Instruction Coding Formats
MIPS instructions are classified into four groups according to their coding formats:
- R-Type - This group contains all instructions that do not require an immediate value, target offset, memory address displacement, or memory address to specify an operand. This includes arithmetic and logic with all operands in registers, shift instructions, and register direct jump instructions (jalr and jr).
All R-type instructions use opcode 000000.
- I-Type - This group includes instructions with an immediate operand, branch instructions, and load and store instructions. In the MIPS architecture, all memory accesses are handled by the main processor, so coprocessor load and store instructions are included in this group.
All opcodes except 000000, 00001x, and 0100xx are used for I-type instructions.
- J-Type - This group consists of the two direct jump instructions (j and jal). These instructions require a memory address to specify their operand.
J-type instructions use opcodes 00001x.
- Coprocessor Instructions - MIPS processors all have two standard coprocessors, CP0 and CP1. CP0 processes various kinds of program exceptions. CP1 is a floating point processor. The MIPS architecture makes allowance for future inclusion of two additional coprocessors, CP2 and CP3.
All coprocessor instructions instructions use opcodes 0100xx.
R-Type Instructions (Opcode 000000)
Main processor instructions that do not require a target address, immediate value, or branch displacement use an R-type coding format. This format has fields for specifying of up to three registers and a shift amount. For instructions that do not use all of these fields, the unused fields are coded with all 0 bits. All R-type instructions use a 000000 opcode. The operation is specified by the function field.
| opcode (6) | rs (5) | rt (5) | rd (5) | sa (5) | function (6) |
| Instruction | Function | |
| add | rd, rs, rt | 100000 |
| addu | rd, rs, rt | 100001 |
| and | rd, rs, rt | 100100 |
| break | 001101 | |
| div | rs, rt | 011010 |
| divu | rs, rt | 011011 |
| jalr | rd, rs | 001001 |
| jr | rs | 001000 |
| mfhi | rd | 010000 |
| mflo | rd | 010010 |
| mthi | rs | 010001 |
| mtlo | rs | 010011 |
| mult | rs, rt | 011000 |
| multu | rs, rt | 011001 |
| nor | rd, rs, rt | 100111 |
| or | rd, rs, rt | 100101 |
| sll | rd, rt, sa | 000000 |
| sllv | rd, rt, rs | 000100 |
| slt | rd, rs, rt | 101010 |
| sltu | rd, rs, rt | 101011 |
| sra | rd, rt, sa | 000011 |
| srav | rd, rt, rs | 000111 |
| srl | rd, rt, sa | 000010 |
| srlv | rd, rt, rs | 000110 |
| sub | rd, rs, rt | 100010 |
| subu | rd, rs, rt | 100011 |
| syscall | 001100 | |
| xor | rd, rs, rt | 100110 |
I-Type Instructions (All opcodes except 000000, 00001x, and 0100xx)
I-type instructions have a 16-bit immediate field that codes an immediate operand, a branch target offset, or a displacement for a memory operand. For a branch target offset, the immediate field contains the signed difference between the address of the following instruction and the target label, with the two low order bits dropped. The dropped bits are always 0 since instructions are word-aligned.
For the bgez, bgtz, blez, and bltz instructions, the rt field is used as an extension of the opcode field.
| opcode (6) | rs (5) | rt (5) | immediate (16) |
| Instruction | Opcode | Notes | |
| addi | rt, rs, immediate | 001000 | |
| addiu | rt, rs, immediate | 001001 | |
| andi | rt, rs, immediate | 001100 | |
| beq | rs, rt, label | 000100 | |
| bgez | rs, label | 000001 | rt = 00001 |
| bgtz | rs, label | 000111 | rt = 00000 |
| blez | rs, label | 000110 | rt = 00000 |
| bltz | rs, label | 000001 | rt = 00000 |
| bne | rs, rt, label | 000101 | |
| lb | rt, immediate(rs) | 100000 | |
| lbu | rt, immediate(rs) | 100100 | |
| lh | rt, immediate(rs) | 100001 | |
| lhu | rt, immediate(rs) | 100101 | |
| lui | rt, immediate | 001111 | |
| lw | rt, immediate(rs) | 100011 | |
| lwc1 | rt, immediate(rs) | 110001 | |
| ori | rt, rs, immediate | 001101 | |
| sb | rt, immediate(rs) | 101000 | |
| slti | rt, rs, immediate | 001010 | |
| sltiu | rt, rs, immediate | 001011 | |
| sh | rt, immediate(rs) | 101001 | |
| sw | rt, immediate(rs) | 101011 | |
| swc1 | rt, immediate(rs) | 111001 | |
| xori | rt, rs, immediate | 001110 | |
J-Type Instructions (Opcode 00001x)
The only J-type instructions are the jump instructions j and jal. These intructions require a 26-bit coded address field to specify the target of the jump. The coded address is formed from the bits at positions 27 to 2 in the binary representation of the address. The bits at positions 1 and 0 are always 0 since instructions are word-aligned.
When a J-type instruction is executed, a full 32-bit jump target address is formed by concatenating the high order four bits of the PC (the address of the instruction following the jump), the 26 bits of the target field, and two 0 bits.
| opcode (6) | target (26) |
| Instruction | Opcode | Target | |
| j | label | 000010 | coded address of label |
| jal | label | 000011 | coded address of label |
Coprocessor Instructions (Opcode 0100xx)
The only instructions that are described here are the floating point instructions that are common to all processors in the MIPS family. All coprocessor instructions instructions use opcode 0100xx. The last two bits specify the coprocessor number. Thus all floating point instructions use opcode 010001.
The instruction is broken up into fields of the same sizes as in the R-type instruction format. However, the fields are used in different ways.
Most floating point intructions use the format field to specify a numerical coding format: single precision (.s), double precision (.d), or fixed point (.w). The mfc1 and mtc1 instructions uses the format field as an extension of the function field.
| opcode (6) | format (5) | ft (5) | fs (5) | fd (5) | function (6) |
| Instruction | Function | Format | |
| add.s | fd, fs, ft | 000000 | 10000 |
| cvt.s.w | fd, fs, ft | 100000 | 10100 |
| cvt.w.s | fd, fs, ft | 100100 | 10000 |
| div.s | fd, fs, ft | 000011 | 10000 |
| mfc1 | ft, fs | 000000 | 00000 |
| mov.s | fd, fs | 000110 | 10000 |
| mtc1 | ft, fs | 000000 | 00100 |
| mul.s | fd, fs, ft | 000010 | 10000 |
| sub.s | fd, fs, ft | 000001 | 10000 |
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