo system. The guitar he was most associated with during the nineties was a chrome-finished guitar nicknamed "Chrome Boy." (This instrument can be seen on the ''Live in San Francisco'' DVD.) However, the guitar used for most of the concert was in fact a lookalike nicknamed "Pearly," which featured Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates pickups.

Satriani uses a number of other JS models such as the JS double neck model, JS700 (primary axe on the self-titled CD and seen on the 1995 tour "Joe Satriani," which features a fixed bridge, P-90 pickups, and a matching mahogany body and neck), JS6/JS6000 (natural body) , JS1 (the original JS model), JS2000 (fixed bridge model), a variety of JS100s, JS1000s and JS1200s with custom paint work, and a large amount of prototype JSs. All double locking bridges have been the original Edge tremolo, not the newer models, which point to a more custom guitar than the "off the shelf" models. Joe played a red 7-string JS model, seen in the "G3 Live in Tokyo" DVD from 2005. He also has a prototype 24-fret version of the JS—now called the JS-2400—which he has used with Chickenfoot . Satriani has used a wide variety of guitar amps, using Marshall for his main amplifier (notably the limited edition blue coloured 6100 LM model) up until 2001, and his Peavey signature series amps, the Peavey JSX, thereafter. The JSX began life as a prototype Peavey XXX and developed into the Joe Satriani signature Peavey model, now available in retail stores. Satriani has used other amplifiers over the years in the studio, however. Those include the Peavey 5150 (used to record the song 'Crystal Planet'), Cornford, and the Mesa/Boogie Mark IIC+ (used to record the song 'Flying in a Blue Dream'), amongst others. He has recently switched to the Marshall JVM series.

His effects pedals include the Vox wah, Dunlop Cry Baby wah, RMC Wizard Wah, DigiTech Whammy, BK Butler Tube Driver, BOSS DS-1, BOSS CH-1, BOSS CE-2, BOSS DD-2 and a standard BOSS DD-3 (used together to emulate reverb effects), BOSS BF-3, BOSS OC-2, Barber Burn Drive Unit, Fulltone Deja Vibe, Fulltone Ultimate Octave, and Electro-Harmonix POG (Polyphonic Octave Generator), the latter being featured prominently on the title cut to his 2006 ''Super Colossal''.

Satriani has partnered with Planet Waves to create a signature line of guitar picks and guitar straps featuring his sketch art.

Although Satriani endorses the JSX, he has used many amps in the studio when recording, including the Peavey Classic. He used Marshall heads and cabinets, including live, prior to his Peavey endorsement. Most recently Satriani used the JSX head through a Palmer Speaker Simulator. He has also released a Class-A 5-watt tube amp called the "Mini Colossal."

He is currently working with Vox on his own line of signature effects pedals designed to deliver Satriani's trademark tone plus a wide range of new sounds for guitarists of all playing styles and ability levels. The first being a signature distortion pedal titled the "Satchurator," and recently, the "Time Machine," which will be a delay pedal, with more to follow in 2008, including a wah pedal called the "Big Bad Wah." On March 3, 2010 a new pedal was announced on Satriani's website regarding the new Vox overdrive pedal called "Ice 9."

Recurring themes

Satriani's work frequently makes references to various science fiction stories and ideas. "Surfing with the Alien," "Back to Shalla-Bal," and "The Power Cosmic 2000" refer to the comic book character Silver Surfer, while "Ice 9" refers to the secret government ice weapon in Kurt Vonnegut's ''Cat's Cradle''. "Borg Sex" is a reference to ''Star Trek'', which features a homogeneous cybernetic race known as the Borg. His albums and songs often have other-worldly titles, such as ''Not of this Earth'', ''Crystal Planet'', ''Is There Love in Space?'', and ''Engines of Creation''.

On the album ''Super Colossal'' the song titled "Crowd Chant" was originally called "Party on the Enterprise." "Party on the Enterprise" featured sampled sounds from the Starship Enterprise from the ''Star Trek'' TV show. But as Satriani explained in a podcast, legal issues regarding the samples could not be resolved and he was unable to get permission to use them. Satriani then removed the sounds from the song and called it "Crowd Chant." This song is now used as goal celebration music for a number of National Hockey League teams including the Minnesota Wild. This song is also used in EA Sports Hockey video game "NHL10".

"Redshift Riders," another song on the ''Super Colossal'' album, is "based on the idea that in the future, when people can travel throughout space, they will theoretically take advantage of the cosmological redshift effect so they can be swung around large planetary objects and get across [the] universe a lot faster than normal," Satriani said in a podcast about the song.

On the album ''Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock'' the song "I Just Wanna Rock," is about a giant robot on the run who happens to stumble upon a rock concert.

Philanthropy

In 2006, Satriani signed on as an official supporter of Little Kids Rock, a non-profit organization that provides free musical instruments and instruction to children in underserved public schools throughout the U.S.A. Satriani has personally delivered instruments to children in the program through a charity raffle for the organization and, like Steve Vai, sits on its board of directors as an honorary member.

Awards and nominations

Nominations

Satriani has the second most Grammy Award nominations (after Brian McKnight), of any artist (15) without winning. See further artists

Surfing with the Alien

+Nominations	Year !! Album !! Category
rowspan=2	Always With Me, Always With You	Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance>Best Pop Instrumental Performance
''Surfing with the Alien''	Grammy Award for Best Rock Instrumental Performance>Best Rock Instrumental Performance
Grammy Awards of 1990	1990	Dreaming No. 11>The Crush of Love
Grammy Awards of 1991	1991	''Flying in a Blue Dream''
Grammy Awards of 1993	1993	''The Extremist''
Grammy Awards of 1994	1994	Time Machine (album)>Speed of Light
Grammy Awards of 1995	1995	Time Machine (album)>All Alone
Grammy Awards of 1997	1997	Joe Satriani (album)>(You're) My World''
Grammy Awards of 1998	1998	G3: Live in Concert>Summer Song (Live)
Grammy Awards of 1999	1999	Crystal Planet>A Train of Angels
Grammy Awards of 2001	2001	Engines of Creation>Until We Say Goodbye
Grammy Awards of 2002	2002	Always With Me, Always With You (Live) || Best Rock Instrumental Performance from Live in San Francisco
Grammy Awards of 2003	2003	Strange Beautiful Music>Starry Night
Grammy Awards of 2006	2006	''Super Colossal''
Grammy Awards of 2008	2008	Surfing with the Alien>Always With Me, Always With You (Live)

Discography

''Not of This Earth'' (1986)

''Surfing with the Alien'' (1987)

''Flying in a Blue Dream'' (1989)

''The Extremist'' (1992)

''Time Machine'' (1993)

''Joe Satriani'' (1995)

''Crystal Planet'' (1998)

''Engines of Creation'' (2000)

''Strange Beautiful Music'' (2002)

''Is There Love in Space?'' (2004)

''Super Colossal'' (2006)

''Professor Satchafunkilus and the Musterion of Rock'' (2008)

''Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards'' (2010)

References

External links

Official Website

Real "Guitar Hero" Joe Satriani turns Teacher at WorkshopLive.com

Audio Interview with Joe Satriani on Guitar Jam Daily, June 2007

Part 2 of Audio Interview with Joe Satriani on Guitar Jam Daily, July 2007

Joe Satriani 2006 Modern Guitars Magazine Interview with Brian D. Holland

MusiciansFriend Interview with Joe Satriani

Joe Satriani live pictures

Early Joe Satriani Photos

Joe Satriani guitar video workshop

Joe Satriani Artist Page at Guitar Video Channel

Category:American rock guitarists Category:American blues guitarists Category:American heavy metal guitarists Category:People from Nassau County, New York Category:Musicians from New York Category:American musicians of Italian descent Category:G3 Category:Lead guitarists Category:Chickenfoot members Category:1956 births Category:Living people Category:Deep Purple members

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Pole Folder is a Belgian electronic musician and live club performer, based in Brussels.

A former protégée of British DJ John Digweed, Pole Folder entered the limelight in 2001 as a DJ and producer at the forefront of the European progressive house movement, and has since evolved into a multi-instrumentalist and live performer of melodic-driven techno, tech house and deep house.

Pole Folder rose to prominence when his track "Apollo Vibes" was featured on John Digweed's Los Angeles retrospective in the Global Underground series on Boxed Records. This was followed over the course of the following year by the AA single 'Enter The Rhythm/Waxxx' and a third single, 'Dust' (which was again championed by Digweed).

From there, EP and single projects followed on such labels as Sunkissed Records and Mo-Do Records, whilst Pole Folder spent much of the next two years focusing on an artist album he had been commissioned to do by John Digweed, making him the first artist to produce an artist album for Bedrock Records. The album, ''Zero Gold'' featured collaborations with Brooklyn singer and songwriter Shelley Harland, fellow Belgian Sandra Ferretti and Kirsty Hawkshaw.

In 2006, Pole Folder produced a series of projects and EPs for Mashtronic Records and Proton Music. Pole Folder has also performed as a DJ and live artist in Europe, North America and Asia. He also runs a digital record label called Reworck.

References

External links

Category:Living people