INSTRUCTION SET DESIGN

INSTRUCTION FORMATS ZERO-ADDRESS INSTRUCTION ONE-ADDRESS INSTRUCTION TWO-ADDRESS INSTRUCTION THREE-ADDRESS INSTRUCTION

DESIGN CRITERIA INSTRUCTION LENGTH MEMORY/BANDWIDTH REQUIREMENTS DECODING REQUIREMENTS TARGET ARCHITECTURE/INTER-OPERATABILITY REQUIREMENTS BIG ENDIAN/LITTLE ENDIAN FORMAT REGISTER/STACK-BASED DESIGN

ADDRESSING MODES IMMEDIATE ADDRESSING DIRECT ADDRESSING REGISTER ADDRESSING REGISTER INDIRECT ADDRESSING INDEXED ADDRESSING BASED-INDEXED ADDRESSING STACK ADDRESSING

IMMEDIATE ADDRESSING THE ADDRESS PART OF THE INSTRUCTION CONTAINS THE OPERAND ITSELF RATHER THAN AN ADDRESS OR OTHER INFORMATION DESCRIBING WHERE THE OPERAND IS. ADVANTAGES: OPERAND IS FETCHED AT SAME TIME AS INSTRUCTION, HENCE AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE USE; NO EXTRA MEMORY REFERENCE REQUIRED. DISADVANTAGES: ONLY A CONSTANT CAN BE SUPPLIED THIS WAY. THE NUMBER OF VALUES IS LIMITED BY SIZE OF FIELD.

DIRECT ADDRESSING FULL MEMORY ADDRESS OF OPERAND IS SPECIFIED. DISADVANTAGES: MEMORY LOCATION IS FIXED. CAN BE USED TO ACCESS GLOBAL VARIABLES WHOSE ADDRESS IS KNOWN AT COMPILE TIME.

REGISTER ADDRESSING MOST COMMONLY USED ADDRESSING MODE SIMILAR TO DIRECT ADDRESSING; A REGISTER IS SPECIFIED INSTEAD OF A MEMORY LOCATION. ADVANTAGES: FASTER ACCESS (IN MOST CHIP ARCHITECTURES, THE REGISTERS ARE LOCATED ON THE CPU CHIP) AND SHORTER ADDRESSES.

REGISTER-INDIRECT ADDRESSING ADDRESS OF OPERAND IS CONTAINED IN A REGISTER. THIS TYPE OF ADDRESS IS CALLED POINTER.

INDEXED ADDRESSING MEMORY IS ACCESSED BY GIVING A REGISTER PLUS A CONSTANT OFFSET (INDEX).

BASED-INDEXED ADDRESSING MEMORY ADDRESS IS COMPUTED BY ADDING UP TWO REGISTERS PLUS AN (OPTIONAL) OFFSET. ONE OF THE REGISTERS IS THE BASE AND THE OTHER IS THE INDEX.

STACK ADDRESSING PUSH-POP DESIGN ADVANTAGES: SHORT INSTRUCTION LENGTH, SIMPLER INSTRUCTIONS DISADVANTAGES: LINEAR IMPLEMENTATION.n INSTRUCTIONS HAVE TO BE “POPPED” TO REACH THE n+1th INSTRUCTION

EXCEPTION HANDLING TRAPS INTERRUPTS

TRAPS TRAP: AUTOMATIC PROCEDURE CALL INITIATED BY SOME CONDITION (FLOATING-POINT OVERFLOW, FLOATING-POINT UNDERFLOW, INTERGER OVERFLOW, PROTECTION VIOLATION, UNDEFINED OPCODE, STACK OVERFLOW, DIVISION BY ZERO) CAUSED BY THE PROGRAM. HARDWARE-BASED MECHANISM. FASTER THAN SOFTWARE IMPLEMENTED EXCEPTION HANDLING.

TRAPS WHEN A TRAP OCCURS, THE FLOW OF CONTROL IS SWITCHED TO SOME FIXED MEMORY LOCATION INSTEAD OF CONTINUING IN SEQUENCE. AT THAT FIXED LOCATION IS A BRANCH TO A PROCEDURE CALLED THE TRAP HANDLER, WHICH PERFORMS SOME APPROPRIATE ACTION, SUCH AS PRINTING AN ERROR MESSAGE.

INTERRUPTS INTERRUPTS: CHANGES IN THE FLOW OF CONTROL CAUSED NOT BY THE RUNNING PROGRAM, BUT BY SOMETHING ELSE (EG., I/O) INTERRUPT STOPS THE RUNNING PROGRAM AND TRANSFERS CONTROL TO AN INTERRUPT HANDLER, WHICH PERFORMS SOME APPROPRIATE ACTION. WHEN FINISHED, THE INTERRUPT HANDLER RETURNS CONTROL TO INTERRUPTED PROGRAM. ADDITIONAL DETAILS IN SECTION 5.6.5

TRAPS VS.INTERRUPTS TRAPS ARE CAUSED DIRECTLY BY PROGRAM, WHILE INTERRUPTS ARE, AT BEST, CAUSED INDIRECTLY BY THE PROGRAM. TRAPS ARE SYNCHRONOUS WITH THE PROGRAM WHILE INTERRUPTS ARE ASYNCHRONOUS. IF THE PROGRAM IS RERUN WITH THE SAME INPUT, TRAPS WILL RECOOUR IN THE SAME PLACE EACH TIME, WHILE INTERRUPT-OCCURANCE MAY VARY.