Editing Architectural state (section)

{{Computer-hardware-stub}}
'''Architectural state'''<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dubois |first1=Michael |last2=Annavaram |first2=Murali |last3=Stenström |first3=Per |title=Parallel Computer Organization and Design |date=2012 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0-521-88675-8 |page=430 |edition=2nd}}</ref> is the collection of information in a [[computer system]] that defines the [[program state|state of a program]] during execution.   Architectural state includes [[Primary storage|main memory]], architectural registers, and the [[program counter]].   Architectural state is defined by the [[instruction set architecture]] and can be manipulated by the programmer using instructions.   A [[core dump]] is a file recording the architectural state of a computer program at some point in time, such as when it has crashed.   

Examples of architectural state include:
* [[Primary storage|Main Memory]] (Primary storage)
* [[Control register]]s
** Instruction flag registers (such as EFLAGS in [[x86]])
**[[Interrupt Mask Register|Interrupt mask registers]]
** [[Memory management unit]] registers
** [[Status register]]s
* [[General purpose registers]] (such as AX, BX, CX, DX, etc. in [[x86]])
**[[Address register|Address registers]]
**[[Counter (digital)|Counter]] registers
**[[Index register|Index registers]]
**[[Stack register|Stack registers]]
** String registers

Architectural state is not microarchitectural state.  Microarchitectural state is hidden machine state used for implementing the [[microarchitecture]].   Examples of microarchitectural state include [[Instruction pipelining|pipeline registers]], [[CPU_cache|cache]] tags, and [[branch predictor]] state.  While microarchitectural state can change to suit the needs of each processor implementation in a processor family, binary compatibility among processors in a processor family requires a common architectural state.  

Architectural state naturally does not include state-less elements of a computer such as busses and computation units (e.g., the [[Arithmetic logic unit|ALU]]).