Chapter 2 Assemblers

-- Basic Assembler Functions

Tzong-Jye Liu
Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science
Feng Chia University
tjliu@fcu.edu.tw

Outline

n Basic assembler functions

n A simple SIC assembler
n Assembler algorithm and data structure

System Programming 2
 Basic assembler functions (1/2)

n Translating mnemonic operation codes to

their machine language equivalents
n Assigning machine addresses to symbolic
labels

Source Program
• Mnemonic opcode Assembler Object code
• Symbol

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Basic assembler functions (2/2)

LDA FIVE
STA ALPHA
LDCH CHARZ
STCH C1
.
.
ALPHA RESW 1
FIVE WORD 5
CHARZ BYTE C'Z'
C1 RESB 1
1. Instruction format Format 3 (3 byte) op (6) n i x b p e disp (12)

2. Opcode: LDA à 00 000000

3. Addressing mode: simple addressing + PC relative n=1, i=1, p=1
4. Calculate disp disp = 12

000000 1 1 0 0 1 0 00C

03200C
Question: FIVE 為⼀個 Symbol，如何計算 FIVE 的位址？
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Assembler directive
n Assembler directives (組譯器指引) are pseudo
instructions
n They provide instructions to the assembler itself
n They are not translated into machine operation codes
n SIC assembler directive
n START : specify name & starting address
n END : end of source program, specify the first
execution instruction
n BYTE, WORD, RESB, RESW

n End of record : a null char (00)

n End of file : a zero-length record

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Example program (Figure 2.1 pp. 45) (1/4)

n Purpose of example program
n Reads records from input device (code F1)
n Copies them to output device (code 05)
n At the end of the file, writes EOF on the output device, then RSUB
to the operating system
n Data transfer (RD, WD)
n A buffer is used to store record
n Buffering is necessary for different I/O rates
n The end of each record is marked with a null character (00)16
n The end of the file is indicated by a zero-length record
n Subroutines (JSUB, RSUB)
n RDREC, WRREC
n Save link register first before nested jump

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Example program (Figure 2.1 pp. 45) (2/4)

Forward
reference

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Example program (Figure 2.1 pp. 45) (3/4)

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Example program (Figure 2.1 pp. 45) (4/4)

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A simple SIC assembler

n Assembler’s functions
n Convert mnemonic operation codes to their machine
language equivalents
v Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine
addresses
n Decide the proper instruction format
n Convert the data constants to internal machine
representations
n Write the object program and the assembly listing

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Difficult

n Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent

machine addresses
n Forward reference
n 2 passes
n First pass: scan the source program for
label definitions and assign addresses
n Second pass: perform actual translation

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Example program with object code

(Figure 2.2 pp. 47)

tjliu@fcu.edu.tw System Programming 12

Example program with object code
(Figure 2.2 pp. 47)

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Example program with object code

(Figure 2.2 pp. 47)

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 Format of object program
(Figure 2.3 pp.49)
n Header record
Col. 1 H
Col. 2~7 Program name
Col. 8~13 Starting address of object program (hex)
Col. 14-19 Length of object program in bytes (hex)
n Text record
Col. 1 T
Col. 2~7 Starting address for object code in this record (hex)
Col. 8~9 Length of object code in this record in bytes (hex)
Col. 10~69 Object code, represented in hex (2 col. per byte)
n End record
Col.1 E
Col.2~7 Address of first executable instruction in object program (hex)

n “^” is only for separation only

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Format of object program

(Figure 2.3 pp.49)

Address 1033 ~ 2038: reserve storage by loader

• RETADR: 3 bytes
• LENGTH: 3 bytes
• BUFFER: 4096 bytes = (1000)16

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 The two passes of an assembler
n Pass 1 (define symbols)
n Assign addresses to all statements in the program
n Save the addresses assigned to all labels for use in Pass 2
n Perform assembler directives, including those for address
assignment, such as BYTE and RESW
n Pass 2 (assemble instructions and generate object
program)
n Assemble instructions (generate opcode and look up addresses)
n Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD
n Perform processing of assembler directives not done during Pass 1
n Write the object program and the assembly listing

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Assembler algorithm and data structures

n OPTAB: operation code table

n SYMTAB: symbol table
n LOCCTR: location counter
Assembler

LOCCTR OPTAB SYMTAB

Source Object
Pass 1 Intermediate Pass 2
Program Code
File

The intermediate file include each source statement, assigned address and error indicator
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OPTABLE

n Mnemonic operation codes Û Machine code

n Contain instruction format and length
n LOCCTR ¬ LOCCTR + (instruction length)
n Implementation
n It is a static table
n Array or hash table
n Usually use a hash table (mnemonic opcode
as key)

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LOCCTR

n Initialize to be the beginning address

specified in the “START” statement
n LOCCTR ¬ LOCCTR + (instruction length)
n The current value of LOCCTR gives the
address to the label encountered

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SYMTAB

n Label name Û label address, type, length, flag

n To indicate error conditions (Ex: multiple define)
n It is a dynamic table
n Insert, delete and search
n Usually use a hash table
n The hash function should perform non-random
key (Ex: LOOP1, LOOP2, X, Y, Z)

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Algorithm Pass 1
(Figure 2.4(a), pp.53)

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LABEL field
OPCODE

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1-token.c
2-optable.c
3-asm_pass1_u.c
SIC/XE Program Syntax
SYMBOL +INSTRUCTION [@|#]OPERAND1, OPERAND2 COMMENT ‘\n’

SYM + INST
S0 S1 S2 S3
INST
INST
(FMT1 || RSUB)
(FMT1 || RSUB) \n|EOF
SYM @|#
(comment) \n|EOF S8
(operand1)
SYM
(FMT2) \n|EOF
(operand2)
SYM SYM ,
(comment) S7 ’X’
S6 S5 SYM S4
(operand1)

SYM (comment)

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Algorithm Pass 2
(Figure 2.4(b), pp.54)

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OPERAND field

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