Programming Model 2

Introduction
Objectives
At the end of this lab you should be able to:

Use the CPU simulator to create basic CPU instructions

Use the simulator to execute the basic CPU instructions

Use direct and indirect addressing modes

Create iterative loops

Create sub-routines, sub-routine calls and return from

sub-routines

Processor (CPU) Simulators

The computer architecture tutorials are supported by simulators,
which are created to underpin theoretical concepts normally
covered during the lectures. The simulators provide visual and
animated representation of mechanisms involved and enable
the students to observe the hidden inner workings of systems,
which would be difficult or impossible to do otherwise. The
added advantage of using simulators is that they allow the
students to experiment and explore different technological
aspects of systems without having to install and configure the
real systems.

Basic Theory
The programming model of computer architecture defines those
low-level architectural components, which include the following

Processor instruction set

Registers

Modes of addressing instructions and data

Interrupts and exceptions

It also defines interaction between each of the above

components. It is this low-level programming model which
makes programmed computations possible.

Simulator Details
This section includes some basic information on the simulator, which
should enable the students to use the simulator. The tutor(s) will be
available to help anyone experiencing difficulty in using the simulator.
The simulator for this lab is an application running on a PC and is
composed of a single window.

Image 1 - Main simulator window

The main window is composed of several views, which represent

different functional parts of the simulated processor. These are

Instruction memory

Special registers

Register set

Hardware stack

The parts of the simulator relevant to this lab are described below.

Instruction memory view

This view contains the program
instructions. The instructions are
displayed as sequences of low-level
instruction mnemonics (assemblerlevel format) and not as binary code.
This is done for clarity and makes code
more readable.
Each instruction has two addresses:
the physical address (PAdd) and the
logical address (LAdd). This view also
displays the base address (Base)
against each instruction. The sequence
of instructions belonging to the same
program will have the same base
address.

Image2 - Instruction memory view

Special registers view

This view presents the set of registers, which have predefined specialist functions:

Image 3 - Special
registers view

PC: Program Counter contains the address of the next

instruction to be executed.
IR: Instruction Register contains the instruction currently
being executed.
SR: Status Register contains information pertaining to the
result of the last executed instruction.
SP: Stack Pointer register points to the value maintained
at the top of the hardware stack (see below).
BR: Base Register contains current base address.
MAR: Memory Address Register contains the memory
address currently being accessed.
Status bits: OV: Overflow; Z: Zero; N: Negative

Register set view

The register set view shows the contents of all
the general-purpose registers, which are used
to maintain temporary values as the program's
instructions are executed.
In this architecture, there are 64 registers.
These registers are often used to hold values
of a program's variables as defined in highlevel languages.
Not all architectures have this many registers.
Some have more (e.g. 128 register) and some
others have less (e.g. 8 registers). In all
cases, these registers serve similar purposes.
This view displays each register's name
(Reg), its current value (Value) and some
additional values, which are reserved for
program debugging. It can also be used to
reset the individual register values manually
which is often useful for advanced debugging.

Image 4 - Register set view

Hardware stack view

The hardware stack maintains temporary values
as the instructions are executed. The stack is a
LIFO (last-in-first-out) data structure. It is often
used for efficient interrupt handling and sub-routine
calls.
The instructions PSH (push) and POP are used to
store values on top of stack and pop values from
top of stack respectively.

Image 5 - Hardware stack view

Lab Exercises - Investigate and Explore

The lab exercises are a series of exercises, which are attempted by the
students under basic guidelines. The students are encouraged to carry
out further investigations on their own in order to form a better
understanding of the technology.
First we need to place some instructions in the Instruction Memory
View (i.e. representing the RAM in the real machine) before executing
any instructions. How are instructions placed in the Instruction Memory
View? Carry out the following procedure for this.

Image 6 - Program
Instructions View

In the Program Instructions View, first enter a Program Name, and

then enter a Base Address (this can be any number, but for this
exercise use 100). Click on the ADD button. A new program name will
be entered in the Program List View shown below. Use the SAVE /
LOAD... buttons to save instructions in a file and load the instructions
from a file.

Use the DELETE button to delete the

selected program from the list; use the
CLEAR ALL button to remove all the
programs from the list. Note that when a
program is deleted, its instructions are also
removed from the Instruction Memory View
too.

Image 7 - Program List View

In the following exercises, you'll need to see the contents of user

memory assigned to your program. To do this click on the SHOW
PROG MEMORY button (see Image 7 above) in the PROGRAM
LIST view. The memory contents are displayed in a separate window
as shown below. For convenience the addresses are displayed in
decimal and the memory data are displayed in hexadecimal formats.

Image 8 - Program memory page

IMPORTANT NOTE:
Before you carry on with the following tutorial exercises, first click on
the SHOW PIPELINE button in the CPU Simulator window and
check the checkbox labelled No instruction pipeline. Close the
window.
You are now ready to enter instructions into this view. You do this by
clicking on the ADD NEW button. This will display the Instructions:
CPU0 window. Use this window to enter the instructions. For your
reference Appendix provides a list of instructions for the CPU
simulator.
Now, do the following activities:
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1. In the Appendix, locate the instruction, which is used to store a

byte of data in a memory location.
2. Use it to store 1-byte number 65 in address location 20 (all numbers
are in decimal). This is an example of direct addressing.
3. Create an instruction to move number 22 to register R01 and
execute it.
4. Create an instruction to store number 51 in address location
currently stored in register R01 and execute it. This is an example
of indirect addressing.
5. Verify that the specified bytes are written to the correct address
locations (see Image 8). You should see an A and a 3 under the
Data column.
6. Now, lets create a loop: First set R02 to 0 (zero). Increment R02's
value by 1 (one). If R02's value is 5 then exit this loop and stop the
program; otherwise continue the loop. Verify that this loop works.
7. Next, lets plant a short text into memory (we are hacking now!).
Click and highlight memory location 0024 (under PAdd column).
Now enter 02, 'h, 'e, 'l, 'l, 'o, 0D (i.e. decimal 13), 0A (i.e. decimal
10) in boxes B0 to B7 and click on the UPDATE button. The text
"hello" should now be in memory (starting from address location
24). What do the last two hex bytes 0D0A do (step 9 below will
reveal the answer)?
8. Modify the above loop so that the text hello is displayed 5 times on
the console. To do this you need to insert an OUT instruction in an
appropriate place in the loop.
9. Verify that when the loop is executed, the text "hello" is displayed
5 times under each other. To see the text click on the
INPUT/OUTPUT button in ADVANCED view (see Image 1
above). Now, go to the memory window and change 0D and 0A in
boxes B6 and B7 to 00s (use UPDATE button to change in the
memory) and repeat. How does this display differ?
10. Convert your loop to a subroutine. Then add the necessary
instructions to call this subroutine.
11. Observe the contents of the PC register and the Program Stack
just before the subroutine call. Observe these again just after the
subroutine return instruction is executed. Explain your observations.
12. Save the instructions in the Instruction Memory view in a file by
clicking on the SAVE button.
The above exercises are intended to help you understand the construction of
basic CPU instruction loops, and the mechanism involved in subroutine calls
and returns, which can be found in most modern CPU architectures. As often
is the case, there is more to these architectures than the above basic
instructions.

Appendix - Simulator Instruction Sub-set

Instruction

Description and examples of usage

Data transfer instructions

Move data to register; move register to register
MOV

e.g.
MOV #2, R01 ;moves number 2 into register R01
MOV R01, R03 ;moves contents of register R01 into register R03
Load a byte from memory to register

LDB

e.g.
LDB 1000, R02 ;loads one byte value from memory location 1000
LDB @R00, R01 ;memory location is specified in register R00
Load a word (2 bytes) from memory to register

LDW

e.g.
LDW 1000, R02 ;loads two-byte value from memory location 1000
LDW @R00, R01 ;memory location is specified in register R00
Store a byte from register to memory

STB

e.g.
STB #2, 1000 ;stores value 2 into memory location 1000
STB R02, @R01 ;memory location is specified in register R01
Store a word (2 bytes) from register to memory

STW

e.g.
STW R04, 1000 ;stores register R04 into memory location 1000
STW R02, @2000 ;memory location is specified in memory 2000
Push data to top of hardware stack (TOS); push register to TOS

PSH

e.g.
PSH #6 ;pushes number 6 on top of the stack
PSH R03 ;pushes the contents of register R03 on top of the stack
Pop data from top of hardware stack to register

POP

e.g.
POP R05 ;pops contents of top of stack into register R05

Arithmetic instructions
Add number to register; add register to register
e.g.
ADD

ADD #3, R02 ;adds number 3 to contents of register R02 and

stores the result in register R02.
ADD R00, R01 ;adds contents of register R00 to contents of
register R01 and stores the result in register R01.

SUB

Subtract number from register; subtract register from register

MUL

Multiply number with register; multiply register with register

DIV

Divide number with register; divide register with register

Control transfer instructions

Jump to instruction address unconditionally
JMP

e.g.
JMP 100 ;unconditionally jumps to address location 100
Jump to instruction address if less than (after last comparison)

JLT

JGT

e.g.
JLT 1000 ;jumps to address location 1000 if the previous
comparison instruction result indicates that CMP operand 2 is less
than operand 1.
Jump to instruction address if greater than (after last comparison)
Jump to instruction address if equal (after last comparison)

JEQ

e.g.
JEQ 200 ;jumps to address location 200 if the previous comparison
instruction result indicates that the two CMP operands are equal.

JNE

Jump to instruction address if not equal (after last comparison)

Jump to subroutine address

CAL

e.g. To call a subroutine starting at address location 1000 use the

following sequence of instructions
MSF

;always needed just before the following instruction

CAL 1000 ;will cause a jump to address location 1000

Return from subroutine
RET

e.g. The last instruction in a subroutine must always be the following

instruction

RET ;will jump to the instruction after the last CAL instruction.
SWI

Software interrupt (used to request OS help)

Halt simulation. This must be the last instruction.

HLT

e.g.
HLT ;stops the simulation run (not the simulator itself)

Comparison instruction
Compare number with register; compare register with register
e.g.
CMP #5, R02 compare number 5 with the contents of register R02
CMP

CMP R01, R03 compare the contents of registers R01 and R03
Note:
If R03 = R01 then the status flag Z will be set
If R03 > R01 then non of the status flags will be set
If R03 < R01 then the status flag N will be set

Input, output instructions

IN

Get input data (if available) from an external IO device

Output data to an external IO device

OUT

e.g. to display a string starting in memory address 120 (decimal) on

console device do the following
OUT 120, 0 ;the string is in address location 120 (direct addressing)
OUT @R02, 0 ;register R02 has number 120 (indirect addressing)

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