APPENDIX A MIPS III INSTRUCTION SET DETAILS
Preliminary Users Manual S15543EJ1V0UM 515
LWL Load Word Left (1/3) LWL
base

LWL

1 0 0 0 1 0 rt offset

31 26 25 21 20 16 15 0
655 16
Format:
LWL rt, offset (base)
Description:
This instruction can be used in combination with the LWR instruction to load a register with four consecutive bytes
from memory, when the bytes cross a word boundary. LWL loads the left portion of the register with the
appropriate part of the high-order word; LWR loads the right portion of the register with the appropriate part of the
low-order word.
The LWL instruction adds its sign-extended 16-bit
offset
to the contents of general register
base
to form a virtual
address that can specify an arbitrary byte. It reads bytes only from the word in memory that contains the specified
starting byte. From one to four bytes will be loaded, depending on the starting byte specified. In 64-bit mode, the
loaded word is sign-extended.
Conceptually, it starts at the specified byte in memory and loads that byte into the high-order (left-most) byte of the
register; then it loads bytes from memory into the register until it reaches the low-order byte of the word in memory.
The least-significant (right-most) byte(s) of the register will not be changed.
address 4
address 0
memory
7 6 5 4
3 2 1 0
before
after
$24
$24
register

LWL $24, 4 ($0)

A B C D
4 B C D