7.4.2 Instructions in Program Memory

The program memory is addressed in bytes. Instructions are stored as either two bytes, four bytes, or six bytes in program memory. The Least Significant Byte of an instruction word is always stored in a program memory location with an even address (LSb = 0). To maintain alignment with instruction boundaries, the PC increments in steps of two and the LSb will always read ‘0’. See the “Program Counter” section in the “Memory Organization” chapter for more details. The instructions in the Program Memory figure below shows how instruction words are stored in the program memory.

The CALL and GOTO instructions have the absolute program memory address embedded into the instruction. Since instructions are always stored on word boundaries, the data contained in the instruction is a word address. The word address is written to the corresponding bits of the Program Counter register, which accesses the desired byte address in program memory. Instruction #2 in the example shows how the instruction GOTO 0006h is encoded in the program memory. Program branch instructions, which encode a relative address offset, operate in the same manner. The offset value stored in a branch instruction represents the number of single-word instructions by which the PC will be offset.