Definition[]
A machine instruction is
| “ | an instruction that is written in a machine language and can be executed directly by the processor for which it was designed without translation or interpretation.[1] | ” |
Overview[]
"Machine instructions are specific to the instruction set architecture (ISA) that a given computer architecture or architecture family implements. For a given high-level program, the machine instruction count varies when it executes on different computer systems because of differences in the underlying ISA, in the microarchitecture that implements the ISA, and in the tools used to compile the program."[2]