Vertical Encoding

What Does Vertical Encoding Mean?

Vertical encoding is a type of instruction set that encodes a field of an instruction word before being converted into signals that control functional units of a computer. It uses hard-wire logic or microcode base encoding to generate control signals for functional units.

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Techopedia Explains Vertical Encoding

Vertical encoding is primarily the part of a computer / processor instruction set architecture that deals with micro set instructions. Vertical encoding works by implementing a decoder / encoder between the microinstruction register and the clock or control signals. Each instruction sent is decoded before being sent as a signal. It requires additional logic to convert or encode the instructions into corresponding signals; therefore, it also is slower than horizontal encoding.

Vertical encoding also restricts selecting more than one register for an operand and requires only one register per instruction field.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…