Address and Contents of an Address

The contents of a word of memory may be any 32-bit pattern. The address of a word of memory is also a 32-bit pattern. Both types of data fit into a 32-bit register.

Sometimes you want the contents of memory word to be loaded into a register. For example, you may wish to load the value 0x00000002. This is done with the lw instruction.

Other times you want the address of a word in memory. For example, you may wish to load the address 0x10000008. This is done with the la instruction.

la   d,exp          #  load register $d with the address
                    #  described by the expression "exp"
                    #  "exp" is often a symbolic address
                    #  (pseudoinstruction)