SYSTEM PROGRAMMING

Chih-Hung Wang 1
Chapter 2: Assembler (Part-1)
參考書目
Leland L. Beck, System Software: An Introduction to
Systems Programming (3rd), Addison-Wesley, 1997.
 Role of Assembler
Source Object

Program Assembler Code Linker

Executable
Code

Loader

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Chapter 2 -- Outline
 Basic Assembler Functions
 Machine-dependent Assembler Features
 Machine-independent Assembler Features
 Assembler Design Options

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Introduction to Assemblers
 Fundamental functions
 Translating mnemonic operation codes to their machine language
equivalents
 Assigning machine addresses to symbolic labels

 Machine dependency
 Different machine instruction formats and codes

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Example Program (Fig. 2.1)
 Purpose
 Reads records from input device (code F1)
 Copies them to output device (code 05)
 At the end of the file, writes EOF on the output device, then
RSUB to the operating system
 Program (See Fig. 2.1)

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 SIC Assembly Program (Fig. 2.1)
Line numbers Mnemonic opcode
(for reference)
comments
Address labels
operands

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SIC Assembly Program (Fig. 2.1)
Indicate comment lines

Index addressing 7
SIC Assembly Program (Fig. 2.1)

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Example Program (Fig. 2.1)
 Data transfer (RD, WD)
 a buffer is used to store record
 buffering is necessary for different I/O rates
 the end of each record is marked with a null character (0016)
 the end of the file is indicated by a zero-length record

 Subroutines (JSUB, RSUB)

 RDREC, WRREC
 save link register first before nested jump

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Assembler Directives
 Pseudo-Instructions
 Not translated into machine instructions
 Providing information to the assembler

 Basic assembler directives

 START :
 Specify name and starting address for the program
 END :
 Indicate the end of the source program, and (optionally) the first executable instruction
in the program.
 BYTE :
 Generate character or hexadecimal constant, occupying as many bytes as needed to represen
t 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

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 Object Program
 Header
Col. 1 H
Col. 2~7 Program name
Col. 8~13 Starting address (hex)
Col. 14-19 Length of object program in bytes (hex)
 Text
Col.1 T
Col.2~7 Starting address in this record (hex)
Col. 8~9 Length of object code in this record in bytes (hex)
Col. 10~69 Object code (69-10+1)/6=10 instructions
 End
Col.1 E
Col.2~7 Address of first executable instruction (hex)
(END program_name)

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Fig. 2.3 (Object Program)

1033-2038: Storage reserved by the loader

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Assembler Tasks
 The translation of source program to object code requires
us the accomplish the following functions:
 Convert mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equ
ivalents (e.g. translate STL to 14 - Line 10)
 Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine addresse
s format (e.g. translate RETARD to 1033 - Line 10)
 Build machine instructions in the proper format
 Convert the data constants specified in the source program int
o their internal machine representations (e.g. translate EOF t
o 454F46) - Line 80
 Write object program and the assembly listing

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 Example of Instruction Assem
ble
STCH BUFFER,X 549039

8 1 15
opcode x address
m
(54)16 1 (001)2 (039)16
 Forward reference

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Forward Reference
 A reference to a label (RETADR) that is defined later in
the program
 Solution
 Two passes
 First pass: does little more than scan the source program for label
definition and assign addresses (such as those in the Loc column in
Fig. 2.2).
 Second pass: performs most of the actual instruction translation pr
eviously defined.

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Difficulties: Forward Refere
nce
 Forward reference: reference to a label that is defined l
ater in the program.

Loc Label Operator Operand

1000 FIRST STL RETADR

1003 CLOOP JSUB RDREC
… … … … …
1012 J CLOOP
… … … … …
1033 RETADR RESW 1

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Two Pass SIC Assembler
 Pass 1 (define symbols)
 Assign addresses to all statements in the program
 Save the addresses assigned to all labels for use in Pass 2
 Perform assembler directives, including those for address ass
ignment, such as BYTE and RESW
 Pass 2 (assemble instructions and generate object pr
ogram)
 Assemble instructions (generate opcode and look up addresses)
 Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD
 Perform processing of assembler directives not done during Pa
ss 1
 Write the object program and the assembly listing

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Two Pass SIC Assembler
 Read from input line
 LABEL, OPCODE, OPERAND

Source
program

Intermediate Object
Pass 1 Pass 2
file codes

OPTAB SYMTAB SYMTAB

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 Assembler Data Structures
 Operation Code Table (OPTAB)
 Symbol Table (SYMTAB)
 Location Counter (LOCCTR)

OPTAB

Pass 1
Intermediate Object
file Program
Source
Pass 2
SYMTA
LOCCTR
B

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Location Counter (LOCCTR)
 A variable that is used to help in the assignment of addr
esses, i.e., LOCCTR gives the address of the associated l
abel.
 LOCCTR is initialized to be the beginning address specifi
ed in the START statement.
 After each source statement is processed during pass 1, t
he length of assembled instruction or data area to be gen
erated is added to LOCCTR.

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Operation Code Table (OPTA
B)
 Contents:
 Mnemonic operation codes (as the keys)
 Machine language equivalents
 Instruction format and length
 Note: SIC/XE has instructions of different lengths

 During pass 1:
 Validate operation codes
 Find the instruction length to increase LOCCTR

 During pass 2:
 Determine the instruction format
 Translate the operation codes to their machine language equivalents

 Implementation: a static hash table (entries are not normally add

ed to or deleted from it)
 Hash table organization is particularly appropriate

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 COPY 1000

SYMTAB
FIRST 1000
CLOOP 1003
ENDFIL 1015
EOF 1024
THREE 102D
 Contents: ZERO 1030
 Label name RETADR 1033
 Label address LENGTH 1036
 Flags (to indicate error conditions) BUFFER 1039
RDREC 2039
 Data type or length

 During pass 1:
 Store label name and assigned address (from LOCCTR) in SYMTAB

 During pass 2:
 Symbols used as operands are looked up in SYMTAB

 Implementation:
 a dynamic hash table for efficient insertion and retrieval
 Should perform well with non-random keys (LOOP1, LOOP2).

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Fig. 2.2 (1) Program with Ob
ject code

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Fig. 2.2 (2) Program with Ob
ject code

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Fig. 2.2 (3) Program with Ob
ject code

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Figure 2.1 (Pseudo code Pass
1)

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Figure 2.1 (Pseudo code Pass
1)

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Figure 2.1 (Pseudo code Pass
2)

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Figure 2.1 (Pseudo code Pass
2)

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