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I'm sorry I'm new to this.

Did the first compiler writer, for example the C compiler, knew all of intel x86 machine instructions. I'm asking because, some compilers compile source code to the processor's machine instructions right? So the compiler has to know all the machine instructions for that processor right?

But intel machine instructions are secret right? So did intel give out an assembler for their CPUs or something? I'm so confused, I have been searching the internet for two days. Please help.

Nex
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  • No. The first compiler was much earlier than Intel. Also, computer machine instructions are not secret. I've programmed in both assembly and at the machine level. – NomadMaker Jul 27 '20 at 13:36
  • [These manuals describe the architecture and programming environment of the Intel® 64 and IA-32 architectures.](https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/intel-sdm.html). 5,052 pages of hardware documentation. – rici Jul 29 '20 at 00:00
  • Intel instructions are not secret. But, there is a lot of architectures there that do not have a published open ISA (most often GPUs and DSPs), and yes, compilers are exactly the most vulnerable part of the ecosystem for reverse engineering such ISAs. Also, for the open source compilers, subtle instruction selection details often give away peculiarities of specific cores microarchitecture which may not be published. – SK-logic Jul 29 '20 at 13:35
  • Thanks guys for the answers. I guess even I could implement my own cpu based on intels architecture, although id need to have the license from intel. (not to mention the microarchitecture is actually secret on intel's part so I belive thats where intel is different from everyone else). So i think, relating to what SK also said, the ISA does provide some clue to what the microarchitecture could be. Thanks again guys for the answers – Nex Aug 02 '20 at 15:00
  • Note specifically that compilers date back to the 1950s (between 1951 and 1958 depending on what you want to count as a compiler): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_compiler_construction. Intel-the-company didn't exist until 1968. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel The 8080 instruction set, which was kind of the basis for the 80x86 instruction set, was later even than that. – torek Aug 02 '20 at 23:01

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