Editing Addressing mode (section)

===Immediate/literal===
    +------+-----+-----+----------------+
    | add  | reg1| reg2|    constant    |    reg1 := reg2 + constant;
    +------+-----+-----+----------------+

This "addressing mode" does not have an effective address, and is not considered to be an addressing mode on some computers.

The constant might be signed or unsigned. For example, <code>move.l #$FEEDABBA, D0</code> to move the immediate hex value of "FEEDABBA" into register D0.

Instead of using an operand from memory, the value of the operand is held within the instruction itself. On the DEC VAX machine, the literal operand sizes could be 6, 8, 16, or 32 bits long.

[[Andrew S. Tanenbaum|Andrew Tanenbaum]] showed that 98% of all the constants in a program would fit in 13 bits (see [[Reduced instruction set computer#Instruction set philosophy|RISC design philosophy]]).