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       #Post#: 11--------------------------------------------------
       C++ 32-Bit Long Instruction (What Does This Mean?) Q&A
   DIR By: Admin
       Date: April 27, 2012, 12:19 pm
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       In this post, I’m going to put aside any humor, and be very
       direct with you. We’re learning something important in this
       section, and just as a friend taught me this, I will teach you.
       This is what we’ll be learning today.
       1) Each instruction is composed (made) of a number of binary
       digits which are often called bits. Bits is short for Binary
       digits
       a.       An instruction like “add 2 numbers” is represented in
       the computer by a code/number that exists somewhere else in the
       processor—a code the computer recognizes.  The computer
       interprets this number/code as a particular job to do.
       b. The number that tells the computer to do a specific job is
       represented not with a base-10 (decimal) number.  The number
       that tells the computer to do a specific job is represented with
       a base-2 (binary) number.
       i. The base-10, or decimal number, can be made-up of the digits
       0 through 9.  Notice this is in fact 10 digits.  It is not
       native to computer’s inherent logic.
       ii. The base-2, or binary number, can be made up of the digits 0
       through 1.  Notice that this in fact is 2 digits.  It is native
       to the computer’s inherent.
       iii. The base-16, or hexadecimal number, can be made up of the
       characters 0 through 9 including A through F.  It is native to
       the computer’s inherent logic
       iv. This is easier…
       c. A “bit” is short for binary digit.  A bit, or binary digit is
       a 0 or 1; many times thought of as “off” or “on,” “true” or
       “false…”  Something you might know is that a bit and a “byte”
       seem like they belong to computers.  Yip.  A byte is made of 8
       bits.  “Bytes break into 8 bits” is one way to remember it.
       Sometime in the past, half a byte (4 bits) was called a
       “nibble.”
       d. The code/number representing the instruction the computer
       should perform can be represented by some number of bits.  Since
       I’m an old-time IBM-PC programmer, at that time an instruction
       was represented by some number/code by a byte—the combination.
       i.  Remembering…  I’m sure there are not nearly as many
       instructions for the old 8088/8086 processors as can be
       represented by a byte.  A byte can represent up to 256 (0
       through 256) with its 8 bits, and certainly there weren’t that
       many instructions used nor needed for a 16-bit architecture.
       (Don’t take my word for it.)
       ii.      Tricky glue:  a bit is represented by a small letter b.
       A byte is represented by a large letter B.  A broadband
       download speed of 10 Mbps is 8 times slower than 10 MBps!!
       MIPS architecture has instructions that are 32 bits long.
       Translation: 32 binary digits long.
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