The condition field – Samsung S3C2440A User Manual
Page 61
ARM INSTRUCTION SET
S3C2440A RISC MICROPROCESSOR
3-4
THE CONDITION FIELD
In ARM state, all instructions are conditionally executed according to the state of the CPSR condition codes and
the instruction's condition field. This field (bits 31:28) determines the circumstances under which an instruction is to
be executed. If the state of the C, N, Z and V flags fulfils the conditions encoded by the field, the instruction is
executed, otherwise it is ignored.
There are sixteen possible conditions, each represented by a two-character suffix that can be appended to the
instruction's mnemonic. For example, a Branch (B in assembly language) becomes BEQ for "Branch if Equal",
which means the Branch will only be taken if the Z flag is set.
In practice, fifteen different conditions may be used: these are listed in Table 3-2. The sixteenth (1111) is reserved,
and must not be used.
In the absence of a suffix, the condition field for most instructions is set to "Always" (suffix AL). This means the
instruction will always be executed regardless of the CPSR condition codes.
Table 3-2. Condition Code Summary
Code Suffix
Flags
Meaning
0000 EQ
Z
set
equal
0001
NE
Z clear
not equal
0010
CS
C set
unsigned higher or same
0011
CC
C clear
unsigned lower
0100 MI
N
set
negative
0101
PL
N clear
positive or zero
0110 VS
V
set
overflow
0111
VC
V clear
no overflow
1000
HI
C set and Z clear
unsigned higher
1001
LS
C clear or Z set
unsigned lower or same
1010
GE
N equals V
greater or equal
1011
LT
N not equal to V
less than
1100
GT
Z clear AND (N equals V)
greater than
1101
LE
Z set OR (N not equal to V)
less than or equal
1110 AL
(ignored)
always