x86 prefixes and escape opcodes flowchart
Published on 2023-07-29. Last updated on 2025-04-27
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v ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════╤══╗ ║ 2-byte instructions (legacy map 1) ║
║ 1-byte instructions (legacy map 0) │0F------------->║ ║
║ └──╢ ║ operand type specified ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ║
╟──────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ .------->║ via mandatory prefixes │38│ │3A--------------.
║ 40-4F ║ | ║ - none (packed single) └─|┘ └──┘ ║ |
╟───────────────────────────|──────────────────────╢ | .---->║ - 66 (packed double) | ║ |
║ ┌──┐ ┌──┬──┐ | ║ | | ║ - F2 (scalar single) | ║ |
║ .--62│ │66│67│ | ║ | | +->║ - F3 (scalar double) | ║ |
║ | └──┘ └─|┴─|┘ | ║ | | | ╚═══════════════════════════════|══════════════════╝ |
║ | | | | ┌──┬──┐ ║ | | | v |
║ | | | | │C4│C5-----. ║ | | | ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ |
║ | | | | └|─┼──┤ | ║ | | | ║ 3-byte instructions (legacy map 2) ║ |
╟──┐ | ┌──┬──┐ | | | | │D5│ | ║ | +---->║ ║ |
║F0│ | │F2│F3│ | | | | └─|┘ | ║ | | | ║ operand type specified ║ |
╚══╧═|═╧═|╧═|╧══════|══|════|══════|═══|═════|═════╝ | | +->║ via mandatory prefixes ║ |
| | | ^ ^ | | | ^ ^ | | ^ | | | | ║ - none (packed single) ║ |
| | | | | | | | | | | | +---|----------+ | | ║ - 66 (packed double) ║ |
v '--+--+ +--+--' v | | v v | v m bit | | | ║ - F2 (scalar single) ║ |
┏━━━━┓ | ┏━━━|┓┏|━━━┓┏━━|━┓┏━━━━┓ | | | ║ - F3 (scalar double) ║ |
┃EVEX┃ | ┃REX1┃┃VEX3┃┃REX2┃┃VEX2┃------' | | ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ |
┗━━|━┛ | ┗━━━━┛┗━━|━┛┗━━━━┛┗━━━━┛ | | |
| ^ | | | ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ |
| | +-------->--------------+---->║ 3-byte instructions (legacy map 3) ║<-+
| | m bits | ║ ║
'---------+---->-----------------------------------------+->║ operand type specified ║
| ║ via mandatory prefixes ║
| ║ - none (packed single) ║
| ║ - 66 (packed double) ║
| ║ - F2 (scalar single) ║
| ║ - F3 (scalar double) ║
| ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
|
| ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
+->║ "promoted" legacy instructions (map 4) ║
| ║ ║
| ║ instruction from legacy maps 1/2/3 ║
| ║ promoted to EVEX for use with APX ║
| ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
|
| ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
+->║ AVX512-Float16 instructions (map 5/6) ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓ ┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓
┃0 1 0 0 W R X B┃ ┃1 1 0 1 0 1 0 1┃M R X B W R X B┃
┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛ ┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛
REX (1-byte prefix) AMD64 (1999/2003) REX (2-byte prefix) APX (2023/????)
- W extends operand size - M selects legacy map 0 or legacy map 1
- R extends register bits - R extends register bits
- X extends index in SIB byte - X extends index in SIB byte
- B extends base in SIB byte - B extends base in SIB byte
- W extends operand size
┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓ ┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓
┃1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1┃Ṙ ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ L p p┃ ┃1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0┃Ṙ Ẋ Ḃ m m m m m┃W ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ L p p┃
┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛ ┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛
VEX (2-byte prefix) AVX (2008/2011) VEX (3-byte prefix) AVX (2008/2011)
- R extends register bits - R extends register bits
- v encodes additional source register - X extends index in SIB byte
- L selects vector length (0: 128bit | 1: 256bit) - B extends base in SIB byte
- p encodes mandatory prefixes - m selects instruction map (1: 0F | 2: 0F38 | 3: 0F3A)
(0: none | 1: 66 | 2: F2 | 3: F3) - W extends operand size
- instruction map 0F (legacy map 1) implied - v encodes additional source register
- L selects vector length (0: 128bit, 1: 256bit)
- p encodes mandatory prefixes
(0: none | 1: 66 | 2: F2 | 3: F3)
┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓ Notes:
┃0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0┃Ṙ Ẋ Ḃ Ṙ B m m m┃W ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ ⩒ Ẋ p p┃z Ŀ L b ⩒ a a a┃ - years after the instruction set extension
┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛ denote when it was first announced/shipped
EVEX (4-byte prefix) AVX-512 (2013/2017) - letters with a dot above denote that the
- R extends register bits prefix contains the bit in inverted form
- X extends index in SIB byte - the diagram elides escape bytes D8 til DF
- B extends base in SIB byte - the EVEX prefix has additional variations
- m selects instruction map (1: 0F | 2: 0F38 | 3: 0F3A | 4 | 5 | 6) not shown here for encoding
- W extends operand size - VEX instructions
- v encodes additional source register - legacy instructions
- p encodes mandatory prefixes (0: none | 1: 66 | 2: F2 | 3: F3) - conditional CMP/TEST
- z selects merge mode (0: zero | 1: merge)
- Ŀ selects vector length (512bit) or rounding control mode (with L)
- L selects vector length (256bit)
- b encodes source broadcast or rounding control (with Ŀ and L) or exception suppression
