Instruction sequences with indirect jumps

Abstract

We study sequential programs that are instruction sequences with direct and indirect jump instructions. The intuition is that indirect jump instructions are jump instructions where the position of the instruction to jump to is the content of some memory cell. We consider several kinds of indirect jump instructions. For each kind, we define the meaning of programs with indirect jump instructions of that kind by means of a translation into programs without indirect jump instructions. For each kind, the intended behaviour of a program with indirect jump instructions of that kind under execution is the behaviour of the translated program under execution on interaction with some memory device.

Preprint available: arXiv:0711.0829 [cs.PL]