Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!CS.NIU.EDU!rickert From: rickert@CS.NIU.EDU (Neil Rickert) Newsgroups: comp.lang.asm370 Subject: Re: New System/3x0 Instruction Message-ID: <9103180231.AA14774@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Date: 18 Mar 91 02:28:26 GMT References: <9103180137.AA13890@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: IBM 370 Assembly Programming Discussion List Distribution: inet Organization: The Internet Lines: 18 In article <9103180137.AA13890@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> you write: >It seems that we're trying to say some opcodes, say LA is a machine >instruction, while other more complicated and implemented in microcode >instructions are not 'instructions'. Where would you draw the line? Clearly If you can execute that opcode on any machine in the same class, independent of the operating system, and it always performs the useful defined effect, it is an instruction. If the opcode is designed to perform a special purpose procedure for a specific software environment, and makes no sense outside that environment, it is a microcode assist. The term 'same class' above is deliberately vague. -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940