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Addressing modes determine which part of memory a machine instruction refers to. RAM is the main memory area of a computer and machine instructions often need to refer to specific portions of it. Addressing modes break up sections of RAM into individual portions that can be referenced individually. Different types of computer architecture have different addressing modes, making some software incompatible with certain computers. Assembly language is important for computer programmers to know the specific addressing modes used on a computer architecture.
Addressing modes are the method used to determine which part of memory a machine instruction refers to. There are various types and the mode used depends on the type of computer architecture used.
Random Access Memory (RAM) is the main memory area of a computer and is where any application must be loaded if it is to run. The central processing unit (CPU) reads machine instructions from RAM and acts on them. Machine instructions often need to refer to specific portions of RAM. To do this, the CPU must have some way of knowing which portion of RAM the machine instruction refers to.
Addressing modes are used to break up sections of RAM into individual portions that can be referenced individually, similar to how every house on a street has an address. This address can then be used by a machine instruction to refer to a specific portion of memory. The CPU will then access that portion of memory and perform the action specified by the machine instruction.
There are many different types of addressing modes, and different types of computer architecture have different ones. This is one reason why all software is not compatible with all computers. If an application is designed for one type of addressing mode, it will fail to run when used on a system that uses a different one. It will be like speaking to someone in a language they don’t understand.
The specifics of each type are important to computer programmers who use assembly language. This computer language is a direct representation of machine instructions sent to the CPU and is what makes it capable of producing programs that can run several times faster than other programming languages. Assembly language is used in the development of operating systems. A computer programmer must know the type of addressing modes used on the specific computer architecture before he can write a working operating system or application in assembly.
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