Book Description

MMIX is a RISC computer designed by Don Knuth to illustrate machine-level aspects of programming. In the author's book series "The Art of Computer Programming", MMIX replaces the 1960s-style machine MIX. A particular goal in the design of MMIX was to keep its machine language simple, elegant, and easy to learn. At the same time, all of the complexities needed to achieve high performance in practice are taken into account. This book constitutes a collection of programs written in CWEB that make MMIX a virtual reality. Among other utilities, an assembler converting MMIX symbolic files to MMIX objects and two simulators executing the programs in given object files are provided. The latest version of all programs can be downloaded from MMIX's home page. The book provides a complete documentation of the MMIX computer and its assembly language. It also presents mini-indexes, which make the programs much easier to understand. A corrected reprint of the book has been published in August 2014, replacing the version of 1999.