CHAPTER 2Instruction Set Architecture
2.1 INTRODUCTION
There are two ways of looking at a processor. One is an implementation view, where we ‘cut-open’ the processor and study the building blocks to understand how the processor works. In this view, we take a look at the block diagram of the processor hardware, understand the functionality of various blocks and see how the information flows between them. The second view is the interface view, which tells us how to use the processor, rather than how the processor is constructed. Here, we look at the programmer’s model, which provides the necessary information to write software for the processor.
Programmer's model is useful to both programmers and hardware designers. It enables the programmers to write programs without having to get into the internal details of the ...
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