addressing mode
1. <processor, programming> One of a set of methods for specifying the
operand(s) for a machine code instruction. Different processors vary greatly in
the number of addressing modes they provide. The more complex modes described
below can usually be replaced with a short sequence of instructions using only
simpler modes.
The most common modes are "register" - the operand is stored in a specified
register; "absolute" - the operand is stored at a specified memory address; and
"immediate" - the operand is contained within the instruction.
Most processors also have indirect addressing modes, e.g. "register indirect",
"memory indirect" where the specified register or memory location does not
contain the operand but contains its address, known as the "effective address".
For an absolute addressing mode, the effective address is contained within the
instruction.
Indirect addressing modes often have options for pre- or post- increment or
decrement, meaning that the register or memory location containing the effective
address is incremented or decremented by some amount (either fixed or also
specified in the instruction), either before or after the instruction is
executed. These are very useful for stacks and for accessing blocks of data.
Other variations form the effective address by adding together one or more
registers and one or more constants which may themselves be direct or indirect.
Such complex addressing modes are designed to support access to multidimensional
arrays and arrays of data structures.
The addressing mode may be "implicit" - the location of the operand is obvious
from the particular instruction. This would be the case for an instruction that
modified a particular control register in the CPU or, in a stack based processor
where operands are always on the top of the stack.
2. In IBM System 370/XA the addressing mode bit controls the size of the
effective address generated. When this bit is zero, the CPU is in the 24-bit
addressing mode, and 24 bit instruction and operand effective addresses are
generated. When this bit is one, the CPU is in the 31-bit addressing mode, and
31-bit instruction and operand effective addresses are generated.
["IBM System/370 Extended Architecture Principles of Operation", Chapter 5.,
'Address Generation', BiModal Addressing].
(1995-03-30)
Nearby terms:
address bus « addressed call mode « addressee «
addressing mode » address mask » address
resolution » Address Resolution Protocol
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