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The LC-3 Chapter 7

COMP 2620
Dr. James Money
COMP 2620

Assembly Program
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;
;

Program to count occurrences of a character in a file.

Character to be input from the keyboard.
Result to be displayed on the monitor.
Program only works if no more than 9 occurrences are found.
Initialization
.ORIG
AND
LD
GETC
LDR

x3000
R2, R2, #0
; R2 is counter, initially 0
R3, PTR ; R3 is pointer to characters
; R0 gets character input
R1, R3, #0
; R1 gets first character

;
; Test character for end of file
;
TEST
ADD
R4, R1, #-4
; Test for EOT (ASCII x04)
BRz
OUTPUT ; If done, prepare the output

Assembly Program
;
; Test character for match. If a match, increment count.
;
NOT
R1, R1
ADD
R1, R1, R0
; If match, R1 = xFFFF
NOT
R1, R1 ; If match, R1 = x0000
BRnp
GETCHAR ; If no match, do not increment
ADD
R2, R2, #1
;
; Get next character from file.
;
GETCHAR ADD
R3, R3, #1 ; Point to next char
LDR
R1, R3, #0
; R1 gets next char to test
BRnzp TEST
;
; Output the count.
;
OUTPUT
LD
R0, ASCII
; Load the ASCII template
ADD
R0, R0, R2
; Covert binary count to ASCII
OUT
; ASCII code in R0 is displayed.
HALT
; Halt machine

Assembly Program
;
; Storage for pointer and ASCII template
;
ASCII
.FILL x0030
PTR
.FILL x4000
.END

Assembly Process
Before

you can execute an LC-3 assembly

program, it has to converted to machine code
for the LC-3 ISA
The job of the assembler is to perform this
task
Essentially, it is a translation from one
assembly command to a corresponding LC-3
instruction

Two-Pass Process
We

consider how the assembler performs

this translation to machine code
Recall there is a one-to-one correspondence
between assembly instructions and machine
instructions
One could do this in one pass
The first 9 lines are comments are ignored

Two-Pass Process
At

line 0A, we have a pseudo-op which sets

the initial PC to 0x3000
Line 0B is an AND instruction which readily
translates to
0x3000: 0101010010100000

Two-Pass Process
However,

at line 0C, there is no knowledge

yet of the memory location that PTR refers to
At this point, the assembler fails and exits if it
only uses one pass of the assembly file input
To get around this, we have to use two
passes of the assembly file

Two-Pass Process
Pass

Create list of addresses corresponding to labels

This is called a symbol table

Pass

1:

2:

We translate the assembly instructions

We use the symbol table to clarify references

Two-Pass Process
Now,

at line 0C, we have to translate

LD R3,PTR
But we know from the first pass, PTR refers
to memory location 0x3013
Thus, this translates to the instruction
0x3001: 0010011000010001

First Pass
From

our perspective, the symbol table is

only list of symbolic names with 16 bit
memory locations
We obtain this table by going through the file
completely and see what lines and
appropriate memory locations applies to
each symbol

First Pass
If

we have made all our labels in the

assembly program, then we have no unfound
symbols in our table for the second pass
For now, we only consider single file
programs with only one .ORIG and .END
pseudo-ops

First Pass
The

pseudo-op at line 0A makes the current

location 0x3000
This is called the location counter or the LC
The LC is initialized to whatever value is
provided by the .ORIG operand

First Pass
Then,

for the rest of the file, the LC

increments one value for each line that is not
a comment
If there is a label, an entry is put in the
symbol table
The first pass ends when .END is
encountered

First Pass
The

first label is at line 13, which is TEST

This is the fifth instruction, so LC is 0x3004
Thus the table looks like:
Symbol

Address

TEST

x3004

First Pass
The

second label is at line 20

The LC is now increments to x300B
Thus, the table is updated to
Symbol

Address

TEST

x3004

GETCHAR

x300B

First Pass
After

you reach .END, the symbol table is

Symbol

Address

TEST

x3004

GETCHAR

x300B

OUTPUT

x300E

ASCII

X3012

PTR

x3013

Second Pass
In

the second pass, we generate the

machine code for each instruction
This time, though, we use the symbol table to
assist in memory references
When we reach line 0C, we can use the
address 0x3013 which corresponds to the
label PTR

Second Pass
The

instruction is
LD R3, PTR
So, the opcode is 0010
The DR is 011
How do we compute the PC offset?

Second Pass
Recall

the incremented PC is LC+1 here

Thus, PC = x3002
And PTR is x3013
Subtracting we have 0x3013-0x3002 = 0x11
Thus, PC offset = 000010001
Hence, our instruction is
0010011000010001

Second Pass
Note,

if the address of PTR more than +256

or less that -255, an error is issued by the
assembler
This is because we only have 9 bits to
encode the offset
If this is the case, you will have to use
another load instruction

Second Pass
Second

pass continues, and finishes,

incrementing LC as it goes
It uses the symbol table as needed
Resulting code is on the page 188