Methods, articles of manufacture and systems for encoding an instruction
are provided, whereby available bits within the instruction can be indicated for
use. The available bits may include zero bits and constant bits. In one embodiment
available bits include any bits within an expanded word that are not necessary
for the execution of an instruction contained in the word. In another embodiment,
bits are made available by reformatting/re-encoding a word, whereby the number
of bits of some fields is abbreviated to a lesser number of bits.
