Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)

Instruction Set Architecture: The machine language the CPU implements.

• Abstract model of a computer
• Implementations vary in performance, price, size, etc.
• “Everything you need to know to program a computer”
  • For us, assembly programmers, this is the registers and operations.
• Different computer have different ISA with many similar aspects.
• Many modern and early computers have very simple instruction sets.

Note: Everything you need to know to program a computer

• Built-in data types (integers, floating points)
• Fixed set of instructions
  • e.g., MIPS instructions are 4-bytes.
• Fixed set of registers
  • e.g., MIPS has 32 registers.
• Interface for accessing memory
• I/O Model

Machine Instructions

Machine Instruction: An instruction that is executed directly by the CPU.

• Made of the following parts (aka: fields):
  • Opcode Field: Specifies operation to be performed
    • Etymology: Operation Code
  • Address Fields: Memory or register address.
    • Each machine instruction can have one or more address fields.
    • Metaphor: Operands
  • Mode Field: Specifies the way the address field is to be interpreted.

Special Instruction Fields: Other special fields may be used under certain circumstances.

• e.g., immediate operands (where the data in the instruction itself).

Note: How instructions fit on 32-bit MIPS.

• There are 32 registers, therefore we need 5 bits to reference each register.
  • So is our instruction references 3 registers, that’s only 15 bits.
• However, memory addresses are 32-bits, how do we fit those?
  • We simply place them on the next word, and indicate to MIPS that we’re giving it a memory address!

General Purpose Registers (GPR)

Register File: Consists of all registers in the CPU that are accessible to the programmer.

• MIPS has 32 REGs, labelled $0 — $31
  • (Anything prefixed with a $ in MIPS is a memory address.)
• We use these registers to carry out operations.

One, Two Three-Address Machines (Instruction Formats)

Instruction Formats: Refer to the way instructions are encoded and represented in machine language.

• Remember, different architectures have different machine languages, and thus different instruction formats!
• The address fields of an instruction may consist of 1, 2, or 3 memory or register addresses.

Examples: Instruction formats in the real world

• The JVM is a 0-address machine, it uses a stack and has no registers.
• MIPS is a 3-address machine.

One, Two Three-Address Machines:

• If all address fields in instructions refer to registers, the CPU is referred to as a 1-, 2-, or 3-register address machine.
• If all address fields in instructions refer to memory addresses, the CPU is referred to as a 1-, 2-, or 3-memory address machine.
• For 1- and 3-address machines, the address fields can include both register and memory addresses.
  • In this case, the machine is called a 2 or 3-register-memory address machine.

Note: Because we are working with registers, we need to break complex expressions down and handle the order of operations ourselves!

Computing the Number of Memory Accesses

The more memory accesses you do, the slower your code is.

How-To Count Memory Accesses for One Instruction:

1. The instruction itself +1 to instruction count.
2. Rewrite in register transfer notation.
   • Each memory read +1 to instruction count.
   • Each memory read or write +1 to data count.

Note: Assumptions
We (usually) make the following assumptions when computing the number of memory accesses:

1. Each memory address requires one memory word
2. Opcode, mode, immediate value, number of shifts, and any number of register addresses require only one memory word