A p-code machine is a virtual machine designed to execute the ?assembly language of a hypothetical CPU.

Niklaus Wirth specified a simple p-code machine in the 1976 book Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs. The machine had 3 registers - a program counter p, a base register b, and a top-of-stack register t. There were 8 instructions:

lit 0, a  : load constant a
opr 0, a  : execute operation a (13 operations: RETURN, 5 math functions, and 7 comparison functions)
lod l, a  : load variable l,a
sto l, a  : store variable l,a
cal l, a  : call procedure a at level l
int 0, a  : increment t-register by a
jmp 0, a  : jump to a
jpc 0, a  : jump conditional to a[6]

Operations

0: begin {return}
    t := b - 1; p := s[t + 3]; b := s[t + 2];
end;
1: s[t] := -s[t];
2: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := s[t] + s[t + 1] end;
3: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := s[t] - s[t + 1] end;
4: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := s[t] * s[t + 1] end;
5: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := s[t] div s[t + 1] end;
6: s[t] := ord(odd(s[t]));
8: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] = s[t + 1]) end;
9: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] <> s[t + 1]) end;
10: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] < s[t + 1]) end;
11: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] >= s[t + 1]) end;
12: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] > s[t + 1]) end;
13: begin t := t - 1; s[t] := ord(s[t] <= s[t + 1]) end;

See more:

• On Wikipedia