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Assembly Lang Slides

The document discusses assembly language and its advantages over both machine code and higher-level languages. It covers the basic syntax of assembly language, including labels, operations, operands, and comments. It also describes pseudo operations that provide information to the assembler, such as segment definition and symbol definition, rather than corresponding to machine instructions.

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Chet Mehta
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75 views19 pages

Assembly Lang Slides

The document discusses assembly language and its advantages over both machine code and higher-level languages. It covers the basic syntax of assembly language, including labels, operations, operands, and comments. It also describes pseudo operations that provide information to the assembler, such as segment definition and symbol definition, rather than corresponding to machine instructions.

Uploaded by

Chet Mehta
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Assembly: Review

Computer Science and Engineering  College of Engineering  The Ohio State University

Lecture 14
Definition
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Recall: Translation
 A source program is translated into a
target program
 Each language corresponds to an abstract
machine
 Source program is not directly executed
 When source is a symbolic
representation of machine language:
 Source language is ___________
 Translator is ___________
 When source is higher-level, translator
usually called a _________
Advantage of Assembly
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Over machine code


 Easier to remember/read mnemonic
operations vs actual opcodes
 Easier to use symbolic addresses
 Over higher-level languages
 Access to full capabilities of the machine
at the lowest level
 Speed? Not generally true because:
 Optimizing compilers
 Algorithm design and insights are more
significant
Best of Both Worlds
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Systems programming often done in a


language like C
 Syntax of a higher-level language
 Control of lower-level concerns, like
memory allocation
So Why Bother With Assembly?
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Might need to write/read/maintain


some critical bit of assembly code
 Similar to (but simpler than) compiler
 Good way to learn about computer
architecture
 Insights into workings of higher-level
languages
 The world still needs compilers, and
therefore assembly too
Assembly: Syntax
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 One statement / line


 Four fields (not all are necessary):
 Label
 Operation
 Operands
 Comment
 Example
Test BRZ Loop ;if R1=0 repeat
Label Field
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Symbolic name for the instruction


address
 Clarifies branching to a particular
instruction
 BRNP Loop1
 Clarifies target for loading/storing data
to memory
 LD R3, Sum
 Often severely limited in length
Operation Field
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Mnemonic for a machine instruction


 Eg, ADD, SUB, BRZ
 Mnemonic for a “pseudo operation”
 Eg, .FILL
 More about these in a moment
Operand Field
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Arguments to the function


 Registers, immediate data, address
used by the instruction
 What to add, where to branch, where to
store, etc.
 Information used by pseudo operations
 Information for the assembler to produce
the object file
 Program name, how much space to save,
etc.
Comment Field
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 No effect on assembler
 No difference in resulting object file
 No semantic impact on program
 But huge impact on legibility
 Strictly for human consumption
Pseudo Operations
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Unlike instructions, pseudo ops do not


have a corresponding machine instruction
in the ISA
 Give information to assembler itself
 “assembler directive”
 Control various aspects of resulting object file
 Uses
1. Segment definition
2. Symbol definition
3. Memory initialization
4. Storage allocation
Pseudo Operations
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Unlike instructions, pseudo ops do not


have a corresponding machine instruction
in the ISA
 Give information to assembler itself
 “assembler directive”
 Control various aspects of resulting object file
 Uses
1. Segment definition
2. Symbol definition
3. Memory initialization
4. Storage allocation
Segment Definition
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Recall object file header & end records


 Segment name
 Segment load address
 Segment length
 Initial execution address
 All of this information comes directly
from pseudo ops
 Exception: __________
Segment Definition
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Two important pseudo ops:


 .ORIG (for “origin”)
 .END
 Example
MainP .ORIG x300A
LD R0,x126
…
.END x300E
 What are the header & end records of
the resulting object file?
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

x300A LD R0,x136
x300B

x300E

Header record: H
End record: E
Pseudo Operations
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Unlike instructions, pseudo ops do not


have a corresponding machine instruction
in the ISA
 Give information to assembler itself
 “assembler directive”
 Control various aspects of resulting object file
 Uses
1. Segment definition
2. Symbol definition
3. Memory initialization
4. Storage allocation
Symbol Definition
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 A label creates a symbol


 Symbol is implicitly defined to be the
address of the instruction
 Example: What is the value of symbol
Test?
Hello .ORIG x300A
LD R0,x126
Test BRZ x147
Explicit Symbol Definition
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Symbols can also be defined explicitly


 Pseudo Op:
 .EQU (“equate”)
 Example
STEP .EQU #2 ;Skip odd indices
 Symbols are then used as program
constants
ADD R1,R1,STEP
HALT .EQU x25
TRAP HALT
Summary
Computer Science and Engineering  The Ohio State University

 Symbolic machine code


 Advantages/disadvantages
 Basic syntax
 Pseudo Operations
 Segment definition
 Symbol Definition

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