Instruction format

Computer perform task on the basis of instruction provided. A instruction in computer comprises
of groups called fields. These field contains different information as for computers every thing is
in 0 and 1 so each field has different significance on the basis of which a CPU decide what so
perform. The most common fields are:
 Operation field which specifies the operation to be performed like addition.
 Address field which contain the location of operand, i.e., register or memory location.
 Mode field which specifies how operand is to be founded.
A instruction is of various length depending upon the number of addresses it contain. Generally
CPU organization are of three types on the basis of number of address fields:
1. Single Accumulator organization
2. General register organization
3. Stack organization
In first organization operation is done involving a special register called accumulator. In second
on multiple registers are used for the computation purpose. In third organization the work on
stack basis operation due to which it does not contain any address field. It is not necessary that
only a single organization is is applied a blend of various organization is mostly what we see
generally.
On the basis of number of address instruction are classified as:
Note that we will use X = (A+B)*(C+D) expression to showcase the procedure.

1. Zero Address Instructions

Opcode Mode
A stack based computer do not use address field in instruction.To evaluate a expression first
it is converted to revere Polish Notation i.e. Post fix Notation.
Expression: X = (A+B)*(C+D)
Postfixed : X = AB+CD+*
TOP means top of stack
M[X] is any memory location

PUSH A TOP = A

PUSH B TOP = B

ADD TOP = A+B

PUSH C TOP = C

PUSH D TOP = D

ADD TOP = C+D

 MUL TOP = (C+D)*(A+B)

POP X M[X] = TOP

2. One Address Instructions –
This use a implied ACCUMULATOR register for data manipulation.One operand is in
accumulator and other is in register or memory location.Implied means that the CPU
already know that one operand is in accumulator so there is no need to specify it.
Opcode Target address Mode

Expression: X = (A+B)*(C+D)
AC is accumulator
M[] is any memory location
M[T] is temporary location

LOAD A AC = M[A]

ADD B AC = AC + M[B]

STORE T M[T] = AC

LOAD C AC = M[C]

ADD D AC = AC + M[D]

MUL T AC = AC * M[T]

STORE X M[X] = AC
3. Two Address Instructions –
This is common in commercial computers. Here two address can be specified in the
instruction.Unlike earlier in one address instruction the result was stored in accumulator
here result cab be stored at different location rather than just accumulator, but require more
number of bit to represent address.
Opcode Target address Destination address Mode

Here destination address can also contain operand.

Expression: X = (A+B)*(C+D)
R1, R2 are registers
M[] is any memory location

MOV R1, A R1 = M[A]

ADD R1, B R1 = R1 + M[B]

MOV R2, C R2 = C

ADD R2, D R2 = R2 + D
 MUL R1, R2 R1 = R1 * R2

MOV X, R1 M[X] = R1
4. Three Address Instructions –
This has three address field to specify a register or a memory location. Program created are
much short in size but number of bits per instruction increase. These instructions make
creation of program much easier but it does not mean that program will run much faster
because now instruction only contain more information but each micro operation (changing
content of register, loading address in address bus etc.) will be performed in one cycle only.

Opcode Target address Destination Destination Mode

address address

Expression: X = (A+B)*(C+D)
R1, R2 are registers
M[] is any memory location

ADD R1, A, B R1 = M[A] + M[B]

ADD R2, C, D R2 = M[C] + M[D]

MUL X, R1, R2 M[X] = R1 * R2

Adressing Modes and Instruction Cycle

The operation field of an instruction specifies the operation to be performed. This operation will
be executed on some data which is stored in computer registers or the main memory. The way
any operand is selected during the program execution is dependent on the addressing mode of the
instruction. The purpose of using addressing modes is as follows:

1. To give the programming versatility to the user.

2. To reduce the number of bits in addressing field of instruction.

Types of Addressing Modes

Below we have discussed different types of addressing modes one by one:
Immediate Mode
In this mode, the operand is specified in the instruction itself. An immediate mode instruction has
an operand field rather than the address field.
For example: ADD 7, which says Add 7 to contents of accumulator. 7 is the operand here.
Register Mode
In this mode the operand is stored in the register and this register is present in CPU. The
instruction has the address of the Register where the operand is stored.

Advantage
Shorter instructions and faster instruction fetch.
 Faster memory access to the operand(s)
Disadvantages
 Very limited address space
 Using multiple registers helps performance but it complicates the instructions.

Register Indirect Mode

In this mode, the instruction specifies the register whose contents give us the address of operand
which is in memory. Thus, the register contains the address of operand rather than the operand
itself.
Auto Increment/Decrement Mode
In this the register is incremented or decremented after or before its value is used.
Direct Addressing Mode
In this mode, effective address of operand is present in instruction itself.

 Single memory reference to access data.

 No additional calculations to find the effective address of the operand.

For Example: ADD R1, 4000 - In this the 4000 is effective address of operand.
NOTE: Effective Address is the location where operand is present.
Indirect Addressing Mode
In this, the address field of instruction gives the address where the effective address is stored in
memory. This slows down the execution, as this includes multiple memory lookups to find the
operand.

Displacement Addressing Mode

In this the contents of the indexed register is added to the Address part of the instruction, to
obtain the effective address of operand.
EA = A + (R), In this the address field holds two values, A (which is the base value) and R(that
holds the displacement), or vice versa.
Relative Addressing Mode
It is a version of Displacement addressing mode.
In this the contents of PC(Program Counter) is added to address part of instruction to obtain the
effective address.
EA = A + (PC), where EA is effective address and PC is program counter.
The operand is A cells away from the current cell(the one pointed to by PC)

Base Register Addressing Mode

It is again a version of Displacement addressing mode. This can be defined as EA = A + (R),
where A is displacement and R holds pointer to base address.

Stack Addressing Mode

In this mode, operand is at the top of the stack. For example: ADD, this instruction will POP top
two items from the stack, add them, and will then PUSH the result to the top of the stack.

Instruction Cycle
An instruction cycle, also known as fetch-decode-execute cycle is the basic operational process
of a computer. This process is repeated continuously by CPU from boot up to shut down of
computer.
Following are the steps that occur during an instruction cycle:

1. Fetch the Instruction

The instruction is fetched from memory address that is stored in PC(Program Counter) and
stored in the instruction register IR. At the end of the fetch operation, PC is incremented by 1 and
it then points to the next instruction to be executed.
2. Decode the Instruction
The instruction in the IR is executed by the decoder.
3. Read the Effective Address
If the instruction has an indirect address, the effective address is read from the memory.
Otherwise operands are directly read in case of immediate operand instruction.
4. Execute the Instruction
The Control Unit passes the information in the form of control signals to the functional unit of
CPU. The result generated is stored in main memory or sent to an output device.

The cycle is then repeated by fetching the next instruction. Thus in this way the instruction cycle
is repeated continuously.
 Micro-Operations
Register is a very fast computer memory, used to store data/instruction in-execution.
A Register is a group of flip-flops with each flip-flop capable of storing one bit of information.
An n-bitregister has a group of n flip-flops and is capable of storing binary information of n-bits.
A register consists of a group of flip-flops and gates. The flip-flops hold the binary information
and gates control when and how new information is transferred into a register. Various types of
registers are available commercially. The simplest register is one that consists of only flip-flops
with no external gates.
These days registers are also implemented as a register file.

Loading the Registers

The transfer of new information into a register is referred to as loading the register. If all the bits
of register are loaded simultaneously with a common clock pulse than the loading is said to be
done in parallel.
Register Transfer Language
The symbolic notation used to describe the micro-operation transfers amongst registers is
called Register transfer language.
The term register transfer means the availability of hardware logic circuits that can perform a
stated micro-operation and transfer the result of the operation to the same or another register.
The word language is borrowed from programmers who apply this term to programming
languages. This programming language is a procedure for writing symbols to specify a given
computational process.
Following are some commonly used registers:
1. Accumulator: This is the most common register, used to store data taken out from the
memory.
2. General Purpose Registers: This is used to store data intermediate results during
program execution. It can be accessed via assembly programming.
3. Special Purpose Registers: Users do not access these registers. These registers are for
Computer system,
o MAR: Memory Address Register are those registers that holds the address for
memory unit.
o MBR: Memory Buffer Register stores instruction and data received from the
memory and sent from the memory.
o PC: Program Counter points to the next instruction to be executed.
o IR: Instruction Register holds the instruction to be executed.

Register Transfer
Information transferred from one register to another is designated in symbolic form by means of
replacement operator.
R2 ← R1
It denotes the transfer of the data from register R1 into R2.
Normally we want the transfer to occur only in predetermined control condition. This can be
shown by following if-then statement: if (P=1) then (R2 ← R1)
Here P is a control signal generated in the control section.

Control Function
A control function is a Boolean variable that is equal to 1 or 0. The control function is shown as:
P: R2 ← R1
The control condition is terminated with a colon. It shows that transfer operation can be executed
only if P=1.

Micro-Operations
The operations executed on data stored in registers are called micro-operations. A micro-
operation is an elementary operation performed on the information stored in one or more
registers.
Example: Shift, count, clear and load.
Types of Micro-Operations
The micro-operations in digital computers are of 4 types:
1. Register transfer micro-operations transfer binary information from one register to
another.
2. Arithmetic micro-operations perform arithmetic operations on numeric data stored in
registers.
3. Logic micro-operations perform bit manipulation operation on non-numeric data stored in
registers.
4. Shift micro-operations perform shift micro-operations performed on data.

Arithmetic Micro-Operations
Some of the basic micro-operations are addition, subtraction, increment and decrement.
Add Micro-Operation
It is defined by the following statement:
R3 → R1 + R2

The above statement instructs the data or contents of register R1 to be added to data or
content of register R2 and the sum should be transferred to register R3.

Subtract Micro-Operation

Let us again take an example:

R3 → R1 + R2' + 1

In subtract micro-operation, instead of using minus operator we take 1's compliment and add
1 to the register which gets subtracted, i.e R1 - R2 is equivalent to R3 → R1 + R2' + 1

Increment/Decrement Micro-Operation

Increment and decrement micro-operations are generally performed by adding and

subtracting 1 to and from the register respectively.

R1 → R1 + 1

R1 → R1 – 1

Symbolic
Description
Designation

R3 ← R1 + R2 Contents of R1+R2 transferred to R3.

R3 ← R1 - R2 Contents of R1-R2 transferred to R3.

R2 ← (R2)' Compliment the contents of R2.

R2 ← (R2)' + 1 2's compliment the contents of R2.

R1 + the 2's compliment of R2

R3 ← R1 + (R2)' + 1
(subtraction).

R1 ← R1 + 1 Increment the contents of R1 by 1.

R1 ← R1 - 1 Decrement the contents of R1 by 1.

Logic Micro-Operations
These are binary micro-operations performed on the bits stored in the registers. These operations
consider each bit separately and treat them as binary variables.
Let us consider the X-OR micro-operation with the contents of two registers R1 and R2.
P: R1 ← R1 X-OR R2

In the above statement we have also included a Control Function.

Assume that each register has 3 bits. Let the content of R1 be 010 and R2 be 100. The X-OR
micro-operation will be:

Shift Micro-Operations
These are used for serial transfer of data. That means we can shift the contents of the register to
the left or right. In the shift left operation the serial input transfers a bit to the right most position
and in shift right operation the serial input transfers a bit to the left most position.
There are three types of shifts as follows:
a) Logical Shift
It transfers 0 through the serial input. The symbol "shl" is used for logical shift left and "shr" is
used for logical shift right.
R1 ← she R1

R1 ← she R1

The register symbol must be same on both sides of arrows.

b) Circular Shift
This circulates or rotates the bits of register around the two ends without any loss of data or
contents. In this, the serial output of the shift register is connected to its serial
input. "cil" and "cir" is used for circular shift left and right respectively.
c) Arithmetic Shift
This shifts a signed binary number to left or right. An arithmetic shift left multiplies a signed
binary number by 2 and shift left divides the number by 2. Arithmetic shift micro-operation
leaves the sign bit unchanged because the signed number remains same when it is multiplied or
divided by 2.
To execute an instruction, the control unit of the CPU must generate the required control signal
in the proper sequence. There are two approaches used for generating the control signals in
proper sequence as Hardwired Control unit and Micro-programmed control unit.
Hardwired Control Unit –
The control hardware can be viewed as a state machine that changes from one state to another in
every clock cycle, depending on the contents of the instruction register, the condition codes and
the external inputs. The outputs of the state machine are the control signals. The sequence of the
operation carried out by this machine is determined by the wiring of the logic elements and
hence named as “hardwired”.
 Fixed logic circuits that correspond directly to the Boolean expressions are used to
generate the control signals.
 Hardwired control is faster than micro-programmed control.
 A controller that uses this approach can operate at high speed.

Micro-programmed Control Unit –

 The control signals associated with operations are stored in special memory units
inaccessible by the programmer as Control Words.
 Control signals are generated by a program are similar to machine language programs.
 Micro-programmed control unit is slower in speed because of the time it takes to fetch
microinstructions from the control memory.

Some Important Terms –

1. Control Word : A control word is a word whose individual bits represent various control
signals.
2. Micro-routine : A sequence of control words corresponding to the control sequence of a
machine instruction constitutes the micro-routine for that instruction.
 3. Micro-instruction : Individual control words in this micro-routine are referred to as
microinstructions.
4. Micro-program : A sequence of micro-instructions is called a micro-program, which is
stored in a ROM or RAM called a Control Memory (CM).
5. Control Store : the micro-routines for all instructions in the instruction set of a computer
are stored in a special memory called the Control Store.

Types of Micro-programmed Control Unit – Based on the type of Control Word stored in the
Control Memory (CM), it is classified into two types :
1. Horizontal Micro-programmed control Unit :
The control signals are represented in the decoded binary format that is 1 bit/CS. Example: If 53
Control signals are present in the processor than 53 bits are required. More than 1 control signal
can be enabled at a time.
 It supports longer control word.
 It is used in parallel processing applications.
 It allows higher degree of parallelism. If degree is n, n CS are enabled at a time.
 It requires no additional hardware(decoders). It means it is faster than Verical
Microprogrammed.
2. Vertical Micro-programmed control Unit :
The control signals re represented in the encoded binary format. For N control signals- Log2(N)
bits are required.
 It supports shorter control words.
 It supports easy implementation of new conrol signals therefore it is more flexible.
  It allows low degree of parallelism i.e., degree of parallelism is either 0 or 1.
 Requires an additional hardware (decoders) to generate control signals, it implies it is
slower than horizontal microprogrammed.
To execute an instruction, there are two types of control units Hardwired Control unit
and Micro-programmed control unit.
1. Hardwired control units are generally faster than microprogrammed designs. In
hardwired control, we saw how all the control signals required inside the CPU can
be generated using a state counter and a PLA circuit.
2. A microprogrammed control unit is a relatively simple logic circuit that is capable
of (1) sequencing through microinstructions and (2) generating control signals to
execute each microinstruction.
HARDWIRED CONTROL UNIT MICROPROGRAMMED CONTROL UNIT

Micrprogrammed control unit generates

Hardwired control unit generates the control the control signals with the help of
signals needed for the processor using logic micro instructions stored in control
circuits memory

Hardwired control unit is faster when compared

to microprogrammed control unit as the This is slower than the other as micro
required control signals are generated with the instructions are used for generating
help of hardwares signals here

Difficult to modify as the control signals that Easy to modify as the modification need
need to be generated are hard wired to be done only at the instruction level

Less costlier than hardwired control as

More costlier as everything has to be realized in only micro instructions are used for
terms of logic gates generating control signals

It cannot handle complex instructions as the

circuit design for it becomes complex It can handle complex instructions

Only limited number of instructions are used Control signals for many instructions
due to the hardware implementation can be generated

Used in computer that makes use of

Used in computer that makes use of Reduced Complex Instruction Set
Instruction Set Computers(RISC) Computers(CISC)

Hardwired Control
The Hardwired Control organization involves the control logic to be implemented with gates,
flip-flops, decoders, and other digital circuits.
The following image shows the block diagram of a Hardwired Control organization.
o A Hard-wired Control consists of two decoders, a sequence counter, and a number of
logic gates.
o An instruction fetched from the memory unit is placed in the instruction register (IR).
o The component of an instruction register includes; I bit, the operation code, and bits 0
through 11.
o The operation code in bits 12 through 14 are coded with a 3 x 8 decoder.
o The outputs of the decoder are designated by the symbols D0 through D7.
o The operation code at bit 15 is transferred to a flip-flop designated by the symbol I.
o The operation codes from Bits 0 through 11 are applied to the control logic gates.
o The Sequence counter (SC) can count in binary from 0 through 15.
.

Micro-programmed Control
The Microprogrammed Control organization is implemented by using the programming
approach.
In Microprogrammed Control, the micro-operations are performed by executing a program
consisting of micro-instructions.
The following image shows the block diagram of a Microprogrammed Control organization.

o The Control memory address register specifies the address of the micro-instruction.
o The Control memory is assumed to be a ROM, within which all control information is
permanently stored.
o The control register holds the microinstruction fetched from the memory.
o The micro-instruction contains a control word that specifies one or more micro-
operations for the data processor.
o While the micro-operations are being executed, the next address is computed in the next
address generator circuit and then transferred into the control address register to read the
next microinstruction.
o The next address generator is often referred to as a micro-program sequencer, as it
determines the address sequence that is read from control memory.

Instructions format
Computer instructions are a set of machine language instructions that a particular processor
understands and executes. A computer performs tasks on the basis of the instruction provided.
An instruction comprises of groups called fields. These fields include:
o The Operation code (Opcode) field which specifies the operation to be performed.
o The Address field which contains the location of the operand, i.e., register or memory
location.
o The Mode field which specifies how the operand will be located.

A basic computer has three instruction code formats which are:

 1. Memory - reference instruction
2. Register - reference instruction
3. Input-Output instruction
Memory - reference instruction

In Memory-reference instruction, 12 bits of memory is used to specify an address and one bit to
specify the addressing mode 'I'.
Register - reference instruction

The Register-reference instructions are represented by the Opcode 111 with a 0 in the leftmost bit
(bit 15) of the instruction.
Note: The Operation code (Opcode) of an instruction refers to a group of bits that define
arithmetic and logic operations such as add, subtract, multiply, shift, and compliment.
A Register-reference instruction specifies an operation on or a test of the AC (Accumulator)
register.
Input-Output instruction

Just like the Register-reference instruction, an Input-Output instruction does not need a reference
to memory and is recognized by the operation code 111 with a 1 in the leftmost bit of the
instruction. The remaining 12 bits are used to specify the type of the input-output operation or
test performed.

Note
o The three operation code bits in positions 12 through 14 should be equal to 111.
Otherwise, the instruction is a memory-reference type, and the bit in position 15 is taken
as the addressing mode I.
 o When the three operation code bits are equal to 111, control unit inspects the bit in
position 15. If the bit is 0, the instruction is a register-reference type. Otherwise, the
instruction is an input-output type having bit 1 at position 15.
Instruction Set Completeness
A set of instructions is said to be complete if the computer includes a sufficient number of
instructions in each of the following categories:
o Arithmetic, logical and shift instructions

o A set of instructions for moving information to and from memory and processor registers.

o Instructions which controls the program together with instructions that check status
conditions.
o Input and Output instructions
Arithmetic, logic and shift instructions provide computational capabilities for processing the type
of data the user may wish to employ.
A huge amount of binary information is stored in the memory unit, but all computations are done
in processor registers. Therefore, one must possess the capability of moving information between
these two units.
Program control instructions such as branch instructions are used change the sequence in which
the program is executed.
Input and Output instructions act as an interface between the computer and the user. Programs
and data must be transferred into memory, and the results of computations must be transferred
back to the user.