Microchip Technology MA330027 Data Sheet

DS70616G-page 134

 2009-2012 Microchip Technology Inc.

4.8.1

DATA ACCESS FROM PROGRAM 
MEMORY USING TABLE 
INSTRUCTIONS

The  TBLRDL and TBLWTL instructions offer a direct
method of reading or writing the lower word of any
address within the Program Space without going
through data space. The TBLRDH and TBLWTH
instructions are the only method to read or write the
upper 8 bits of a Program Space word as data.
The PC is incremented by two for each successive
24-bit program word. This allows program memory
addresses to directly map to data space addresses.
Program memory can thus be regarded as two 16-bit
wide word address spaces, residing side by side, each
with the same address range. TBLRDL and TBLWTL
access the space that contains the least significant
data word. TBLRDH and TBLWTH access the space that
contains the upper data byte. 
Two table instructions are provided to move byte or
word-sized (16-bit) data to and from Program Space.
Both function as either byte or word operations.
• TBLRDL (Table Read Low):

- In Word mode, this instruction maps the 

lower word of the Program Space 
location (P<15:0>) to a data address 
(D<15:0>).

- In Byte mode, either the upper or lower byte 

of the lower program word is mapped to the 
lower byte of a data address. The upper byte 
is selected when Byte Select is ‘1’; the lower 
byte is selected when it is ‘0’.

• TBLRDH (Table Read High):

- In Word mode, this instruction maps the entire 

upper word of a program address (P<23:16>) 
to a data address. The ‘phantom’ byte 
(D<15:8>), is always ‘0’.

- In Byte mode, this instruction maps the upper 

or lower byte of the program word to D<7:0> 
of the data address, in the TBLRDL instruc-
tion. The data is always ‘0’ when the upper 
‘phantom’ byte is selected (Byte Select = 1).

In a similar fashion, two table instructions, TBLWTH
and  TBLWTL, are used to write individual bytes or
words to a Program Space address. The details of
their operation are explained in 

.

For all table operations, the area of program memory
space to be accessed is determined by the Table Page
register (TBLPAG). TBLPAG covers the entire program
memory space of the device, including user application
and configuration spaces. When TBLPAG<7> = 0, the
table page is located in the user memory space. When
TBLPAG<7> = 1, the page is located in configuration
space. 

0

8

16

23

‘Phantom’ Byte

TBLRDH.B 

(Wn<0> = 0)

TBLRDL.W

TBLRDL.B 

(Wn<0> = 1)

TBLRDL.B 

(Wn<0> = 0)

23

15

0

TBLPAG

02

0x000000

0x800000

0x020000

0x030000

The address for the table operation is determined by the data EA
within the page defined by the TBLPAG register. 
Only read operations are shown; write operations are also valid in
the user memory area.