x86 prefixes and escape opcodes flowchart

Published on 2023-07-29.
start here | v ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════╤══╗ ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ 1-byte instructions (legacy map 0) │0F------------->║ 2-byte instructions (legacy map 1) ║ ║ └──╢ ║ ║ ╟──────────────────────────────────────────────────╢ .------>║ operand type specified ┌──┐ ┌──┐ ║ ║ 40-4F ║ | ║ via mandatory prefixes │38│ │3A--------------. ╟────────────────────────────|─────────────────────╢ | .--->║ - none (packed single) └─|┘ └──┘ ║ | ║ ┌──┐ ┌──┬──┐ | ║ | | ║ - 66 (packed double) | ║ | ║ .--62│ │66│67│ | ║ | | ║ - F2 (scalar single) | ║ | ║ | └──┘ └─|┴─|┘ | ║ | | ║ - F3 (scalar double) | ║ | ║ | | | | ┌──┬──┐ ║ | | ╚═══════════════════════════════|══════════════════╝ | ║ | | | | │C4│C5-----. ║ | | v | ║ | | | | └|─┼──┤ | ║ | | ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ | ╟──┐ | ┌──┬──┐ | | | | │D5│ | ║ | +--->║ 3-byte instructions (legacy map 2) ║ | ║F0│ | │F2│F3│ | | | | └─|┘ | ║ | | ║ ║ | ╚══╧═|═╧═|╧═|╧══════|══|═════|═════|═══|═════|═════╝ | | ║ operand type specified ║ | | | | ^ | | |^ | |^ | | | ║ via mandatory prefixes ║ | | | | | | | || | || | | | ║ - none (packed single) ║ | v '--+---+---+--' v| v v| v | | ║ - 66 (packed double) ║ | ┏━━━━┓ | ┏━━━|┓┏━━━━┓┏━|━━┓┏━━━━┓ | | ║ - F2 (scalar single) ║ | ┃EVEX┃ | ┃REX1┃┃VEX3┃┃REX2┃┃VEX2┃-------' | ║ - F3 (scalar double) ║ | ┗━━|━┛ | ┗━━━━┛┗━━|━┛┗━━━━┛┗━━━━┛ m bits | ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ | | | | | | '----------+------------------+------------------------+ ╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ | m bits '--->║ 3-byte instructions (legacy map 3) ║<-+ ║ ║ ║ operand type specified ║ ║ via mandatory prefixes ║ ║ - none (packed single) ║ ║ - 66 (packed double) ║ ║ - F2 (scalar single) ║ ║ - F3 (scalar double) ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓ ┏━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┳━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┯━┓ ┃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) REX (2-byte prefix) - 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) VEX (3-byte prefix) - 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 encodes escape bytes (1: 0F | 2: 0F38 | 3: 0F3A) (0: none | 1: 66 | 2: F2 | 3: F3) - W extends operand size - escape bytes 0F implied (legacy map 1) - 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┃ - letters with a dot above denote that the ┗━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┻━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┷━┛ prefix contains the bit in inverted form EVEX (4-byte prefix) - the diagram elides escape bytes D8 til DF - R extends register bits - the EVEX prefix has additional variations - X extends index in SIB byte not shown here for encoding - B extends base in SIB byte - VEX instructions - m encodes escape bytes (1: 0F | 2: 0F38 | 3: 0F3A) - legacy instructions - W extends operand size - conditional CMP/TEST - v encodes additional source register - p encodes mandatory prefixes (0: none | 1: 66 | 2: F2 | 3: F3) - 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