Computer Organization CoE234

3.5 Instruction Formats

 An instruction consists of an opcode, usually along with some additional information such
as:
 Where operands come from
 Where results go to
 The general subject of specifying where the operands come from and where results go to is
called addressing.
 Most recent processors use three addresses. However, it is possible to design systems with
two, one, or even zero addresses.
 There are four categories of instruction formats:
∗ 3-address instruction
Opcode Operand 1 Operand 2 Operand 3

∗ 2-address instruction
Opcode Operand 1 Operand 2

∗ 1-address instruction
Opcode Operand 1

∗ 0-address instruction
Opcode

 Operands may be registers or memory addresses.

 Three-address machines
∗ Two for the source operands, one for the result.
∗ RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processors use three addresses like ARM.
∗ Example:
ADD r1, r2, r3 ; r1= r2 + r3

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 Two-address machines
∗ One address doubles (for source operand & result).
∗ CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computer) processors use two addresses like core i9.

∗ Example:
ADD AX, BX ; AX=AX + BX
MOV EAX, EBX ; EAX EBX

 One-address machines
∗ In the early machines, when memory was expensive and slow, a special set of registers
was used to provide an input operand as well as to receive the result from the ALU. These
registers are called the accumulators.
∗ Instructions for these machines need to specify only the address of a single operand.
∗ There is no need to store the result in memory: this
– reduces the need for larger memory
– reduces the number of memory accesses ( speeds up the computation)
∗ Examples:
LDA P ; Load accumulator with P
ADD Q ; Add Q to accumulator
STA R ; Store accumulator in R
INC R1 ; Increment register R1 by 1
DEC R1 ; Decrement register R1 by 1
 Zero-address machines
∗ Locations of both operands are assumed to be at a default location.
∗ These machines use the stack as the source of the input operands and the result goes back
into the stack.

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∗ Examples:
NOP ; No operation
HLT ; Halt the CPU
PUSH operand ; Push operand into top of the stack
POP operand ; Remove the operand from top of the stack

Example: Evaluate the following expression:

Z= (A+B) * (C-D)
Using a) zero-address machines
b) one-address machines
c) two-address machines
d) three-address machines

Solution:
a)
PUSH A ; Push A onto stack
PUSH B ; Push B onto stack
ADD ; Pull the top two items of the stack, add them, and push A+B
on the stack
PUSH C ; Push C onto stack
PUSH D ; Push D onto stack
SUB ; Subtract top two items and push C-D on the stack

MUL ; Multiply top two items on the stack; that is (C-D) and (A+B)
and push the result
POP Z ; Pull the top item of the stack (the result)

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b)
LOAD A
ADD B
STORE Temp
LOAD C
SUB D
MUL Temp
STORE Z
c)
LOAD R1, A
ADD R1, B
LOAD R2, C
SUB R2, D
MUL R2, R1
STORE Z, R2
d)
ADD R1, A, B
SUB R2, C, D
MUL Z, R1, R2

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