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System Software 10CS52

UNIT – 2

ASSEMBLERS – 1

2.1. Basic Assembler Functions:

The basic assembler functions are:

• Translating mnemonic language code to its equivalent object code.
• Assigning machine addresses to symbolic labels.

SOURCE ASSEMBLER OBJECT

PROGRAM CODE

• The design of assembler can be to perform the following:

– Scanning (tokenizing)
– Parsing (validating the instructions)
– Creating the symbol table
– Resolving the forward references
– Converting into the machine language

• The design of assembler in other words:

– Convert mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equivalents
– Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine addresses
– Decide the proper instruction format Convert the data constants to internal machine
representations
– Write the object program and the assembly listing

So for the design of the assembler we need to concentrate on the machine architecture of
the SIC/XE machine. We need to identify the algorithms and the various data structures
to be used. According to the above required steps for assembling the assembler also has
to handle assembler directives, these do not generate the object code but directs the
assembler to perform certain operation. These directives are:
• SIC Assembler Directive:
– START: Specify name & starting address.
– END: End of the program, specify the first execution instruction.
– BYTE, WORD, RESB, RESW
– End of record: a null char(00)
End of file: a zero length record
The assembler design can be done:

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• Single pass assembler

• Multi-pass assembler

2.2. Single-pass Assembler:

In this case the whole process of scanning, parsing, and object code conversion is
done in single pass. The only problem with this method is resolving forward reference.
This is shown with an example below:

10 1000 FIRST STL RETADR 141033

--
--
--
--
95 1033 RETADR RESW 1

In the above example in line number 10 the instruction STL will store the linkage
register with the contents of RETADR. But during the processing of this instruction the
value of this symbol is not known as it is defined at the line number 95. Since I single-
pass assembler the scanning, parsing and object code conversion happens simultaneously.
The instruction is fetched; it is scanned for tokens, parsed for syntax and semantic
validity. If it valid then it has to be converted to its equivalent object code. For this the
object code is generated for the opcode STL and the value for the symbol RETADR need
to be added, which is not available.

Due to this reason usually the design is done in two passes. So a multi-pass
assembler resolves the forward references and then converts into the object code. Hence
the process of the multi-pass assembler can be as follows:

Pass-1
• Assign addresses to all the statements
• Save the addresses assigned to all labels to be used in Pass-2
• Perform some processing of assembler directives such as RESW, RESB to find
the length of data areas for assigning the address values.
• Defines the symbols in the symbol table(generate the symbol table)

Pass-2
• Assemble the instructions (translating operation codes and looking up addresses).
• Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD etc.
• Perform the processing of the assembler directives not done during pass-1.
• Write the object program and assembler listing.

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2.3 Assembler Design:

The most important things which need to be concentrated is the generation of

Symbol table and resolving forward references.

• Symbol Table:
– This is created during pass 1
– All the labels of the instructions are symbols
– Table has entry for symbol name, address value.
• Forward reference:
– Symbols that are defined in the later part of the program are called
forward referencing.
– There will not be any address value for such symbols in the symbol table
in pass 1.

Example Program:

The example program considered here has a main module, two subroutines
• Purpose of example program
- 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
• 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 (00)16
-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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The first column shows the line number for that instruction, second column shows
the addresses allocated to each instruction. The third column indicates the labels given to
the statement, and is followed by the instruction consisting of opcode and operand. The
last column gives the equivalent object code.

The object code later will be loaded into memory for execution. The simple object
program we use contains three types of records:

• Header record
- Col. 1 H
- Col. 2~7 Program name
- Col. 8~13 Starting address of object program (hex)
- Col. 14~19 Length of object program in bytes (hex)
• Text record
- Col. 1 T
- Col. 2~7 Starting address for object code in this record (hex)
- Col. 8~9 Length of object code in this record in bytes (hex)
- Col. 10~69 Object code, represented in hex (2 col. per byte)
• End record
- Col.1 E
- Col.2~7 Address of first executable instruction in object program (hex) “^” is only
for separation only

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Object code for the example program:

1. Simple SIC Assembler

The program below is shown with the object code generated. The column named LOC
gives the machine addresses of each part of the assembled program (assuming the
program is starting at location 1000). The translation of the source program to the object
program requires us to accomplish the following functions:

1. Convert the mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equivalent.

2. Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine addresses.
3. Build the machine instructions in the proper format.
4. Convert the data constants specified in the source program into their internal
machine representations in the proper format.
5. Write the object program and assembly listing.

All these steps except the second can be performed by sequential processing of the source
program, one line at a time. Consider the instruction
10 1000 LDA ALPHA 00-----

This instruction contains the forward reference, i.e. the symbol ALPHA is used is
not yet defined. If the program is processed ( scanning and parsing and object code
conversion) is done line-by-line, we will be unable to resolve the address of this symbol.
Due to this problem most of the assemblers are designed to process the program in two
passes.

In addition to the translation to object program, the assembler has to take care of
handling assembler directive. These directives do not have object conversion but giv es
direction to the assembler to perform some function. Examples of directives are the
statements like BYTE and WORD, which directs the assembler to reserve memory
locations without generating data values. The other directives are START which indicates
the beginning of the program and END indicating the end of the program.

The assembled program will be loaded into memory for execution. The simple
object program contains three types of records: Header record, Text record and end
record. The header record contains the starting address and length. Text record contains
the translated instructions and data of the program, together with an indication of the
addresses where these are to be loaded. The end record marks the end of the object
program and specifies the address where the execution is to begin.

The format of each record is as given below.

Header record:
Col 1 H
Col. 2-7 Program name
Col 8-13 Starting address of object program (hexadecimal)
Col 14-19 Length of object program in bytes (hexadecimal)

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Text record:
Col. 1 T
Col 2-7. Starting address for object code in this record (hexadecimal)
Col 8-9 Length off object code in this record in bytes (hexadecimal)
Col 10-69 Object code, represented in hexadecimal (2 columns per byte of
object code)

End record:
Col. 1 E
Col 2-7 Address of first executable instruction in object program
(hexadecimal)

The assembler can be designed either as a single pass assembler or as a two pass
assembler. The general description of both passes is as given below:

• 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 assignment,
such as BYTE and RESW
• Pass 2 (assemble instructions and generate object program)
– Assemble instructions (generate opcode and look up addresses)
– Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD
– Perform processing of assembler directives not done during Pass 1
– Write the object program and the assembly listing

2. 4. Algorithms and Data structure

The simple assembler uses two major internal data structures: the operation Code
Table (OPTAB) and the Symbol Table (SYMTAB).

OPTAB:
• It is used to lookup mnemonic operation codes and translates them to their
machine language equivalents. In more complex assemblers the table also
contains information about instruction format and length.

• In pass 1 the OPTAB is used to look up and validate the operation code in the
source program. In pass 2, it is used to translate the operation codes to machine
language. In simple SIC machine this process can be performed in either in pass
1 or in pass 2. But for machine like SIC/XE that has instructions of different
lengths, we must search OPTAB in the first pass to find the instruction length for
incrementing LOCCTR.

• In pass 2 we take the information from OPTAB to tell us which instruction

format to use in assembling the instruction, and any peculiarities of the object
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code instruction.

• OPTAB is usually organized as a hash table, with mnemonic operation code as

the key. The hash table organization is particularly appropriate, since it provides
fast retrieval with a minimum of searching. Most of the cases the OPTAB is a
static table- that is, entries are not normally added to or deleted from it. In such
cases it is possible to design a special hashing function or other data structure to
give optimum performance for the particular set of keys being stored.

SYMTAB:

• This table includes the name and value for each label in the source program,
together with flags to indicate the error conditions (e.g., if a symbol is defined in
two different places).

• During Pass 1: labels are entered into the symbol table along with their assigned
address value as they are encountered. All the symbols address value should get
resolved at the pass 1.

• During Pass 2: Symbols used as operands are looked up the symbol table to obtain
the address value to be inserted in the assembled instructions.

• SYMTAB is usually organized as a hash table for efficiency of insertion and

retrieval. Since entries are rarely deleted, efficiency of deletion is the important
criteria for optimization.

• Both pass 1 and pass 2 require reading the source program. Apart from this an
intermediate file is created by pass 1 that contains each source statement together
with its assigned address, error indicators, etc. This file is one of the inputs to the
pass 2.

• A copy of the source program is also an input to the pass 2, which is used to retain
the operations that may be performed during pass 1 (such as scanning the
operation field for symbols and addressing flags), so that these need not be
performed during pass 2. Similarly, pointers into OPTAB and SYMTAB is
retained for each operation code and symbol used. This avoids need to repeat
many of the table-searching operations.

LOCCTR:

Apart from the SYMTAB and OPTAB, this is another important variable which helps in
the assignment of the addresses. LOCCTR is initialized to the beginning address
mentioned in the START statement of the program. After each statement is processed,
the length of the assembled instruction is added to the LOCCTR to make it point to the
next instruction. Whenever a label is encountered in an instruction the LOCCTR value
gives the address to be associated with that label.

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The Algorithm for Pass 1:

Begin
read first input line
if OPCODE = „START‟ then begin
save #[Operand] as starting addr
initialize LOCCTR to starting address
write line to intermediate file
read next line
end( if START)
else
initialize LOCCTR to 0
While OPCODE != „END‟ do
begin
if this is not a comment line then
begin
if there is a symbol in the LABEL field then
begin
search SYMTAB for LABEL
if found then
set error flag (duplicate symbol)
else
(if symbol)
search OPTAB for OPCODE
if found then
add 3 (instr length) to LOCCTR
else if OPCODE = „WORD‟ then
add 3 to LOCCTR
else if OPCODE = „RESW‟ then
add 3 * #[OPERAND] to LOCCTR
else if OPCODE = „RESB‟ then
add #[OPERAND] to LOCCTR
else if OPCODE = „BYTE‟ then
begin
find length of constant in bytes
add length to LOCCTR
end
else
set error flag (invalid operation code)
end (if not a comment)
write line to intermediate file
read next input line
end { while not END}
write last line to intermediate file
Save (LOCCTR – starting address) as program length
End {pass 1}

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• The algorithm scans the first statement START and saves the operand field (the
address) as the starting address of the program. Initializes the LOCCTR value to
this address. This line is written to the intermediate line.

• If no operand is mentioned the LOCCTR is initialized to zero. If a label is

encountered, the symbol has to be entered in the symbol table along with its
associated address value.

• If the symbol already exists that indicates an entry of the same symbol already
exists. So an error flag is set indicating a duplication of the symbol.

• It next checks for the mnemonic code, it searches for this code in the OPTAB. If
found then the length of the instruction is added to the LOCCTR to make it point
to the next instruction.
• If the opcode is the directive WORD it adds a value 3 to the LOCCTR. If it is
RESW, it needs to add the number of data word to the LOCCTR. If it is BYTE it
adds a value one to the LOCCTR, if RESB it adds number of bytes.

• If it is END directive then it is the end of the program it finds the length of the
program by evaluating current LOCCTR – the starting address mentioned in the
operand field of the END directive. Each processed line is written to the
intermediate file.

The Algorithm for Pass 2:

Begin
read 1st input line
if OPCODE = „START‟ then
begin
write listing line
read next input line
end
write Header record to object program
initialize 1st Text record
while OPCODE != „END‟ do
begin
if this is not comment line then
begin
search OPTAB for OPCODE
if found then
begin
if there is a symbol in OPERAND field then
begin
search SYMTAB for OPERAND field then
if found then
begin

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store symbol value as operand address

else
begin
store 0 as operand address
set error flag (undefined symbol)
end
end (if symbol)
else store 0 as operand address
assemble the object code instruction
else if OPCODE = „BYTE‟ or „WORD” then
convert constant to object code
if object code doesn‟t fit into current Text record then
begin
Write text record to object code
initialize new Text record

end
add object code to Text record
end {if not comment}
write listing line
read next input line
end
write listing line
read next input line
write last listing line
End {Pass 2}

Here the first input line is read from the intermediate file. If the opcode is START, then
this line is directly written to the list file. A header record is written in the object program
which gives the starting address and the length of the program (which is calculated during
pass 1). Then the first text record is initialized. Comment lines are ignored. In the
instruction, for the opcode the OPTAB is searched to find the object code.

If a symbol is there in the operand field, the symbol table is searched to get the address
value for this which gets added to the object code of the opcode. If the address not found
then zero value is stored as operands address. An error flag is set indicating it as
undefined. If symbol itself is not found then store 0 as operand address and the object
code instruction is assembled.

If the opcode is BYTE or WORD, then the constant value is converted to its
equivalent object code( for example, for character EOF, its equivalent hexadecimal value
„454f46‟ is stored). If the object code cannot fit into the current text record, a new text
record is created and the rest of the instructions object code is listed. The text records are

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written to the object program. Once the whole program is assemble and when the END
directive is encountered, the End record is written.

Design and Implementation Issues

Some of the features in the program depend on the architecture of the machine. If the
program is for SIC machine, then we have only limited instruction formats and hence
limited addressing modes. We have only single operand instructions. The operand is
always a memory reference. Anything to be fetched from memory requires more time.
Hence the improved version of SIC/XE machine provides more instruction formats and
hence more addressing modes. The moment we change the machine architecture the
availability of number of instruction formats and the addressing modes changes.
Therefore the design usually requires considering two things: Machine-dependent
features and Machine-independent features.

2.5. Machine-Dependent Features:

• Instruction formats and addressing modes

• Program relocation

1 .Instruction formats and Addressing Modes

The instruction formats depend on the memory organization and the size of the
memory. In SIC machine the memory is byte addressable. Word size is 3 bytes. So the
size of the memory is 212 bytes. Accordingly it supports only one instruction format. It
has only two registers: register A and Index register. Therefore the addressing modes
supported by this architecture are direct, indirect, and indexed. Whereas the memory of a
SIC/XE machine is 220 bytes (1 MB). This supports four different types of instruction
types, they are:
 1 byte instruction
 2 byte instruction
 3 byte instruction
 4 byte instruction

• Instructions can be:
– Instructions involving register to register
– Instructions with one operand in memory, the other in Accumulator
(Single operand instruction)
– Extended instruction format
• Addressing Modes are:
– Index Addressing(SIC): Opcode m, x
– Indirect Addressing: Opcode @m
– PC-relative: Opcode m
– Base relative: Opcode m
– Immediate addressing: Opcode #c

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. Translations for the Instruction involving Register-Register addressing mode:

During pass 1 the registers can be entered as part of the symbol table itself. The value for
these registers is their equivalent numeric codes. During pass2, these values are
assembled along with the mnemonics object code. If required a separate table can be
created with the register names and their equivalent numeric values.

Translation involving Register-Memory instructions:

In SIC/XE machine there are four instruction formats and five addressing modes. For
formats and addressing modes

Among the instruction formats, format -3 and format-4 instructions are Register-
Memory type of instruction. One of the operand is always in a register and the other
operand is in the memory. The addressing mode tells us the way in which the operand
from the memory is to be fetched.

There are two ways: Program-counter relative and Base-relative. This addressing
mode can be represented by either using format-3 type or format-4 type of instruction
format. In format-3, the instruction has the opcode followed by a 12-bit displacement
value in the address field. Where as in format-4 the instruction contains the mnemonic
code followed by a 20-bit displacement value in the address field.

Program-Counter Relative:

In this usually format-3 instruction format is used. The instruction contains the opcode
followed by a 12-bit displacement value.

The range of displacement values are from 0 -2048. This displacement (should be small
enough to fit in a 12-bit field) value is added to the current contents of the program
counter to get the target address of the operand required by the instruction.

This is relative way of calculating the address of the operand relative to the program
counter. Hence the displacement of the operand is relative to the current program counter
value. The following example shows how the address is calculated:

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Base-Relative Addressing Mode:

in this mode the base register is used to mention the displacement value. Therefore the
target address is
TA = (base) + displacement value

• This addressing mode is used when the range of displacement value is not
sufficient. Hence the operand is not relative to the instruction as in PC-relative
addressing mode. Whenever this mode is used it is indicated by using a directive
BASE.

• The moment the assembler encounters this directive the next instruction uses
base-relative addressing mode to calculate the target address of the operand.

• When NOBASE directive is used then it indicates the base register is no more
used to calculate the target address of the operand. Assembler first chooses PC-
relative, when the displacement field is not enough it uses Base-relative.

LDB #LENGTH (instruction)

BASE LENGTH (directive)
:
NOBASE

For example:

12 0003 LDB #LENGTH 69202D

13 BASE LENGTH
::
100 0033 LENGTH RESW 1
105 0036 BUFFER RESB 4096
::
160 104E STCH BUFFER, X 57C003
165 1051 TIXR T B850
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In the above example the use of directive BASE indicates that Base-relative
addressing mode is to be used to calculate the target address. PC-relative is no longer
used. The value of the LENGTH is stored in the base register. If PC-relative is used then
the target address calculated is:

• The LDB instruction loads the value of length in the base register which 0033.
BASE directive explicitly tells the assembler that it has the value of
LENGTH.

BUFFER is at location (0036)16

(B) = (0033)16
disp = 0036 – 0033 = (0003)16

20 000A LDA LENGTH 032026

::
175 1056 EXIT STX LENGTH 134000

Consider Line 175. If we use PC-relative

Disp = TA – (PC) = 0033 –1059 = EFDA

PC relative is no longer applicable, so we try to use BASE relative addressing mode.

Immediate Addressing Mode

In this mode no memory reference is involved. If immediate mode is used the target
address is the operand itself.

If the symbol is referred in the instruction as the immediate operand then it is immediate
with PC-relative mode as shown in the example below:

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Indirect and PC-relative mode:

In this type of instruction the symbol used in the instruction is the address of the location
which contains the address of the operand. The address of this is found using PC-relative
addressing mode. For example:

The instruction jumps the control to the address location RETADR which in turn has the
address of the operand. If address of RETADR is 0030, the target address is then 0003 as
calculated above.

2.6. Program Relocation

Sometimes it is required to load and run several programs at the same time. The system
must be able to load these programs wherever there is place in the memory. Therefore the
exact starting is not known until the load time.

Absolute Program

In this the address is mentioned during assembling itself. This is called Absolute
Assembly. Consider the instruction:

55 101B LDA THREE 00102D

• This statement says that the register A is loaded with the value stored at
location 102D. Suppose it is decided to load and execute the program at
location 2000 instead of location 1000.

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Then at address 102D the required value which needs to be loaded in the
register A is no more available. The address also gets changed relative to the
displacement of the program. Hence we need to make some changes in the
address portion of the instruction so that we can load and execute the program
at location 2000.

• Apart from the instruction which will undergo a change in their operand
address value as the program load address changes. There exist some parts in
the program which will remain same regardless of where the program is being
loaded.

• Since assembler will not know actual location where the program will get
loaded, it cannot make the necessary changes in the addresses used in the
program. However, the assembler identifies for the loader those parts of the
program which need modification.

• An object program that has the information necessary to perform this kind of
modification is called the relocatable program.

• The above diagram shows the concept of relocation. Initially the program is
loaded at location 0000. The instruction JSUB is loaded at location 0006.

• The address field of this instruction contains 01036, which is the address of the
instruction labeled RDREC. The second figure shows that if the program is to be
loaded at new location 5000.

• The address of the instruction JSUB gets modified to new location 6036.
Likewise the third figure shows that if the program is relocated at location 7420,

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the JSUB instruction would need to be changed to 4B108456 that correspond to

the new address of RDREC.

• The only part of the program that require modification at load time are those that
specify direct addresses. The rest of the instructions need not be modified. The
instructions which doesn‟t require modification are the ones that is not a memory
address (immediate addressing) and PC-relative, Base-relative instructions.

• From the object program, it is not possible to distinguish the address and constant
The assembler must keep some information to tell the loader. The object program
that contains the modification record is called a relocatable program.

• For an address label, its address is assigned relative to the start of the program
(START 0). The assembler produces a Modification record to store the starting
location and the length of the address field to be modified. The command for the
loader must also be a part of the object program. The Modification has the
following format:

Modification record
Col. 1 M
Col. 2-7 Starting location of the address field to be modified, relative to the
beginning of the program (Hex)
Col. 8-9 Length of the address field to be modified, in half-bytes (Hex)

One modification record is created for each address to be modified The length is stored
in half-bytes (4 bits) The starting location is the location of the byte containing the
leftmost bits of the address field to be modified. If the field contains an odd number of
half-bytes, the starting location begins in the middle of the first byte.

In the above object code the red boxes indicate the addresses that need modifications.
The object code lines at the end are the descriptions of the modification records for those
instructions which need change if relocation occurs. M00000705 is the modification

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suggested for the statement at location 0007 and requires modification 5-half bytes.
Similarly the remaining instructions indicate.

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