The result is that the execution of a particular program accelerates as the microprocessor tunes itself to run the software as efficiently as possible something that would be a nightmare to do in hardware alone.

ECONOMIST: Transmetamorphosis

Another microprocessor in development, the Loongson, would use existing software and could eventually become a competitor to Intel and others.

WSJ: China's Not-So-Super Computer Program

This program is then fed into a second piece of software called a compiler, which translates it into a sequence of machine instructions for a specific kind of microprocessor, such as Intel's x86 family, which can then run the original program.

ECONOMIST: Transmetamorphosis