# PAUSE
# Spin Loop Hint
| Opcode | Mnemonic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| F3 90 | PAUSE | Gives hint to processor that improves performance of spin-wait loops. |
# Description
Improves the performance of spin-wait loops. When executing a "spin-wait loop," a Pentium 4 or Intel Xeon processor suffers a severe performance penalty when exiting the loop because it detects a possible memory order violation. The PAUSE instruction provides a hint to the processor that the code sequence is a spin-wait loop. The processor uses this hint to avoid the memory order violation in most situations, which greatly improves processor performance. For this reason, it is recommended that a PAUSE instruction be placed in all spin-wait loops.
An additional function of the PAUSE instruction is to reduce the power consumed by a Pentium 4 processor while executing a spin loop. The Pentium 4 processor can execute a spinwait loop extremely quickly, causing the processor to consume a lot of power while it waits for the resource it is spinning on to become available. Inserting a pause instruction in a spinwait loop greatly reduces the processor's power consumption.
This instruction was introduced in the Pentium 4 processors, but is backward compatible with all IA-32 processors. In earlier IA-32 processors, the PAUSE instruction operates like a NOP instruction. The Pentium 4 and Intel Xeon processors implement the PAUSE instruction as a pre-defined delay. The delay is finite and can be zero for some processors. This instruction does not change the architectural state of the processor (that is, it performs essentially a delaying noop operation).
# Operation
ExecuteNextInstruction(Delay);
2
# Protected Mode Exceptions
None.
# Real-Address Mode Exceptions
None.
# Virtual-8086 Mode Exceptions
None.
# Numeric Exceptions
None.
← PANDN PAVGB/PAVGW →