Architecture

Load and Store Instructions

With the R3900 Processor Core, the instruction immediately following a load instruction can use the loaded value. Hardware is interlocked for this purpose, causing a delay of one instruction cycle. Programming should be carried out with an awareness of the potential effects of the load delay slot.

The descriptions of load/store operations make use of the functions listed in Table A-2 in describing the handling of virtual addresses and physical memory.

 

Table A-2. Common Load/Store Functions

 

 

 

Function

 

Meaning

 

 

 

AddressTranslation

 

A memory management unit (MMU) is used to find the physical

 

 

address based on a given virtual address.

LoadMemory

 

The cache and main memory are used to find the contents of the

 

 

word containing the designated physical address. The low-order

 

 

two bits of the address and the access type field indicate which of

 

 

the four bytes in the data word are to be returned. If the cache is

 

 

enabled for this access, the whole word is returned and loaded into

 

 

the cache.

StoreMemory

 

The cache, write buffer and main memory are used to store the

 

 

word or partial word designated as data in the word containing the

 

 

designated physical address. The low-order two bits of the

 

 

address and the access type field indicate which of the four bytes

 

 

in the data word are to be stored.

The access type field indicates the size of data to be loaded or stored, as given in Table A-3. An address always designates the byte with the smallest byte address in the addressed field, regardless of the access type or the order in which bytes are numbered (endian). This is the left-most byte if big endian is used and the right-most byte if little endian is used.

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Toshiba TX39 user manual Table A-2. Common Load/Store Functions, Function Meaning