machine code

, language instructions for the processing of data in a binary, octal, or hexadecimal code that can be understood and executed by a computer

machine code

[mə′shēn ‚kōd] (computer science) A computer representation of a character, digit, or action command in internal form. A computer instruction in internal format, or that part of the instruction which identifies the action to be performed. The set of all instruction types that a particular computer can execute.

machine code

The representation of a computer program which is actuallyread and interpreted by the computer. A program in machinecode consists of a sequence of machine instructions (possiblyinterspersed with data). Instructions are binary stringswhich may be either all the same size (e.g. one 32-bit word formany modern RISC microprocessors) or of different sizes,in which case the size of the instruction is determined fromthe first word (e.g. Motorola 68000) or byte (e.g. Inmostransputer). The collection of all possible instructionsfor a particular computer is known as its "instruction set".

Execution of machine code may either be hard-wired into thecentral processing unit or it may be controlled bymicrocode. The basic execution cycle consists of fetchingthe next instruction from main memory, decoding it(determining which operation it specifies and the location ofany arguments) and executing it by opening various gates(e.g. to allow data to flow from main memory into a CPUregister) and enabling functional units (e.g. signalling tothe ALU to perform an addition).

Humans almost never write programs directly in machine code.Instead, they use a programming language which is translatedby the computer into machine code. The simplest kind ofprogramming language is assembly language which usually hasa one-to-one correspondence with the resulting machine codeinstructions but allows the use of mnemonics (ASCII strings)for the "op codes" (the part of the instruction whichencodes the basic type of operation to perform) and names forlocations in the program (branch labels) and for variables andconstants.

machine code

The binary instructions a CPU executes. See machine language.

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine language

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

machine code

Synonyms for machine code

noun a set of instructions coded so that the computer can use it directly without further translation

Synonyms

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