Instruction Set Architecture

Computer Organization

Lecture #8
Jahan Zeb
 ISA Level
 ISA level defines the interface
between the compilers and the
hardware
 Backward compatibility
 New machine
 Predecessor Compatibility
 Operating System
 Applications Unmodified

Lecture #8, ISA 2

Properties of the ISA Level
 Memory Models
 Registers
 Types of instructions
 Normative
 Which impose requirements
 Informative
 Intended to help the reader but are not part of definitions
 Kernel Mode
 Allows all instructions
 User Mode
 Allow application programs and not permit certain sensitive
instructions
Lecture #8, ISA 3
 Memory Models

 Memory divided into cells, consecutive addresses, common size is 8 bits

 Many architectures require words to be aligned on their natural
boundaries
 Alignment is illustrated in figure (a)
 Having the ability to read words at arbitrary addresses requires extra
logic on the chip, which makes it bigger and more expensive
Lecture #8, ISA 4
Registers
 ISA level registers can be divided into two categories:
 Special Purpose Registers: include registers like program
counter, stack pointer, as well as other registers with a
specific function
 General Purpose Registers: are there to hold key local
variables and intermediate results of calculations
 On some machines, the general purpose registers are
completely symmetric and interchangeable, at some machines
general purpose registers can be a bit special e.g. EDX in
Pentium II

Lecture #8, ISA 5

 contd…
 Even general purpose registers are interchangeable it is
common to adopt conventions about how they are used,
system-wide conventions regarding some registers should be
adhered
 Special purpose registers only available in kernel mode,
controls various caches, memory, I/O devices etc
 Control register: Flag Register or Program Status Word, hold
various bits needed by the CPU e.g. condition codes
 N: set when the result was Negative
 Z: set when the result was Zero
 V: Set when the result caused an oVerflow
Lecture #8, ISA 6
Pentium II ISA Level
 Instrucions
 Main feature of the ISA level is its set of machine
instructions, these control what a machine can do
 LOAD, STORE, MOVE
 In figure, first four registers: EAX, EBX, ECX,
EDX are general purpose registers
 EAX: arithmetic register, EBX: hold pointers,
ECX: Looping, EDX: Multiplication/Division

Lecture #8, ISA 7

 Overview of Pentium II ISA Level
The Pentium IIs primary registers.

Lecture #8, ISA 8

Pentium II ISA Level Primary Registers

 ESI and EDI are used to hold pointers in memory

 EBP, points to stack frame, frame pointer
 ESP, is the stack pointer
 CS through GS are segment registers used by
predecessor
 EIP: Program Counter
 EFLAGS: which is the PSW

Lecture #8, ISA 9

 UltraSPARC II ISA Level
 In order to make procedure calls more efficient, organization of
registers is a bit complex
 It has two groups of registers: general purpose registers and
floating point registers
 Conventional functions are listed in figure, though it would be
unwise to deviate from the listed uses
 Global variables: variables and pointers needed in all
procedures
 Three dedicated registers are used for special purposes, FP, SP,
R31
 Register Window, using registers as a stack
 Current Window Pointer keeps track of which register set is in
use
Lecture #8, ISA 10
Lecture #8, ISA 11
Data Types
 For processing computers require data
 Computer systems process commercial, financial,
engineering etc data
 Data has to be represented inside the computer
 At ISA level variety of data types are used
 Numeric Data Types
 Non Numeric Data Types

Lecture #8, ISA 12

Numeric Data Types
 Integers
 Count things (No. of computers, cars etc)
 Identify things (Bank Account Numbers, Credit card numbers,
passwords)
 Integers can be further categorized into unsigned and signed
integers, an unsigned integer contains no sign bit and all the bits
contain data
 Floating Point
 For numbers like, 2.7, 7.7, 0.5 etc, floating point data types are
used
 Many Computers have separate registers for holding integer
operands and for holding floating point operands
Lecture #8, ISA 13
Nonnumeric Data Types
 Characters
 For the representation of various characters, character data type is
used
 Most common character codes are ASCII, UNICODE
 Character Strings
 For handling consecutive run of characters, special instructions are
intended to handle character strings
 Instructions can perform copy, search, edit and other functions on
strings
 Boolean
 Boolean value can take one or two values: true or false
 In practice, a byte or a word is used per Boolean value because
individual bits in a byte do not have their own addresses
 Bit Map: Consecutive 1 bit Boolean values

Lecture #8, ISA 14

contd…
 Pointers
 Just an address
 Accessing a variable at a fixed location we require
pointer

Lecture #8, ISA 15

 Instruction Formats
 An instruction consists upon an ‘opcode’ and ‘address’
 Opcode is usually along with information e.g. where
operands come from, where results go to
 Specifying where the operands are (i.e. addresses) is
called addressing
 Figure shows several possible formats for instructions,
having opcode and address(s)
 There can be a zero, one, two, or three addresses present

Lecture #8, ISA 16

Instruction Formats

Four common instruction formats:

(a) Zero-address instruction. (b) One-address instruction
(c) Two-address instruction. (d) Three-address instruction.

Lecture #8, ISA 17