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STIK1014 A172assembler Project Mac2018
STIK1014 A172assembler Project Mac2018
Task
You will write a simple assembler program in whatever high level language you know ( mostly will
use java). The assembler will translate assembly source code written in SI86 assembly language
code to machine language file.
This is a group project (4 person in a group). you will send in the program and further do a
presentation for the project to be arranged with your lecturer.
This project will contribute 20% of your final mark, so please do it properly and give due effort to
complete it.
You will divide job properly between group members. Submission will be done in three phases as
follows:
Phase one (5 marks): submit a working code for reading the source code and successfully
identifying the different part of the source code consisting of the opcode, label, and operands. You
will also generate the symbol table listing properly by this time. Basically, the first pass of the 2 pass
assembler is complete.
Phase two ( 5 marks): submit a working code for the generation of the machine code properly in a
proper object file ( .obj)
Phase three (10 marks): submit a complete working program of the simple assembler with
addition consisting of code for generating the listing file (.lst) and proper error checking of the
source code program. You will also have prepare for the presentation needs.
The phases due date will be decided by the lecturer. Please observe the submission time properly.
Due Date:
1
Introduction
An assembler is a program that reads an assembly source code and translate the code into a machine
language code (target code = object file) for a specific processor of a given computer. An assembler
basically works in the way explained in diagram 1.
Diagram 1:
Intermediate
file
Pass 1 Pass 2
Processor architecture
The target machine processor is a simple machine with a processor known as the SI86 processor.
This machine is an experimental machine, thus it is made very simple. SI86 will have 2 registers
only known as R1 and R2. both of the registers are 8 bits register. The memory of the machine is 24
bytes = 16 bytes. Each memory space is 8 bits (1 byte).
The memory of the computer is a small memory with address ranging from 00h to FFh - the address
is 8 bits with every address represents an 8 bits(1 byte) space.
The assembly language you will be working with have a very simple instruction set consisting of 10
instructions. The instructions along with its needed specification are listed in table 1 below. The
instruction set is basically all using only register direct and immediate addressing modes only (no
direct data movement to memory address is allowed). It can have jump and branch instructions to
certain address which means that generic name identifier can be used as label. The instruction
specification is described in the table below:
2
Instruction operands description
opcode
add x1,20 add 20 to x1 and load result to x1
x1,x2 add x2 to x1 and load result to x1
The assembler will generate the machine code as the target in a process known as a two pass
assembler steps.
Instruction translation
3
Translation process
Pass 1: Assembler reads the entire source program and constructs a symbol table of names and
labels used in the program, that is, name of data fields and programs labels and their relative
location (offset) within the segment. Pass 1 will determines the amount of code to be generated for
each instruction.
Pass 2: The assembler uses the symbol table that it constructed in Pass 1. Now it knows the length
and relative of each data field and instruction, it can complete the object code for each instruction. It
produces .OBJ (Object file), .LST (list file).
Example
4
During the first pass, the symbol table contents will be:
After the second pass, the listing file ( .lst) generated will be:
Listing file (.lst) will include error message, in case there is error (mainly syntax error). If there is
error, no obj file will be generated. The error message will be printed printed in the .lst file instead of
the program listing as above. The error message will be listed in the format of:
Besides the listing file, the symbol table file (symtab) generated will be as follows:
00010001 00000100
10010001 11111011
01010110
00111100
01001000
00111011
11110000
GOOD LUCK!