Instruction set

An instruction set, or instruction set architecture (ISA), is the part of the computer architecture related to programming, including the native data types, instructions, registers, addressing modes, memory architecture, interrupt and exception handling, and external I/O.

An ISA includes a specification of the set of opcodes (machine language), and the native commands implemented by a particular processor.

An instruction set is the interface between a computer's software and its hardware, and thereby enables the independent development of these two computing realms.

See also

• Comparison of instruction set architectures
• Computer architecture
• CPU design
• Emulator
• Instruction set simulator
• List of instruction sets
• OVPsim full systems simulator providing ability to create/model/emulate any instruction set using C and standard APIs
• Register transfer language (RTL)

External links

• Instruction set @ Wikipedia