Program status word


The program status word is an IBM System/360 architecture and successors control register which performs the function of a status register and program counter in other architectures, and more.
Although certain fields within the PSW may be tested or set by using non-privileged instructions, testing or setting the remaining fields may only be accomplished by using privileged instructions.
Contained within the PSW are the two bit condition code, representing zero, positive, negative, overflow, and similar flags of other architectures' status registers. Conditional branch instructions test this encoded as a four bit value, with each bit representing a test of one of the four condition code values, 23 + 22 + 21 + 20.
The 64-bit PSW describes
In the early instances of the architecture, the instruction address was 24 bits; in later instances, the instruction address was 31 bits plus a mode bit for a total of 32 bits.
In the present instances of the architecture, the instruction address is 64 bits and the PSW itself is 128 bits.
The PSW may be loaded by the LOAD PSW instruction. Its contents may be examined with the Extract PSW instruction.