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Tech Talk & Technical Support / C++ 32-Bit Long Instruction (What Does This Mean?) Q&A
« Last post by Admin on April 27, 2012, 12:19:10 pm »In this post, I’m going to put aside any humor, and be very direct with you. We’re learning something important in this section, and just as a friend taught me this, I will teach you. This is what we’ll be learning today.
1) Each instruction is composed (made) of a number of binary digits which are often called bits. Bits is short for Binary digits
a. An instruction like “add 2 numbers” is represented in the computer by a code/number that exists somewhere else in the processor—a code the computer recognizes. The computer interprets this number/code as a particular job to do.
b. The number that tells the computer to do a specific job is represented not with a base-10 (decimal) number. The number that tells the computer to do a specific job is represented with a base-2 (binary) number.
i. The base-10, or decimal number, can be made-up of the digits 0 through 9. Notice this is in fact 10 digits. It is not native to computer’s inherent logic.
ii. The base-2, or binary number, can be made up of the digits 0 through 1. Notice that this in fact is 2 digits. It is native to the computer’s inherent.
iii. The base-16, or hexadecimal number, can be made up of the characters 0 through 9 including A through F. It is native to the computer’s inherent logic
iv. This is easier…
c. A “bit” is short for binary digit. A bit, or binary digit is a 0 or 1; many times thought of as “off” or “on,” “true” or “false…” Something you might know is that a bit and a “byte” seem like they belong to computers. Yip. A byte is made of 8 bits. “Bytes break into 8 bits” is one way to remember it. Sometime in the past, half a byte (4 bits) was called a “nibble.”
d. The code/number representing the instruction the computer should perform can be represented by some number of bits. Since I’m an old-time IBM-PC programmer, at that time an instruction was represented by some number/code by a byte—the combination.
i. Remembering… I’m sure there are not nearly as many instructions for the old 8088/8086 processors as can be represented by a byte. A byte can represent up to 256 (0 through 256) with its 8 bits, and certainly there weren’t that many instructions used nor needed for a 16-bit architecture. (Don’t take my word for it.)
ii. Tricky glue: a bit is represented by a small letter b. A byte is represented by a large letter B. A broadband download speed of 10 Mbps is 8 times slower than 10 MBps!!
MIPS architecture has instructions that are 32 bits long. Translation: 32 binary digits long.
1) Each instruction is composed (made) of a number of binary digits which are often called bits. Bits is short for Binary digits
a. An instruction like “add 2 numbers” is represented in the computer by a code/number that exists somewhere else in the processor—a code the computer recognizes. The computer interprets this number/code as a particular job to do.
b. The number that tells the computer to do a specific job is represented not with a base-10 (decimal) number. The number that tells the computer to do a specific job is represented with a base-2 (binary) number.
i. The base-10, or decimal number, can be made-up of the digits 0 through 9. Notice this is in fact 10 digits. It is not native to computer’s inherent logic.
ii. The base-2, or binary number, can be made up of the digits 0 through 1. Notice that this in fact is 2 digits. It is native to the computer’s inherent.
iii. The base-16, or hexadecimal number, can be made up of the characters 0 through 9 including A through F. It is native to the computer’s inherent logic
iv. This is easier…
c. A “bit” is short for binary digit. A bit, or binary digit is a 0 or 1; many times thought of as “off” or “on,” “true” or “false…” Something you might know is that a bit and a “byte” seem like they belong to computers. Yip. A byte is made of 8 bits. “Bytes break into 8 bits” is one way to remember it. Sometime in the past, half a byte (4 bits) was called a “nibble.”
d. The code/number representing the instruction the computer should perform can be represented by some number of bits. Since I’m an old-time IBM-PC programmer, at that time an instruction was represented by some number/code by a byte—the combination.
i. Remembering… I’m sure there are not nearly as many instructions for the old 8088/8086 processors as can be represented by a byte. A byte can represent up to 256 (0 through 256) with its 8 bits, and certainly there weren’t that many instructions used nor needed for a 16-bit architecture. (Don’t take my word for it.)
ii. Tricky glue: a bit is represented by a small letter b. A byte is represented by a large letter B. A broadband download speed of 10 Mbps is 8 times slower than 10 MBps!!
MIPS architecture has instructions that are 32 bits long. Translation: 32 binary digits long.