indirect addressing

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
indirect address
indirect addressing

   <processor> An {addressing mode} found in many processors'
   {instruction sets} where the instruction contains the address
   of a memory location which contains the address of the operand
   (the "{effective address}") or specifies a {register} which
   contains the effective address.  In the first case
   (indirection via memory), accessing the operand requires two
   memory accesses - one to fetch the effective address and
   another to read or write the actual operand.  Register
   indirect addressing requires only one memory access.

   An indirect address may be indicated in {assembly language} by
   an operand in parentheses, e.g. in {Motorola 68000} assembly

   	MOV D0,(A0)

   writes the contents of register D0 to the location pointed to
   by the address in register A0.

   Indirect addressing is often combined with pre- or post-
   increment or decrement addressing, allowing the address of the
   operand to be increased or decreased by one (or some specified
   number) either before or after using it.

   (1994-11-07)
    

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