It's different but using assembly language as a basis for instruction is what Knuth chose to do. See the "Why have a machine language?" section: http://www-cs-

It's different but using assembly language as a basis for instruction is what Knuth chose to do. See the "Why have a machine language?" section: http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/mmix.html