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Difference between Jump and Branch instruction


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sheersh

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 1:09 pm
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Please help me understanding difference between Jump and Branch instruction....like JNE & BNE
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 5:39 pm
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The branch needs a base register and a displacement to describe the to address. The newer jump only needs the (relative to the jump instruction) displacement for the destination address.
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dbzTHEdinosauer

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 8:55 pm
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does the jump automatically store the address of the instruction after the jump in an special register?

NCR assembler (NEATVS - probably called something else now) has a jump instruction and it stores a return address in reg??. to return, you BR on the register. like a link within a program.
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:31 pm
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dbzTHEdinosauer wrote:
does the jump automatically store the address of the instruction after the jump in an special register?
Sometimes, as in:
BRANCH RELATIVE AND SAVE
BRAS R1,I2 [RI]
Information from the current PSW, including the updated instruction address, is saved as link information at the first-operand location. Subsequently, the instruction address in the PSW is replaced by the branch address.

But not in:
BRANCH RELATIVE ON CONDITION
BRC M1,I2 [RI]
The instruction address in the current PSW is replaced by the branch address if the condition code has one of the values specified by M1; otherwise, normal instruction sequencing proceeds with the updated instruction address.
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sheersh

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 9:53 pm
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Thanks for the reply.....One more thing....I noticed BRAS and Jump has same OPCODE (A7, if I remember correctly)......why???
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 10:02 pm
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sheersh wrote:
One more thing....I noticed BRAS and Jump has same OPCODE (A7, if I remember correctly)......why???
Jump is not the 'real' instruction, it is a (I forget the term) substituted name for the BRAS opcode.....Makes it easier to remember......
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dbzTHEdinosauer

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PostPosted: Sat May 24, 2008 11:38 pm
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thx for the info CICS Guy.
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dick scherrer

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PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 12:42 am
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Hello,

Quote:
Please help me understanding difference between Jump and Branch instruction....like JNE & BNE
Once upon a time (on a different IBM computer), a big difference between a Jump and a Branch was instruction length and range of operation. A Jump was 2-bytes and could only move +/- 256 bytes from the current address (IIRC). A Branch was 4-bytes and had no such limitation.
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 12:51 am
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Yes, my first assembler, on an 1130.....grin......
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sheersh

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PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:32 am
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I also read in some manual (+/- 256 one). I was looking for HLASM, so i guess first answer by CICS guy holds more appropriate.....Thankyou all for your reponces.
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:41 am
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FWIW (IIRC), the I2 is an half word (two byte) count of the number of half words to be added to the current PSW address......
I don't recall seeing a sign bit to alter it to +/-......But I'll check it out....
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CICS Guy

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PostPosted: Sun May 25, 2008 2:52 am
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I stand corrected:
z/Architecture Principles of Operation wrote:
The contents of the I2 field are a signed binary integer specifying the number of halfwords that is added to the address of the instruction to generate the branch address.
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