GNU as supports an additional directive to change the
MIPS Instruction Set Architecture level on the fly: .set
mipsn. n should be a number from 0 to 3. A value from 1 to 3
makes the assembler accept instructions for the corresponding ISA level,
from that point on in the assembly. .set mipsn affects not only
which instructions are permitted, but also how certain macros are expanded.
.set mips0 restores the ISA level to its original level: either the
level you selected with command line options, or the default for your
configuration. You can use this feature to permit specific R4000
instructions while assembling in 32 bit mode. Use this directive with care!
Traditional MIPS assemblers do not support this directive.