Tracking Multiple Conditions in a General Purpose Register and Instruction Therefor

摘要

An operate-and-insert instruction of a program, when executed performs an operation based on one or more operands, results of an instruction specified test of the operation performed are stored in an instruction specified location of an instruction specified general register. The instruction specified general register is therefore able to hold results of many operate-and-insert instructions. The program can then use non-branch type instructions to evaluate conditions saved in the register, thus avoiding the performance penalty of branch instructions.

主权项

1. A computer implemented method for executing an operate-and-insert instruction, the operate-and-insert instruction comprising an opcode field and specifying a first operand and a target register of a set of general registers, the target register storing a target register value, the first operand being in any one of main storage or a first register of the set of general registers, the method comprising:
obtaining, by the processor, the operand; performing an operation on the operand, the operation specified by the opcode field to produce a result; determining, by the processor, a condition indicative of the produced result; and storing, by the processor, the condition as a portion of the target register value in the target register of the set of general registers, the portion specified by the operate-and-insert instruction.