Chapter 14: Cycle-Cost Model

The cycle-cost / performance model is specified separately and is not part of the v1.0 behavioral freeze.

v1.0 freezes the behavior of the machine: every observable result of every instruction. It deliberately does not fix a timing or cycle-cost model. A per-instruction cost model (how many cycles an instruction takes, and how costs compose) is a separate specification with its own deliverable and its own lifecycle, so that the performance model can evolve without touching the behavioral contract, and so that a behavioral conformance claim (Chapter 13) never depends on timing.

Consequently:

• No program's result depends on cycle cost. Two conforming implementations produce identical observable behavior regardless of how they cost instructions.
• Timing is not observable through the v1.0 ISA. There is no architectural cycle counter in the v1.0 instruction set; any such facility, if added, arrives as a reserved-space extension (Chapter 12) with its own contract.

When the cycle-cost model is published it will be linked here. Until then, this chapter is a named deferral: the absence of a timing model in v1.0 is deliberate, not an omission.