Use of the : operator in C
It's a bit field. The number after the colon is how many bits each variable takes up.
They're bit-fields, an example being that unsigned int addr:9;
creates an addr
field 9 bits long.
It's commonly used to pack lots of values into an integral type. In your particular case, it defining the structure of a 32-bit microcode instruction for a (possibly) hypothetical CPU (if you add up all the bit-field lengths, they sum to 32).
The union allows you to load in a single 32-bit value and then access the individual fields with code like (minor problems fixed as well, specifically the declarations of code
and test
):
#include <stdio.h>
struct microFields {
unsigned int addr:9;
unsigned int cond:2;
unsigned int wr:1;
unsigned int rd:1;
unsigned int mar:1;
unsigned int alu:3;
unsigned int b:5;
unsigned int a:5;
unsigned int c:5;
};
union micro {
unsigned int microCode;
struct microFields code;
};
int main (void) {
int myAlu;
union micro test;
test.microCode = 0x0001c000;
myAlu = test.code.alu;
printf("%d\n",myAlu);
return 0;
}
This prints out 7, which is the three bits making up the alu
bit-field.