opcode
Noun
Meaning
opcode (plural opcodes)
(computing) A mnemonic used to refer to a microprocessor instruction in assembly language.
Anagrams
Examples
A 7-bit function field follows, which is used in conjunction with the opcode to specify an operation.
3/4 of the opcode bytes are assigned to 16 basic ALU instructions.
A complete machine language instruction consists of an opcode and, in many cases, additional bits that specify arguments for the operation (for example, the numbers to be summed in the case of an addition operation).
All these CPUs are opcode compatible (including undocumented opcodes ).
Because VLIWs typically represent instructions scheduled in parallel with a longer instruction word that incorporates the individual instructions, this results in a much longer opcode (termed very long) to specify what executes on a given cycle.
Assembly language instructions usually consist of an opcode mnemonic followed by a list of data, arguments or parameters. citation These are translated by an assembler into machine language instructions that can be loaded into memory and executed.