• wewbull@feddit.uk
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    4 months ago

    If the 8088 had used all but one 256 8-bit values as legal instructions, all your new instructions after that point would need to start with that unused value and then you can add a maximum of 256 instructions by using the next byte. End result is 511 instructions can be encoded in 16-bits.

    • ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      0
      ·
      4 months ago

      Ah right! I forgot about that.

      So you either have to pad all instructions in all previous binaries, or reduce the amount of available instructions in the arch update.