CS303 System Software Module 1

MODULE I

SYLLABUS
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.

INTRODUCTION

Computer Software
A computer cannot do anything on its own. It must be instructed to do a job. So its
necessary to specify a sequence of instructions that a computer must perform to solve a
problem. Such a sequence of instructions written in a language understood by a computer is
called a computer program. Computer software is the collection of computer programs and
related data that provide instructions telling a computer what to do. Software is divided into 2
types:
1. System Software
2. Application Software

1. System Software
System Software is a set of programs that manages and supports the operation of a
computer. It controls the computer system and enhances its performance. It enables the
application software to interact with the system hardware. That is system software act as a
bridge between application software and computer hardware. Eg: Operating System,
Compiler etc. System software can be broadly classified into 3 types:
i. System Control Programs
ii. System Support Programs
iii. System Development Programs
i.System Control Programs: controls the execution of programs, manage the storage and
processing resources of the computer and perform other management and monitoring
functions. Eg: Operating System, Database Management Systems(DBMS).

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ii. System Support Programs: provide routine service functions to the other computer
programs and computer users. Eg: utilities, libraries
System Development Programs: assists in the creation of application programs. Eg:
Language translators like compiler, assembler.

I. Application Software:
Application software consists of programs designed to perform specific tasks for
users. .Eg: Media player, Ms. Word, Notepad etc. There are 2 types of application software:
i. General Purpose Application Software: These provide general user needs, not for a
specific purpose. Eg: Spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel, which can be used to
perform different applications.
ii. Special Purpose(Custom) Application Software: Typically used for specific
applications. Eg: Turbo Tax, which is a special purpose application used to perform tax
returns.

Relationship between system software and application software:

Application Software

System Software

Computer Hardware

System software control and manages hardware thereby providing a platform for
application software to operate. Application software helps user to accomplish one or more
tasks using a computer through system software. For an application to run on a computer it
needs to be allocate space from memory, allocated resources (CPU time, hardware like
keyboard, display, printer etc), given access to system libraries, all of which is done by
operating system which is a system software.

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Differences between system software and application software (System

Software Vs Application Software):

Category Application Software System Software

Definition Application software is computer System software is computer
software designed to help the user to software designed to operate the
perform specific tasks computer hardware and to
provide a platform for running
application software.

Purpose It is specfic purpose software. It is general purpose software.

Environment Application Software performs in a System Software create his own
environment which created by environment to run itself and run
Operating System other application.
Execution It executes as and when required Some system software must
Time
executes all the time in
computer.
Essentiality Application software is not essential System software is essential for a
for a computer.
computer
Number The number of application software is The number of system software
much more than system software.
is less than application software.
Machine Application software uses the computer System software is intended to
dependent/ for solving problems. That is, its focus is support the use and operation of a
on application. So its machine computer. So its usually machine
independent independent. dependent.

DIFFERENT SYSTEM SOFTWARE

1. Language Translators
a. Compiler
b. Interpreter
c. Assembler
d. Macro Preprocessor
2. Linker
3. Loader
4. Text Editor
5. Device Driver
6. Debugger

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7. Operating Systems
8. Database Management Systems(DBMS)

1. Language Translators
It is the program that takes an input program in one language and produces an output
in another language.

Different language translators are:

a. Compiler
b. Interpreter
c. Assembler
d. Macropreprocessor

a. Compiler

A compiler is a program that translates programs written in any high level language
(source program) into its equivalent machine language program(target language). An
important role of the compiler is to report any errors in the source program that it detects
during the translation process.

b. Interpreter
An interpreter is also a language translator which converts source program in high
level language into machine language, just like compiler did. It reads the source code one
line at a time, converts this line into machine code and executes it. The machine code is then
discarded and next line is processed. It stops translating after the first error.
Compilers, on the other hand, translates the entire program in one go and then
executes it. Compiler analyse the entire program, displays where errors have occurred. If
errors are present, then program cannot run.

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Interpreter works as follows. The interpreter reads the source program and stores it in
memory. Program counter (PC) indicates which statement of the source program is to be
interpreted next. During interpretation, it takes a source statement, determines its meaning
and performs the actions and PC is incremented. The interpretation cycle consists of the
following steps:
 Fetch the statement.
 Analyze the statement and determine its meaning.
 Execute the meaning of the statement.
Advantages of interpreter:
Easier to use particularly for beginners, since errors are immediately displayed.
.Disdvantage of interpreter:
Every line has to be translated every time it is executed, even if it is executed many times
as the program runs. Because of this interpreters tend to be slow.
Example for interpreters: Basic on older home computers, script interpreters such as
JavaScript.

c. Assembler
Assembler converts assembly language program into its equivalent machine
language.

Assembly Language Assembler Machine Language

Example: MASM (8086 assembler)

d.Macro Preprocessor

A macro processor is a program that reads a file and scans them for certain keywords.
When a keyword is found, it is replaced by some text. The keyword/text combination is
called a macro. A simple example is the C language pre-processor:

#define max 100;

int i;
for(i=0;i<max;i++)
{
.........
}

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The C prerocessor reads the first line and stores it as macro definition. When it comes
across the later reference of max in the for loop, it replaces with the macro definition 100.
The output of the C processor is then fed to the C compiler.

2. Linker
A linker is a program that combines object modules to form an executable program.
Many programming languages allow us to write different pieces of code, called modules,
separately. This simplifies the programming task because we can break a large program into
small, more manageable pieces. Eventually, though, we need to put all the modules together.
This is the job of the linker. In addition to combining modules, a linker also replaces
symbolic addresses with real addresses. Therefore, we may need to link a program even if it
contains only one module.

3. Loader
A loader is the part of an operating system that is responsible for loading programs. It
is one of the essential stages in the process of starting a program, as it places programs into
memory and prepares them for execution. Loading a program involves reading the contents of
the executable file containing the program instructions into memory, and then carrying out
other required preparatory tasks to prepare the executable for running. Once loading is
complete, the operating system starts the program by passing control to the loaded program
code.

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4.Text Editors

A text editor is a type of program used for editing plain text files. Text editors are
often provided with operating systems or software development packages. Example for text
editors are Microsoft word, gedit in Linux etc.

5.Debuggers

A debugger or debugging tool is a computer program that is used

to test and debug other programs.

6.Device Drivers

In computing, a device driver is a computer program that operates or controls a

particular type of device that is attached to a computer. A Device Driver is glue between an
OS and its I/O devices. They act as translators converting requests received from the
operating system into commands that the devices can understand.

7.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:
1. Process management
2. Memory management
3. Resource management
4. I/O operations
5. Data management
6. Providing security to user’s job.

8.Database Management System

A database is a collection of related data. Data can be consider as a piece of
information which can be recorded.

Data Base Management System (DBMS) is a collection of programs that enables

users to create and maintain a database. It is a general purpose software that facilitates the
processes of defining, constructing, manipulating and sharing of database among various
users and applications.

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 Defining a database means specifying the data types, structures and

constraints for the data to be stored in the database.
 Constructing the database is the process of storing the data on some
storage medium that is controlled by the DBMS.
 Manipulating the database means processing the database. It includes
functions such as querying the database to retrieve specific data, updating
the database to reflect changes in the mini world and generating reports
from the data.
 Sharing a database allows multiple users and programs to access the
database concurrently.

A Database System is a computerized record keeping system whose overall

purpose is to store information and to allow users to retrieve and update that information
on demand. Database system consists of a Database, Database Management System and
an Application program. An application program accesses the database by sending
requests or queries for data to the DBMS.

Fig: A Database System

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THE SIMPLIFIED INSTRUCTIONAL COMPUTER (SIC)

It is a hypothetical computer that has been carefully designed to include the hardware
features most often found in real machine. It comes in two versions:
• The standard model

• XE version

SIC MACHINE STRUCTURE

Memory

• It consists of bytes(8 bits)

• Any 3 consecutive bytes form a word(24 bits) which are addressed by the location of
their lowest numbered byte.
• There are totally 215=32,768 bytes in memory.

Registers
SIC machines have 5 registers, each 24 bits long and having both a numeric and
character representation. The registers are:

• A (0): Used for basic arithmetic operations; known as the accumulator register.
• X (1): Used for addressing; known as the index register.
• L (2): Used for storing the return address of the jump of subroutine
instructions(JSUB); known as the linkage register.
• PC (8): Contains the address of the next instruction to be executed; known as the
program counter register.
• SW (9): Contains a variety of information, (such as carry or overflow flags)including
a condition code(CC); known as the status word register.
(In the representation A(0) – A is the character representation for the accumulator register
and 0 is the numeric representation. Similarly for other registers.)
Data formats
• Integers are stored as 24-bit binary numbers
• For storing negative numbers 2’s complement representation is used
• Characters are stored using their 8 bit ASCII codes.
• SIC do not support floating point data items.

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Instruction Formats
• All machine instructions are of 24-bits length. It has following format:

• x is a flag bit used to indicate indexed-addressing mode.

If x=0, then direct addressing mode
If x=1, then indexed addressing mode/indirect addressing mode
Addressing modes
The term addressing modes refers to the way in which the operand of an instruction is
specified.Two types of addressing modes are available in SIC architecture, indicated by the
setting of x-bit in the instruction. They are
1. Direct addressing mode
2. Indexed addressing mode or indirect addressing mode

Addressing Mode Indication Target Address Calculation

Direct X=0 TA=address
Indexed/Indirect X=1 TA=address +(X)

• where (X) represents the contents of index register.

Instruction Set
It includes instructions like:
1. Load and Store Registers (Data movement instruction)
 Ex: LDA, STA, LDX, STX.
 LDA – Load Accumulator, STA – Store the content of Accumulator to
specified location
 LDX – Load X Register, STX – Store the content of X Register to specified
location

2. Arithmetic operating instructions

 Ex: ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV.

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 This involves register A and a word in memory, with the result being left in
the A register.

3. Compare Instruction
 Ex: COMP
 Instruction COMP compares a value in A with a word in memory, and sets
the condition code CC to indicate the result of <, > and =.

4. Branching instructions (Conditional Jump Instruction)

 Ex: JLT, JEQ, JGT.
 These instructions test the settings of CC and jump accordingly.
 JLT – Jump on Less than, JEQ- Jump on Equal, JGT – Jump on Greater than

5. Subroutine linkage instructions

 Ex: JSUB, RSUB
 JSUB jumps to the subroutine placing the return address in register L
 RSUB returns by jumping to the address contained in register L.

Input and Output Operations

 Input/Output is performed by transferring 1 byte at a time to or from the rightmost 8
bits of register A.
 Each device is assigned a unique 8-bit code
 There are 3 I/O instructions, each of which specifies device code as an operand.

1. TD ( Test device)
- Tests whether the addressed device is ready to send or receive a byte of data
- The condition code is set to indicate the result of this test.
- If CC setting is < the device is ready, if setting is = device is not ready
2. RD (Read Data)
- for reading data

3. WD (Write Data)
- for writing data

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• A program needing to transfer data must wait until the device is ready, then execute
RD or WD.

• This sequence must be repeated for each byte of data to be read or written.

SIC/XE MACHINE STRUCTURE

Memory
• It consists of bytes(8 bits)
• Any 3 consecutive bytes form a word(24 bits) which are addressed by the location of
their lowest numbered byte.
• There are totally 220=1,048,576bytes (1 Mbyte) in memory.

Registers

• Totally 9 registers are available in SIC/XE

• All registers except Floating point accumulator are of 24 bits. Floating point
accumulator is of 48 bits.

Data formats
• Integers are stored as 24-bit binary numbers
• For storing negative numbers 2’s complement representation is used
• Characters are stored using their 8 bit ASCII codes.
• SIC/XE supports floating point data items. Floating point is stored in 48 bit signed-
exponent-fraction format

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• The fraction is represented as a 36 bit number and has value between 0 and 1
• The exponent is represented as a 11 bit unsigned binary number between 0 and 2047.
• The sign of the floating point number is indicated by s : 0=positive, 1=negative.
• Therefore, the absolute floating point number value is: f*2(e-1024)

Instruction Format

There are 4 different instruction formats available in SIC/XE:

 Formats 1 and 2 do not reference memory at all

 Instruction format 3 and 4 introduce addressing mode flag bits.
Flag e:
e=0 use Format 3
e=1 use Format 4
Flag p – indicates Program counter relative addressing
Flag b - indicates Base register relative addressing
Flag x – indicates indexing. (uses index register)
Flag i – indicates immediate addressing
Flag n – indicates indirect addressing

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Instruction Set
SIC/XE supports all of the instructions that are available on standard SIC. SIC/XE
supports following instructions:
1. Load and Store Registers (Data movement instruction)
 Ex: LDCH, STCH, LDB, STB.
 LDCH – Load Accumulator with character, STCH – Store the character on
Accumulator to specified location.
 LDX – Load X Register, STX – Store the content of X Register to specified
location

2. Integer Arithmetic operating instructions

 Ex: ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV.
 This involves register A and a word in memory, with the result being left in
the A register.

3. Floating Point Arithmetic Instruction

 Ex: ADDF, SUBF, MULF, DIVF
 F- stands for Floating Point

4. Compare Instruction
 Ex: COMP
 Instruction COMP compares a value in A with a word in memory, and sets
the condition code CC to indicate the result of <, > and =.

5. Branching instructions (Conditional Jump Instruction)

 Ex: JLT, JEQ, JGT.
 These instructions test the settings of CC and jump accordingly.
 JLT – Jump on Less than, JEQ- Jump on Equal, JGT – Jump on Greater than

6. Subroutine linkage instructions

 Ex: JSUB, RSUB
 JSUB jumps to the subroutine placing the return address in register L
 RSUB returns by jumping to the address contained in register L.

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7. Register Related Instructions

 This involves the instructions for register manipulation, operands-from-
registers and register-to-register arithmetic operations.
 Ex: RMO , COMPR, SHIFTR, ADDR, SUBR, MULR, DIVR, etc
RMO – Register Move Instruction
ADDR, SUBR, MULR, DIVR – Register Arithmetic operations
COMPR – Register Comparison
SHIFTR- Register Shift Operation
8. Supervisor Call Instruction (SVC)
 The instruction SVC generates an interrupt that can be used for
communicating with the operating system.

Input and Output Operations

 Input/Output is performed by transferring 1 byte at a time to or from the rightmost 8
bits of register A.
 Each device is assigned a unique 8-bit code
 There are 3 I/O instructions, each of which specifies device code as an operand.
1. TD ( Test device)
- Tests whether the addressed device is ready to send or receive a byte of data
- The condition code is set to indicate the result of this test.
- If CC setting is < the device is ready, if setting is = device is not ready
2. RD (Read Data)
- for reading data

3. WD (Write Data)
- for writing data

• A program needing to transfer data must wait until the device is ready, then execute
RD or WD.

• This sequence must be repeated for each byte of data to be read or written.

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• SIC/XE has capability for programmed I/O. Programmed I/O means I/O devices may
input or output data while CPU is busy with other works.3 instructions are provided
for handling programmed I/O features:
SIO - Start I/O
HIO - Halt I/O
TIO - Test I/O

Addressing Modes
The term addressing modes refers to the way in which the operand of an instruction is
specified. Instruction format 3 and 4 introduce addressing mode flag bits.

Flag e:
e=0 use Format 3
e=1 use Format 4
Flag p – indicates Program counter relative addressing
Flag b - indicates Base register relative addressing
Flag x – indicates indexing. (uses index register)
Flag i – indicates immediate addressing
Flag n – indicates indirect addressing
1. Indexed Addressing Mode
 If x=1, then it indicates indexed addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, the content of x register is added with address/disp for the
target address calculation.
TA=address +(X)
 Indexed addressing mode can be combined with PC relative and Base relative
addressing mode. In this case, the content of X register is also added for the target
address calculation.

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 Indexing cannot be used with immediate or indirect addressing modes.

2. Immediate Addressing Mode

 If n=0 and i=1, then it indicates Immediate addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, target address(TA) itself is used as the operand value.
 No memory reference is performed.

3. Indirect Addressing Mode

 If n=1 and i=0, then it indicates Indirect addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, word at the location given by the target address is fetched.
The value contained in this word is then taken as the address of the operand value.

4. Simple Addressing Mode

 If n=0 and i=0, then it indicates simple addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, TA is taken as the location of the operand
 If n=1 and i=1, it also indicates simple addressing mode( same as n=0 and i=0)

5. Program Counter Relative Addressing

 If b=0 and p=1, then it Indicates Program Counter(PC) relative addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, the displacement given in instruction is added with the
content of program counter(PC) for obtaining the target address.

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TA = (PC)+disp

 Indexed addressing mode can be combined with PC relative addressing mode. In this
case, the content of X register is also added for the target address calculation.
TA = (PC)+(X)+disp

6. Base Relative Addressing Mode

 If b=1 and p=0, then it indicates Base relative addressing mode.
 In this addressing mode, the displacement given in instruction is added with the
content of base register for obtaining the target address.

TA=(B)+disp

 Indexed addressing mode can be combined with Base relative addressing mode. In
this case, the content of X register is also added for the target address calculation.
TA = (B)+(X)+disp

7. Direct Addressing Mode

 If x=0, then it indicates direct addressing mode.
 Then target address is the address/disp given in the instruction.
TA=address

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Examples of SIC/XE instructions and addressing modes

 Following figure gives examples of different addressing modes available on
SIC/XE.
 The contents of B, PC and X registers are given as (B)=006000, (PC)= 003000 and
(X)=000090. All values are given in hexadecimal.
 Fig b gives the machine code for a series of LDA instruction (opcode for LDA is 00)
 The target address generated by each instruction and the value loaded into register A
is also shown

SIC Assembler Directives

Assembler directives are instructions that direct the assembler to do something.

The assembler directives in SIC are:
1. START
 Indicates the start of program.
 Used to define program name and starting address
 Eg: COPY START 1000
This means the program name is COPY and the starting address is 1000
2. END
 Used to indicate the end of program.

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 Optionally indicates first executable instruction.

 Eg: END ALPHA
This means the program name ENDs at here. And the first executable
instruction is ALPHA
3. RESW
 Used to reserves specified word for a data area.
 Eg: ALPHA RESW 4
This is to reserve 4 words. (4 words means 4*3 =12 bytes)

4. RESB
 Used to reserves specified byte for a data area.
 Eg: A RESB 5
This is to reserve 5 bytes.
5. WORD
 Used to generate one word integer constant
 Eg: B WORD 6
This uses one word to store the integer constant 6 and the name B is assigned
to the first location
6. BYTE
 Generate character constant using required number of bytes
 Eg: ALPHA BYTE C ‘HAI’
This generates number of bytes needed to store HAI.

SIC/XE Programming Examples

Program 1 //Sample data movement

Write a sequence of instructions for SIC/XE which stores the value 5 in
ALPHA and the character Z in C1

LDA #5 Load value 5 into register A

STA ALPHA Store in ALPHA
LDCH #90 Load ASCII code for ‘Z’ into register A
STCH C1 Store in character variable C1
…
…
…
ALPHA RESW 1 Reserve one-word variable for ALPHA
C1 RESB 1 Reserve one-byte variable for ALPHA

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Program 2 //Arithmetic operations

Write a sequence of instructions for SIC/XE which performs the following
computations BETA=ALPHA+INCR-1 and DELTA=GAMMA+INCR-1

LDS INCR Load value of INCR into register S

LDA ALPHA Load ALPHA into register A
ADDR S,A Add the value of INCR and ALPHA
SUB #1 Subtract 1
STA BETA Store in BETA
LDA GAMMA Load GAMMA into register A
ADDR S,A Add the value of INCR and GAMMA
SUB #1 Subtract 1
STA DELTA Store in DELTA
…
…
ALPHA RESW 1 One-word variables
BETA RESW 1
GAMMA RESW 1
DELTA RESW 1
INCR RESW 1

Program 3 // looping and indexing

Write a sequence of instructions for SIC/XE which copies one string to
another.

LDT #11 Initialize register T to 11

LDX #0 Initialize index register to 0
MOVECH LDCH STR1,X Load character from STR1 to reg A
STCH STR2,X Store character into STR2
TIXR T Add 1 to index, compare result with register T
JLT MOVECH Loop if index is less than 11 .
…

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…
…
STR1 BYTE C’TEST STRING’ 11 byte string constant
STR2 RESB 11 11 byte variable

Program 4 // looping and indexing

The variables ALPHA,BETA and GAMMA are arrays of 100 words each.
Write a sequence of instructions for SIC/XE which add together the
corresponding elements of ALPHA and BETA and storing the results in
the elements of GAMMA.

LDS #3 Initialize register S to 3

LDT #300 Initialize register T to 300
LDX #0 Initialize index register to 0
ADDLP LDA ALPHA,X load from ALPHA to reg A
ADD BETA,X Add word from BETA
STA GAMMA,X Store the result in A into GAMMA
ADDR S,X Add 3 to index value
COMPR X,T Compare new index value to 300
JLT ADDLP Loop if index is less than 300
...
...
ALPHA RESW 100 Array variables—100 words each
BETA RESW 100
GAMMA RESW 100

Program 5 //Sample input and output operations

Write a sequence of instructions for SIC/XE which reads 1 byte of data
from device F1and copies it to device 05.

INLOOP TD INDEV Test input device

JEQ INLOOP Loop until device is ready

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RD INDEV Read one byte into register A

STCH DATA Store byte that was read
...
...
OUTLP TD OUTDEV Test output device
JEQ OUTLP Loop until device is ready
LDCH DATA Load data byte into register A
WD OUTDEV Write one byte to output device
...
...
INDEV BYTE X’F1’ Input device number F1
OUTDEV BYTE X’05’ Output device number O5
DATA RESB 1 1 byte variable

Program 6 //Subroutine call

Write a subroutine to read a 100 –byte record from an input device into
memory.

-For the detailed explanation of program please go through the text book. (System Software –
An Introduction to Systems Programming – Leland L. Beck, page number 12 to 20)

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