Based on the other answers, the proper answer is: they do whatever the instructions bits tell them too. Since apparently they aren't validated, they always do something, even if that something is nothing. Same as trying to turn on a lamp on an illuminated room- you won't notice it is there and it is on. Another question you may ask is: if an instruction does not exist, how does the processor knows it length? (since unlike MIPS, x86 is variable-sized instructions) I would like to know the answer to this question too :)