Superscalar processor
A superscalar processor is a CPU that implements a form of parallelism called instruction-level parallelism within a single processor. It therefore allows faster CPU throughput (the number of instructions that can be executed in a unit of time) than would otherwise be possible at a given clock rate. A superscalar processor executes more than one instruction during a clock cycle by simultaneously dispatching multiple instructions to different execution units on the processor. Each execution unit is not a separate processing unit (called "core") as in multi-core processors, but an execution resource within a single CPU such as an arithmetic logic unit, a bit shifter, or a multiplier.
![Simple superscalar pipeline. By fetching and dispatching two instructions at a time, a maximum of two instructions per cycle can be completed. (IF = Instruction Fetch, ID = Instruction Decode, EX = Execute, MEM = Memory access, WB = Register write back, i = Instruction number, t = Clock cycle [i.e., time])](/uploads/202502/14/Superscalarpipeline.svg1009.png)
