Instruction Set Quotes

A computation is a process that obeys finitely describable rules.

The microprocessor is a miracle.

I wanted to separate data from programs, because data and instructions are very different.

Computers, like automobiles and airplanes, do only what people tell them to do.

Programming language is very specific to instructing a computer to do a particular structure of a sequence. It's the very way you tell the machine what you want it to do.

Briefly, to program it requires an absolute understanding of how all 65,536 processors are interconnected.

A programming language is for thinking about programs, not for expressing programs you've already thought of. It should be a pencil, not a pen.

The speed at which modern CPUs perform computations still blows my mind daily.

Once you have a computer that can do a few things - strictly speaking, one that has a certain 'sufficient set' of basic procedures - it can do basically anything any other computer can do. This, loosely, is the basis of the great principle of 'Universality'.

NOP stands for (and is pronounced) no op, as in no operation. The NOP causes the processor to do absolutely nothing. What's it good for? Filling space. The 8080 can usually execute a bunch of NOP instructions without anything bad happening