Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developers Manual Volume 2A, Instruction Set Reference, A-M

2-4 Vol. 2
INSTRUCTION FORMAT
A mandatory prefix (66H), an escape opcode byte, plus two additional opcode
bytes (same as previous bullet)
For example, PHADDW for XMM registers consists of the following sequence: 66 0F
38 01. The first byte is the mandatory prefix.
Valid opcode expressions are defined in Appendix A and Appendix B.
2.1.3 ModR/M and SIB Bytes
Many instructions that refer to an operand in memory have an addressing-form spec-
ifier byte (called the ModR/M byte) following the primary opcode. The ModR/M byte
contains three fields of information:
The mod field combines with the r/m field to form 32 possible values: eight
registers and 24 addressing modes.
The reg/opcode field specifies either a register number or three more bits of
opcode information. The purpose of the reg/opcode field is specified in the
primary opcode.
The r/m field can specify a register as an operand or it can be combined with the
mod field to encode an addressing mode. Sometimes, certain combinations of
the mod field and the r/m field is used to express opcode information for some
instructions.
Certain encodings of the ModR/M byte require a second addressing byte (the SIB
byte). The base-plus-index and scale-plus-index forms of 32-bit addressing require
the SIB byte. The SIB byte includes the following fields:
The scale field specifies the scale factor.
The index field specifies the register number of the index register.
The base field specifies the register number of the base register.
See Section 2.1.5 for the encodings of the ModR/M and SIB bytes.
2.1.4 Displacement and Immediate Bytes
Some addressing forms include a displacement immediately following the ModR/M
byte (or the SIB byte if one is present). If a displacement is required; it be 1, 2, or 4
bytes.
If an instruction specifies an immediate operand, the operand always follows any
displacement bytes. An immediate operand can be 1, 2 or 4 bytes.
2.1.5 Addressing-Mode Encoding of ModR/M and SIB Bytes
The values and corresponding addressing forms of the ModR/M and SIB bytes are
shown in Table 2-1 through Table 2-3: 16-bit addressing forms specified by the