What does rt stands for in MIPS instruction format?

Question

Take MIPS instruction format described here, there are some abbreviations eg rd,rs and rt. What does rt stands for? I know rt is the second source register in R-type instruction, and is the destination register in I-type instruction. It is easy to guess rd stands for register destination; rs stands for register source. What about rt? I guess it might be "register temporary"? Is there an authoritative source about this?

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '11 at 09:02

23

t is just the next letter after s, so rs is the first source register, rt is the second source register. (If there could be a third source register it would most likely be ru.)

answered Sep 08 '11 at 09:02

Paul R

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what about I-Type commands, which only have RS and RT, and the result is written into RT? https://www.cs.umd.edu/class/sum2003/cmsc311/Notes/Mips/format.html – Yoav Feuerstein Sep 04 '15 at 15:13
@yoav85: "I" in this context is just short-hand for "immediate". There are two registers and an immediate value. – Paul R Sep 04 '15 at 15:15

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 02 '18 at 15:52

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rt stands for "register target". Just like been said above, in I-Type commands, the result is written into rt

answered Dec 02 '18 at 15:52

Daniel

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score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 21 '22 at 02:50

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"register temporary", I think so.

answered Oct 21 '22 at 02:50

Oldtiger Pophson

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What does rt stands for in MIPS instruction format?

3 Answers3