Instructions: Data Transfer
load and store architecture
MIPS: can access memory only to transfer data to or from registers
CISC: may allow, for example, add to memory location, store in register
load: copy the data from memory into a register.
store: copy the data from a register to memory.
lw $rt, offset($rs) Load word from memory location to register
sw $rt, offset($rs) Store word from register to memory location
Offset is a 16-bit 2C value (immediate); all are I-type
semantics of lw
Addr <-- R[s] + (IR15)16::IR15-0
R[t] <-- M4[ Addr ]
compute address
- add the contents of register s (base) to the sign-extended offset
- offset is immediate
- non-aligned address: hardware exception
get data
- copy 4 bytes located at memory address starting at Addr to register t.
- CPU fetches the four bytes based on the endianness of the machine
sw similar to lw but the 4 byte quantity is copied from the register to memory.
M4[ Addr ] <-- R[t] stored in the endianness of the machine
Instructions: Data Transfer
Byte operations
lb $rt, offset($rs) Load sign-extended byte
from memory location to register
lbu $rt, offset($rs) Load zero-extended (unsigned) byte
from memory location to register
sb $rt, offset($rs) Store the least significant byte of a
register to memory location
What about sbu?
For lb, the address is computed the same way as lw,
but the address does not have to be word aligned.
Addr <-- R[s] + (IR15)16::IR15-0
R[t] <-- (M1[ Addr ]7)24::M1[ Addr ]
Since the value is interpreted as 2C, the fetched byte is sign-extended to 32 bits.
lbu is just like lb except the byte is zero-extended in the register
sb is similar to sw:
M1[ Addr ] <-- R[t]7-0
The least significant byte of register t is copied to the address in memory.
Do we really need to have separate instructions to load, store bytes?
Instructions: Data Transfer
machine code
lw $rt, offset($rs)
100101 01000 01001 00000 00000 100000
b31-26 b25-21 b20-16 b15-0
opcode $rs $rt immediate
opcodes: 100 xxx (load)
101 xxx (store)
$rs: base address
$rt: target register
immediate: offset
Instructions: Data Transfer
Halfword operations (short int)
short int is usually 16 bits
lh $rt, offset($rs) Load halfword from memory location to register
Data is sign-extended in register
lhu $rt, offset($rs) Data is zero-extended in register
sh $rt, offset($rs) Store halfword from register to memory location
Loading constant
lui $rt, immed
Semantics:
R[t] = IR15-0 016
load the lower halfword of immed into upper halfword of $rt
lower bits of $rt are set to 0
$rs is ignored
Data transfer: summary
R-type I-type
Load Word lw
Halfword lh
Halfword unsigned lhu
Byte lb
Byte unsigned lbu
Constant lui
Store Word sw
Halfword sh
Byte sb
Instruction Types
Arithmetic
Logical
Data Transfer
Compare/Branch
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