Instruction Format - 8051 Micro Controller

Instruction Format

An instruction is a command to the microprocessor to perform a given task on a specified data. Each instruction has two parts: one is task to be performed, called the operation code (opcode), and the second is the data to be operated on, called the operand. The operand (or data) can be specified in various ways. It may include 8-bit (or 16-bit) data, an internal register, a memory location, or 8-bit (or 16-bit) address. In some instructions, the operand is implicit.

Instruction word size

The 8051 instruction set is classified into the following three groups according to word size:

ü One-word or 1-byte instructions

ü Two-word or 2-byte instructions

ü Three-word or 3-byte instructions

1 One-Byte Instructions

A 1-byte instruction includes the opcode and operand in the same byte. Operand(s) are internal register and are coded into the instruction.

These instructions are 1-byte instructions performing three different tasks. In the first instruction, both operand registers are specified. In the second instruction, the operand B is specified and the accumulator is assumed. Similarly, in the third instruction, the accumulator is assumed to be the implicit operand. These instructions are stored in 8- bit binary format in memory; each requires one memory location.

2 Two-Byte Instructions

In a two-byte instruction, the first byte specifies the operation code and the second byte specifies the operand. Source operand is a data byte immediately following the opcode.

3 Three-Byte Instructions

In a three-byte instruction, the first byte specifies the opcode, and the following two bytes specify the 16-bit address. Note that the second byte is the low-order address and the third byte is the high-order address.