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Status Register
A status register, flag register, or condition code register (CCR) is a collection of status Flag (computing), flag bits for a Central processing unit, processor. Examples of such registers include FLAGS register (computing), FLAGS register in the x86 architecture, flags in the program status word (PSW) register in the IBM System/360 architecture through z/Architecture, and the application program status register (APSR) in the ARM Cortex-A architecture. The status register is a hardware register that contains information about the state of the Central processing unit, processor. Individual bits are implicitly or explicitly read and/or written by the machine code instructions executing on the processor. The status register lets an instruction take action contingent on the outcome of a previous instruction. Typically, flags in the status register are modified as effects of arithmetic and bit manipulation operations. For example, a Z bit may be set if the result of the operation is ze ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flag (computing)
In computer programming, flag can refer to one or more bits that are used to store a binary numeral system, binary value or a Boolean variable for signaling special Source code, code conditions, such as file empty or full queue statuses. Flags may be found as members of a defined data structure, such as a Row (database), database record, and the meaning of the value contained in a flag will generally be defined in relation to the data structure it is part of. In many cases, the binary value of a flag will be understood to represent one of several possible states or statuses. In other cases, the binary values may represent one or more attributes in a bit field, often related to abilities or permissions, such as "can be written to" or "can be deleted". However, there are many other possible meanings that can be assigned to flag values. One common use of flags is to mark or designate data structures for future processing. Within microprocessors and other logic devices, flags are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Least Significant Bit
In computing, bit numbering is the convention used to identify the bit positions in a binary number. Bit significance and indexing In computing, the least significant bit (LSb) is the bit position in a binary integer representing the lowest-order place of the integer. Similarly, the most significant bit (MSb) represents the highest-order place of the binary integer. The LSb is sometimes referred to as the ''low-order bit''. Due to the convention in positional notation of writing less significant digits further to the right, the LSb also might be referred to as the ''right-most bit''. The MSb is similarly referred to as the ''high-order bit'' or ''left-most bit''. In both cases, the LSb and MSb correlate directly to the least significant digit and most significant digit of a decimal integer. Bit indexing correlates to the positional notation of the value in base 2. For this reason, bit index is not affected by how the value is stored on the device, such as the value's byte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Protection Ring
In computer science, hierarchical protection domains, often called protection rings, are mechanisms to protect data and functionality from faults (by improving fault tolerance) and malicious behavior (by providing computer security). Computer operating systems provide different levels of access to resources. A protection ring is one of two or more hierarchical ''levels'' or ''layers'' of privilege within the architecture of a computer system. This is generally hardware-enforced by some CPU architectures that provide different CPU modes at the hardware or microcode level. Rings are arranged in a hierarchy from most privileged (most trusted, usually numbered zero) to least privileged (least trusted, usually with the highest ring number). On most operating systems, Ring 0 is the level with the most privileges and interacts most directly with the physical hardware such as certain CPU functionality (e.g. the control registers) and I/O controllers. Special mechanisms are provide ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interrupt Handler
In computer systems programming, an interrupt handler, also known as an interrupt service routine (ISR), is a special block of code associated with a specific interrupt condition. Interrupt handlers are initiated by hardware interrupts, software interrupt instructions, or software exception handling, exceptions, and are used for implementing device drivers or transitions between protected modes of operation, such as system calls. The traditional form of interrupt handler is the hardware interrupt handler. Hardware interrupts arise from electrical conditions or low-level protocols implemented in digital logic, are usually dispatched via a hard-coded table of interrupt vectors, asynchronously to the normal execution stream (as interrupt masking levels permit), often using a separate stack, and automatically entering into a different execution context (privilege level) for the duration of the interrupt handler's execution. In general, hardware interrupts and their handlers are used ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PDP-11 Architecture
The PDP-11 architecture is a 16-bit CISC instruction set architecture (ISA) developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). It is implemented by central processing units (CPUs) and microprocessors used in PDP-11 minicomputers. It was in wide use during the 1970s, but was eventually overshadowed by the more powerful VAX architecture in the 1980s. CPU registers The CPU contains eight general-purpose 16-bit registers (R0 to R7). Register R7 is the program counter (PC). Although any register can be used as a stack pointer, R6 is the stack pointer (SP) used for hardware interrupts and traps. R5 is often used to point to the current procedure call frame. To speed up context switching, some PDP-11 models provide dual R0-R5 register sets. Kernel, Supervisor (where present), and User modes have separate memory maps, and also separate stack pointers (so that a user program cannot cause the system to malfunction by storing an invalid value in the stack pointer register). Memory Data ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microchip Technology
Microchip Technology Incorporated is a publicly listed American semiconductor corporation that manufactures microcontroller, mixed-signal, analog, and Flash-IP integrated circuits. Its corporate headquarters is located in Chandler, Arizona. Its wafer fabs are located in Gresham, Oregon, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. The company's assembly/test facilities are in Chachoengsao, Thailand, and Calamba and Cabuyao, Philippines. Microchip Technology offers support and resources to educators, researchers and students in an effort to increase awareness and knowledge of embedded applications. History Origins Microchip Technology was founded in 1987 when General Instrument spun off its microelectronics division as a wholly owned subsidiary. The newly formed company was a supplier of programmable non-volatile memory, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, card chip on board, and consumer integrated circuits. An initial public offering (IPO) later in the year was canc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interrupt Flag
The Interrupt flag (IF) is a flag bit in the CPU's FLAGS register, which determines whether or not the (CPU) will respond immediately to maskable hardware interrupts. If the flag is set to 1 maskable interrupts are enabled. If reset (set to 0) such interrupts will be disabled until interrupts are enabled. The Interrupt flag does not affect the handling of non-maskable interrupts (NMIs) or software interrupts generated by the INT instruction. Setting and clearing In a system using x86 architecture, the instructions CLI (Clear Interrupt) and STI (Set Interrupt). The POPF (Pop Flags) removes a word from the stack into the FLAGS register, which may result in the Interrupt flag being set or cleared based on the bit in the FLAGS register from the top of the stack. Privilege level In systems that support privileged mode, only privileged applications (usually the OS kernel) may modify the Interrupt flag. In an x86 system this only applies to protected mode code (Real mode code may ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parity Flag
In computer processors the parity flag indicates if the numbers of set bits is odd or even in the binary representation of the result of the last operation. It is normally a single bit in a processor status register. For example, assume a machine where a set parity flag indicates even parity. If the result of the last operation were 26 (11010 in binary), the parity flag would be 0 since the number of set bits is odd. Similarly, if the result were 10 (1010 in binary) then the parity flag would be 1. Some microcontrollers, notably the ubiquitous 8051, include a parity flag to help with implementing RS-232 and other serial communication protocols, in lieu of a UART with parity support. x86 processors x86 processors include a parity flag because they are descended (via the Intel 8086, 8080 and 8008) from the Datapoint 2200 terminal, which was designed for serial communication duties. In x86 processors, the parity flag reflects the parity of only the ''least significant byte'' of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Binary-coded Decimal
In computing and electronic systems, binary-coded decimal (BCD) is a class of binary encodings of decimal numbers where each digit is represented by a fixed number of bits, usually four or eight. Sometimes, special bit patterns are used for a sign or other indications (e.g. error or overflow). In byte-oriented systems (i.e. most modern computers), the term ''unpacked'' BCD usually implies a full byte for each digit (often including a sign), whereas ''packed'' BCD typically encodes two digits within a single byte by taking advantage of the fact that four bits are enough to represent the range 0 to 9. The precise four-bit encoding, however, may vary for technical reasons (e.g. Excess-3). The ten states representing a BCD digit are sometimes called '' tetrades'' (the nibble typically needed to hold them is also known as a tetrade) while the unused, don't care-states are named ''pseudo-tetrad(e)s'', ''pseudo-decimals'', or ''pseudo-decimal digits''. BCD's main virtue, in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nibble
In computing, a nibble, or spelled nybble to match byte, is a unit of information that is an aggregation of four- bits; half of a byte/ octet. The unit is alternatively called nyble, nybl, half-byte or tetrade. In networking or telecommunications, the unit is often called a semi-octet, quadbit, or quartet. As a nibble can represent sixteen () possible values, a nibble value is often shown as a hexadecimal digit (hex digit). A byte is two nibbles, and therefore, a value can be shown as two hex digits. Four-bit computers use nibble-sized data for storage and operations; as the word unit. Such computers were used in early microprocessors, pocket calculators and pocket computers. They continue to be used in some microcontrollers. In this context, 4-bit groups were sometimes also called characters rather than nibbles. History The term ''nibble'' originates from its representing half a byte, with ''byte'' a homophone of the English word ''bite''. In 2014, David B. Be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Half-carry Flag
A half-carry flag (also known as an auxiliary flag) is a condition flag bit in the status register of many CPU families, such as the Intel 8080, Zilog Z80, the x86, and the Atmel AVR series, among others. It indicates when a carry or borrow has been generated out of the least significant four bits of the accumulator register following the execution of an arithmetic instruction. It is primarily used in decimal ( BCD) arithmetic instructions. Usage Normally, a processor that uses binary arithmetic (which includes almost all modern CPUs) will add two 8-bit byte values according to the rules of simple binary addition. For example, adding 25 and 48 produces 6D. However, for binary-coded decimal (BCD) values, where each 4-bit nibble represents a decimal digit, addition is more complicated. For example, adding the decimal value 25 and 48, which are encoded as the BCD values 25 and 48, the binary addition of the two values produces 6D. Since the lower nibble of this value is a non-de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two's Complement
Two's complement is the most common method of representing signed (positive, negative, and zero) integers on computers, and more generally, fixed point binary values. Two's complement uses the binary digit with the ''greatest'' value as the ''sign'' to indicate whether the binary number is positive or negative; when the most significant bit is ''1'' the number is signed as negative and when the most significant bit is ''0'' the number is signed as positive. As a result, non-negative numbers are represented as themselves: 6 is 0110, zero is 0000, and −6 is 1010 (the result of applying the bitwise NOT operator to 6 and adding 1). However, while the number of binary bits is fixed throughout a computation it is otherwise arbitrary. Unlike the ones' complement scheme, the two's complement scheme has only one representation for zero. Furthermore, arithmetic implementations can be used on signed as well as unsigned integers and differ only in the integer overflow situations. Proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
