ia32-64/x86/pause.html
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<!DOCTYPE html>
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xmlns:svg="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:x86="http://www.felixcloutier.com/x86"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="style.css"></link><title>PAUSE
— Spin Loop Hint</title></head><body><header><nav><ul><li><a href='index.html'>Index</a></li><li>December 2023</li></ul></nav></header><h1>PAUSE
— Spin Loop Hint</h1>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Opcode</th>
<th>Instruction</th>
<th>Op/En</th>
<th>64-Bit Mode</th>
<th>Compat/Leg Mode</th>
<th>Description</th></tr>
<tr>
<td>F3 90</td>
<td>PAUSE</td>
<td>ZO</td>
<td>Valid</td>
<td>Valid</td>
<td>Gives hint to processor that improves performance of spin-wait loops.</td></tr></table>
<h2 id="instruction-operand-encoding">Instruction Operand Encoding<a class="anchor" href="#instruction-operand-encoding">
</a></h2>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Op/En</th>
<th>Operand 1</th>
<th>Operand 2</th>
<th>Operand 3</th>
<th>Operand 4</th></tr>
<tr>
<td>ZO</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td>
<td>N/A</td></tr></table>
<h2 id="description">Description<a class="anchor" href="#description">
</a></h2>
<p>Improves the performance of spin-wait loops. When executing a “spin-wait loop,” processors will suffer a severe performance penalty when exiting the loop because it detects a possible memory order violation. The PAUSE instruction provides a hint to the processor that the code sequence is a spin-wait loop. The processor uses this hint to avoid the memory order violation in most situations, which greatly improves processor performance. For this reason, it is recommended that a PAUSE instruction be placed in all spin-wait loops.</p>
<p>An additional function of the PAUSE instruction is to reduce the power consumed by a processor while executing a spin loop. A processor can execute a spin-wait loop extremely quickly, causing the processor to consume a lot of power while it waits for the resource it is spinning on to become available. Inserting a pause instruction in a spin-wait loop greatly reduces the processors power consumption.</p>
<p>This instruction was introduced in the Pentium 4 processors, but is backward compatible with all IA-32 processors. In earlier IA-32 processors, the PAUSE instruction operates like a NOP instruction. The Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon processors implement the PAUSE instruction as a delay. The delay is finite and can be zero for some processors. This instruction does not change the architectural state of the processor (that is, it performs essentially a delaying no-op operation).</p>
<p>This instructions operation is the same in non-64-bit modes and 64-bit mode.</p>
<h2 id="operation">Operation<a class="anchor" href="#operation">
</a></h2>
<pre>Execute_Next_Instruction(DELAY);
</pre>
<h2 class="exceptions" id="numeric-exceptions">Numeric Exceptions<a class="anchor" href="#numeric-exceptions">
</a></h2>
<p>None.</p>
<h2 id="exceptions--all-operating-modes-">Exceptions (All Operating Modes)<a class="anchor" href="#exceptions--all-operating-modes-">
</a></h2>
<p>#UD If the LOCK prefix is used.</p><footer><p>
This UNOFFICIAL, mechanically-separated, non-verified reference is provided for convenience, but it may be
inc<span style="opacity: 0.2">omp</span>lete or b<sub>r</sub>oke<sub>n</sub> in various obvious or non-obvious
ways. Refer to <a href="https://software.intel.com/en-us/download/intel-64-and-ia-32-architectures-sdm-combined-volumes-1-2a-2b-2c-2d-3a-3b-3c-3d-and-4">Intel® 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developers Manual</a> for anything serious.
</p></footer></body></html>