When I was studying machine code way back when, things like current 
interrupt priority and privilege mode and such were very simple. Now there's 
all kinds of stuff in CPUs, like information about caches, all kinds of 
privilege rings, etc etc etc.

What's that sort of stuff called, that I could google it to learn about how 
things like x64 machines deal with such things? At least to the extent of 
what sorts of things machines support these days?

It used to be you'd just issue something like a "load processor status word" 
or "store processor status word", but that was way back when processor 
status fit in one word. :-)

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   "Coding without comments is like
    driving without turn signals."

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