Assembler Tutorial

This program is part of the software suite

that accompanies the book

The Elements of Computing Systems

by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken
MIT Press
www.idc.ac.il/tecs
This software was developed by students at the
Efi Arazi School of Computer Science at IDC
Chief Software Architect: Yaron Ukrainitz

Assembler Tutorial, www.idc.ac.il/tecs Tutorial Index Slide 1/22

Background

The Elements of Computing Systems evolves around

the construction of a complete computer system,
done in the framework of a 1- or 2-semester course.
In the first part of the book/course, we build the
hardware platform of a simple yet powerful
computer, called Hack. In the second part, we build
the computer’s software hierarchy, consisting of an
assembler, a virtual machine, a simple Java-like
language called Jack, a compiler for it, and a mini
operating system, written in Jack.
The book/course is completely self-contained,
requiring only programming as a pre-requisite.
The book’s web site includes some 200 test
programs, test scripts, and all the software
tools necessary for doing all the projects.

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The book’s software suite
(All the supplied tools are dual-platform: Xxx.bat starts
Xxx in Windows, and Xxx.sh starts it in Unix)

Simulators
(HardwareSimulator, CPUEmulator, VMEmulator):
This tutorial is ƒ Used to build hardware platforms and
about the execute programs;
assembler
ƒ Supplied by us.

Translators (Assembler, JackCompiler):

ƒ Used to translate from high-level to low-level;
ƒ Developed by the students, using the book’s
specs;
The machine code Executable
generated by solutions supplied by us.
the assembler can be tested
either in theOther
hardware simulator
or in the CPU emulator.
ƒ Bin: simulators and translators software;

ƒ builtIn: executable versions of all the logic

gates and chips mentioned in the book;
ƒ OS: executable version of the Jack OS;

ƒ TextComparer: a text comparison utility.

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Assembler Tutorial

I. Assembly program example

II. Command-level Assembler

III. Interactive Assembler

Relevant reading: Chapter 4: Machine and Assembly Language

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Assembler Tutorial

Part I:
Assembly
Programming
at a Glance

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Example
Sum.asm Sum.hack
//
// Computes
Computes sum=1+...+100.
sum=1+...+100. 0000000000010000
0000000000010000
@i
@i //
// i=1
i=1 1110111111001000
1110111111001000
M=1
M=1 0000000000010001
0000000000010001
@sum
@sum //// sum=0
sum=0 1110101010001000
1110101010001000
M=0
M=0 0000000000010000
0000000000010000
(LOOP)
(LOOP) 1111110000010000
1111110000010000
@i
@i //
// if
if (i-100)=0
(i-100)=0 goto
goto END
END 0000000001100100
0000000001100100
D=M
D=M 1110010011010000
1110010011010000
@100
@100 0000000000010010
0000000000010010
D=D-A
D=D-A Assembler 1110001100000001
1110001100000001
@END
@END 0000000000010000
0000000000010000
D;JGT
D;JGT 1111110000010000
1111110000010000
@i
@i //
// sum+=i
sum+=i 0000000000010001
0000000000010001
D=M
D=M 1111000010001000
1111000010001000
@sum
@sum 0000000000010000
0000000000010000
M=D+M
M=D+M 1111110111001000
1111110111001000
@i
@i //
// i++
i++ 0000000000000100
0000000000000100
M=M+1
M=M+1 1110101010000111
1110101010000111
@LOOP
@LOOP //// goto
goto LOOP
LOOP
0;JMP
0;JMP
(END)
(END) //
// infinite
infinite loop
loop
@END
@END
0;JMP
0;JMP

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Example
Sum.asm
//
// Computes
Computes sum=1+...+100.
sum=1+...+100. The assembly program:
@i //
// i=1
@i
M=1
i=1 ƒ Stored in a text file named Prog.asm
M=1
@sum
@sum //// sum=0
sum=0 ƒ Written and edited in a text editor
M=0
M=0
(LOOP)
(LOOP)
@i
@i //
// if
if (i-100)=0
(i-100)=0 goto
goto END
END
D=M
D=M
@100
The assembly process:
@100
D=D-A
D=D-A ƒ Translates Prog.asm into Prog.hack
@END
@END
D;JGT ƒ Eliminates comments and white space
D;JGT
@i
@i //
// sum+=i
sum+=i ƒ Allocates variables (e.g. i and sum) to
D=M
D=M
@sum
memory
@sum
M=D+M
M=D+M ƒ Translates each assembly command
@i
@i //
// i++
i++ into a single 16-bit instruction written in
M=M+1
M=M+1 the Hack machine language
@LOOP
@LOOP //// goto
goto LOOP
LOOP
0;JMP
0;JMP ƒ Treats label declarations like (LOOP)
(END)
(END) //
// infinite
infinite loop
loop and (END) as pseudo commands that
@END
@END generate no code.
0;JMP
0;JMP

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Assembler Tutorial

Part II:
Learn how to invoke the
supplied assembler from
the OS shell level.
(the assembler that you have
to write in project 6 should
have the same GUI and
behavior)

Assembler Tutorial, www.idc.ac.il/tecs Tutorial Index Slide 8/22

The command-level assembler

Display the
assembly source
code (contents of
the .asm text file)

We illustrate how to use the assembler

in the Windows command level (DOS);
The Unix way is similar.

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Inspecting the source file

Source
code is
shown

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Invoking the Assembler

Invoke the Name of the file to be

assembler translated (argument of
program the assembler program).

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Invoking the Assembler

Display the generated

machine code Two ways to test the generated
machine code:
1. Invoke the hardware simulator,
load the Computer.hdl chip, then
load the code (.hack file) into the
internal ROM chip;
2. Load and run the code in the
CPU emulator (much quicker).

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Hardware Simulation Tutorial

Part III:

Learn how to use

the interactive
Assembler

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Loading an assembly program

Navigate to a
directory and select
an .asm file.

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Loading an assembly program

ƒ Read-only view of the

assembly source code
ƒ To edit it, use an external
text editor.

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Translating a program

Immediate
translation
(no animation)

Start from the

beginning

Pause the
translation

Translate the
entire program

Translate
line-by-line

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Inspecting the translation

2. The
1. Click an corresponding
assembly translated code
command is highlighted

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Saving the translated code

Saves the
translated code
in a .hack file
ƒ The “save” operation is
enabled only if the
translation was error-free;
ƒ Otherwise, the translation
stops with an error
message.

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Using Compare Files

1. Load a
compare file

2. Select a compare
(.hack) file

Assembler Tutorial, www.idc.ac.il/tecs Tutorial Index Slide 19/22

Using Compare Files

2. Translate the
program (any
translation mode
can be used)

1. Compare file is
shown

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Using Compare Files

The translation of
the highlighted line
does not match the
corresponding line
in the compare file.

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End-note: R. Feynman on why symbols don’t matter compared to their meaning

On weekends, my father would take me for walks in

the woods and he’d tell me about interesting things
that were going on. “See that bird?” he says. “It’s
a Spencer Warbler.” (I knew he didn’t know the real
name.) “Well, in Italian, it’s Chutto Lapittida. In
Portuguese, it’s a Bom da Peida. In Chinese, it’s a
Chung-long-tah, and in Japanese, it’s Katano Tekeda.
You can know the name of that bird in all the
languages of the world, but when you’re finished,
you’ll know absolutely nothing whatever about the
bird. You’ll only know something about people in
different places, and what they call the bird. So
let’s look at the bird and see what it is doing – that’s
what counts.” This is how I learned very early the
difference between knowing the name of something
and knowing something.

Richard P. Feynman, The Making of a Scientist, 1988.

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