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Would it be wrong to say that the processor (and hardware) is the implementation of an interpreter for machine language?
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Problem
The question is basically in the title. I know that a computers hardware is of course some physical object, where as the interpreter is some abstract thing that does something abstract with the code it is given. Yet, can we say that the way the processor is build is the implementation of an interpreter?
Machine language is a sequence of physical states (0s and 1s ) on some physical memory, and if this physical states order follows certain rules (the syntax of the machine language) then the processor is build in a way that naturally leads to performing calculation steps (and changing some of the memory), e.g. "run" the programm.
As this question's answer points out, compilers translate from one language to another, and interpreters for each language "run" the programm. It would be just consistent if this stretches down to machine language as well, and that's why I'm asking.
If one can make the analogy, when would it break down? What features of language semantics (given by the interpreter), for example expressions and values, are there that we can't find at the physical level anymore? In what way does the processor behave differently from what is expected of an interpreter?
Machine language is a sequence of physical states (0s and 1s ) on some physical memory, and if this physical states order follows certain rules (the syntax of the machine language) then the processor is build in a way that naturally leads to performing calculation steps (and changing some of the memory), e.g. "run" the programm.
As this question's answer points out, compilers translate from one language to another, and interpreters for each language "run" the programm. It would be just consistent if this stretches down to machine language as well, and that's why I'm asking.
If one can make the analogy, when would it break down? What features of language semantics (given by the interpreter), for example expressions and values, are there that we can't find at the physical level anymore? In what way does the processor behave differently from what is expected of an interpreter?
Solution
It's not such a bad way of looking at things.
On most modern CPUs, the instruction set architecture (ISA for short) is abstract, in the sense that it doesn't dictate that it must be implemented using certain hardware techniques or it is not a compliant implementation. Nothing in the ISA specification specifies whether or not it uses register renaming, or branch prediction, or whether vector instructions are parallel or pipeline-streaming, or even whether the core is scalar or superscalar.
Indeed, on many modern CPUs, there is a certain amount of translation from the ISA into an internal representation to be executed more efficiently, such as Intel's micro-operations (uOps for short).
On most modern CPUs, the instruction set architecture (ISA for short) is abstract, in the sense that it doesn't dictate that it must be implemented using certain hardware techniques or it is not a compliant implementation. Nothing in the ISA specification specifies whether or not it uses register renaming, or branch prediction, or whether vector instructions are parallel or pipeline-streaming, or even whether the core is scalar or superscalar.
Indeed, on many modern CPUs, there is a certain amount of translation from the ISA into an internal representation to be executed more efficiently, such as Intel's micro-operations (uOps for short).
Context
StackExchange Computer Science Q#144047, answer score: 33
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