Instruction Processing

Abstract

This chapter concerns the interaction between instruction sequences under execution and components of their execution environment concerning the processing of instructions. The idea is that an execution environment provides a family of named components of which each is responsible for the processing of particular instructions. The attention is restricted to the components that are capable of processing the instructions concerned independently. With this, we mean that no interaction with external parties is needed by the components to accomplish the processing. Components that are capable of processing instructions for storing and fetching data of an auxiliary nature are typical examples of components that do not need interaction with external parties, but components that are capable of processing instructions for reading input data or showing output data need interaction with external parties.