A data processing system which handles thirty-two bit logical addresses which can be derived from either sixteen bit logical addresses or thirty-two bit logical addresses, the latter being translated into physical addresses by unique translation means. The system includes means for decoding macro-instructions of both a basic and an extended instruction set, each macro-instruction containing in itself selected bit patterns which uniquely identify which type of instruction is to be decoded. The instruction responsive apparatus thereof responds to unique microinstructions which, for example, provide for the selection of one of a plurality of interrupt routines each corresponding to an interrupt request from a different external device, provide for the sequential loading of a plurality of segment identification registers each pointing to selected memory management tables associated with a segment storage region of main memory, provide for a program counter relative jump operation, provide for zero-extending or sign-extending 16-bit words to 32-bit words having the same value, and provide for the multiplication of the lower 16 bits of two 32-bit accumulators and the sign-extension of the 16-bit result to form a 32-bit word.

Address generating apparatus for use in a computer system which includes a bus processor, a memory requiring 24-bit addresses, and a plurality of I/O processors, some of which generates 22-bit addresses and others of which generate 24-bit addresses on a system bus connecting them with the memory. The apparatus provides a 2-bit prefix to the address on the system bus when the address on the bus comes from a 22-bit device. The 22-bit devices are specified by a mask register and the prefixes by a set of prefix registers, one for each of the devices. When bus grant logic in the computer system determines which of the devices is to have control of the system bus, logic in the address generating apparatus determines from the mask register whether the device which is to receive control requires a prefix. If it does, the address generating apparatus outputs the device's prefix to the system bus's two most significant address lines at the same time as the device outputs a 22-bit address to the remaining address lines. The mask register and the prefix register are loadable from the bus processor by means of a bus which is independent of the system bus. On system initialization, the bus processor loads the mask register as required for the I/O devices on the system. During system operation, the bus processor loads prefixes for 22-bit devices as required for the devices to generate addresses for the area of memory from or to which the device is transferring data.

A processor core for providing a linear extension of addressable memory space of a microprocessor with minimal additional hardware and software complexity. A N+x bit pointer register (e.g. program counter) holds an N+x bit instruction address. The N+x bit instruction address provides to an execution unit a pointer to an instruction in the memory to be processed by the execution unit. An encoder encodes the N+x bit address into an N bit encoding of the N+x bit address. The processor core can thereby address 2.sup.x times more memory locations than 2.sup.N. Two other registers each hold a portion of a data address (i.e. a pointer to a datum in memory to be operated on). An address former concatenates the portions of the address in the two registers to form the data address. Therefore, the address is formed from portions of the data address stored in multiple registers without performing any arithmetic on the portions.

In an instruction processing unit, a first register group having at least one register whose bit width is enough for designating a desired address in the entire address space of a memory, and a second register group having at least one register whose bit width is not enough for said purpose, and operation means are provided. This operation means further includes first and second address generation means. In this unit, the first address generation means creates a desired operand address according to values stored in one or more registers in the first register group. The second address generation means creates an operand address to designate a desired partial space of the memory, by extending the bit width of a register in the second register group by a required amount.

A processor core for provides a linear extension of addressable memory space of a microprocessor with minimal additional hardware and software complexity. A N+x bit pointer register (e.g. program counter) holds an N+x bit instruction address. The N+x bit instruction address provides to an execution unit a pointer to an instruction in the memory to be processed by the execution unit. An encoder encodes the N+x bit address into an N bit encoding of the N+x bit address. The processor core can thereby address 2.sup.x times more memory locations than 2.sup.N. Two other registers each hold a portion of an data address (i.e. a pointer to a datum in memory to be operated on). An address former concatenates the portions of the address in the two registers to form the data address. Therefore, the address is formed from portions of the data address stored in multiple registers without performing any arithmetic on the portions.