document_title: Central processing unit

question_text: the central processing unit cpu is a type of

question_tokens: the central processing unit cpu is a type of

root

text: Central processing unit

text: History[edit]

text: Early computers such as the ENIAC had to be physically rewired to perform different tasks, which caused these machines to be called "fixed-program computers".[5] Since the term "CPU" is generally defined as a device for software (computer program) execution, the earliest devices that could rightly be called CPUs came with the advent of the stored-program computer.

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text: The idea of a stored-program computer had been already present in the design of J. Presper Eckert and John William Mauchly's ENIAC, but was initially omitted so that it could be finished sooner.[6] On June 30, 1945, before ENIAC was made, mathematician John von Neumann distributed the paper entitled First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC. It was the outline of a stored-program computer that would eventually be completed in August 1949.[7] EDVAC was designed to perform a certain number of instructions (or operations) of various types. Significantly, the programs written for EDVAC were to be stored in high-speed computer memory rather than specified by the physical wiring of the computer.[8] This overcame a severe limitation of ENIAC, which was the considerable time and effort required to reconfigure the computer to perform a new task. With von Neumann's design, the program that EDVAC ran could be changed simply by changing the contents of the memory. EDVAC, however, was not the first stored-program computer; the Manchester Baby, a small-scale experimental stored-program computer, ran its first program on 21 June 1948[9] and the Manchester Mark 1 ran its first program during the night of 16–17 June 1949.[10]

text: Early CPUs were custom designs used as part of a larger and sometimes distinctive computer.[11] However, this method of designing custom CPUs for a particular application has largely given way to the development of multi-purpose processors produced in large quantities. This standardization began in the era of discrete transistor mainframes and minicomputers and has rapidly accelerated with the popularization of the integrated circuit (IC). The IC has allowed increasingly complex CPUs to be designed and manufactured to tolerances on the order of nanometers.[12] Both the miniaturization and standardization of CPUs have increased the presence of digital devices in modern life far beyond the limited application of dedicated computing machines. Modern microprocessors appear in electronic devices ranging from automobiles[13] to cellphones,[14] and sometimes even in toys.[15]

text: While von Neumann is most often credited with the design of the stored-program computer because of his design of EDVAC, and the design became known as the von Neumann architecture, others before him, such as Konrad Zuse, had suggested and implemented similar ideas.[16] The so-called Harvard architecture of the Harvard Mark I, which was completed before EDVAC,[17][18] also utilized a stored-program design using punched paper tape rather than electronic memory.[19] The key difference between the von Neumann and Harvard architectures is that the latter separates the storage and treatment of CPU instructions and data, while the former uses the same memory space for both.[20] Most modern CPUs are primarily von Neumann in design, but CPUs with the Harvard architecture are seen as well, especially in embedded applications; for instance, the Atmel AVR microcontrollers are Harvard architecture processors.[21]

text: Relays and vacuum tubes (thermionic tubes) were commonly used as switching elements;[22][23] a useful computer requires thousands or tens of thousands of switching devices. The overall speed of a system is dependent on the speed of the switches. Tube computers like EDVAC tended to average eight hours between failures, whereas relay computers like the (slower, but earlier) Harvard Mark I failed very rarely.[1] In the end, tube-based CPUs became dominant because the significant speed advantages afforded generally outweighed the reliability problems. Most of these early synchronous CPUs ran at low clock rates compared to modern microelectronic designs. Clock signal frequencies ranging from 100 kHz to 4 MHz were very common at this time, limited largely by the speed of the switching devices they were built with.[24]

text: Transistor CPUs[edit]

text: The design complexity of CPUs increased as various technologies facilitated building smaller and more reliable electronic devices. The first such improvement came with the advent of the transistor. Transistorized CPUs during the 1950s and 1960s no longer had to be built out of bulky, unreliable and fragile switching elements like vacuum tubes and relays.[25] With this improvement more complex and reliable CPUs were built onto one or several printed circuit boards containing discrete (individual) components.

text: In 1964, IBM introduced its IBM System/360 computer architecture that was used in a series of computers capable of running the same programs with different speed and performance.[26] This was significant at a time when most electronic computers were incompatible with one another, even those made by the same manufacturer. To facilitate this improvement, IBM utilized the concept of a microprogram (often called "microcode"), which still sees widespread usage in modern CPUs.[27] The System/360 architecture was so popular that it dominated the mainframe computer market for decades and left a legacy that is still continued by similar modern computers like the IBM zSeries.[28][29] In 1965, Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) introduced another influential computer aimed at the scientific and research markets, the PDP-8.[30]

text: Transistor-based computers had several distinct advantages over their predecessors. Aside from facilitating increased reliability and lower power consumption, transistors also allowed CPUs to operate at much higher speeds because of the short switching time of a transistor in comparison to a tube or relay.[31] The increased reliability and dramatically increased speed of the switching elements (which were almost exclusively transistors by this time), CPU clock rates in the tens of megahertz were easily obtained during this period.[32] Additionally while discrete transistor and IC CPUs were in heavy usage, new high-performance designs like SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) vector processors began to appear.[33] These early experimental designs later gave rise to the era of specialized supercomputers like those made by Cray Inc and Fujitsu Ltd.[33]

text: Small-scale integration CPUs[edit]

text: During this period, a method of manufacturing many interconnected transistors in a compact space was developed. The integrated circuit (IC) allowed a large number of transistors to be manufactured on a single semiconductor-based die, or "chip". At first, only very basic non-specialized digital circuits such as NOR gates were miniaturized into ICs. CPUs based on these "building block" ICs are generally referred to as "small-scale integration" (SSI) devices. SSI ICs, such as the ones used in the Apollo Guidance Computer, usually contained up to a few dozen transistors. To build an entire CPU out of SSI ICs required thousands of individual chips, but still consumed much less space and power than earlier discrete transistor designs.

text: IBM's System/370, follow-on to the System/360, used SSI ICs rather than Solid Logic Technology discrete-transistor modules.[34][35] DEC's PDP-8/I and KI10 PDP-10 also switched from the individual transistors used by the PDP-8 and PDP-10 to SSI ICs,[36] and their extremely popular PDP-11 line was originally built with SSI ICs but was eventually implemented with LSI components once these became practical.

text: Large-scale integration CPUs[edit]

text: Lee Boysel published influential articles, including a 1967 "manifesto", which described how to build the equivalent of a 32-bit mainframe computer from a relatively small number of large-scale integration circuits (LSI).[37][38] At the time, the only way to build LSI chips, which are chips with a hundred or more gates, was to build them using a MOS process (i.e., PMOS logic, NMOS logic, or CMOS logic). However, some companies continued to build processors out of bipolar chips because bipolar junction transistors were so much faster than MOS chips; for example, Datapoint built processors out of transistor–transistor logic (TTL) chips until the early 1980s.[38] At the time, MOS ICs were so slow that they were considered useful only in a few niche applications that required low power.[39][40]

text: As the microelectronic technology advanced, an increasing number of transistors were placed on ICs, decreasing the number of individual ICs needed for a complete CPU. MSI and LSI ICs increased transistor counts to hundreds, and then thousands. By 1968, the number of ICs required to build a complete CPU had been reduced to 24 ICs of eight different types, with each IC containing roughly 1000 MOSFETs.[41] In stark contrast with its SSI and MSI predecessors, the first LSI implementation of the PDP-11 contained a CPU composed of only four LSI integrated circuits.[42]

text: Microprocessors[edit]

text: Since the introduction of the first commercially available microprocessor, the Intel 4004 in 1970, and the first widely used microprocessor, the Intel 8080 in 1974, this class of CPUs has almost completely overtaken all other central processing unit implementation methods. Mainframe and minicomputer manufacturers of the time launched proprietary IC development programs to upgrade their older computer architectures, and eventually produced instruction set compatible microprocessors that were backward-compatible with their older hardware and software. Combined with the advent and eventual success of the ubiquitous personal computer, the term CPU is now applied almost exclusively[a] to microprocessors. Several CPUs (denoted cores) can be combined in a single processing chip.[43]

text: Previous generations of CPUs were implemented as discrete components and numerous small integrated circuits (ICs) on one or more circuit boards.[44] Microprocessors, on the other hand, are CPUs manufactured on a very small number of ICs; usually just one.[45] The overall smaller CPU size, as a result of being implemented on a single die, means faster switching time because of physical factors like decreased gate parasitic capacitance.[46][47] This has allowed synchronous microprocessors to have clock rates ranging from tens of megahertz to several gigahertz. Additionally, the ability to construct exceedingly small transistors on an IC has increased the complexity and number of transistors in a single CPU many fold. This widely observed trend is described by Moore's law, which has proven to be a fairly accurate predictor of the growth of CPU (and other IC) complexity.[48]

text: While the complexity, size, construction and general form of CPUs have changed enormously since 1950,[49] the basic design and function has not changed much at all. Almost all common CPUs today can be very accurately described as von Neumann stored-program machines.[50][b] As the aforementioned Moore's law continues to hold true,[48] concerns have arisen about the limits of integrated circuit transistor technology. Extreme miniaturization of electronic gates is causing the effects of phenomena like electromigration and subthreshold leakage to become much more significant.[52][53] These newer concerns are among the many factors causing researchers to investigate new methods of computing such as the quantum computer, as well as to expand the usage of parallelism and other methods that extend the usefulness of the classical von Neumann model.

text: Operation[edit]

text: The fundamental operation of most CPUs, regardless of the physical form they take, is to execute a sequence of stored instructions that is called a program. The instructions to be executed are kept in some kind of computer memory. Nearly all CPUs follow the fetch, decode and execute steps in their operation, which are collectively known as the instruction cycle.

text: After the execution of an instruction, the entire process repeats, with the next instruction cycle normally fetching the next-in-sequence instruction because of the incremented value in the program counter. If a jump instruction was executed, the program counter will be modified to contain the address of the instruction that was jumped to and program execution continues normally. In more complex CPUs, multiple instructions can be fetched, decoded and executed simultaneously. This section describes what is generally referred to as the "classic RISC pipeline", which is quite common among the simple CPUs used in many electronic devices (often called microcontroller). It largely ignores the important role of CPU cache, and therefore the access stage of the pipeline.

text: Some instructions manipulate the program counter rather than producing result data directly; such instructions are generally called "jumps" and facilitate program behavior like loops, conditional program execution (through the use of a conditional jump), and existence of functions.[c] In some processors, some other instructions change the state of bits in a "flags" register. These flags can be used to influence how a program behaves, since they often indicate the outcome of various operations. For example, in such processors a "compare" instruction evaluates two values and sets or clears bits in the flags register to indicate which one is greater or whether they are equal; one of these flags could then be used by a later jump instruction to determine program flow.

text: Fetch[edit]

text: The first step, fetch, involves retrieving an instruction (which is represented by a number or sequence of numbers) from program memory. The instruction's location (address) in program memory is determined by a program counter (PC), which stores a number that identifies the address of the next instruction to be fetched. After an instruction is fetched, the PC is incremented by the length of the instruction so that it will contain the address of the next instruction in the sequence.[d] Often, the instruction to be fetched must be retrieved from relatively slow memory, causing the CPU to stall while waiting for the instruction to be returned. This issue is largely addressed in modern processors by caches and pipeline architectures (see below).

text: Decode[edit]

text: The instruction that the CPU fetches from memory determines what the CPU will do. In the decode step, performed by the circuitry known as the instruction decoder, the instruction is converted into signals that control other parts of the CPU.

text: The way in which the instruction is interpreted is defined by the CPU's instruction set architecture (ISA).[e] Often, one group of bits (that is, a "field") within the instruction, called the opcode, indicates which operation is to be performed, while the remaining fields usually provide supplemental information required for the operation, such as the operands. Those operands may be specified as a constant value (called an immediate value), or as the location of a value that may be a processor register or a memory address, as determined by some addressing mode.

text: In some CPU designs the instruction decoder is implemented as a hardwired, unchangeable circuit. In others, a microprogram is used to translate instructions into sets of CPU configuration signals that are applied sequentially over multiple clock pulses. In some cases the memory that stores the microprogram is rewritable, making it possible to change the way in which the CPU decodes instructions.

text: Execute[edit]

text: After the fetch and decode steps, the execute step is performed. Depending on the CPU architecture, this may consist of a single action or a sequence of actions. During each action, various parts of the CPU are electrically connected so they can perform all or part of the desired operation and then the action is completed, typically in response to a clock pulse. Very often the results are written to an internal CPU register for quick access by subsequent instructions. In other cases results may be written to slower, but less expensive and higher capacity main memory.

text: For example, if an addition instruction is to be executed, the arithmetic logic unit (ALU) inputs are connected to a pair of operand sources (numbers to be summed), the ALU is configured to perform an addition operation so that the sum of its operand inputs will appear at its output, and the ALU output is connected to storage (e.g., a register or memory) that will receive the sum. When the clock pulse occurs, the sum will be transferred to storage and, if the resulting sum is too large (i.e., it is larger than the ALU's output word size), an arithmetic overflow flag will be set.

text: Structure and implementation[edit]

text: Hardwired into a CPU's circuitry is a set of basic operations it can perform, called an instruction set. Such operations may involve, for example, adding or subtracting two numbers, comparing two numbers, or jumping to a different part of a program. Each basic operation is represented by a particular combination of bits, known as the machine language opcode; while executing instructions in a machine language program, the CPU decides which operation to perform by "decoding" the opcode. A complete machine language instruction consists of an opcode and, in many cases, additional bits that specify arguments for the operation (for example, the numbers to be summed in the case of an addition operation). Going up the complexity scale, a machine language program is a collection of machine language instructions that the CPU executes.

text: The actual mathematical operation for each instruction is performed by a combinational logic circuit within the CPU's processor known as the arithmetic logic unit or ALU. In general, a CPU executes an instruction by fetching it from memory, using its ALU to perform an operation, and then storing the result to memory. Beside the instructions for integer mathematics and logic operations, various other machine instructions exist, such as those for loading data from memory and storing it back, branching operations, and mathematical operations on floating-point numbers performed by the CPU's floating-point unit (FPU).[54]

text: Control unit[edit]

text: The control unit of the CPU contains circuitry that uses electrical signals to direct the entire computer system to carry out stored program instructions. The control unit does not execute program instructions; rather, it directs other parts of the system to do so. The control unit communicates with both the ALU and memory.

text: Arithmetic logic unit[edit]

text: The arithmetic logic unit (ALU) is a digital circuit within the processor that performs integer arithmetic and bitwise logic operations. The inputs to the ALU are the data words to be operated on (called operands), status information from previous operations, and a code from the control unit indicating which operation to perform. Depending on the instruction being executed, the operands may come from internal CPU registers or external memory, or they may be constants generated by the ALU itself.

text: When all input signals have settled and propagated through the ALU circuitry, the result of the performed operation appears at the ALU's outputs. The result consists of both a data word, which may be stored in a register or memory, and status information that is typically stored in a special, internal CPU register reserved for this purpose.

text: Memory management unit (MMU)[edit]

text: Most high-end microprocessors (in desktop, laptop, server computers) have a memory management unit, translating logical addresses into physical RAM addresses, providing memory protection and paging abilities, useful for virtual memory. Simpler processors, especially microcontrollers, usually don't include an MMU.

text: Clock rate[edit]

text: Most CPUs are synchronous circuits, which means they employ a clock signal to pace their sequential operations. The clock signal is produced by an external oscillator circuit that generates a consistent number of pulses each second in the form of a periodic square wave. The frequency of the clock pulses determines the rate at which a CPU executes instructions and, consequently, the faster the clock, the more instructions the CPU will execute each second.

text: To ensure proper operation of the CPU, the clock period is longer than the maximum time needed for all signals to propagate (move) through the CPU. In setting the clock period to a value well above the worst-case propagation delay, it is possible to design the entire CPU and the way it moves data around the "edges" of the rising and falling clock signal. This has the advantage of simplifying the CPU significantly, both from a design perspective and a component-count perspective. However, it also carries the disadvantage that the entire CPU must wait on its slowest elements, even though some portions of it are much faster. This limitation has largely been compensated for by various methods of increasing CPU parallelism (see below).

text: However, architectural improvements alone do not solve all of the drawbacks of globally synchronous CPUs. For example, a clock signal is subject to the delays of any other electrical signal. Higher clock rates in increasingly complex CPUs make it more difficult to keep the clock signal in phase (synchronized) throughout the entire unit. This has led many modern CPUs to require multiple identical clock signals to be provided to avoid delaying a single signal significantly enough to cause the CPU to malfunction. Another major issue, as clock rates increase dramatically, is the amount of heat that is dissipated by the CPU. The constantly changing clock causes many components to switch regardless of whether they are being used at that time. In general, a component that is switching uses more energy than an element in a static state. Therefore, as clock rate increases, so does energy consumption, causing the CPU to require more heat dissipation in the form of CPU cooling solutions.

text: One method of dealing with the switching of unneeded components is called clock gating, which involves turning off the clock signal to unneeded components (effectively disabling them). However, this is often regarded as difficult to implement and therefore does not see common usage outside of very low-power designs. One notable recent CPU design that uses extensive clock gating is the IBM PowerPC-based Xenon used in the Xbox 360; that way, power requirements of the Xbox 360 are greatly reduced.[55] Another method of addressing some of the problems with a global clock signal is the removal of the clock signal altogether. While removing the global clock signal makes the design process considerably more complex in many ways, asynchronous (or clockless) designs carry marked advantages in power consumption and heat dissipation in comparison with similar synchronous designs. While somewhat uncommon, entire asynchronous CPUs have been built without utilizing a global clock signal. Two notable examples of this are the ARM compliant AMULET and the MIPS R3000 compatible MiniMIPS.

text: Rather than totally removing the clock signal, some CPU designs allow certain portions of the device to be asynchronous, such as using asynchronous ALUs in conjunction with superscalar pipelining to achieve some arithmetic performance gains. While it is not altogether clear whether totally asynchronous designs can perform at a comparable or better level than their synchronous counterparts, it is evident that they do at least excel in simpler math operations. This, combined with their excellent power consumption and heat dissipation properties, makes them very suitable for embedded computers.[56]

text: Integer range[edit]

text: Every CPU represents numerical values in a specific way. For example, some early digital computers represented numbers as familiar decimal (base 10) numeral system values, and others have employed more unusual representations such as ternary (base three). Nearly all modern CPUs represent numbers in binary form, with each digit being represented by some two-valued physical quantity such as a "high" or "low" voltage.[f]

text: Related to numeric representation is the size and precision of integer numbers that a CPU can represent. In the case of a binary CPU, this is measured by the number of bits (significant digits of a binary encoded integer) that the CPU can process in one operation, which is commonly called word size, bit width, data path width, integer precision, or integer size. A CPU's integer size determines the range of integer values it can directly operate on.[g] For example, an 8-bit CPU can directly manipulate integers represented by eight bits, which have a range of 256 (28) discrete integer values.

text: Integer range can also affect the number of memory locations the CPU can directly address (an address is an integer value representing a specific memory location). For example, if a binary CPU uses 32 bits to represent a memory address then it can directly address 232 memory locations. To circumvent this limitation and for various other reasons, some CPUs use mechanisms (such as bank switching) that allow additional memory to be addressed.

text: CPUs with larger word sizes require more circuitry and consequently are physically larger, cost more and consume more power (and therefore generate more heat). As a result, smaller 4- or 8-bit microcontrollers are commonly used in modern applications even though CPUs with much larger word sizes (such as 16, 32, 64, even 128-bit) are available. When higher performance is required, however, the benefits of a larger word size (larger data ranges and address spaces) may outweigh the disadvantages.  A CPU can have internal data paths shorter than the word size to reduce size and cost.  For example, even though the IBM System/360 instruction set was a 32-bit instruction set, the System/360 Model 30 and Model 40 had 8-bit data paths in the arithmetic logical unit, so that a 32-bit add required four cycles, one for each 8 bits of the operands, and, even though the Motorola 68000 series instruction set was a 32-bit instruction set, the Motorola 68000 and Motorola 68010 had 16-bit data paths in the arithmetic logical unit, so that a 32-bit add required two cycles.

text: To gain some of the advantages afforded by both lower and higher bit lengths, many instruction sets have different bit widths for integer and floating-point data, allowing CPUs implementing that instruction set to have different bit widths for different portions of the device. For example, the IBM System/360 instruction set was primarily 32 bit, but supported 64-bit floating point values to facilitate greater accuracy and range in floating point numbers.[27] The System/360 Model 65 had an 8-bit adder for decimal and fixed-point binary arithmetic and a 60-bit adder for floating-point arithmetic.[57] Many later CPU designs use similar mixed bit width, especially when the processor is meant for general-purpose usage where a reasonable balance of integer and floating point capability is required.

text: Parallelism[edit]

text: The description of the basic operation of a CPU offered in the previous section describes the simplest form that a CPU can take. This type of CPU, usually referred to as subscalar, operates on and executes one instruction on one or two pieces of data at a time, that is less than one instruction per clock cycle (IPC < 1).

text: This process gives rise to an inherent inefficiency in subscalar CPUs. Since only one instruction is executed at a time, the entire CPU must wait for that instruction to complete before proceeding to the next instruction. As a result, the subscalar CPU gets "hung up" on instructions which take more than one clock cycle to complete execution. Even adding a second execution unit (see below) does not improve performance much; rather than one pathway being hung up, now two pathways are hung up and the number of unused transistors is increased. This design, wherein the CPU's execution resources can operate on only one instruction at a time, can only possibly reach scalar performance (one instruction per clock cycle, IPC = 1). However, the performance is nearly always subscalar (less than one instruction per clock cycle, IPC < 1).

text: Attempts to achieve scalar and better performance have resulted in a variety of design methodologies that cause the CPU to behave less linearly and more in parallel. When referring to parallelism in CPUs, two terms are generally used to classify these design techniques:

text:
instruction-level parallelism (ILP), which seeks to increase the rate at which instructions are executed within a CPU (that is, to increase the utilization of on-die execution resources);
task-level parallelism (TLP), which purposes to increase the number of threads or processes that a CPU can execute simultaneously.

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text: Each methodology differs both in the ways in which they are implemented, as well as the relative effectiveness they afford in increasing the CPU's performance for an application.[h]

text: Instruction-level parallelism[edit]

text: One of the simplest methods used to accomplish increased parallelism is to begin the first steps of instruction fetching and decoding before the prior instruction finishes executing. This is the simplest form of a technique known as instruction pipelining, and is utilized in almost all modern general-purpose CPUs. Pipelining allows more than one instruction to be executed at any given time by breaking down the execution pathway into discrete stages. This separation can be compared to an assembly line, in which an instruction is made more complete at each stage until it exits the execution pipeline and is retired.

text: Pipelining does, however, introduce the possibility for a situation where the result of the previous operation is needed to complete the next operation; a condition often termed data dependency conflict. To cope with this, additional care must be taken to check for these sorts of conditions and delay a portion of the instruction pipeline if this occurs. Naturally, accomplishing this requires additional circuitry, so pipelined processors are more complex than subscalar ones (though not very significantly so). A pipelined processor can become very nearly scalar, inhibited only by pipeline stalls (an instruction spending more than one clock cycle in a stage).

text: Further improvement upon the idea of instruction pipelining led to the development of a method that decreases the idle time of CPU components even further. Designs that are said to be superscalar include a long instruction pipeline and multiple identical execution units, such as load-store units, arithmetic-logic units, floating-point units and address generation units.[58] In a superscalar pipeline, multiple instructions are read and passed to a dispatcher, which decides whether or not the instructions can be executed in parallel (simultaneously). If so they are dispatched to available execution units, resulting in the ability for several instructions to be executed simultaneously. In general, the more instructions a superscalar CPU is able to dispatch simultaneously to waiting execution units, the more instructions will be completed in a given cycle.

text: Most of the difficulty in the design of a superscalar CPU architecture lies in creating an effective dispatcher. The dispatcher needs to be able to quickly and correctly determine whether instructions can be executed in parallel, as well as dispatch them in such a way as to keep as many execution units busy as possible. This requires that the instruction pipeline is filled as often as possible and gives rise to the need in superscalar architectures for significant amounts of CPU cache. It also makes hazard-avoiding techniques like branch prediction, speculative execution, register renaming, out-of-order execution and transactional memory crucial to maintaining high levels of performance. By attempting to predict which branch (or path) a conditional instruction will take, the CPU can minimize the number of times that the entire pipeline must wait until a conditional instruction is completed. Speculative execution often provides modest performance increases by executing portions of code that may not be needed after a conditional operation completes. Out-of-order execution somewhat rearranges the order in which instructions are executed to reduce delays due to data dependencies. Also in case of single instruction stream, multiple data stream—a case when a lot of data from the same type has to be processed—, modern processors can disable parts of the pipeline so that when a single instruction is executed many times, the CPU skips the fetch and decode phases and thus greatly increases performance on certain occasions, especially in highly monotonous program engines such as video creation software and photo processing.

text: In the case where a portion of the CPU is superscalar and part is not, the part which is not suffers a performance penalty due to scheduling stalls. The Intel P5 Pentium had two superscalar ALUs which could accept one instruction per clock cycle each, but its FPU could not accept one instruction per clock cycle. Thus the P5 was integer superscalar but not floating point superscalar. Intel's successor to the P5 architecture, P6, added superscalar capabilities to its floating point features, and therefore afforded a significant increase in floating point instruction performance.

text: Both simple pipelining and superscalar design increase a CPU's ILP by allowing a single processor to complete execution of instructions at rates surpassing one instruction per clock cycle.[i] Most modern CPU designs are at least somewhat superscalar, and nearly all general purpose CPUs designed in the last decade are superscalar. In later years some of the emphasis in designing high-ILP computers has been moved out of the CPU's hardware and into its software interface, or ISA. The strategy of the very long instruction word (VLIW) causes some ILP to become implied directly by the software, reducing the amount of work the CPU must perform to boost ILP and thereby reducing the design's complexity.

text: Task-level parallelism[edit]

text: Another strategy of achieving performance is to execute multiple threads or processes in parallel. This area of research is known as parallel computing.[59] In Flynn's taxonomy, this strategy is known as multiple instruction stream, multiple data stream (MIMD).[60]

text: One technology used for this purpose was multiprocessing (MP).[61] The initial flavor of this technology is known as symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), where a small number of CPUs share a coherent view of their memory system. In this scheme, each CPU has additional hardware to maintain a constantly up-to-date view of memory. By avoiding stale views of memory, the CPUs can cooperate on the same program and programs can migrate from one CPU to another. To increase the number of cooperating CPUs beyond a handful, schemes such as non-uniform memory access (NUMA) and directory-based coherence protocols were introduced in the 1990s. SMP systems are limited to a small number of CPUs while NUMA systems have been built with thousands of processors. Initially, multiprocessing was built using multiple discrete CPUs and boards to implement the interconnect between the processors. When the processors and their interconnect are all implemented on a single chip, the technology is known as chip-level multiprocessing (CMP) and the single chip as a multi-core processor.

text: It was later recognized that finer-grain parallelism existed with a single program. A single program might have several threads (or functions) that could be executed separately or in parallel. Some of the earliest examples of this technology implemented input/output processing such as direct memory access as a separate thread from the computation thread. A more general approach to this technology was introduced in the 1970s when systems were designed to run multiple computation threads in parallel. This technology is known as multi-threading (MT). This approach is considered more cost-effective than multiprocessing, as only a small number of components within a CPU is replicated to support MT as opposed to the entire CPU in the case of MP. In MT, the execution units and the memory system including the caches are shared among multiple threads. The downside of MT is that the hardware support for multithreading is more visible to software than that of MP and thus supervisor software like operating systems have to undergo larger changes to support MT. One type of MT that was implemented is known as temporal multithreading, where one thread is executed until it is stalled waiting for data to return from external memory. In this scheme, the CPU would then quickly context switch to another thread which is ready to run, the switch often done in one CPU clock cycle, such as the UltraSPARC T1. Another type of MT is simultaneous multithreading, where instructions from multiple threads are executed in parallel within one CPU clock cycle.

text: For several decades from the 1970s to early 2000s, the focus in designing high performance general purpose CPUs was largely on achieving high ILP through technologies such as pipelining, caches, superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, etc. This trend culminated in large, power-hungry CPUs such as the Intel Pentium 4. By the early 2000s, CPU designers were thwarted from achieving higher performance from ILP techniques due to the growing disparity between CPU operating frequencies and main memory operating frequencies as well as escalating CPU power dissipation owing to more esoteric ILP techniques.

text: CPU designers then borrowed ideas from commercial computing markets such as transaction processing, where the aggregate performance of multiple programs, also known as throughput computing, was more important than the performance of a single thread or process.

text: This reversal of emphasis is evidenced by the proliferation of dual and more core processor designs and notably, Intel's newer designs resembling its less superscalar P6 architecture. Late designs in several processor families exhibit CMP, including the x86-64 Opteron and Athlon 64 X2, the SPARC UltraSPARC T1, IBM POWER4 and POWER5, as well as several video game console CPUs like the Xbox 360's triple-core PowerPC design, and the PlayStation 3's 7-core Cell microprocessor.

text: Data parallelism[edit]

text: A less common but increasingly important paradigm of processors (and indeed, computing in general) deals with data parallelism. The processors discussed earlier are all referred to as some type of scalar device.[j] As the name implies, vector processors deal with multiple pieces of data in the context of one instruction. This contrasts with scalar processors, which deal with one piece of data for every instruction. Using Flynn's taxonomy, these two schemes of dealing with data are generally referred to as single instruction stream, multiple data stream (SIMD) and single instruction stream, single data stream (SISD), respectively. The great utility in creating processors that deal with vectors of data lies in optimizing tasks that tend to require the same operation (for example, a sum or a dot product) to be performed on a large set of data. Some classic examples of these types of tasks include multimedia applications (images, video and sound), as well as many types of scientific and engineering tasks. Whereas a scalar processor must complete the entire process of fetching, decoding and executing each instruction and value in a set of data, a vector processor can perform a single operation on a comparatively large set of data with one instruction. This is only possible when the application tends to require many steps which apply one operation to a large set of data.

text: Most early vector processors, such as the Cray-1, were associated almost exclusively with scientific research and cryptography applications. However, as multimedia has largely shifted to digital media, the need for some form of SIMD in general-purpose processors has become significant. Shortly after inclusion of floating-point units started to become commonplace in general-purpose processors, specifications for and implementations of SIMD execution units also began to appear for general-purpose processors.[when?] Some of these early SIMD specifications - like HP's Multimedia Acceleration eXtensions (MAX) and Intel's MMX - were integer-only. This proved to be a significant impediment for some software developers, since many of the applications that benefit from SIMD primarily deal with floating-point numbers. Progressively, developers refined and remade these early designs into some of the common modern SIMD specifications, which are usually associated with one ISA. Some notable modern examples include Intel's SSE and the PowerPC-related AltiVec (also known as VMX).[k]

text: Virtual CPUs[edit]

text: This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2016)

tag: table

text: Cloud computing can involve subdividing CPU operation into virtual central processing units[62] (vCPUs[63]).

text: A host is the virtual equivalent of a physical machine, on which a virtual system is operating.[64] When there are several physical machines operating in tandem and managed as a whole, the grouped computing and memory resources form a cluster. In some systems, it is possible to dynamically add and remove from a cluster. Resources available at a host and cluster level can be partitioned out into resources pools with fine granularity.

text: Performance[edit]

text:
The performance or speed of a processor depends on, among many other factors, the clock rate (generally given in multiples of hertz) and the instructions per clock (IPC), which together are the factors for the instructions per second (IPS) that the CPU can perform.[65]
Many reported IPS values have represented "peak" execution rates on artificial instruction sequences with few branches, whereas realistic workloads consist of a mix of instructions and applications, some of which take longer to execute than others. The performance of the memory hierarchy also greatly affects processor performance, an issue barely considered in MIPS calculations. Because of these problems, various standardized tests, often called "benchmarks" for this purpose—such as SPECint—have been developed to attempt to measure the real effective performance in commonly used applications.

text: Processing performance of computers is increased by using multi-core processors, which essentially is plugging two or more individual processors (called cores in this sense) into one integrated circuit.[66] Ideally, a dual core processor would be nearly twice as powerful as a single core processor. In practice, the performance gain is far smaller, only about 50%, due to imperfect software algorithms and implementation.[67] Increasing the number of cores in a processor (i.e. dual-core, quad-core, etc.) increases the workload that can be handled. This means that the processor can now handle numerous asynchronous events, interrupts, etc. which can take a toll on the CPU when overwhelmed. These cores can be thought of as different floors in a processing plant, with each floor handling a different task. Sometimes, these cores will handle the same tasks as cores adjacent to them if a single core is not enough to handle the information.

text: Due to specific capabilities of modern CPUs, such as hyper-threading and uncore, which involve sharing of actual CPU resources while aiming at increased utilization, monitoring performance levels and hardware utilization gradually became a more complex task.[68] As a response, some CPUs implement additional hardware logic that monitors actual utilization of various parts of a CPU and provides various counters accessible to software; an example is Intel's Performance Counter Monitor technology.[3]


document_title: List of the longest-running Broadway shows

question_text: what is the second longest running broadway show

text: List[edit]

text: Unless otherwise noted, the run count listed is for the original Broadway production of the show. M denotes a musical, P denotes a straight play, R denotes revue, D denotes a predominantly dance musical, and S denotes a special case. As of November 5, 2017

text:
#
Title
Type
Opening
date
Closing
date
Performances
Comment

1.
The Phantom of the Opera
M
000000001988-01-26-0000January 26, 1988

12,390[1]
Currently running at the Majestic Theatre
7 Tony Awards in 1988, including Best Musical
7 Drama Desk Awards in 1988
Broadway's longest-running show and musical

2.
Chicago
M
000000001996-11-14-0000November 14, 1996

8,715[2]
Currently running at the Ambassador Theatre
Revival
6 Tony Awards in 1997, including Best Revival of a Musical
6 Drama Desk Awards in 1997, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1998
Original production in 1975 (936 performances)
Broadway's longest-running revival
Longest running show to have premiered on Broadway
Broadway's longest running American show

3.
The Lion King
M
000000001997-11-13-0000November 13, 1997

8,317[3]
Currently running at the Minskoff Theatre
6 Tony Awards in 1998, including Best Musical
8 Drama Desk Awards in 1998
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1999
Longest-running Disney Theatrical Productions show

4.
Cats
M
000000001982-10-07-0000October 7, 1982
000000002000-09-10-0000September 10, 2000
7,485[4]
7 Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Musical
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1983
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1984
Revival in 2016 (528 performances, currently running at the Neil Simon Theatre)

5.
Les Misérables
M
000000001987-03-12-0000March 12, 1987
000000002003-05-18-0000May 18, 2003
6,680[5]
8 Tony Awards in 1987, including Best Musical
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1987, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Show Album in 1988
Revivals in 2006 (463 performances) and 2014 (1,024 performances)

6.
A Chorus Line
M
000000001975-07-25-0000July 25, 1975
000000001990-04-28-0000April 28, 1990
6,137[6]
9 Tony Awards in 1976, including Best Musical
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1976, including Outstanding Musical
A Special Tony Award in 1984 for becoming Broadway's longest-running musical
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1976
Revival in 2006 (759 performances)

7.
Oh! Calcutta!
R
000000001976-09-24-0000September 24, 1976
000000001989-08-06-0000August 6, 1989
5,959[7]
Revival
Original production in 1969 (1314 performances)
First revival to match its original for 1000+ performances
Broadway's longest-running revue

8.
Wicked
M
000000002003-10-30-0000October 30, 2003

5,851[8]
Currently running at the Gershwin Theatre
3 Tony Awards in 2004
7 Drama Desk Awards in 2004, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005

9.
Mamma Mia!
M
000000002001-10-18-0000October 18, 2001
000000002015-09-12-0000September 12, 2015
5,758[9]
Longest-running "jukebox musical" on Broadway

10.
Beauty and the Beast
M
000000001994-04-18-0000April 18, 1994
000000002007-07-29-0000July 29, 2007
5,461[10]
A Tony Award in 1994

11.
Rent
M
000000001996-04-29-0000April 29, 1996
000000002008-09-07-0000September 7, 2008
5,123[11]
4 Tony Awards in 1996, including Best Musical
6 Drama Desk Awards in 1996, including Outstanding Musical
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1996

12.
Jersey Boys
M
000000002005-11-06-0000November 6, 2005
000000002017-01-15-0000January 15, 2017
4,642[12]
4 Tony Awards in 2006, including Best Musical
2 Drama Desk Awards in 2006
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2007

13.
Miss Saigon
M
000000001991-04-11-0000April 11, 1991
000000002001-01-28-0000January 28, 2001
4,092[13]
3 Tony Awards in 1991
4 Drama Desk Awards in 1991
Revival in 2017 (260 performances, currently running at the Broadway Theatre)

14.
42nd Street
M
000000001980-08-25-0000August 25, 1980
000000001989-01-08-0000January 8, 1989
3,486[14]
2 Tony Awards in 1981, including Best Musical
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1981
Revival in 2001 (1,524 performances)

15.
Grease
M
000000001972-02-14-0000February 14, 1972
000000001980-04-13-0000April 13, 1980
3,388[15]
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1972
Revivals in 1994 (1,505 performances) and 2007 (554 performances)

16.
Fiddler on the Roof
M
000000001964-09-22-0000September 22, 1964
000000001972-07-02-0000July 2, 1972
3,242[16]
9 Tony Awards in 1965, including Best Musical
A Special Tony Award in 1972 for becoming Broadway's longest-running musical
Revivals in 1976 (167 performances), 1981 (53 performances), 1990, (241 performances), 2004 (781 performances), and 2015 (431 performances)

17.
Life With Father
P
000000001939-11-08-0000November 8, 1939
000000001947-07-12-0000July 12, 1947
3,224[17]
Broadway's longest-running straight play

18.
Tobacco Road
P
000000001933-12-04-0000December 4, 1933
000000001941-05-31-0000May 31, 1941
3,182[18]
Revivals in 1942 (34 performances), 1943 (66 performances), and 1950 (7 performances)

19.
Hello, Dolly!
M
000000001964-01-16-0000January 16, 1964
000000001970-12-27-0000December 27, 1970
2,844[19]
10 Tony Awards in 1964, including Best Musical
A Drama Desk Award in 1970
Revivals in 1975 (42 performances), 1978 (147 performances), 1995 (116 performances), and 2017 (221 performances, currently running at the Shubert Theatre)

20.
The Book of Mormon
M
000000002011-03-24-0000March 24, 2011

2,771[20]
Currently running at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre
9 Tony Awards in 2011, including Best Musical
5 Drama Desk Awards in 2011, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2012

21.
My Fair Lady
M
000000001956-03-15-0000March 15, 1956
000000001962-09-29-0000September 29, 1962
2,717[21]
6 Tony Awards in 1957, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1976 (377 performances), 1981 (120 performances), 1993 (165 performances), and 2018

22.
Hairspray
M
000000002002-08-15-0000August 15, 2002
000000002009-01-04-0000January 4, 2009
2,642[22]
8 Tony Awards in 2003, including Best Musical
10 Drama Desk Awards in 2003, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2003

23.
Mary Poppins
M
000000002006-11-16-0000November 16, 2006
000000002013-03-03-0000March 3, 2013
2,619[23]
A Tony Award in 2007
2 Drama Desk Awards in 2007

24.
Avenue Q
M
000000002003-07-31-0000July 31, 2003
000000002009-09-13-0000September 13, 2009
2,534[24]
3 Tony Awards in 2004, including Best Musical

25.
The Producers
M
000000002001-04-19-0000April 19, 2001
000000002007-04-22-0000April 22, 2007
2,502[25]
12 Tony Awards in 2001, including Best Musical
11 Drama Desk Awards in 2001, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2002
Most Tony Awards won by a production

26.
Annie
M
000000001977-04-21-0000April 21, 1977
000000001983-01-02-0000January 2, 1983
2,377[26]
7 Tony Awards in 1977, including Best Musical
7 Drama Desk Awards in 1977, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1978
Revivals in 1997 (239 performances) and 2012 (487 performances)

Cabaret
M
000000001998-03-19-0000March 19, 1998
000000002004-01-04-0000January 4, 2004
2,377[27]
Revival
4 Tony Awards in 1998, including Best Revival of a Musical
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1998, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Original production in 1966 (1165 performances) and revivals in 1987 (261 performances) and 2014 (388 performances)

28.
Man of La Mancha
M
000000001965-11-22-0000November 22, 1965
000000001971-06-26-0000June 26, 1971
2,328[28]
5 Tony Awards in 1966, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1972 (140 performances), 1977 (124 performances), 1992 (108 performances), and 2002 (304 performances)

Rock of Ages
M
000000002009-04-07-0000April 7, 2009
000000002015-01-18-0000January 18, 2015
2,328[29]

30.
Abie's Irish Rose
P
000000001922-05-23-0000May 23, 1922
000000001927-10-01-0000October 1, 1927
2,327[30]
Revivals in 1937 (46 performances) and 1954 (20 performances)

31.
Oklahoma!
M
000000001943-03-31-0000March 31, 1943
000000001948-05-29-0000May 29, 1948
2,212[31]
A Special Tony Award in 1993 for the show's 50th anniversary
Revivals in 1951 (100 performances), 1953 (40 performances), 1979 (293 performances), and 2002 (388 performances)

32.
Smokey Joe's Cafe
R
000000001995-03-02-0000March 2, 1995
000000002000-01-16-0000January 16, 2000
2,036[32]
Broadway's longest running original music revue. The longest running musical revue, Oh! Calcutta!, was a revival.

33.
Pippin
M
000000001972-10-23-0000October 23, 1972
000000001977-06-12-0000June 12, 1977
1,944[33]
5 Tony Awards in 1973
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1973
Revival in 2013 (709 performances)

34.
South Pacific
M
000000001949-04-07-0000April 7, 1949
000000001954-01-16-0000January 16, 1954
1,925[34]
10 Tony Awards in 1950, including Best Musical
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1950
Revivals in 1955 (15 performances) and 2008 (996 performances)

35.
The Magic Show
M
000000001974-05-28-0000May 28, 1974
000000001978-12-31-0000December 31, 1978
1,920[35]

36.
Kinky Boots
M
000000002013-04-04-0000April 4, 2013

1,914[36]
Currently running at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre
6 Tony Awards in 2013, including Best Musical
A Drama Desk Award in 2013
Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2014

37.
Aida
M
000000002000-03-23-0000March 23, 2000
000000002004-09-05-0000September 5, 2004
1,852[37]
4 Tony Awards in 2000
A Drama Desk Award in 2000
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2001

38.
Gemini
P
000000001977-05-21-0000May 21, 1977
000000001981-09-06-0000September 6, 1981
1,819[38]

39.
Deathtrap
P
000000001978-02-26-0000February 26, 1978
000000001982-06-13-0000June 13, 1982
1,793[39]

40.
Harvey
P
000000001944-11-01-0000November 1, 1944
000000001949-01-15-0000January 15, 1949
1,775[40]
Revival in 1970 (79 performances) and 2012 (62 performances)

41.
Dancin'
D
000000001978-03-27-0000March 27, 1978
000000001982-06-27-0000June 27, 1982
1,774[41]
2 Tony Awards in 1978
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1978
Broadway's longest-running dance musical

42.
La Cage aux Folles
M
000000001983-08-21-0000August 21, 1983
000000001987-11-15-0000November 15, 1987
1,761[42]
6 Tony Awards in 1984, including Best Musical
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1984
Revivals in 2004 (229 performances) and 2010 (433 performances)

43.
Hair
M
000000001968-04-29-0000April 29, 1968
000000001972-07-01-0000July 1, 1972
1,750[43]
A Drama Desk Award in 1968
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1969
Revivals in 1977 (43 performances), 2004 (1 benefit performance), 2009 (519 performances), and 2011 (67 performances)

44.
The Wiz
M
000000001975-01-05-0000January 5, 1975
000000001979-01-28-0000January 28, 1979
1,672[44]
7 Tony Awards in 1975, including Best Musical
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1975, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1976
Revival in 1984 (13 performances)

45.
Born Yesterday
P
000000001946-02-04-0000February 4, 1946
000000001949-12-31-0000December 31, 1949
1,642[45]
Revivals in 1989 (153 performances) and 2011 (73 performances)

46.
Crazy for You
M
000000001992-02-19-0000February 19, 1992
000000001996-01-07-0000January 7, 1996
1,622[46]
3 Tony Awards in 1992, including Best Musical
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1992, including Outstanding Musical

47.
Ain't Misbehavin'
R
000000001978-05-09-0000May 9, 1978
000000001982-02-21-0000February 21, 1982
1,604[47]
3 Tony Awards in 1978, including Best Musical
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1978, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1979
Revival in 1988 (176 performances)

48.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
M
000000002014-01-12-0000January 12, 2014

1,592[48]
Currently running at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre
2 Tony Awards in 2014
3 Drama Desk Awards in 2014
Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2015

49.
The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas
M
000000001978-06-19-0000June 19, 1978
000000001982-03-27-0000March 27, 1982
1,584[49]
2 Tony Awards in 1979
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1978
Revivals in 1982 (63 performances) and 2006 (1 benefit performance)

50.
Spamalot
M
000000002005-03-17-0000March 17, 2005
000000002009-01-11-0000January 11, 2009
1,575[50]
3 Tony Awards in 2005, including Best Musical
3 Drama Desk Awards in 2005, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2006

51.
Mary, Mary
P
000000001961-03-08-0000March 8, 1961
000000001964-12-12-0000December 12, 1964
1,572[51]

52.
Evita
M
000000001979-09-25-0000September 25, 1979
000000001983-06-26-0000June 26, 1983
1,567[52]
7 Tony Awards in 1980, including Best Musical
6 Drama Desk Awards in 1980, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1981
Revival in 2012 (337 performances)

53.
The Voice of the Turtle
P
000000001943-12-08-0000December 8, 1943
000000001948-01-03-0000January 3, 1948
1,557[53]

54.
Matilda the Musical
M
000000002013-04-11-0000April 11, 2013
000000002017-01-01-0000January 1, 2017
1,554[54]
4 Tony Awards in 2013
5 Drama Desk Awards in 2013, including Outstanding Musical
A Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 2013 for the four original Matildas

55.
Jekyll & Hyde
M
000000001997-04-28-0000April 28, 1997
000000002001-01-07-0000January 7, 2001
1,543[55]
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1997
Revival in 2013 (30 performances)

56.
Barefoot in the Park
P
000000001963-10-23-0000October 23, 1963
000000001967-06-25-0000June 25, 1967
1,530[56]
A Tony Award in 1964
Revival in 2006 (109 performances)

57.
42nd Street
M
000000002001-05-02-0000May 2, 2001
000000002005-01-02-0000January 2, 2005
1,524[57]
Revival
2 Tony Awards in 2001, including Best Revival of a Musical
A Drama Desk Award in 2001, Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Original production in 1980 (3486 performances)

58.
Aladdin
M
000000002014-03-20-0000March 20, 2014

1,522[58]
Currently running at the New Amsterdam Theatre
A Tony Award in 2014
A Drama Desk Award in 2014

59.
Dreamgirls
M
000000001981-12-20-0000December 20, 1981
000000001985-08-11-0000August 11, 1985
1,521[59]
6 Tony Awards in 1982
4 Drama Desk Awards in 1982
Grammy Award for Best Cast Show Album in 1983
Revivals in 1987 (177 performances) and 2001 (1 benefit performance)

60.
Mame
M
000000001966-05-24-0000May 24, 1966
000000001970-01-03-0000January 3, 1970
1,508[60]
3 Tony Awards in 1966
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1967
Revival in 1983 (41 performances)

61.
Grease
M
000000001994-05-11-0000May 11, 1994
000000001998-01-25-0000January 25, 1998
1,505[61]
Revival
Original production in 1972 (3,388 performances) and revival in 2007 (554 performances)

62.
Same Time, Next Year
P
000000001975-03-14-0000March 14, 1975
000000001978-09-03-0000September 3, 1978
1,453[62]
A Tony Award in 1975
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1975, including Outstanding Play

63.
Arsenic and Old Lace
P
000000001941-01-10-0000January 10, 1941
000000001944-06-17-0000June 17, 1944
1,444[63]
Revival in 1986 (221 performances)

64.
The Sound of Music
M
000000001959-11-16-0000November 16, 1959
000000001963-06-15-0000June 15, 1963
1,443[64]
5 Tony Awards in 1960, including Best Musical
Grammy Award for Best Show Album (Original Cast) in 1961
Revival in 1998 (533 performances)

65.
Me and My Girl
M
000000001986-08-10-0000August 10, 1986
000000001989-12-31-0000December 31, 1989
1,420[65]
3 Tony Awards in 1987
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1987

66.
How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
M
000000001961-10-14-0000October 14, 1961
000000001965-03-06-0000March 6, 1965
1,417[66]
7 Tony Awards in 1962, including Best Musical
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1962
Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Show Album in 1962
Revivals in 1995 (548 performances) and 2011 (473 performances)

67.
Hellzapoppin
R
000000001938-09-22-0000September 22, 1938
000000001941-12-17-0000December 17, 1941
1,404[67]

68.
The Music Man
M
000000001957-12-19-0000December 19, 1957
000000001961-04-15-0000April 15, 1961
1,375[68]
6 Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical
Grammy Award for Best Original Cast Album (Broadway or TV) in 1959
Revivals in 1980 (21 performances) and 2000 (699 performances)

69.
Funny Girl
M
000000001964-03-26-0000March 26, 1964
000000001967-07-01-0000July 1, 1967
1,348[69]
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1965
Revival in 2002 (1 benefit performance)

70.
Mummenschanz
S
000000001977-03-30-0000March 30, 1977
000000001980-04-20-0000April 20, 1980
1,326[70]
Broadway's longest-running special

71.
Oh! Calcutta!
R
000000001969-06-17-0000June 17, 1969
000000001972-08-12-0000August 12, 1972
1,314[71]
Original production
Revival in 1976 (5,959 performances)

72.
Billy Elliot the Musical
M
000000002008-11-13-0000November 13, 2008
000000002012-01-08-0000January 8, 2012
1,312[72]
10 Tony Awards in 2009, including Best Musical
10 Drama Desk Awards in 2009, including Outstanding Musical

73.
Movin' Out
D
000000002002-10-24-0000October 24, 2002
000000002005-12-11-0000December 11, 2005
1,303[73]
2 Tony Awards in 2003
A Drama Desk Award in 2003

74.
Brighton Beach Memoirs
P
000000001983-03-27-0000March 27, 1983
000000001986-05-11-0000May 11, 1986
1,299[74]
A Tony Award in 1983
Revival in 2009 (9 performances)

75.
Angel Street
P
000000001941-12-05-0000December 5, 1941
000000001944-12-30-0000December 30, 1944
1,295[75]
Revivals in 1948 (14 performances) and 1975 (52 performances)

76.
Lightnin'
P
000000001918-08-26-0000August 26, 1918
000000001921-08-27-0000August 27, 1921
1,291[76]
First ever production with 1000+ performances
Revival in 1938 (54 performances)

77.
Promises, Promises
M
000000001968-12-01-0000December 1, 1968
000000001972-01-01-0000January 1, 1972
1,281[77]
2 Tony Awards in 1969
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1969
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1970
Revival in 2010 (289 performances)

78.
The King and I
M
000000001951-03-29-0000March 29, 1951
000000001954-03-20-0000March 20, 1954
1,246[78]
5 Tony Awards in 1952, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1977 (695 performances), 1985 (191 performances), 1996 (780 performances), and 2015 (499 performances)

79.
Cactus Flower
P
000000001965-12-08-0000December 8, 1965
000000001968-11-23-0000November 23, 1968
1,234[79]

80.
Sleuth
P
000000001970-11-12-0000November 12, 1970
000000001973-10-13-0000October 13, 1973
1,222[80]
A Tony Award in 1971, Best Play

Torch Song Trilogy
P
000000001982-06-10-0000June 10, 1982
000000001985-05-19-0000May 19, 1985
1,222[81]
2 Tony Awards in 1983, including Best Play
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1983, including Outstanding Play

82.
1776
M
000000001969-03-16-0000March 16, 1969
000000001972-02-13-0000February 13, 1972
1,217[82]
3 Tony Awards in 1969, including Best Musical
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1969
Revival in 1997 (333 performances)

83.
Equus
P
000000001974-10-24-0000October 24, 1974
000000001977-10-02-0000October 2, 1977
1,209[83]
2 Tony Awards in 1975, including Best Play
4 Drama Desk Awards in 1975, including Outstanding Play
Revival in 2008 (156 performances)

84.
Sugar Babies
R
000000001979-10-08-0000October 8, 1979
000000001982-08-28-0000August 28, 1982
1,208[84]

85.
Guys and Dolls
M
000000001950-11-24-0000November 24, 1950
000000001953-11-28-0000November 28, 1953
1,200[85]
5 Tony Awards in 1951, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1955 (16 performances), 1965 (15 performances), 1976 (239 performances), 1992 (1143 performances), and 2009 (121 performances)

86.
In the Heights
M
000000002008-03-30-0000March 30, 2008
000000002011-01-09-0000January 9, 2011
1,184[86]
4 Tony Awards in 2008, including Best Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2009

87.
Amadeus
P
000000001980-12-17-0000December 17, 1980
000000001983-10-16-0000October 16, 1983
1,181[87]
5 Tony Awards in 1981, including Best Play
3 Drama Desk Awards in 1981, including Outstanding Play
Revival in 1999 (173 performances)

88.
Once
M
000000002012-03-18-0000March 18, 2012
000000002015-01-04-0000January 4, 2015
1,168[88]
8 Tony Awards in 2012, including Best Musical
4 Drama Desk Awards in 2012, including Outstanding Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2013

89.
Cabaret
M
000000001966-11-20-0000November 20, 1966
000000001969-09-06-0000September 6, 1969
1,165[89]
8 Tony Awards in 1967, including Best Musical
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1968
Revivals in 1987 (261 performances), 1998 (2377 performances), and 2014 (388 performances)

Memphis
M
000000002009-10-19-0000October 19, 2009
000000002012-08-05-0000August 5, 2012
1,165[90]
4 Tony Awards in 2010, including Best Musical
4 Drama Desk Awards in 2010, including Outstanding Musical

91.
Mister Roberts
P
000000001948-02-18-0000February 18, 1948
000000001951-01-06-0000January 6, 1951
1,157[91]
5 Tony Awards in 1948, including Best Play

92.
Annie Get Your Gun
M
000000001946-05-16-0000May 16, 1946
000000001949-02-12-0000February 12, 1949
1,147[92]
Revivals in 1966 (78 performances) and 1999 (1,045 performances)
Oldest 1000+ original to be joined by 1000+ revival

93.
Guys and Dolls
M
000000001992-04-14-0000April 14, 1992
000000001995-01-08-0000January 8, 1995
1,143[93]
Revival
4 Tony Awards in 1992, including Best Revival of a Musical
7 Drama Desk Awards in 1992, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 1993
Original production in 1950 (1,200 performances) and revivals in 1955 (16 performances), 1965 (15 performances), 1976 (239 performances), and 2009 (121 performances)

94.
The Seven Year Itch
P
000000001952-11-20-0000November 20, 1952
000000001955-08-13-0000August 13, 1955
1,141[94]
A Tony Award in 1953

95.
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
M
000000002005-05-02-0000May 2, 2005
000000002008-01-20-0000January 20, 2008
1,136[95]
2 Tony Awards in 2005
3 Drama Desk Awards in 2005

96.
Bring in 'da Noise, Bring in 'da Funk
D
000000001996-04-25-0000April 25, 1996
000000001999-01-10-0000January 10, 1999
1,135[96]
4 Tony Awards in 1996
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1996

97.
Butterflies Are Free
P
000000001969-10-21-0000October 21, 1969
000000001972-07-02-0000July 2, 1972
1,128[97]
A Tony Award in 1970

98.
Pins and Needles
R
000000001937-11-27-0000November 27, 1937
000000001940-06-22-0000June 22, 1940
1,108[98]

99.
Plaza Suite
P
000000001968-02-14-0000February 14, 1968
000000001970-10-03-0000October 3, 1970
1,097[99]
A Tony Award in 1968

100.
Fosse
D
000000001999-01-14-0000January 14, 1999
000000002001-08-25-0000August 25, 2001
1,093[100]
3 Tony Awards in 1999, including Best Musical
A Drama Desk Award in 1999

101.
They're Playing Our Song
M
000000001979-02-11-0000February 11, 1979
000000001981-09-06-0000September 6, 1981
1,082[101]

102.
Kiss Me, Kate
M
000000001948-12-30-0000December 30, 1948
000000001951-07-28-0000July 28, 1951
1,077[102]
5 Tony Awards in 1949, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1952 (8 performances) and 1999 (881 performances)
First show to win the Tony Award for Best Musical, among other Tony awards

103.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
M
000000002011-06-14-0000June 14, 2011
000000002014-01-04-0000January 4, 2014
1,066[103]
Most expensive production in Broadway history

104.
Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope
R
000000001972-04-19-0000April 19, 1972
000000001974-10-27-0000October 27, 1974
1,065[104]
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1972
Grammy Award for Best Score From an Original Cast Show Album in 1973

105.
The Pajama Game
M
000000001954-05-13-0000May 13, 1954
000000001956-11-24-0000November 24, 1956
1,063[105]
3 Tony Awards in 1955, including Best Musical
Revivals in 1973 (65 performances) and 2006 (129 performances)

106.
Shenandoah
M
000000001975-01-07-0000January 7, 1975
000000001977-08-07-0000August 7, 1977
1,050[106]
2 Tony Awards in 1975
2 Drama Desk Awards in 1975
Revival in 1989 (32 performances)

107.
Annie Get Your Gun
M
000000001999-03-04-0000March 4, 1999
000000002001-09-01-0000September 1, 2001
1,045[107]
Revival
2 Tony Awards in 1999, including Best Revival of a Musical
A Drama Desk Award in 1999
A Special Drama Desk Award in 2001 for Reba McEntire
Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2000
Original production in 1946 (1,147 performances) and revival in 1966 (78 performances)

108.
The Teahouse of the August Moon
P
000000001953-10-15-0000October 15, 1953
000000001956-03-24-0000March 24, 1956
1,027[108]
3 Tony Awards in 1954, including Best Play
Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1954

109.
Les Misérables
M
000000002014-03-23-0000March 23, 2014
000000002016-09-04-0000September 4, 2016
1,024[109]
Revival
Original production in 1987 (6,680 performances) and revival in 2006 (463 performances)

110.
Damn Yankees
M
000000001955-05-05-0000May 5, 1955
000000001957-10-12-0000October 12, 1957
1,019[110]
7 Tony Awards in 1956, including Best Musical
Revival in 1994 (533 performances)

111.
Grand Hotel
M
000000001989-11-12-0000November 12, 1989
000000001992-04-25-0000April 25, 1992
1,017[111]
5 Tony Awards in 1990
5 Drama Desk Awards in 1990

112.
Contact
D
000000002000-03-30-0000March 30, 2000
000000002002-09-01-0000September 1, 2002
1,010[112]
4 Tony Awards in 2000, including Best Musical
4 Drama Desk Awards in 2000, including Outstanding Musical

113.
Never Too Late
P
000000001962-11-27-0000November 27, 1962
000000001965-04-24-0000April 24, 1965
1,007[113]

114.
Beatlemania
M
000000001977-05-31-0000May 31, 1977
000000001979-10-17-0000October 17, 1979
1,006[114]

115.
Big River
M
000000001985-04-25-0000April 25, 1985
000000001987-09-20-0000September 20, 1987
1,005[115]
7 Tony Awards in 1985, including Best Musical
7 Drama Desk Awards in 1985
Revival in 2003 (67 performances)

116.
Newsies
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000000002012-03-29-0000March 29, 2012
000000002014-08-24-0000August 24, 2014
1,004[116]
2 Tony Awards in 2012
2 Drama Desk Awards in 2012


document_title: The Players Club

question_text: who played st louis in the players club

question_tokens: who played st louis in the players club

text: The Players Club

text: Plot[edit]

text: The movie takes place as a flashback of Diana Armstrong (LisaRaye), sparked by her arrival at the scene of the raunchy, dysfunctional Players Club. She narrates that she used to work at the club; she begun working there after getting pregnant with her son and getting into a heated argument with her father, prompting her to move out of her parents' home. Initially, Diana ends up working at a shoe store. There she meets Ronnie (Chrystale Wilson) and Tricks (Adele Givens), who work for Dollar Bill (Bernie Mac) at The Players Club. They convince Diana she would make better money stripping, saying, "Use what you got to get what you want."

text: Dollar Bill gives Diana a job, giving her the name Diamond. Her job initially goes well. However, four years later her younger cousin Ebony Armstrong (Monica Calhoun) comes to live with her. After listening to Dollar's rendition of "The Strippin' Game", she starts working at the club.

text: Ebony is soon out of control - drinking excessively, staying out all night ,and influenced more and more by Ronnie and Tricks, who encourage Ebony to do more out-of-club parties for groups of men. Diana tries to warn Ebony to stay away from Ronnie and Tricks and to quit doing house parties, but Ebony rebels against being told what to do and ignores Diana's advice.

text: After a heated confrontation with Ebony, Diana has a flashback to a time when she was at a private party with Ronnie and Tricks. Diamond passes out on the bed drunk, and the men at the party offer to pay Ronnie to perform cunnilingus on Diamond. Ronnie accepts the offer and proceeds to assault Diamond. The flashback encourages Diana to continue to try to protect Ebony. Clyde (Alex Thomas) and Reggie (Ice Cube) - two watchmen who work for a drug lord named St. Louis - offer Ebony money to come off and have sex with them, but Diana intervenes.

text: Meanwhile, Dollar Bill gets confronted by a man who works for St. Louis, a drug lord to whom Dollar Bill owes $60,000. He warns Dollar Bill if he doesn't make a payment of $10,000 to St. Louis, he will hunt him down. That same night, St. Louis comes to his club to collect. L'il Man, the doorman of the club, tells St. Louis that Dollar Bill is not at the club; St. Louis and his men leave. The next day as Dollar Bill tries to leave the club, St. Louis' men Brooklyn (Charlie Murphy) and KC (Terrence Howard) confront him. They beat him unconscious and throw him into the back of his car. Luckily for him, they are stopped by Freeman (John Amos) and Peters (Faizon Love), two crooked cops. Dollar Bill is found in the trunk and is arrested on warrants; he is later bailed out and returns to the club.

text: The following night rapper Luther "Luke" Campbell comes to the strip club, Reggie and Clyde discuss him. When Dollar Bill is notified that Luke is at his club, he alerts the strippers via a money alarm, believing he will make a fortune. Clyde attempts to meet Luke, but Luke's bodyguard (Michael Clarke Duncan) informs Clyde that Luke is trying to relax and not meet with fans. Clyde insults the bodyguard, causing him to hit Clyde in the back of his head as he starts to walk away. In retaliation, Reggie beats down the bodyguard and belligerently fights against Luke and his friends, only for him to be gang-beaten and thrown into a glass window. The dazed Reggie opens fire wildly before being knocked out by the bouncer XL (Tiny Lister). Clyde then gets up and begins throwing punches himself.

text: Further tension develops between Ebony and Diana when Diana returns home one night after fleeing her obsessive customer Myrin, who admitted to stalking her and then tried to force entry to her apartment, to find Ebony in bed with her boyfriend Lance. Diana chases Lance out with her gun, shooting at him several times. Diana threatens and taunts Ebony. When Diana feigns leaving, Ebony is hit when she opens the door and is thrown out the apartment.

text: Diana then begins dating Blue (Jamie Foxx), a DJ at the Player's Club. Meanwhile, Ebony is offered a gig to dance at Ronnie's brother Junior's (Samuel Monroe Jr.) bachelor party, under the pretense from Ronnie that other girls from the club will be dancing there as well (In actuality, Ronnie lied to use her as a way out of stripping for her brother's friends at the party so Ebony can strip for them instead). When Ebony realizes that she will be the only woman in a hotel room full of horny men, she desperately tries calling Diana to come and pick her up, but to no avail.

text: Reggie and Clyde, both feeling insulted by Diana and Ebony from a previous encounter (she tells them she's not interested anymore), tell Junior that Ebony will have sex with him, claiming that they "ran a train" on her. Excited, Junior bursts in on Ebony while she is changing. Ebony resists, prompting Junior to brutally beat and rape her, leaving his friends to listen to it in full disgust and disbelief. Soon, Reggie, Clyde and the other guests leave, wanting no further involvement with Junior. When Ronnie discovers Ebony unconscious, she and Junior flee the hotel room as she scolds him. Later, Diana has a change of heart and she and Blue decide to check up on Ebony at the hotel, only to discover her bloodied and unconscious body on the bed.

text: Furious, Diana grabs her gun and goes to the Players Club, where Ronnie and Tricks are hiding out. After scaring the other strippers away by firing a warning shot, Diana gives the gun to Blue to cover her while she gets into a brutal fistfight with Ronnie, leaving Ronnie badly beaten. She quits in front of Dollar Bill, punches Tricks and leaves along with Blue.

text: Ronnie and Tricks are arrested by the police on charges of the rape of Ebony, and Junior had been arrested moments before. Later that night, Diana's timing proves to be perfect when St. Louis, comes to collect. He personally shoots up the club (though he does give warning to the customers beforehand, allowing them to leave). As he desperately tries to escape, Dollar is captured by Reggie, Clyde, and St. Louis' associate, whom Dollar Bill met earlier. Later, one of St. Louis' men Brooklyn destroy the club with a LAW rocket.

text: Ebony, still sporting the bruises from her rape, now has a job working at the shoe store. Having been berated by two strippers who work at a new club, called Club Sugar Daddy's, with the same slogan that influenced her to strip, she firmly stands her ground. In the end, Diamond narrates that Ebony moved back to Tallahassee, FL to be with her mother. Blue is a top DJ at a radio station, and that he and Diamond are moving further in their relationship. Ronnie and Tricks got jobs at Club Sugar Daddy's after their release from jail. Junior is serving time in prison for raping Ebony, and that he never got married. Reggie and Clyde were last seen at the Freaknik in Atlanta. St. Louis is still "running the South" along with his hired guns, Brooklyn and KC. Peters and Freeman are still harassing people all day. Little Man is managing a different strip club in Chicago. Dollar Bill was never heard from again (Notwithstanding, it can be safely assumed that he was murdered by St. Louis' men for his debts as he was last seen being stuffed into the trunk of their car). Diana is now a successful reporter, putting the past behind for good and move onto a perfect normal life with her son and now boyfriend, Blue.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
LisaRaye as Diana "Diamond" Armstrong: a college student and aspiring journalist who is gets a job at The Players Club to raise money for her college tuition. Diana has a rivalry with Ronnie and Tricks; her rivalry is indirectly related to the climax of the film.
Bernie Mac as Dollar Bill: the dim owner of The Players Club who is threatened by a loan shark named St. Louis, as Dollar Bill is deeply in debt to him. At one point earlier in the film, he is captured by Brooklyn and K.C. but escapes death when the two loan sharks are arrested. At the end, he is re-captured by St. Louis' men and is presumed to be murdered after.
Monica Calhoun as Ebony: Diamond's younger cousin who becomes out-of-control after getting a job at The Players Club. She befriends Ronnie and Tricks, who manipulate her throughout. the film. In the end, she begins working at a shoe store after being beaten and raped by Ronnie's younger brother.
Jamie Foxx as Blue: the club's radio disc jockey and Diamond's love interest of the film.
John Amos as Officer Freeman: a crooked police officer who harasses suspects.
Chrystale Wilson as Ronnie: A stripper at The Players Club with a rivalry with Diamond and Ebony. Ronnie is later beaten up by Diamond due to her indirect responsibility for Ebony's beating and rape.
Adele Givens as Tricks: A stripper at The Players Club and a right-hand of Ronnie. She is arrested at the end of the film.
Anthony Johnson as L'il Man: the club's doorman who is frequently taunted and harmed by St. Louis and his crooks when he covers up for Dollar Bill's absences.
Ice Cube as Reggie: A henchman working for St. Louis. Reggie is sent to the Players Club to look over Dollar Bill's business and has affection towards Ebony.
Alex Thomas as Clyde: Reggie's best friend who, like Reggie, has an affection towards Ebony and works for St. Louis.
Tiny Lister as XL the Bouncer: a tall, muscular bouncer of the club.
Larry McCoy as St. Louis: a wheelchair-using gangster to whom Dollar Bill owes money.
Charlie Murphy as Brooklyn: St. Louis' main henchman.
Terrence Howard as K.C.: St. Louis' secondary henchman and Brooklyn's partner in crime.
Faizon Love as Officer Peters: another police officer who harasses suspects.
Samuel Monroe Jr. as Junior: Ronnie's younger brother.
Luther Campbell as Luke: a rapper who visits the club.
Michael Clarke Duncan as Bodyguard: the tall, muscular bodyguard for Luke.
Montae Russell as Lance: Diamond's boyfriend who she ended her relationship with due to his attraction towards Ebony.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: A successful soundtrack was released on March 17, 1998, peaking at #10 on the Billboard 200 and #2 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. It featured artists such as the film's star, Ice Cube, DMX, Master P and Jay-Z, among others.

text: Box office[edit]

text: The movie debuted at No. 5.[3] It went on to gross $23,047,939 domestically, and $213,546 in foreign markets for a total lifetime gross of $23,261,485.[4]