Final answer:
Superscalar, superpipelined, and VLIW architectures all enable multiple instructions per clock cycle, but with different implications for hardware and software design. Superscalar and superpipelined systems handle parallelism in hardware, while VLIW relies on software (via compiler) to manage instruction parallelism.
Step-by-step explanation:
Superscalar, superpipelined, and Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architectures are all methods used to enhance the performance of processors by executing multiple instructions per clock cycle. However, they adopt different strategies for parallel instruction execution.
Superscalar Architecture
In superscalar systems, the processor contains multiple execution units that can execute instructions concurrently. The hardware is responsible for dynamic instruction scheduling, checking for data dependencies, and managing instruction execution. This complexity typically does not affect software design, as the instruction parallelism is managed at run time by the processor's control logic.
Superpipelined Architecture
Superpipelined architectures speed up processing by increasing the number of stages in the pipeline compared to a traditional pipelined CPU. This allows a higher clock frequency and more instructions to be in different stages of execution simultaneously. Like superscalar, the parallelism is handled by the hardware; thus, the impact on software is minimal.
VLIW Architecture
With VLIW systems, instruction level parallelism is specified by the compiler, which packages multiple operations into a single long instruction. This shifts complexity from the hardware to the software, as the compiler must identify opportunities for parallelism and sequence instructions without conflicts. VLIW architecture can make programming more complex and hardware design simpler since the processor's control logic is less complex.
In summary, superscalar and super pipelined architectures put more pressure on the hardware design to handle instruction-level parallelism dynamically, without significant impact on software writing. In contrast, VLIW architecture requires compilers to manage the parallelism, greatly affecting how software is written, with potential simplifications in hardware design.