000000 01000  01001 0 1 0 1 1 00000 100001

addu    $8    $9    $11             addu
       op1   op2    dest

Register Use Conventions

Register Number	Mnemonic Name	Conventional Use
$0	zero	Permanently 0
$1	$at	Assembler Temporary (reserved)
$2, $3	$v0, $v1	Value returned by a subroutine
$4-$7	$a0-$a3	Arguments to a subroutine
$8-$15	$t0-$t7	Temporary (not preserved across a function call)
$16-$23	$s0-$s7	Saved registers (preserved across a function call)
$24, $25	$t8, $t9	Temporary
$26, $27	$k0, $k1	Kernel (reserved for OS)
$28	$gp	Global Pointer
$29	$sp	Stack Pointer
$30	$fp	Frame Pointer
$31	$ra	Return Address (Automatically used in some instructions)

Congratulations! (if you correctly answered the question). You have just done some machine language programming. Who needs that old assembler, anyway?

General purpose registers are those that assembly language programs work with (other than floating point registers). The general purpose registers are numbered $0 through $31. However, by convention (and sometimes by hardware) different registers are used for different purposes.

In addition to a number $0 — $31, registers have a mnemonic name (a name that reminds you of its use). For example register $0 has the mnemonic name zero. The table shows the 32 registers and their conventional use.

Registers $0 and $31 are the only two that behave differently from the others. Register $0 is permanently wired to contain zero bits. Register $31 is automatically used by some subroutine linkage instructions to hold the return address.

If this looks totally cryptic, don't worry. Don't try to memorize this. You will get used to what you need to know after writting a few programs.