PROGRAMMABLE CONTROL LATCH MECHANISM FOR A DATA PROCESSING SYSTEM

A programmable control latch mechanism which is particularly useful in a microprocessor. One or more control latches are provided which can be set or reset under direct program control directly from the instruction register of a data processor by the loading therein of a unique program instruction. The unique instruction includes for each control latch two predetermined bit positions, one of which determines whether or not the control latch is to be changed and the other of which determines the binary value to which the control latch is to be changed. This enables anywhere from one to all of the control latches to be changed by a single instruction and enables each latch which is changed to be changed to any desired binary value. The control latch outputs can be used for storage page selection, direct control of external devices or circuits, selection of internal processor functions and the like.