Panic! UNIX® System Crash Dump Analysis

Appendix B. SPARC Instruction Set

Now that you have a feel for the SPARC processor hardware, let’s talk about the native instruction set and software language of the SPARC processor. In this section we’ll cover most of the instructions in some detail; however, we’ll refer you to The SPARC Architecture Manual, Version 8 from SPARC International as the definitive reference.

Instruction set summary

The SPARC instruction set consists of 69 instructions. Each instruction takes exactly 32 bits. The complete set is often described as having six basic categories, as follows:

1. Memory access instructions

2. Arithmetic / logical / shift instructions

3. Control transfer instructions

4. State register instructions

5. Floating-point unit instructions

6. Coprocessor instructions

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