COS10004 Computer Systems

Lecture 8.2 Arm ASM – LED Flash (part 2) - the

Busy Wait Timer

Dr Chris McCarthy
 INSERT DELAY WITH BUSY WAIT TIMER
•  Pseudocode:
–  Program GPIO18 LED for output
–  Loop1:
•  Turn LED on (pull GPIO18 high)
•  Busy wait
•  Turn LED off (pull GPIO18 low)
•  Busy wait
–  branch to loop1

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 A DUMB TIMER
•  Busy wait:
–  a loop that executes until it reaches a certain value
–  keep CPU occupied

set limit value ;some large number

initialise counter to 0
timer$:
–  Add 1 to counter
–  Compare counter to limit value
–  branch to timer$ if counter < limit
 A DUMB TIMER
•  Busy wait:
–  a loop that executes until it reaches a certain value
–  keep CPU occupied

set limit value ;some large number

initialise counter to 0
timer$:
–  Add 1 to counter
–  Compare counter to limit value
–  branch to timer$ if counter < limit
 IF TESTS : CMP
•  Called 'Compare' in ARM asm
–  Subtracts 2nd value from first, and sets flags
accordingly.
–  Loads the Application Program Status Register
(APSR) with the results of the comparison (done by
the ALU).
–  The APSR flags include:
•  N ALU result was Negative.
•  Z ALU result was Zero.
•  C ALU set the Carry bit.
•  V ALU result caused overflow.
–  This register can then be inspected by branch
commands
•  We’ll come to this !

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 http://infocenter.arm.com/help/
index.jsp?topic=/
com.arm.doc.dui0552a/
CHDBIBGJ.html

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 DETAILS

r2 - #1234;
set APSR with
ALU flags
•  cmp r2,#1234 compare r2
and #0

store the ALU

compare
flags in the APSR

register 2
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 ACTING ON THE APSR
•  Branch (b) reads the APSR and jumps
according to the flags and the relevant suffix
–  Really a conditional goto
–  e.g. compares register with a number or 0
•  Assume cmp r1,r2, then:
–  b - unconditional branch
–  beq branch if Z flag set (i.e., r1 == r2)
–  bge - branch if r1 >= r2 ((r1-r2)>=0)
–  blt – branch if r1 < r2 (r1 – r2 < 0 (N flag set))
–  Many others...

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 DETERMINING THE COMPARISON FROM THE FLAGS
Suffix Flags Meaning
Condition code
EQ Z set Equal
suffixes
NE Z clear Not equal
Higher or same
CS or HS C set
(unsigned >= )
CC or LO C clear Lower (unsigned < )
MI N set Negative
PL N clear Positive or zero
The condition VS V set Overflow
code suffix can VC V clear No overflow
be added to HI C set and Z clear Higher (unsigned >)
many Lower or same
operations. e.g. LS C clear or Z set
(unsigned <=)
movne r1,#12 GE N and V the same Signed >=
LT N and V differ Signed <
Z clear, N and V the
GT Signed >
same
LE Z set, N and V differ Signed <=
http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.dui0204j/CEGBHJCJ.html
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 MAKING A LOOP
•  We can use the APSR and a branch to make a
loop structure.
mov r2,#0
loop1:
add r2,#1 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
cmp r2,#10
bne loop1 ;this counts to 10, but it's wasteful.

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 MAKING A LOOP
•  We can use the APSR and a branch to make a
loop structure.
•  Better in ASM to count down to 0
mov r2,#10
loop1:
sub r2,#1 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0
cmp r2,#0
bne loop1 ;runs a bit faster

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 MAKING THE LED FLASH (OK2)
•  pseudocode:
Program the GPIO 18 for output
Enable
wait
Disable
wait
We need to wait because
repeat the LED will flash too fast to
see. The clock speed of the
ARM – 700MHz – 1.2GHz.
Lab 8 Task resource on Canvas
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 A DUMB TIMER
•  Variables:
–  r0 = GPIO base address
–  r1 = working memory (for setting bits, registers)
–  use r2 for timing
•  mov r2,$3F0000 Does a 'busy
wait' - uses 100%
loop1: of CPU
sub r2,#1
cmp r2,#0
bne loop1

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 DETAILS

'dec' in
subtract 1
some asm
from r2
•  sub r2,#1

subtract
r2 = r2 - 1
r2--
to register

2
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 DETAILS

goto this 'jne' in

label and some asm
•  bne loop1 continue
execution

branch if not

equal if the z flag is
clear, goto loop1

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 ISSUES
•  The APSR is updated after many
ALU operations, not just cmp!
–  It is not always cleared after it is read.
–  Always treat a cmp and a branch as
add 's' to
one operation.
other ALU
–  don't put any code between them! operations
to 's'et the
APSR

COS10004 Computer Systems

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 OK2 FLASHING LED (PI 4)
BASE = $FE000000 ;or $3F000000 for 2B and 3B/3B+
RP1 GPIO_OFFSET = $200000
mov r0,BASE
orr r0,GPIO_OFFSET ;start of GPIO
mov r1,#1
lsl r1,#24
str r1,[r0,#4] ;set GPIO18 to output
loop$: ;outer loop - repeat LED on, wait, LED off, wait
mov r1,#1
lsl r1,#18
str r1,[r0,#28] ;turn LED on
mov r2,$3F0000
wait1$:
sub r2,#1
cmp r2,#0
bne wait1$ ;count from 4128768 to 0 (busy wait)
mov r1,#1 ;can be omitted
lsl r1,#18 ;can be omitted
str r1,[r0,#40] ;turn LED off (writing to the pull up register)
mov r2,$3F0000 ;Model 2 is a bit slower in single core mode
wait2$:
sub r2,#1
cmp r2,#0
bne wait2$ ;count from 4128768 to 0 (busy wait)
b loop$ ;end of outer loop

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OK2 RUNNING ON PI 2B AND PI 4B
 PERFORMANCE TESTING
•  If we test on five different Pi models we get:
RPI B RPI B+ RPI 2 RPI 3 RPI 4
Clock 700MHz 700MHz 900MHz 1.2 GHz 1.5 GHz
Speed
Cores 1 1 4 4 4
LED 1.6Hz 1.6Hz 1.1Hz 2.73Hz 4.33Hz
flash

•  Using a busy loop for timing is unreliable.

–  and wastes electrons!

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 SUMMARY
•  We have now made our LED flash:
–  We can turn LED on and off
–  Using busy wait timer
•  Busy wait timer is inefficient
–  100% CPU usage for nothing!
–  Wastes power
•  Can we make a better timer ?
–  Yes – next lecture!