In literature computer architectures are frequently claimed to be highly flexible, typically implying there exist trade-offs between flexibility and performance or energy efficiency. Processor flexibility, however, is not very sharply defined, and as such these claims can not be validated, nor can such hypothetical relations be fully understood and exploited in the design of computing systems. This paper is an attempt to introduce scientific rigour to the notion of flexibility in computing systems.

翻译：在文学计算机结构中,人们常常声称计算机结构高度灵活,通常意味着灵活性与性能或能源效率之间有权衡取舍,但加工者的灵活性定义并不十分明确,因此这些主张无法验证,在计算机系统的设计中也无法充分理解和利用这种假设关系。