ProgrammingModel2

A.Introduction
Objectives
Attheendofthislabyoushouldbeableto:

Usedirectandindirectaddressingmodesofaccessingdatainmemory
Createaniterativeloopofinstructions
DisplaytextonconsoleusinganIOinstruction
Createasubroutine,callandreturnfromsubroutine
Passparameterstoasubroutine

B.Processor(CPU)Simulators
Thecomputerarchitecturetutorialsaresupportedbysimulators,whicharecreated
tounderpintheoreticalconceptsnormallycoveredduringthelectures.The
simulatorsprovidevisualandanimatedrepresentationofmechanismsinvolvedand
enablethestudentstoobservethehiddeninnerworkingsofsystems,whichwould
bedifficultorimpossibletodootherwise.Theaddedadvantageofusingsimulators
isthattheyallowthestudentstoexperimentandexploredifferenttechnological
aspectsofsystemswithouthavingtoinstallandconfiguretherealsystems.

C.BasicTheory
Theprogrammingmodelofcomputerarchitecturedefinesthoselowlevel
architecturalcomponents,whichincludethefollowing

CPUinstructionset
CPUregisters
Differentwaysofaddressinginstructionsanddataininstructions

Italsodefinesinteractionbetweentheabovecomponents.Itisthislowlevel
programmingmodelwhichmakesprogrammedcomputationspossible.Youshould
doadditionalreadinginordertoformabetterunderstandingofthedifferentparts
ofamodernCPUarchitecture(refertotherecommendedreadinglistavailableinthe
modulehandbookandontheBB).

D.SimulatorDetails
Thissectionincludessomebasicinformationonthesimulator,whichshouldenable
thestudentstousethesimulator.Thetutor(s)willbeavailabletohelpanyone
experiencingdifficultyinusingthesimulator.Thesimulatorforthislabisan
applicationrunningonaPCrunningMSWindowsoperatingsystem.
Themainsimulatorwindowiscomposedofseveralviews,whichrepresentdifferent
functionalpartsofthesimulatedprocessor.TheseareshowninImage1belowand
arecomposedof
1

CPUInstructionmemory
SpecialCPUregisters
CPU(generalpurpose)registers
Programstack
Programcreationandrunningfeatures
Memoryinwhichdataisstored
Input,outputconsole

CPUInstruction
memoryview

SpecialCPU
registersview

Addprogram
instructionstab Programlist view

Createprogramtab

Clicktoviewprogram
datamemory

CPUregisters
view
Programstackview
Clicktoview
IOconsole

Image1CPUSimulatorwindow
Thepartsofthesimulatorrelevanttothislabaredescribedbelow.Pleasereadthis
informationcarefullyandtrytoidentifythedifferentpartsontheCPUSimulator
windowBEFOREattemptingthefollowingexercises.Usetheinformationinthis
sectioninconjunctionwiththeexercisesthatfollow.

1.CPUinstructionmemoryview
Image2Instructionmemory
view

Thisviewcontainstheprogram
instructions. The instructions
are displayed as sequences of
lowlevel
instruction
mnemonics (assemblerlevel
format)andnotasbinarycode.
This is done for clarity and
makes code more readable by
humans.

Each instruction is associated

with two addresses: the
physicaladdress(PAdd)andthe
logical address (LAdd). This
view also displays the base
address (Base) against each
instruction. The sequence of
instructions belonging to the
same program will have the
samebaseaddress.

2.SpecialCPUregistersview ThisviewshowsthesetofCPUregisters,

Image3SpecialCPU
registersview

whichhavepredefinedspecialistfunctions:
PC:ProgramCountercontainstheaddress
ofthenextinstructiontobeexecuted.
IR:InstructionRegistercontainsthe
instructioncurrentlybeingexecuted.
SR:StatusRegistercontainsinformation
pertainingtotheresultofthelastexecuted
instruction.
SP:StackPointerregisterpointstothevalue
maintainedatthetopoftheprogramstack
(seebelow).
BR:BaseRegistercontainscurrentbase
address.
MAR:MemoryAddressRegistercontains
thememoryaddresscurrentlybeing
accessed.
Statusbits:OV:Overflow;Z:Zero;N:
Negative
3

3.CPUregistersview

Image4 CPURegistersview
The register set view shows the
contents of all the generalpurpose
registers, which are used to maintain
temporary values as the program's
instructionsareexecuted.Registersare
very fast memories that hold
temporary values while the CPU
executesinstructions.

Thisarchitecturesupportsfrom8to64
registers. These registers are often
used to hold values of a program's
variables as defined in highlevel
languages.

Not all architectures have this many

registers. Some have more (e.g. 128
register) and some others have less
(e.g. 8 registers). In all cases, these
registersservesimilarpurposes.

Thisviewdisplayseachregister'sname
(Reg),itscurrentvalue(Val)andsome
additional values, which are reserved
for program debugging. It can also be
used to reset the individual register
values manually which is often useful
for advanced debugging. To manually
changearegisterscontent,firstselect
the register then enter the new value
inthetextbox,RegValue,andclickon
the CHANGE button in the Registers
tab.

4.Programstackview
Image5Programstackview

Theprogramstackisanotherareawhich
maintains temporary values as the
instructions are executed. The stack is a
LIFO(lastinfirstout)datastructure.Itis
often used for efficient interrupt
handling and subroutine calls. Each
programhasitsownindividualstack.

TheCPUinstructionsPSH(push)andPOP
are used to store values on top of stack
and pop values from top of stack
respectively.

5.Programlistview
Image6 ProgramListView

Use the REMOVE PROGRAM button to

remove the selected program from the
list; use the REMOVE ALL PROGRAMS
buttontoremovealltheprogramsfrom
the list. Note that when a program is
removed, its instructions are also
removed from the Instruction Memory
Viewtoo.

6.Programcreation
Image7 Createprogramtab
Tocreateanewprogramenterits
nameintheProgramNamebox
anditsbaseaddressintheBase
AddressboxthenclickontheADD
button.Thenewprogramsname
willappearintheProgramListview
(seeImage6).

Image8Addprogram
instructionstab
Use ADD NEW button to add a
new instruction; use EDIT
button to edit the selected
instruction; use MOVE DOWN/
MOVE UP buttons to move the
selected instruction down or up;
use INSERT ABOVE/INSERT
BELOWbuttonstoinsertanew
instruction above or below the
selectedinstructionrespectively.

7.Programdatamemoryview

Image9Programdatamemoryview

TheCPUinstructionsthataccessthatpartofthememorycontainingdatacanwrite
orreadthedatainaddressedlocations.Thisdatacanbeseeninthememorypages
windowshowninImage9above.YoucandisplaythiswindowbyclickingtheSHOW
PROGRAMDATAMEMORYbuttonshowninImage6above.TheLadd(logical
address)columnshowsthestartingaddressofeachlineinthedisplay.Eachlineof
thedisplayrepresents8bytesofdata.ColumnsB0throughtoB7representbytes0
to7oneachline.TheDatacolumnshowsthedisplayablecharacterscorresponding
tothe8bytes.Thosebytesthatcorrespondtonondisplayablecharactersareshown
asdots.Thedatabytesaredisplayedinhexformatonly.Forexample,inImage9,
therearenonzerodatabytesinaddresslocations19and37.Thesedatabytes
correspondtodisplayablecharacterscapitalAandB.

Tochangethevaluesofanybytes,firstselecttheline(s)containingthebytes.Then
usetheinformationintheInitializeDataframetomodifythevaluesofthebytesin
theselectedline(s)asInteger,BooleanorStringformats.Youneedtoclickthe
UPDATEbuttontomakethechange.

8.IOconsoleview

Image10Input,outputconsoleview
Image10aboveshowstheconsolewhichisusedbyprogramstowritemessagesto
andreaddatafrom.ItcanbedisplayedbyclickingontheINPUTOUTPUTbutton
showninImage1above.ClickontheSHOWKEYBDbuttontodisplayasmall
keyboardwindowwhichcanbeusedtoinputdatatoprogramsrequestinginput.

E. Lab Exercises - Investigate and Explore

Thelabexercisesareaseriesofactivities,whicharecarriedoutbythestudents
underbasicguidelines.So,howisthistutorialconducted?Thestudentsareexpected
tofollowtheinstructionsgiveninordertoidentifyandlocatetherequired
information,toactuponit,makenotesoftheirobservationsandofferexplanations
fortheseobservationswherethisrequested.Inordertobeabletodothese
activitiesyoushouldconsulttheinformationinSectionDaboveandalsofrequently
refertotheAppendixforinformationonvariousCPUinstructionsyouwillbeasked
tocreateanduse.Remember,youneedtocarefullyreadandunderstandthe
instructionsbeforeyouattempteachactivity.
Now,letusstart.FirstyouneedtoplacesomeinstructionsintheInstruction
MemoryView(seeImage2),representingtheRAMintherealmachine,before
executinganyinstructions.Todothis,followthestepsbelow:
IntheProgramtab(seeImage7),firstenteraProgramName,andthenenteraBase
Address(thiscanbeanynumber,butforthisexerciseuse100).ClickontheADD
button.AnewprogramnamewillbeenteredintheProgramListview(seeImage6).
YoucanusetheSAVEbuttontosaveinstructionsinafile.Youcanalsousethe
LOADbuttontoloadinstructionsfromafile.
YouarenowreadytoenterinstructionsintotheCPUSimulator.Youdothisby
clickingontheADDNEWbuttonintheInstructionstab(seeImage8).Thiswill
displaytheInstructions:CPU0window.Youusethiswindowtoselectandenterthe
CPUinstructions.Appendixlistssomeoftheinstructionsthissimulatorusesandalso
givesexamplesoftheirusage.
Now,haveagoatthefollowingactivities(enteryouranswersinthetextboxes
provided).Awordofcaution:Regularlysaveyourcodeinafileincasethesimulator
crashesinwhichcaseyoucanrestartthesimulatorandreloadyourfile.

1. IntheAppendixattheendofthisdocument,locatetheinstruction,whichis
usedtostoreonebyteofdatainamemorylocation.Useittostorenumber65in
addresslocation20(allnumbersareindecimal).Thisisanexampleofdirect
addressing.RefertoImage9toseehowtodisplaythecontentsofdatamemory.
Makeanotebelowoftheinstructionused:

2. Createaninstructiontomovedecimalnumber22toregisterR01andmakea
noteofitbelow.ExecutethisinstructionandverifytheresultinR01.

3. Createaninstructiontostoredecimalnumber51inmemorylocationthe
addressofwhichiscurrentlystoredinregisterR01.Thisisanexampleofindirect
addressing.Notetheuseofthe@prefixnexttoR01inthiscase.

4. Makeanoteofwhatyouseeindatamemorylocations20and22(refertoImage
9forhelpinformationonhowtodisplaythedatamemory).

5. Now,letscreatealoop.First,enterthefollowingcode.The#prefixisusedto
denotealiteralvaluethusdistinguishingitfromanaddressvaluewhichdoesnot
useit.R01representsanarbitraryregister;youcanuseanyoftheregistersfrom
R00toR31.

MOV
ADD
CMP
JNE
HLT

#0, R01
#1, R01
#5, R01
0

6. Theabovecodeisnotquitereadyyet.TheJNEinstructionusesanumericvalue
astheaddresstojumpto.Inthiscaseitis0.Thismaynotalwaysbethecaseso
inordertomakethecodemoreflexiblewecanuselabelstorepresent
instructionaddresses.Thesimulatorallowsyoutodothis.Followthe
instructionsbelowforthis:
HighlighttheaboveMOVinstruction(i.e.theoneintheboxabove)
ClickontheINSERTBELOWbutton

TypelabelnameL0intheboxnexttotheENTERLABELbuttoninthe
windowyouusetoenterinstructions
ClicktheENTERLABELbutton
Thenewcodeshouldnowlooklikethis(modificationsareinredcolour):

MOV
L0:
ADD
CMP
JNE
HLT

#0, R01
#1, R01
#5, R01
0

Next,highlighttheJNEinstruction
ClickontheEDITbutton
SelectL0inthedropdownlistundertheSourceOperandsectionbutton
inthewindowyouusetoenterinstructions
ClicktheEDITbutton
Thenewcodeshouldnowlooklikethis:

MOV
L0:
ADD
CMP
JNE
HLT

#0, R01
#1, R01
#5, R01
$L0

7. Asyoucansee,thelabelL0representstheaddressoftheinstruction
immediatelybelowit,i.e.theADDinstruction.SonowtheJNEinstructioncan
useL0astheaddresstojumpto.AsthelabelL0canrepresentanyaddressthis
codeshouldworkanywhereinmemorymakingitveryflexible.The$sign
indicatesthatL0isalabel.Theabovecodeisnowreadytorun.Torunthis
program,followtheinstructionsbelow:
ClickontheRESETPROGRAMbuttonintheCPUSimulatorwindow
HighlighttheMOVinstruction,i.e.thefirstinstructionoftheprogram
Adjustthespeedslidertoavalue,say,nearesttothevalue80
ClickontheRUNbutton

Afterashortwhiletheprogramshouldstop.Ifitappearstoruntoolong
thenclickontheSTOPbuttonandcheckyourcode.Correctitifnecessary
andrepeattheaboveinstructionsonceagain.
WhentheprogramstopsmakeanoteofthevalueinR01below

8. Nowyoullmakeaslightmodificationtotheaboveprogram.Changethe
programcodesothattheprogramloopisrepeatedaslongasthevalueofR01is
lessthanorequalto3(youmaywishtorefertotheAppendixforthis)andtest

10

it.WhenyougetitrightmakeanoteofthevalueinR01andcopythenewcode
below.Now,changethemodifiedinstructionsbacktotheoriginalinstructions
(youcanusetheUNDObuttonforthisseeImage8above).

9. Ok,letscreateasimplesubroutine.Enterthefollowingnewcode.Youneedto
createanewlabelL1atthestartofthesubroutine.Thislabelrepresentsthe
startingaddressofthesubroutine.YoumustenterthelabelusingtheENTER
LABELbuttononlyasexplainedin(6).Also,makesureyouselecttheDirectMem
radiobuttonwhenenteringthefirstoperandvalue24oftheOUTinstruction:
L1:

OUT 24, 0
RET

10. Theabovesubroutinecodesimplydisplaysthetextstartingatdatamemory
location24andreturns(seeRETinstructioninappendix).Forittoworkthere
needstobesometextindataaddresslocation24.Youcandothismanuallyby
followingthestepsbelow:
ClickontheSHOWPROGRAMDATAMEMORYbutton(seeImage6).
Inthedisplayedwindowhighlighttheline0024underLAddcolumn
UnderInitialiseDataclickontheStringradiobutton
EntersometextinthetextboxlabelledValue,e.g.MynameisBesim
ClicktheUPDATEbutton

11. Now,asubroutineisofnousebyitself.Forittobeusefulyourprogrammustcall
itusingtheinstructionsMSFfollowedbyCAL(refertotheAppendix).TheMSF
(MarkStackFrame)isneededtoreserveaplaceforthereturnaddressonthe
programstack.TheCALinstructionneedstospecifythestartingaddressofthe
calledsubroutine.Letsmodifyourcodesothatwhentheabovesubroutineis
calleditdisplaysthetextrepeatedlyinaloop.Forexample,usingthecodeadded
in(6)and(9)themodifiedprogramshouldlooksomethinglikethis:

MOV
L0:
ADD
MSF
CAL
CMP
JNE
HLT
L1:
OUT
RET

#0, R01
#1, R01
$L1
#5, R01
$L0

24, 0

11

12. Theabovecodeisnowreadytorun.Inordertoseethedisplayedtextyouneed
toshowtheconsolewindow.ClickontheINPUTOUTPUTbutton(seeImage1)
whichwilldisplaythesimulatedconsolewindow.Torunthisprogram,followthe
instructionsbelow:
ClickontheRESETPROGRAMbutton
HighlighttheMOVinstruction,i.e.thefirstinstructionoftheprogram
Adjustthespeedslidertoavaluenearesttothevalue80
ClickontheRUNbutton

13. Weneedtomakeasmallchangetooursubroutine.CurrentlytheOUT
instructionusesdirectmemoryaddressing,i.e.thememoryaddress24ispartof
theinstruction.Wenowwishtomakeituseindirectaddressinginawaysimilar
tothatin(3).So,youllneedtoplacethememoryaddress24inaregister(any
spareregister).ThenyouneedtohavetheOUTinstructionusethisregister
indirectlyasthesourceoftheaddressofthetexttodisplay.Runthecodetotest
yourmodification.Makeanoteofthemodifiedpartoftheprogramcodebelow.
UsetheUNDObuttontorestoretheinstructionsbeforethismodification:

14. Ok,letsgetalittlebitmoreambitiousasachallenge.Letsconverttheloopinto
anothersubroutineandthencallit.So,nowwewillhavetwosubroutineswhere
onecallstheother.Thefollowingcoderepresentsthischange.Noticethatthe
HLTinstructionischangedtotheRETinstructionandthenewinstructionsMSF,
CALandHLTareaddedtogetherwiththenewlabelL2atthetopofthecode.
CAL$L2callsthesubroutinewiththeloopandCAL$L1callsthesubroutinethat
displaysthetext.
MSF

CAL $L2
HLT

L2:
MOV #0, R01

L0:
ADD #1, R01

MSF
CAL $L1
CMP #5, R01
JNE $L0
RET

L1:
OUT 24, 0

RET

Now,firstresettheprogramthenhighlightthefirstMSFinstruction.Runthe
programandverifytheresultintheconsolewindowasbefore.

12

15. Whystophere!Letsmakeitabitmoreinteresting.Theabovecodewilldothe
loop5timesandthisnumberisfixed.Forflexibilitywecanpassthenumberof
loopsasaparametertothesubroutine(startingatlabelL2).Forthiswewilluse
thePSHandPOPinstructions(seetheAppendix).Modifyyourcodetolooklike
theonebelowandrunitobservingthedisplaysontheconsole:

MSF
PSH
CAL
HLT
L2:
POP
MOV
L0:
ADD
MSF
CAL
CMP
JNE
RET
L1:
OUT
RET

#8
$L2

R02
#0, R01
#1, R01

$L1

R02, R01
$L0
24, 0

16. Examinetheabovecodeandbrieflyexplainhowtheparameterpassingworks:

17. Finally,asarealchallenge,modifytheabovecodesothatasecondparameteris
passedtothesubroutine(startingatlabelL2)inthesamewayasthefirst
parameterispassed.ThesecondparameterisusedtoinitialisetheregisterR01
tothevalueofthissecondparameter.Copythemodifiedcodeonlytothepoint
ofthelastmodificationintheboxbelow:

13

AppendixSimulatorInstructionSubset
Inst
Datatransferinstructions
MOV

LDB

LDW

STB

STW

PSH

POP

Description

Movedatatoregister;moveregistertoregister
e.g.
MOV#2,R01movesnumber2intoregisterR01
MOVR01,R03movescontentsofregisterR01intoregisterR03
Loadabytefrommemorytoregister
e.g.
LDB1022,R03loadsabytefrommemoryaddress1022intoR03
LDB@R02,R05loadsabytefrommemorytheaddressofwhichisinR02
Loadaword(2bytes)frommemorytoregister
SameasinLDBbutaword(i.e.2bytes)isloadedintoaregister
Storeabytefromregistertomemory
STBR07,2146storesabytefromR07intomemoryaddress2146
STBR04,@R08storesabytefromR04intomemoryaddressofwhichisin
R08
Storeaword(2bytes)fromregistertomemory
SameasinSTBbutaword(i.e.2bytes)isloadedstoredinmemory
Pushdatatotopofhardwarestack(TOS);pushregistertoTOS
e.g.
PSH#6pushesnumber6ontopofthestack
PSHR03pushesthecontentsofregisterR03ontopofthestack
Popdatafromtopofhardwarestacktoregister
e.g.
POPR05popscontentsoftopofstackintoregisterR05
Note:IfyoutrytoPOPfromanemptystackyouwillgettheerrormessage
Stackunderflow.

Arithmeticinstructions

ADD

Addnumbertoregister;addregistertoregister
e.g.
ADD#3,R02addsnumber3tocontentsofregisterR02andstoresthe
resultinregisterR02.
ADDR00,R01addscontentsofregisterR00tocontentsofregisterR01
andstorestheresultinregisterR01.

SUB

Subtractnumberfromregister;subtractregisterfromregister

MUL

Multiplynumberwithregister;multiplyregisterwithregister

DIV

Dividenumberwithregister;divideregisterwithregister

Controltransferinstructions
JMP

Jumptoinstructionaddressunconditionally
e.g.
JMP100unconditionallyjumpstoaddresslocation100wherethereis
anotherinstruction

14

JLT

Jumptoinstructionaddressiflessthan(afterlastcomparison)

JGT

Jumptoinstructionaddressifgreaterthan(afterlastcomparison)

JEQ

Jumptoinstructionaddressifequal(afterlastcomparisoninstruction)
e.g.
JEQ200jumpstoaddresslocation200ifthepreviouscomparison
instructionresultindicatesthatthetwonumbersareequal,i.e.theZ
statusflagisset(theZboxwillbecheckedinthiscase).

JNE

Jumptoinstructionaddressifnotequal(afterlastcomparison)

MSF

CAL

MarkStackFrameinstructionisusedinconjunctionwiththeCAL
instruction.
e.g.
MSFreserveaspaceforthereturnaddressonprogramstack
CAL1456savethereturnaddressinthereservedspaceandjumpto
subroutineinaddresslocation1456
Jumptosubroutineaddress(savesthereturnaddressonprogramstack)
ThisinstructionisusedinconjunctionwiththeMSFinstruction.Youll
needanMSFinstructionbeforetheCALinstruction.Seetheexample
above

RET

Returnfromsubroutine(usesthereturnaddressonstack)

SWI

Softwareinterrupt(usedtorequestOShelp)

HLT

Haltsimulation

Comparisoninstruction

CMP

Comparenumberwithregister;compareregisterwithregister
e.g.
CMP#5,R02comparenumber5withthecontentsofregisterR02
CMPR01,R03comparethecontentsofregistersR01andR03
Note:
IfR01=R03thenthestatusflagZwillbeset,i.e.theZboxischecked.
IfR03>R01thennonofthestatusflagswillbeset,i.e.noneofthestatus
flagboxesarechecked.
IfR01>R03thenthestatusflagNwillbeset,i.e.theNstatusboxis
checked.

Input,outputinstructions
IN

Getinputdata(ifavailable)fromanexternalIOdevice

OUT

OutputdatatoanexternalIOdevice
e.g.
OUT16,0outputscontentsofdatainlocation16totheconsole(the
secondparametermustalwaysbea0)

15