the 24K is a specific implementation of MIPS32 architecture.
There are a few different main architectures (MIPS I, II, III, IV,
MIPS32, and MIPS64),
and some extensions (sort of like SSE in the x86 world).
If you go on the MIPS website, you will find a 3 volume reference
manual telling you all about MIPS32 from a programming perspective.
You should get this.
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Hardware, n.:
The parts of a computer system that can be kicked.