The instruction set

The following sections introduce the full range of instruction categories implemented by the 6502 processor. Similar instructions are implemented within most general-purpose architectures, though more sophisticated processors augment their capabilities with additional types of instructions. The more advanced instructions available in modern processor architectures will be introduced in later chapters.

CISC processors generally support multiple addressing modes. Addressing modes are designed to enable efficient access to sequential memory locations for software algorithms running on the processor. The next section describes the instruction addressing modes implemented by the 6502 processor. The section following that will introduce the categories of instructions implemented by the 6502, most of which are represented in some way in modern processor architectures. Specialized instructions for interrupt processing and input/output operations will then be covered...