INSTRUCTION SETS CHARACTERISTICS AND FUNCTIONS
What is an Instruction Set?
• The complete collection of instructions that are
understood by a CPU
• Machine Code
• Binary
• Usually represented by assembly codes
Elements of an Instruction
• Operation code (Op code)
• Do this
• Source Operand reference
• To this
• Result Operand reference
• Put the answer here
• Next Instruction Reference
• When you have done that, do this...
Where have all the Operands
Gone?
• Long time passing….
• (If you don’t understand, you’re too young!)
• Main memory (or virtual memory or cache)
• CPU register
• I/O device
Instruction Cycle State Diagram
Instruction Representation
• In machine code each instruction has a unique bit
pattern
• For human consumption (well, programmers
anyway) a symbolic representation is used
• e.g. ADD, SUB, LOAD
• Operands can also be represented in this way
• ADD A,B
Simple Instruction Format
Instruction Types
• Data processing
• Data storage (main memory)
• Data movement (I/O)
• Program flow control
Number of Addresses (a)
• 3 addresses
• Operand 1, Operand 2, Result
• a = b + c;
• May be a forth - next instruction (usually implicit)
• Not common
• Needs very long words to hold everything
Number of Addresses (b)
• 2 addresses
• One address doubles as operand and result
• a=a+b
• Reduces length of instruction
• Requires some extra work
• Temporary storage to hold some results
Number of Addresses (c)
• 1 address
• Implicit second address
• Usually a register (accumulator)
• Common on early machines
Number of Addresses (d)
• 0 (zero) addresses
• All addresses implicit
• Uses a stack
• e.g. push a
• push b
• add
• pop c
• c=a+b
How Many Addresses
• More addresses
• More complex (powerful?) instructions
• More registers
• Inter-register operations are quicker
• Fewer instructions per program
• Fewer addresses
• Less complex (powerful?) instructions
• More instructions per program
• Faster fetch/execution of instructions
Design Decisions (1)
• Operation repertoire
• How many ops?
• What can they do?
• How complex are they?
• Data types
• Instruction formats
• Length of op code field
• Number of addresses
Design Decisions (2)
• Registers
• Number of CPU registers available
• Which operations can be performed on which registers?
• Addressing modes (later…)
• RISC v CISC
Types of Operand
• Addresses
• Numbers
• Integer/floating point
• Characters
• ASCII etc.
• Logical Data
• Bits or flags
• (Aside: Is there any difference between numbers and characters? Ask a
C programmer!)
x86 Data Types
• 8 bit Byte
• 16 bit word
• 32 bit double word
• 64 bit quad word
• 128 bit double quadword
• Addressing is by 8 bit unit
• Words do not need to align at even-numbered address
• Data accessed across 32 bit bus in units of double word
read at addresses divisible by 4
• Little endian
SMID Data Types
• Integer types
• Interpreted as bit field or integer
• Packed byte and packed byte integer
• Bytes packed into 64-bit quadword or 128-bit double quadword
• Packed word and packed word integer
• 16-bit words packed into 64-bit quadword or 128-bit double quadword
• Packed doubleword and packed doubleword integer
• 32-bit doublewords packed into 64-bit quadword or 128-bit double quadword
• Packed quadword and packed qaudword integer
• Two 64-bit quadwords packed into 128-bit double quadword
• Packed single-precision floating-point and packed double-precision floating-
point
• Four 32-bit floating-point or two 64-bit floating-point values packed into a 128-
bit double quadword
x86 Numeric Data Formats
ARM Data Types
• 8 (byte), 16 (halfword), 32 (word) bits
• Halfword and word accesses should be word aligned
• Nonaligned access alternatives
• Default
• Treated as truncated
• Bits[1:0] treated as zero for word
• Bit[0] treated as zero for halfword
• Load single word instructions rotate right word aligned data transferred by non word-aligned
address one, two or three bytesAlignment checking
• Data abort signal indicates alignment fault for attempting unaligned access
• Unaligned access
• Processor uses one or more memory accesses to generate transfer of adjacent bytes
transparently to the programmer
• Unsigned integer interpretation supported for all types
• Twos-complement signed integer interpretation supported for all types
• Majority of implementations do not provide floating-point hardware
• Saves power and area
• Floating-point arithmetic implemented in software
• Optional floating-point coprocessor
• Single- and double-precision IEEE 754 floating point data types
ARM Endian Support
• E-bit in system control register
• Under program control
Types of Operation
• Data Transfer
• Arithmetic
• Logical
• Conversion
• I/O
• System Control
• Transfer of Control
Data Transfer
• Specify
• Source
• Destination
• Amount of data
• May be different instructions for different
movements
• e.g. IBM 370
• Or one instruction and different addresses
• e.g. VAX
Arithmetic
• Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide
• Signed Integer
• Floating point ?
• May include
• Increment (a++)
• Decrement (a--)
• Negate (-a)
Shift and Rotate Operations
Logical
• Bitwise operations
• AND, OR, NOT
Conversion
• E.g. Binary to Decimal
Input/Output
• May be specific instructions
• May be done using data movement instructions
(memory mapped)
• May be done by a separate controller (DMA)
Systems Control
• Privileged instructions
• CPU needs to be in specific state
• Ring 0 on 80386+
• Kernel mode
• For operating systems use
Transfer of Control
• Branch
• e.g. branch to x if result is zero
• Skip
• e.g. increment and skip if zero
• ISZ Register1
• Branch xxxx
• ADD A
• Subroutine call
• c.f. interrupt call
Branch Instruction
Nested Procedure Calls
Use of Stack
Stack Frame Growth Using Sample
Procedures P and Q
Exercise For Reader
• Find out about instruction set for Pentium and ARM
• Start with Stallings
• Visit web sites
Byte Order
(A portion of chips?)
• What order do we read numbers that occupy more
than one byte
• e.g. (numbers in hex to make it easy to read)
• 12345678 can be stored in 4x8bit locations as
follows
Byte Order (example)
• Address Value (1) Value(2)
• 184 12 78
• 185 34 56
• 186 56 34
• 186 78 12
• i.e. read top down or bottom up?
Byte Order Names
• The problem is called Endian
• The system on the left has the least significant byte
in the lowest address
• This is called big-endian
• The system on the right has the least significant
byte in the highest address
• This is called little-endian
Example of C Data Structure
Alternative View of Memory Map
Standard…What Standard?
• Pentium (x86), VAX are little-endian
• IBM 370, Moterola 680x0 (Mac), and most RISC are
big-endian
• Internet is big-endian
• Makes writing Internet programs on PC more awkward!
• WinSock provides htoi and itoh (Host to Internet &
Internet to Host) functions to convert
