HTAM

The amazing growth of the Internet and telecommunications is powered
by ever-faster systems demanding increasingly higher levels of processor
performance. To keep up with this demand we cannot rely entirely on
traditional approaches to processor design. Microarchitecture techniques used
to achieve past processor performance improvement–superpipelining, branch
prediction, super-scalar execution, out-of-order execution, caches–have made
microprocessors increasingly more complex, have more transistors, and
consume more power. In fact, transistor counts and power are increasing at
rates greater than processor performance. Processor architects are therefore
looking for ways to improve performance at a greater rate than transistor
counts and power dissipation. Intel’s Hyper-Threading Technology is one
solution.