Comparison Chart of SIC and SIC/XE machine
Specification SIC SIC/XE
Memory Word size: 3 bytes (24 bits) Word size: 3 bytes (24 bits)
Total size: 32,768 bytes (215). Thus any memory address Total size: 32,768 bytes (215). Thus any memory address
will need at most 15 bits to be referenced ('almost' four will need at most 15 bits to be referenced ('almost' four
hex characters). hex characters).
Register Total Registers: 5 Total Registers: 9 , same 5 from SIC plus 4 additional ones.
Accumulator (A): Used for most of the operations (number Base (B): Used for base‐relative addressing (number 3)
0) General (S and T): General use (numbers 4 and 5 resp.)
Index (X): Used for indexed addressing (number 1) Floating Point Accumulator (F): Used for floating point
Linkage (L): Stores return addresses for JSUB (number 2) arithmetic, 48 bits long (number 6)
Program Counter (PC): Address for next instruction
(number 8)
Status Word (SW): Information and condition codes
(number 9).
Instruction Formats Only one instruction format of 24 bits (3 bytes / 1 word) Four instruction formats
Opcode: first 8 bits, direct translation from the Operation Format 1 (1 byte): contains only operation code (straight
Code Table from table)
Flag (x): next bit indicates address mode (0 direct ‐ 1 Format 2 (2 bytes): first eight bits for operation code, next
indexed) four for register 1 and following four for register 2.
Address: next 15 bits, indicate address of operand The numbers for the registers go according to the numbers
according to address mode. indicated at the registers section (ie, register T is replaced
by hex 5).
If the operation uses only one register the last hex digit
becomes \0" (ie,TIXR T becomes B850)
Format 3 (3 bytes): First 6 bits contain operation code, next
6 bits contain flags, last 12 bits contain displacement for
the address of the operand.
Operation code uses only 6 bits, thus the second hex digit
will be a affected by the values of the first two flags (n and
i)
The flags, in order, are: n, i, x, b, p, and e. Its functionality is
explained in the next section.
The last flag e indicates the instruction format (0 for 3 and
1 for 4)
Format 4 (4 bytes): same as format 3 with an extra 2 hex
digits (8 bits) for addresses that require more than 12 bits
to be represented
Specification SIC SIC/XE
Addressing Modes Only two possible addressing modes five possible addressing modes plus combinations (see
Direct (x = 0): operand address goes as it is Indexed (x = 1): page 11 for examples)
value to be added to the value stored at the register x to Direct (x, b, and p all set to 0): operand address goes as it
obtain real address of the operand. is. n and i are both set to the same value, either 0 or 1.
While in general that value is 1, if set to 0 for format 3 we
can assume that the rest of the flags (x, b, p, and e) are
used as a part of the address of the operand, to make the
format compatible to the SIC format
Relative (either b or p equal to 1 and the other one to 0):
the address of the operand should be added to the current
value stored at the B register (if b = 1) or to the value
stored at the PC register (if p = 1)
Immediate (i = 1, n = 0): The operand value is already
enclosed on the instruction (ie. lies on the last 12/20 bits of
the instruction)
Indirect (i = 0, n = 1): The operand value points to an
address that holds the address for the operand value
Indexed (x = 1): value to be added to the value stored at
the register x to obtain real address of the operand. This
can be combined with any of the previous modes except
immediate.
Assembler Operation code gets translated directly from table (no Operation code gets translated directly from table. While
Considerations need to check other bits) the first hex digit remains the same, the second one can
x bit dependent on the addressing mode of the operand. If change according to the values of the n and i flags. Thus,
indexed the code will have to indicate it with \,X" after the we can add 1, 2 or 3 to the operation code.
operand name (ie. BUFFER,X) Direct addressing is mainly used in extended format
The last 3 hex digits of the address will remain the same, (format 4) and is indicated with a \+" before the operand
the first hex digit (leftmost) will change if the address is (an indication that the format is 4, which will also make the
indexed (first bit becomes one, thus the hex digit increases e flag to be 1).
by 8). Ie, if the address of the operand is 124A and the Relative: for Base relative, the instruction BASE will
addressing is indexed, the object code will indicate 924A. precede the current instruction.
Any other format, except immediate, will be considered
Program Counter relative. If the displacement with respect
to the PC does not t into the 12 bits, the assembler should
try to compute the displacement with respect to the Base
register. If neither case works, the instruction should be
extended to format 4, where the addressing mode
becomes direct.
Specification SIC SIC/XE
Immediate addressing will be indicated by the use of \#"
before the operand name/value (ie. #1)
Indirect addressing will be indicated by adding the prex
\@" to the operand name (ie. @RETADR)
Indexed addressing will be indicated the same way as it
was for the SIC machine, \,X" after the operand name (ie.
BUFFER,X)
Hex digits for the address are not affected by the content
of the flags, since the first two flags affect the second digit
of the operation code, and the following four make up its
own hex digit.
