Module – 1
Introduction : System Software Vs. Application Software, Different System Software– Assembler,
Linker, Loader, Macro Processor, Text Editor, Debugger, Device Driver, Compiler, Interpreter,
Operating System(Basic Concepts only)
SIC & SIC/XE Architecture, Addressing modes, SIC & SIC/XE Instruction set, Assembler Directives
and Programming.
1.1 System Software Vs. Application Software
• Computer softwares are divided into 2 types :
1. Application software
2. System software
Application software
• An application program is primarily concerned with the solution of some problem, using the
computer as a tool.
• The focus is on the application, not on the computing system.
• Purpose is supporting or improving the software user’s work
• Employs the capabilities of computer directly to a dedicated task that the user wishes to perform
• Types of application software are as follows:
o Word processing S/W - MS word, Notepad, WordPad
o Database S/W - Oracle, MS Access
o Spreadsheet S/W - Excel, Lotus, Apple Numbers
o Multimedia S/W - Real Player, Media Player
o Presentation Graphics S/W -MS PowerPoint
System software
• System software consists of a variety of programs that support the operation of a computer.
• Acts as an intermediary b/w computer hardware & application programs
• This software makes it possible for the user to focus on an application or other problem to be
solved, without needing to know the details of how the machine works internally.
• Controls the computer system & enhances its performance
• System programs are intended to support the operation and use of the computer itself, rather than
any particular application.
• For this reason, they are usually related to the architecture of the machine on which they are run.
• Focus is on the system
• Examples : Assembler , Loader / Linker, Macro processor ,Text Editor, Debugger ,Device driver,
Compiler, Interpreter ,Operating system
• The characteristic in which system software differs from application software is machine
dependency.
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1.2 Different System Softwares
1. Assembler
• Programmers found it difficult to write or read programs in machine language.
• In a quest for a convenient language, they began to use a mnemonic (symbol) for each machine
instructions which would subsequently be translated into machine language. Such a mnemonic
language is called Assembly language.
• Programs known as Assemblers are written to automate the translation of assembly language into
machine language.
• Fundamental functions:
1. Translating mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equivalents.
2. Assigning machine addresses to symbolic tables used by the programmers.
2. Linker
Combines two or more separate object programs and supplies the information needed to allow
references between them
3. Loader
Loader is a system program that loads the object program into memory for execution.
4. Macro processor
• A macro represents a commonly used group of statements in the source programming
language.
• A macro instruction is simply a notational convenience for the programmer to write a
shorthand version of a program.
• The macro instruction is replaced by the macro processor with the corresponding group of
source language statements. This operation is called “expanding the macro”
• For example:
– Suppose it is necessary to save the contents of all registers before calling a
subroutine.
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– This requires a sequence of instructions.
– We can define and use a macro, SAVEREGS, to represent this sequence
of instructions.
• A macro processor functions essentially involve the substitution of one group of characters
or lines for another. Normally, it performs no analysis of the text it handles.
• Macro processors are used in
o assembly language
o high-level programming languages, e.g., C or C++
5. Text editor
• An Interactive text editor has become an important part of almost any computing
environment
• Text editor acts as a primary interface to the computer for all type of “knowledge workers”
as they compose, organize, study, and manipulate computer-based information
• A text editor allows you to edit a text file (create, modify etc…)
• Text editors on Windows OS
-Notepad, WordPad, Microsoft Word
• Text editors on UNIX OS
- vi, emacs, jed, pico,
6. Debugger
• Tests & debugs errors
• Debugging is a methodical process of finding and reducing the number of bugs, or defects,
in a computer program
• An interactive debugging system provides programmers with facilities that aid in testing
and debugging of programs
• Conditional Expressions – Programmers can define some conditional expressions ,evaluated
during the debugging session, program execution is suspended, when conditions are met,
analysis is made, later execution is resumed
• Breakpoint- The programmer may define break points which cause execution to be
suspended, when a specified point in the program is reached. After execution is suspended,
the debugging command is used to analyze the progress of the program and to diagnose
errors detected.
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• A Debugging system should also provide functions such as tracing and trace back. Trace
back can show the path by which the current statement in the program was reached. It can
also show which statements have modified a given variable or parameter.
7. Device driver
• They are distinct "black boxes" that make a particular piece of hardware respond to a well-
defined internal programming interface
• They hide completely the details of how the device works.
• User activities are performed by means of a set of standardized calls that are independent of
the specific driver; mapping those calls to device-specific operations that act on real
hardware is then the role of the device driver.
• This programming interface is such that drivers can be built separately from the rest of the
kernel, and "plugged in" at runtime when needed.
• This modularity makes Linux drivers easy to write, to the point that there are now hundreds
of them available.
8. Compiler
• A compiler is a program that translates programs written in any high level language into its
equivalent machine language program.
• It bridges the semantic gap between a programming language domain and the execution
domain.
• The program instructions are taken as a whole.
9. Interpreter
• It is a translator program that translates a statement of high-level language to machine
language and executes it immediately. The program instructions are taken line by line.
• The interpreter reads the source program and stores it in memory
• During interpretation, it takes a source statement, determines its meaning and performs
actions which implements it. This includes computational and I/O actions.
• Program counter (PC) indicates which statement of the source program is to be
interpreted next. This statement would be subjected to the interpretation cycle.
• The interpretation cycle consists of the following steps:
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o Fetch the statement.
o Analyze the statement and determine its meaning.
o Execute the meaning of the statement.
• The following are the characteristics of interpretation:
o The source program is retained in the source form itself, no target program exists.
o A statement is analyzed during the interpretation.
10. Operating system
• It is the most important system program that act as an interface between the users and the
system.
• It makes the computer easier to use.
• It provides an interface that is more user-friendly than the underlying hardware.
• The functions of OS are:
o Process management
o Memory management
o Resource management
o I/O operations
o Data management
o Providing security to user’s job.
Difference between system software and application software
System software Application software
System software is used for operating Application software is used by user
computer hardware. to perform specific task.
System softwares are installed on the Application softwares are installed
computer when operating system is according to user’s requirements.
installed.
In general, the user does not interact In general, the user interacts with
with system software because it application sofwares.
works in the background.
System software can run Application software can’t run
independently. It provides platform independently. They can’t run
for running application softwares. without the presence of system
software.
Some examples of system softwares Some examples of application
are compiler, assembler, debugger, softwares are word processor, web
driver, etc. browser, media player, etc.
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1.3 The Simplified Instructional Computer (SIC)
• SIC is a hypothetical computer that has been carefully designed to include the hardware
features most often found on real machines, while avoiding unusual or irrelevant
complexities.
• It is similar to a typical microcomputer. It comes in two versions:
o The standard model
o XE version ( Extra equipment, Extra expensive)
• The two versions have been designed to be upward compatible (An object program for the
standard SIC machine will also execute properly on a SIC/XE system)
SIC Machine Architecture:
Memory:
• It consists of bytes(8 bits) ,words (24 bits which are consecutive 3 bytes)addressed by the
location of their lowest numbered byte.
• All SIC addresses are byte addresses
• There are totally 32,768 (2^15 )bytes in memory.
Registers:
There are 5 registers all of which have special uses. Each register is 24 bits in length
Data formats:
• Integers are stored as 24-bit binary numbers
• 2’s complement representation is used for negative values
• Characters are stored using their 8 bit ASCII codes.
• They do not support floating – point data items.
Instruction formats
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All machine instructions are of 24-bits wide. The flag bit x is used to indicate indexed addressing
mode.
Addressing modes:
Two types of addressing are available namely,
1. Direct addressing mode
2. Indexed addressing mode
• Parantheses are used to indicate the contents of a register or a memory location.
• For example (x) represents the contents of the index register X.
Instruction set
It includes instructions like:
1. Data movement instruction
Ex: LDA, LDX, STA, STX.
2. Arithmetic operating instructions
Ex: ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV.
All arithmetic operations involve register A and a word in memory, with the result being left
in the register.
3. Comparison instruction
Ex: COMP – the value in the register A is compared with a word in memory. This
instruction sets a condition code (CC) flag to indicate the result ( <, >, =)
4.Conditional jump instructions
Ex: JLT, JEQ, JGT.
4. Subroutine linkage instructions
Ex: JSUB, RSUB.
JSUB – Jumps to the subroutine, placing the return address in register L.
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RSUB – Returns by jumping to the address contained in register L
Input and Output:
• I/O is performed by transferring one byte at a time to or from the rightmost 8 bitsof register
A.
• Each device is assigned a unique 8-bit code.
• There are 3 I/O instructions each of which specifies the device code as an operand.
1) The Test Device (TD) - instructions tests whether the addressed device is ready to send or
receive a byte of data.
Condition code is set to indicate the result of this test.
Setting of ‘<’ indicates the device is set to send or receive.
Setting of ‘= ‘ indicates the device is not ready
2) RD – Read Data
3) WD – Write Data
A program must wait until the device is ready, and then execute a ReadData (RD) or Write Data
(WD. The sequence must be repeated for each byte of data to be read or written.
1.4 SIC/XE Architecture
Memory:
• 1 word = 24 bits (3 8-bit bytes)
• Total (SIC/XE) = 2^20 (1,048,576) bytes (1Mbyte)
Registers:
Base register is used for addressing.
Data Format:
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• Integers are stored in 24 bit, 2's complement format
• Characters are stored in 8-bit ASCII format
• Floating point is stored in 48 bit signed-exponent-fraction format:
• The fraction is represented as a 36 bit number and has value between 0 and 1.That is the
assumed binary point is immediately before the higher order bit.
• The exponent is represented as a 11 bit unsigned binary number between 0 and2047.
• The sign of the floating point number is indicated by s : 0=positive, 1=negative.
• If the exponent has value e and the fraction has value f, the absolute value of the number
represented is f*2^(e-1024).
Instruction Format:
· There are 4 different instruction formats available:
• Format 1 and 2 do not refer memory at all.
• Bit e is used to distinguish between Formats 3 and 4
Addressing modes
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Two new addressing modes are available for use with instructions assembled using Format 3
• For base relative addressing, the displacement field disp in a Format 3 instruction is
interpreted as a 12-bit unsigned integer.
• For program – counter relative addressing, disp field is interpreted as a 12 – bit
signed integer with negative values represented in 2’s complement notation
Flags b and P:
• b=0 & p=0
Direct addressing - displacement/address field contains TA (Format 4 always uses
direct addressing)
• b=0 & p=1
PC relative addressing - TA=(PC)+disp (-2048<=disp<=2047)
• b=1 & p=0
Base relative addressing - TA=(B)+disp (0<=disp<=4095)
Flags n and i :
• n=0 & i=1
Immediate addressing - TA is used as an operand value (no memory reference)
• n=1 & i=0
Indirect addressing - word at the location given by TA (in memory) is fetched ,the
value contained in this word is then taken as the address of the operand value.
• n=0 & i=0
Simple addressing -TA is the location of the operand
In this case bits b,p,e are considered to be part of the address field of the instruction.
Hence Format 3 identical to the standarad SIC format providing the desired
compatibility.
· n=1 & i=1
Simple addressing same as n=0 & i=0
Flag x:
• x=1 Indexed addressing add contents of X register to TA calculation
Flag e:
• e=0 use Format 3
• e=1 use Format 4
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Fig: Examples of SIC/XE instructions and addressing modes
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Instruction set
• SIC provides 26 instructions,
• SIC/XE provides an additional 33 instructions (59 total)
• SIC/XE has 9 categories of instructions:
➢ Load/store registers (LDA, LDX, LDCH, STA, STX, STCH, etc.)
➢ Integer arithmetic operations (ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV) these will use register A
and a word in memory, results are placed into register A
➢ Compare (COMP) compares contents of register A with a word in memory and
sets CC (Condition Code) to <, >, or =
➢ Conditional jumps (JLT, JEQ, JGT) - jumps according to setting of CC
➢ Subroutine linkage (JSUB, RSUB) - jumps into/returns from subroutine using
register L
➢ Input & output control (RD, WD, TD)
➢ Floating point arithmetic operations (ADDF, SUBF, MULF, DIVF)
➢ Register manipulation, operands-from-registers, and register-to-register arithmetics
(RMO, RSUB, COMPR, SHIFTR, SHIFTL, ADDR, SUBR, MULR, DIVR, etc)
➢ Supervisor call instruction (SVC) – Executing this instruction generates an interrupt that can
be used for communication with the operating system.
Input and Output (I/O)
• 28 (256) I/O devices may be attached, each has its own unique 8-bit address
• 1 byte of data will be transferred to/from the rightmost 8 bits of register A
• Three I/O instructions are provided:
o RD - Read Data from I/O device into A
o WD- Write data to I/O device from A
o TD -Test Device determines if addressed I/O device is ready to send/receive a byteof
data. The CC (Condition Code) gets set with results from this test:
• < device is ready to send/receive
• = device isn't ready
• SIC/XE have I/O channels that can be used to perform input and output while CPU
does other work .This allows overlap of computing and I/O resulting in more efficient system
operation.
• 3 additional instructions are provided:
o SIO Start I/O
o HIO Halt I/O
o TIO Test I/O
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Programming examples
The assembler directives used here are as follows
BYTE: Generate character or hexadecimal constant, occupying as many bytes as needed to
represent the constant.
WORD: Generate one- word integer constant.
RESB: Reserve the indicated number of bytes for a data area.
RESW: Reserve the indicated number of words for a data area.
Sample data movement operations for (a) SIC (b) SIC/XE
ALPHA = 5 and C1=’Z’
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Sample arithmetic operations for (a) SIC (b)SIC/XE
BETA = ALPHA + INCR -1
DELTA = GAMMA + INCR -1
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Sample looping and indexing operations for (a)SIC (b) SIC/XE
Copy a string(TEST STRING) from STR1 to STR2
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Sample indexing and looping for (a)SIC (b) SIC/XE
ALPHA , BETA and GAMMA are arrays capable of storing 100 words. Add the words in ALPHA and
BETA and store it in the respective position in GAMMA.
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Sample input and output operations for SIC
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Sample subroutine call and record input operations for (a)SIC (b) SIC/XE
Read a 100 byte record from input device F1 and store it in a buffer named RECORD of 100 bytes
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