UNIT II ASSEMBLERS

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1. BASIC ASSEMBLER FUNCTIONS

2. A SIMPLE SIC ASSEMBLER

3. ASSEMBLER ALGORITHM AND DATA STRUCTURES

4. MACHINE DEPENDENT ASSEMBLER FEATURES

5. INSTRUCTION FORMATS AND ADDRESSING MODES

6. PROGRAM RELOCATION

7. MACHINE INDEPENDENT ASSEMBLER FEATURES

8. LITERALS

9. SYMBOL-DEFINING STATEMENTS
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 10. EXPRESSIONS

11. ONE PASS ASSEMBLERS

12. MULTI PASS ASSEMBLERS

13. IMPLEMENTATION EXAMPLE

14. MASM ASSEMBLER

Assemblers
 Basic Assembler Functions
 Machine-dependent Assembler Features
 Machine-independent Assembler Features
 Assembler Design Options
Role of Assembler

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 Assembler Object
Source Linker
Code
Program

Executable
Code

Loader

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

Object Code

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6
 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

 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

Assembler Directives
 Pseudo-Instructions
 Not translated into machine instructions
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  Providing information to the assembler
 Basic assembler directives
 START
 END
 BYTE
 WORD
 RESB
 RESW

Functions of a Basic Assembler

 Mnemonic code (or instruction name) opcode.
 Symbolic operands (e.g., variable names) addresses.
 Choose the proper instruction format and addressing mode.
 Constants Numbers.
 Output to object files and listing files.

SIC Instruction Set

 Load/Store: LDA/STA, LDX/STX…etc.
 Arithmetic: ADD, SUB, MUL, DIV
 Compare: COMP
 Jump: J
 Conditional Jump: JLT, JEQ, JGT
 See Appendix A for the complete list.

SIC Instruction Format
 Opcode: 8 bits
 Address: one bit flag (x) and 15 bits of address
15
8 1
OPCODE X Address

Examples
 Mnemonic code (or instruction name)  Opcode.
 Variable names, Labels, Subroutines, Constants  Address

 Examples:

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STL RETADR  14 10 33

0001 0100 0 001 0000 0011 0011

STCH BUFFER,X  54 90 39

0101 0100 1 001 0000 0011 1001

Converting Symbols to Numbers

 Isn’t it straightforward?
 Isn’t it simply the sequential processing of the source program, one line at
a time?
 Not so, if we have forward references.
COPY START 1000
…
LDA LEN
…
…
LEN RESW 1

Two Pass Assembler

 Pass 1
 Assign addresses to all statements in the program
 Save the values assigned to all labels for use in Pass 2
 Perform some processing of assembler directives
 Pass 2
 Assemble instructions
 Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD
 Perform processing of assembler directives not done in Pass 1
 Write the object program and the assembly listing

 Read from input line

 LABEL, OPCODE, OPERAND

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 Source
progra
m

Pass 1 Intermediat Pass 2 Object

e
codes
file

OPTAB SYMTAB SYMTAB

Two Pass Assembler – Pass 1

• Assign addresses to all statements in the program

• Save the values (addresses) assigned to all labels for use in Pass 2
• Perform some processing of assembler directives. (This includes processing that affects address
assignment, such as determining the length of data areas defined by BYTE, RESW, etc.

PASS-I Algorithm

begin
read first input line
if OPCODE = 'START' then
begin
save #[OPERAND] as starting address
initialized LOCCTR to starting address
write line to intermediate file
read next input line
end {if START}
else
initialized 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
insert (LABEL, LOCCTR) into SYMTAB
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 end {if symbol}
search OPTAB for OPCODE
if found then
add 3 {instruction lengh} 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 {if BYTE}
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

Two Pass Assembler – Pass 2

• Assemble instructions (translating operation codes and looking up addresses).

• Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD, etc.
• Perform processing of assembler directives not done during Pass 1
• Write the object program and the assembly listing

PASS-2 Algorithm
begin
read first input file {from intermediate file}
if OPCODE = 'START' then
begin
write listing line
read next input line
end {if START}
write header record to object program
initialized first Text record
while OPCODE != 'END' do
begin
if this is not a comment line then
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 begin
search OPTAB for OPCODE
if found then
begin
if there is a symbol in OPERAND field then
begin
search SYMTAB for OPERAND
if found then
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
end {if opcode found}
else if OPCODE = 'BYTE' or 'WORD' then
convert constant to object code
if object code not fit into the current Text record then
begin
write Text record to object program
initialized new Text record
end
add object code to Text record
end {if not comment}
write listing line
read next input line
end {while not END}
write last Text record to object program
write End record to object program
write last listing line
end

Data Structures
 Operation Code Table (OPTAB)
 Symbol Table (SYMTAB)
 Location Counter(LOCCTR)
OPTAB (operation code table)

• Operation Code Table (OPTAB)

– Used to look up mnemonic operation codes and translate them into machine language
equivalents
– Contains the mnemonic operation code and its machine language equivalent
– In more complex assemblers, contains information like instruction format and length
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 SYMTAB (symbol table)
Used to store values (addresses) assigned to labels
Includes the name and value for each label
Flags to indicate error conditions, e.g. duplicate definition of labels
May contain other info like type or length about the data area or
instruction labeled

COPY 1000
FIRST 1000
CLOOP 1003
ENDFIL 1015
EOF 1024
THREE 102D
ZERO 1030
RETADR 1033
LENGTH 1036
BUFFER 1039
RDREC 2039

LOCCTR(Location counter)
– Used to help in the assignment of addresses
– Initialized to the beginning address specified in the START
statement
– After each source statement is processed, the length of the
assembled instruction or data area to be generated is added
– Gives the address of a label

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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.2~7Starting 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.2~7Address of first executable instruction (hex)

(END program_name)

H COPY 001000 00107A

T 001000 1E 141033 482039 001036 281030 301015 482061 ...

T 00101E 15 0C1036 482061 081044 4C0000 454F46 000003 000000

T 002039 1E 041030 001030 E0205D 30203F D8205D 281030 …

T 002057 1C 101036 4C0000 F1 001000 041030 E02079 302064 …

T 002073 07 382064 4C0000 05

E 001000
Assembler Design
 Machine Dependent Assembler Features
 instruction formats and addressing modes
 program relocation
 Machine Independent Assembler Features
 literals
 symbol-defining statements
 expressions
 program blocks
 control sections and program linking

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 Machine-dependent Assembler Features
Instruction formats and addressing modes


Program relocation

 For Eg STL RETADR 17 20 2D

 The mode bit p=1, meaning PC relative addressing mode.

12 bits
6
bits
OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0001 01 1 1 0 0 1 0 0000 0010 1101

2D
1 2
7 0
Instruction Format and Addressing Mode
 SIC/XE
 PC-relative or Base-relative addressing: op m
 Indirect addressing: op @m
 Immediate addressing: op #c
 Extended format: +op m
 Index addressing: op m,x
 register-to-register instructions
 larger memory -> multi-programming (program allocation)

Translation
 Register translation
 register name (A, X, L, B, S, T, F, PC, SW) and their values (0,1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9)
 preloaded in SYMTAB

 Address translation
 Most register-memory instructions use program counter relative or base relative addressing
 Format 3: 12-bit address field
 base-relative: 0~4095
 pc-relative: -2048~2047
 Format 4: 20-bit address field

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 PC-Relative Addressing Modes
 PC-relative
 10 0000 FIRST STL RETADR 17202D

OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0001 01 1 1 0 0 1 0 (02D)16

 displacement= RETADR - PC = 30-3 = 2D

 40 0017 J CLOOP 3F2FEC

OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0011 11 1 1 0 0 1 0 (FEC)16

 displacement= CLOOP-PC= 6 - 1A= -14= FEC

Base-Relative Addressing Modes

 Base-relative
 base register is under the control of the programmer
 12 LDB #LENGTH
 13 BASE LENGTH
 160 104E STCH BUFFER, X 57C003

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 OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0101 01 1 1 1 1 0 0 (003)16

 displacement= BUFFER - B = 0036 - 0033 = 3

 NOBASE is used to inform the assembler that the contents of the base register no longer be relied
upon for addressing

Immediate Address Translation

 Immediate addressing
 55 0020 LDA #3 010003

OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0000 00 0 1 0 0 0 0 (003)16

 133 103C +LDT #4096 75101000

OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0111 01 0 1 0 0 0 1 (01000)16

Immediate Address Translation (Cont.)

 Immediate addressing
 12 0003 LDB #LENGTH 69202D

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 OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0110 10 0 1 0 0 1 0 (02D)16

 the immediate operand is the symbol LENGTH

 the address of this symbol LENGTH is loaded into register B

 LENGTH=0033=PC+displacement=0006+02D
 if immediate mode is specified, the target address becomes the operand
Indirect Address Translation
 Indirect addressing
 target addressing is computed as usual (PC-relative or BASE-relative)
 only the n bit is set to 1
 70 002A J @RETADR 3E2003

OPCODE n i x b p e Address

0011 11 1 0 0 0 1 0 (003)16

 TA=RETADR=0030
 TA=(PC)+disp=002D+0003

Program Relocation

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 Example
 Absolute program, starting address 1000
e.g. 55 101B LDA THREE 00102D
 Relocate the program to 2000
e.g. 55 101B LDA THREE 00202D
 Each Absolute address should be modified
 Example
 Except for absolute address, the rest of the instructions need not be modified
 not a memory address (immediate addressing)
 PC-relative, Base-relative
 The only parts of the program that require modification at load time are those that specify direct
addresses

Relocatable Program
 Modification record
 Col 1 M
 Col 2-7 Starting location of the address field to be

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 modified, relative to the beginning of the program
 Col 8-9 length of the address field to be modified, in half-
bytes

Object Code with M-Records

 Modification records are added to the object files. (See pp.64-65 and Figure 2.8.)
 Example:
HCOPY 001000 001077
T000000 1D 17202D…4B101036…
T00001D ……
…
M000007 05 Modification Record
……
E000000

Object Code

Machine-Independent Assembler Features

Literals
Symbol Defining Statement
Expressions
Program Blocks
Control Sections and Program Linking

Literals
 Design idea
 Let programmers to be able to write the value of a constant operand as a part of the
instruction that uses it.
 This avoids having to define the constant elsewhere in the program and make up a
label for it.
 Example
 e.g. 45 001A ENDFIL LDA =C’EOF’ 032010
 93 LTORG
 002D * =C’EOF’ 454F46
 e.g. 215 1062 WLOOP TD =X’05’ E32011

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 Literals vs. Immediate Operands
 Immediate Operands
 The operand value is assembled as part of the machine instruction
 e.g. 55 0020 LDA #3 010003
 Literals
 The assembler generates the specified value as a constant at some other memory
location
 e.g. 45 001A ENDFIL LDA =C’EOF’ 032010
 Compare (Fig. 2.6)
 e.g. 45 001A ENDFIL LDA EOF 032010
 80 002D EOF BYTE C’EOF’ 454F46

Literal - Implementation
 Literal pools
 Normally literals are placed into a pool at the end of the program
 see (END statement)
 In some cases, it is desirable to place literals into a pool at some other location in the
object program
 assembler directive LTORG
 reason: keep the literal operand close to the instruction

 Duplicate literals
 e.g. 215 1062 WLOOP TD =X’05’
 e.g. 230 106B WD =X’05’
 The assemblers should recognize duplicate literals and store only one copy of the
specified data value
 Comparison of the defining expression
• Same literal name with different value, e.g. LOCCTR=*
 Comparison of the generated data value
• The benefits of using generate data value are usually not great enough to justify
the additional complexity in the assembler

C'EOF' 454F46 3 002D

X'05' 05 1 1076

 LITTAB
 literal name, the operand value and length, the address assigned to the operand
 Pass 1
 build LITTAB with literal name, operand value and length, leaving the address unassigned
 when LTORG statement is encountered, assign an address to each literal not yet assigned an
address
 Pass 2
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  search LITTAB for each literal operand encountered
 generate data values using BYTE or WORD statements
 generate modification record for literals that represent an address in the program

Symbol-Defining Statements
 Labels on instructions or data areas
 the value of such a label is the address assigned to the statement
 Defining symbols
 symbol EQU value
 value can be:  constant,  other symbol,  expression
 making the source program easier to understand
 no forward reference

 Example 1


MAXLEN EQU 4096
+LDT #MAXLEN
+LDT #4096

 Example 2 (Many general purpose registers)

 BASE EQU R1
 COUNT EQU R2
 INDEX EQU R3

 Example 3
 MAXLEN EQU BUFEND-BUFFER

 Counter Example
 BETA EQU ALPHA
 ALPHA RESW 1
 BETA cannot be assigned a value when it is encountered during Pass 1 of the assembly
(because ALPHA does not yet have a value).

ORG (origin)
 Indirectly assign values to symbols
 Reset the location counter to the specified value
 ORG value
 Value can be:  constant,  other symbol,  expression
 No forward reference
 Example
 SYMBOL: 6bytes
 VALUE: 1word
 FLAGS: 2bytes
 LDA VALUE, X

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 SYMBOL VALUE FLAGS
STAB
(100 entries)
ORG Example
 Using EQU statements. . .
 STAB RESB .
1100 . .
. . .
 SYMBOL EQU STAB
 VALUE EQU STAB+6
 FLAG EQU STAB+9
 Using ORG statements
 STAB RESB 1100
 ORG STAB
 SYMBOL RESB 6
 VALUE RESW 1
 FLAGS RESB 2
 ORG STAB+1100
Expressions
 Expressions can be classified as absolute expressions or relative expressions
 MAXLEN EQU BUFEND-BUFFER
 BUFEND and BUFFER both are relative terms, representing addresses within the program
 However the expression BUFEND-BUFFER represents an absolute value
 When relative terms are paired with opposite signs, the dependency on the program starting
address is canceled out; the result is an absolute value
SYMTAB
 None of the relative terms may enter into a multiplication or division operation
 Errors:
 BUFEND+BUFFER
 100-BUFFER
 3*BUFFER
 The type of an expression
 keep track of the types of all symbols defined in the program

Symbol Type Value

RETADR R 30
BUFFER R 36
BUFEND R 1036
MAXLEN Program Blocks
A 1000
 Program blocks
 referto segments of code that are rearranged within a single object program unit
 USE [blockname]
 Default block
 Each program block may actually contain several separate segments of the source
program

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 Implementation
 Pass 1
 each program block has a separate location counter
 each label is assigned an address that is relative to the start of the block that contains it
 at the end of Pass 1, the latest value of the location counter for each block indicates the length of
that block
 the assembler can then assign to each block a starting address in the object program
 Pass 2
 The address of each symbol can be computed by adding the assigned block starting address and the
relative address of the symbol to that block

 Each source line is given a relative address assigned and a block number
Block name Block number Address Length
(default) 0 0000 0066
CDATA 1 0066 000B
CBLKS 2 0071 1000

 For absolute symbol, there is no block number

 line 107
 Example
 20 0006 0 LDA LENGTH 032060
 LENGTH=(Block 1)+0003= 0066+0003= 0069
 LOCCTR=(Block 0)+0009= 0009
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 Program Readability
 Program readability
 No extended format instructions on lines 15, 35, 65
 No needs for base relative addressing (line 13, 14)
 LTORG is used to make sure the literals are placed ahead of any large data areas (line 253)
 Object code
 It is not necessary to physically rearrange the generated code in the object program

Control Sections and Program Linking

 Control Sections
 are most often used for subroutines or other logical subdivisions of a program
 the programmer can assemble, load, and manipulate each of these control sections
separately
 instruction in one control section may need to refer to instructions or data located in
another section
 because of this, there should be some means for linking control sections together

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 External Definition and References
 External definition
 EXTDEF name [, name]
 EXTDEF names symbols that are defined in this control section and may be used by
other sections
 External reference
 EXTREF name [,name]
 EXTREF names symbols that are used in this control section and are defined
elsewhere
 Example
 15 0003 CLOOP +JSUB RDREC 4B100000
 160 0017 +STCH BUFFER,X 57900000
 190 0028 MAXLEN WORD BUFEND-BUFFER 000000

Implementation
 The assembler must include information in the object program that will cause the loader to insert
proper values where they are required
 Define record
 Col. 1 D
 Col. 2-7 Name of external symbol defined in this control section
 Col. 8-13 Relative address within this control section (hexadeccimal)
 Col.14-73 Repeat information in Col. 2-13 for other external symbols
 Refer record
 Col. 1 D
 Col. 2-7 Name of external symbol referred to in this control section
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  Col. 8-73 Name of other external reference symbols

Modification Record
 Modification record
 Col. 1 M
 Col. 2-7 Starting address of the field to be modified (hexiadecimal)
 Col. 8-9 Length of the field to be modified, in half-bytes (hexadeccimal)
 Col.11-16 External symbol whose value is to be added to or subtracted from the indicated field
 Note: control section name is automatically an external symbol, i.e. it is available for use in
Modification records.
 Example
 Figure 2.17
 M00000405+RDREC
 M00000705+COPY

External References in Expression

 Earlier definitions
 required all of the relative terms be paired in an expression (an absolute expression),
or that all except one be paired (a relative expression)
 New restriction
 Both terms in each pair must be relative within the same control section
 Ex: BUFEND-BUFFER
 Ex: RDREC-COPY
 In general, the assembler cannot determine whether or not the expression is legal at assembly
time. This work will be handled by a linking loader.

Assembler Design Options

One-pass assemblers
Multi-pass assemblers
Two-pass assembler with overlay structure

Two-Pass Assembler with Overlay Structure

 For small memory
 pass 1 and pass 2 are never required at the same time
 three segments
 root: driver program and shared tables and subroutines
 pass 1
 pass 2
 tree structure
 overlay program

One-Pass Assemblers
 Main problem
 forward references
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  data items
 labels on instructions

 Solution
 data items: require all such areas be defined before they are referenced
 labels on instructions: no good solution
 Main Problem
 forward reference
 data items
 labels on instructions

 Two types of one-pass assembler

 load-and-go
 produces object code directly in memory for immediate execution
 the other
 produces usual kind of object code for later execution
Load-and-go Assembler
 Characteristics
 Useful for program development and testing
 Avoids the overhead of writing the object program out and reading it back
 Both one-pass and two-pass assemblers can be designed as load-and-go.
 However one-pass also avoids the over head of an additional pass over the source
program
 For a load-and-go assembler, the actual address must be known at assembly time,
we can use an absolute program

Forward Reference in One-pass Assembler

 For any symbol that has not yet been defined
1. omit the address translation

2. insert the symbol into SYMTAB, and mark this symbol undefined

3. the address that refers to the undefined symbol is added to a list of forward references
associated with the symbol table entry

4. when the definition for a symbol is encountered, the proper address for the symbol is
then inserted into any instructions previous generated according to the forward reference
list

 At the end of the program

 any SYMTAB entries that are still marked with * indicate undefined symbols
 search SYMTAB for the symbol named in the END statement and jump to this
location to begin execution
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 The actual starting address must be specified at assembly time
 Example

Producing Object Code

 When external working-storage devices are not available or too slow (for the intermediate file
between the two passes
 Solution:
 When definition of a symbol is encountered, the assembler must generate another Tex record with
the correct operand address

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  The loader is used to complete forward references that could not be handled by the assembler
 The object program records must be kept in their original order when they are presented to the
loader
 Example

Multi-Pass Assemblers
 Restriction on EQU and ORG
 no forward reference, since symbols’ value can’t be defined during the first pass
 Example
 Use link list to keep track of whose value depend on an undefined symbol

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 ASSEMBLERS

1. Introduction

There are two main classes of programming languages: high level (e.g., C, Pascal) and low
level. Assembly Language is a low level programming language. Programmers code symbolic
instructions, each of which generates machine instructions.

An assembler is a program that accepts as input an assembly language program (source) and
produces its machine language equivalent (object code) along with the information for the loader.

Assembly language program

Assembler Linker EXE

Figure 1. Executable program generation from an assembly source code

Advantages of coding in assembly language are:

Provides more control over handling particular hardware components
May generate smaller, more compact executable modules
Often results in faster execution

Disadvantages:
Not portable
More complex
Requires understanding of hardware details (interfaces)

Assembler:

An assembler does the following:

1. Generate machine instructions

- evaluate the mnemonics to produce their machine code
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 - evaluate the symbols, literals, addresses to produce their equivalent machine addresses
- convert the data constants into their machine representations

2. Process pseudo operations

2. Two Pass Assembler

A two-pass assembler performs two sequential scans over the source code:

Pass 1: symbols and literals are defined

Pass 2: object program is generated

Parsing: moving in program lines to pull out op-codes and operands

Data Structures:

- Location counter (LC): points to the next location where the code will be placed

- Op-code translation table: contains symbolic instructions, their lengths and their op-codes (or
subroutine to use for translation)

- Symbol table (ST): contains labels and their values

- String storage buffer (SSB): contains ASCII characters for the strings

- Configuration table: contains pointer to the string in SSB and offset where its value will be inserted
in the object code

assembly machine
language Pass1 Pass 2 language
program Symbol table program
Configuration table
String storage buffer
Partially configured object file

Figure 2. A simple two pass assembler.

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Example 1: Decrement number 5 by 1 until it is equal to zero.

assembly language memory object code

program address in memory
-----------------------
START 0100H
LDA #5 0100 01
0101 00
0102 05
LOOP: SUB #1 0103 1D
0104 00
0105 01
COMP #0 0106 29
0107 00
0108 00
JGT LOOP 0109 34
010A 01 placed in Pass 1
010B 03
RSUB 010C 4C
010D 00
010E 00
END

Op-code Table
Symbol Table
Mnemonic Addressing Opcode
mode Symbo Value
LDA immediate 01 l
SUB immediate 1D LOOP 0103
COMP immediate 29
LDX immediate 05
ADD indexed 18
TIX direct 2C
JLT direct 38
JGT direct 34
RSUB implied 4C

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Example 2: Sum 6 elements of a list which starts at location 200.

assembly language memory object code

program address in memory
-----------------------
START 0100H
LDA #0 0100 01
0101 00
0102 00
LDX #0 0103 05
0104 00
0105 00
LOOP: ADD LIST, X 0106 18
0107 01 placed in Pass 2
0108 12
TIX COUNT 0109 2C
010A 01 placed in Pass 2
010B 15
JLT LOOP 010C 38
010D 01 placed in Pass 1
010E 06
RSUB 010F 4C
0110 00
0111 00
LIST: WORD 200 0112 00
0113 02
0114 00
COUNT: WORD 6 0115 00
0116 00
0117 06
END

Symbol Table

Symbo Addres
l s
LOOP 0106
36
LIST 0112
COUN 0115
T

Configuration Table

Offset SSB pointer

for the
symbol
0007 DC00
000A DC05

SSB
DC00 4C
H
DC01 49H ASCII for L,I,S,T
DC02 53H
DC03 54H
DC04 5E ASCII for separation
H character
DC05

Pass1
All symbols are identified and put in ST
All op-codes are translated
Missing symbol values are marked

LC = origin

Read next statement

Parse the statement

Y
Comment

“END” Y Pass 2

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 N

N pseudo-op Y what
kind?
N
Label EQU WORD/ RESW/RESB
BYTE
Y
N Label N Label
Enter label in ST Enter label in ST
Y Y

Enter label in ST Enter label in ST

Call translator

Place constant in
machine code
Advance LC by the
number of bytes specified
Advance LC in the pseudo-op

Figure 3. First pass of a two-pass assembler.

38
Translator Routine

Find opcode and the number of bytes

in Op-code Table

Write opcode in machine code

Write the data or address that is known

at this time in machine code

more
information Y
will be needed Set up an entry in
in Pass 2 ? Configuration Table
N

Advance LC by the number of bytes

in op-code table

return

Figure 4. Flowchart of a translator routine

Pass 2
- Fills addresses and data that was unknown during Pass 1.

Pass 1

More lines in N
Configuration Done
Table

Get the next line

Retrieve the name of the symbol from SSB

Get the value of the symbol from ST

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 Compute the location in memory
where this value will be placed
(starting address + offset)

Place the symbol value at this location

Figure 5. Second pass of a two-pass assembler.

Relocatable Code
Producing an object code, which can be placed to any specific area in memory.

Direct Address Table (DAT): contains offset locations of all direct addresses in the program (e.g., 8080
instructions that specify direct addresses are LDA, STA, all conditional jumps...). To relocate the
program, the loader adds the loading point to all these locations.

assembly language program Assembler machine language program

and DAT
Figure 6. Assembler output for a relocatable code.

Example 3: Following relocatable object code and DAT are generated for Example 1.

assembly language memory object code

program address in memory
-----------------------
START
LDA #0 0000 01
0001 00
0002 00
LDX #0 0003 05
0004 00
0005 00
LOOP: ADD LIST, X 0006 18
0007 00
0008 12
TIX COUNT 0009 2C
000A 00
000B 15
JLT LOOP 000C 38
000D 00
000E 06
RSUB 000F 4C
0010 00
0011 00
LIST: WORD 200 0012 00
0013 02
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 0014 00
COUNT: WORD 6 0015 00
0016 00
0017 06
END

DAT
0007
000A
000D

Forward and backward references in the machine code are generated relative to address 0000. To
relocate the code, the loader adds the new load-point to the references in the machine code which are
pointed by the DAT.

One-Pass Assemblers

Two methods can be used:

- Eliminating forward references

Either all labels used in forward references are defined in the source program before they are
referenced, or forward references to data items are prohibited.

- Generating the object code in memory

No object program is written out and no loader is needed. The program needs to be re-assembled
every time.

Multi-Pass Assemblers

Make as many passes as needed to process the definitions of symbols.

Example 3:

A EQU B
B EQU C
C DS 1

3 passes are required to find the address for A.

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Such references can also be solved in two passes: entering symbol definitions that
involve forward references in the symbol table. Symbol table also indicates which
symbols are dependent on the values of others.

Example 4:

A EQU B
B EQU D
C EQU D
D DS 1

At the end of Pass1:

Symbol Table
A &1 B 0
B &1 D A 0
C &1 D 0
D 200 B C 0

After evaluating dependencies:

Symbol Table
A 200 0
B 200 0
C 200 0
D 200 0

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