Architectural Registers

Concept

Architectural registers comprise the software-visible register state of a processor—including the program counter (PC), general-purpose registers (GPRs), floating-point registers (FPRs), and relevant control and status registers (CSRs). They form the minimal state required to deterministically reproduce instruction execution within a given segment, and serve as the foundation for replay-oriented debugging and micro-architectural state reconstruction techniques.

First seen 8/16/2026

Last seen 8/16/2026

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Architectural Registers

Overview

Architectural registers denote the set of processor registers defined by the instruction set architecture (ISA) that are explicitly observable by software. They are distinct from transient micro-architectural structures (e.g., pipeline registers, reorder buffers, branch predictors, load/store queues), which are implementation-specific and hidden from the programmer. In the context of FPGA-based processor debugging, particularly as described in the Prelude framework, architectural registers together with accessed memory footprint are identified as the minimal software-visible snapshot required for deterministic replay of an erroneous segment.

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NEIGHBORHOOD

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RELATIONSHIPS

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Snapshot-Based Debugging ← uses 95% 2e

Snapshot-based debugging captures architectural registers as the minimal required state.

Prelude ← uses 100% 2e

Prelude captures architectural registers as the core of its lightweight snapshot.

Micro-Architectural State Reconstruction ← depends on 95% 2e

Micro-architectural state reconstruction depends on architectural registers as the starting point.

General Purpose Registers (GPRs) ← part of 100% 2e

GPRs are part of the architectural registers.

Floating Point Registers (FPRs) ← part of 100% 2e

FPRs are part of the architectural registers.

Control and Status Registers (CSRs) ← part of 100% 2e

CSRs are part of the architectural registers.

Program Counter (PC) ← part of 100% 1e

The program counter is part of the architectural registers.

LINKED ENTITIES

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Prelude USES Extracted graph relationship

Snapshot-Based Debugging USES Extracted graph relationship

Micro-Architectural State Reconstruction DEPENDS_ON Extracted graph relationship

General Purpose Registers (GPRs) PART_OF Extracted graph relationship

Floating Point Registers (FPRs) PART_OF Extracted graph relationship

Control and Status Registers (CSRs) PART_OF Extracted graph relationship

Program Counter (PC) PART_OF Extracted graph relationship

CITATIONS

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4 citations — click to collapse

[1] Architectural registers comprise PC, GPRs, FPRs, and CSRs and are sufficient to determine instruction behavior within a segment. Prelude: Priming-Guided State Reconstruction for Efficient FPGA Processor Debugging

[2] Micro-architectural structures (pipeline registers, queues, ROB, branch predictors, etc.) are transient and converge from architectural state via warm-up, so capturing them explicitly is not required. Prelude: Priming-Guided State Reconstruction for Efficient FPGA Processor Debugging

[3] Prelude's architectural-register snapshot is approximately 0.001% the size of a full-state snapshot, reducing communication overhead while preserving replay determinism. Prelude: Priming-Guided State Reconstruction for Efficient FPGA Processor Debugging

[4] The Architectural Register Management Unit (AMU) restores captured register values via the map table after a pipeline reset and redirects the IFU to the segment's starting PC. Prelude: Priming-Guided State Reconstruction for Efficient FPGA Processor Debugging