Assembler Directives

An assembler directive is a message to the assembler that tells the assembler something it
needs to know in order to carry out the assembly process; for example, an assemble directive tess
the assembler where a program is to be located in memory. We are going to use the following
directives in this course:

<label> EQU <value> Equate

ORG <value> Origin
<label> DC <value> Define constant
<label> DS <value> Define storage
END <value> End of assembly language program and "starting address" for
execution

In each case, the term <label> indicates a user-defined label (i.e., symbolic name) that must start in
column 1 of the program, and <value> indicates a value that must be supplied by the programmer
(this may be a number, or a symbolic name that has a value).

Equate:The EQU assembler directive simply equates a symbolic name to a numeric value.
Consider:

Sunday EQU 1
Monday EQU 2

The assembler substitutes the equated value for the symbolic name; for example, if you write the
instruction ADD.B #Sunday,D2, the assembler treats it as if it were ADD.B #1,D2.

You could also write

Sunday EQU 1
Monday EQU Sunday + 1

In this case, the assembler evaluates "Sunday + 1" as 1 + 1 and assigns the value 2 to the symbolic
name "Monday".

Do not think that the EQU directive creates variables or constant. It doesn't and it has no effect on
the code generated by the program. This directive simply allows you to make a name equivalent to
its value (i.e., it's a form of short hand).

Origin : The origin directive tells the assembler where to load instructions and data into memory.
The 68000 reserves the first 1024 bytes of memory for exception vectors. Your programs will start
at location 1024; that is, you should begin your program with ORG 1024 or ORG $400 (remember
that 1024 = 40016).

Define Constant :The define constant assembler directive allows you to put a data value in
memory at the time that the program is first loaded. The DC directive takes the suffix .B, .W, or .L.
You can put several values on one line (each value is separated by a comma). The optional label
field is given the address of the first location in memory allocated to the DC function. Consider the
example:

ORG $2000 Locate data here

Val1 DC.B 20,34 Store 20 and 34 in consecutive bytes
Val2 DC.L 20
Me DC.B ’Alan Clements’

The effect of this code is to store the value $14 in location $2000, $22 in location $2001,
$00000014 in locations $2002, $2003, $2004, $2005. Remember that a 32-bit longword takes four
bytes of memory. The ASCII string „Alan Clements‟ is stored in bytes $2006 to $2012.

If you write MOVE.B Val2,D2, the assembler translates it as MOVE.B $2002,D2. When this
instruction is executed, data register D2 is loaded with the contents of memory location $2002. The
value loaded into D2 might be 20. Might be?? Yes, might be, because another instruction might
modify the contents of Val2. By the way, if you execute MOVE.B Me,D0, data register D0 would
be loaded with $41 (the ASCII code for „A‟). However, if you execute MOVE.W Me,D0, data
register D0 would be loaded with $416C (the ASCII code for „Al‟).

Define Storage : The define storage directive is used to reserve one or more memory locations.
This directive is similar to the Pascal type declaration. Consider:

Result DS.B 1 Save a byte for Result

Table DS.W 10 Save 10 words (20 bytes) for Table
Point DS.L 1 Save 1 longword (4 bytes) for Point

We will put these two fragments of assembly language together and assemble them using the X68K
command (X68K is the Teesside 68K cross-assembler that runs under DOS on a PC). The
following is part of the listing file produced by the assembler. The second column contains memory
addresses and the third column contains the data loaded into these addresses.

2 ORG $2000 ;Locate data here

00002000
3 1422 VAL1: DC.B 20,34
00002000
4 00000014 VAL2: DC.L 20
00002002
5 416C616E2043 ME: DC.B ’Alan
00002006 Clements’
6C656D656E74
73
6 00000001 RESULT: DS.B 1 ;Save a byte for Result
00002013
7 00000014 TABLE: DS.W 10 ;Save 10 words (20 bytes) for
00002014 Table
8 00000004 POINT: DS.L 1 ;Save 1 longword (4 bytes) for
00002028 Point

A L I G N : The .ALIGN directive advances the current location counter to the next specified
"boundary."

Syntax

.A LIGN [ boundar y]
Parameters
boundary
An integer value for the byte boundary to which you want to advance the location
counter. The Assembler advances the location counter to that boundary. Permissible
values must be a power of 2 and can range from one to 4096. The default value is 8
(double word aligned).

A L L O W : The .ALLOW directive tells the Assembler to temporarily allow PA-RISC features
from a higher version level of the PA-RISC architecture. The .ALLOW directive also tells the
Assembler to temporarily allow implementation-specific features in the assembly source file.

Syntax

.A LLOW 1.1

Lines of source code

.A LLOW

Parameters
Title not available (Parameters )
1.1
Allows PA-RISC 1.1 features.
2.0
Allows PA-RISC 2.0 features.

relocatable object file marked as a PA-RISC 1.1 architecture version.

CALL:

The .CALL directive marks the next branch statement as a procedure call, and permits you to
describe the location of arguments and the function return result.

Syntax

. C A L L [ a r g u m e n t _ d e s c r i p t i o n [ a r g u m e n t _ d e s c r i p t i o n ] .. . ]

Parameters
argument_ description
Allows you to communicate to the linker the types of registers used to pass floating point
arguments and receive floating point return results in the succeeding procedure call. Similarly, this
information can be communicated in the .EXPORT directive.
The linker requires this information because the runtime architecture allows floating point
arguments and return values to reside in either general registers or floating point registers,
depending on source language convention. At link time, the linker ensures that both the caller and
called procedure agree on argument location. If not, the linker may insert code to relocate the
arguments (or return result) before control is transferred to the called procedure or a procedure
return is completed.
You can use up to 5 argument-descriptions in the .CALL directive; one for each of the four
arguments that may be passed in registers (arg0-arg3), and one for a return value (ret0).
C O M M : The .COMM directive makes a storage request for a specified number of bytes.

Syntax

label .COMM [ num_bytes ]

Parameters
label
Labels the location of the reserved storage.
num_bytes
An integer value for the number of bytes you want to reserve. The Assembler uses a
default value of 4 if the .COMM directive lacks a num_bytes parameter. Permissible
values range from one to 0x3FFFFFFF.

Discussion

The .COMM directive declares a block of storage that can be thought of as a common block. You
must label every .COMM directive. The linker associates the label with the subspace in which the
.COMM directive is declared and allocates the necessary storage within that subspace. .COMM
always allocates its space in the $BSS$ subspace of the $PRIVATE$ space. If the label of a
.COMM directive appears in several object modules, the linker uses the maximum size specified in
any module when it allocates the necessary storage in the current subspace.

E N D : The .END directive terminates an assembly language program.

Syntax

.END

Discussion

This directive is the last statement in an assembly language program. If a source file lacks an .END
directive, the Assembler terminates the program when it encounters the end of the file.

The .END directive terminates an assembly language program.

Syntax

.END

Discussion
 This directive is the last statement in an assembly language program. If a source file lacks an .END
directive, the Assembler terminates the program when it encounters the end of the file.

E N D M : The .ENDM directive marks the end of a macro definition. The macro definition is
entered into the macro table and the remaining source lines are read in and assembled. An .ENDM
directive must always accompany a .MACRO directive.

Syntax

.ENDM

Example

This example defines the macro QUADL; it aligns the data specified in the macro parameters on
quad word boundaries. The .ENDM directive delimits the end of the definition of QUADL.

QUADL .MACRO WD1,WD2,WD3,WD4

.ALIGN 16
.WORD WD1
.ALIGN 16
.WORD WD2
.ALIGN 16
.WORD WD3
.ALIGN 16
.WORD WD4
.ENDM

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20Microcontrollers.pdf