Assembly Language Introduction Selected Assembly Instructions Reset Sequence Instruction Encoding

Microprocessor Systems

Basics of Assembly Programming

University of Engineering and Technology Lahore

Assembly Language Introduction Selected Assembly Instructions Reset Sequence Instruction Encoding

Contents

1 Assembly Language Introduction

2 Selected Assembly Instructions

How to Run the Program?

3 Reset Sequence

4 Instruction Encoding

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Assembly Language Introduction Selected Assembly Instructions Reset Sequence Instruction Encoding

Introduction

Figure: ARM, Thumb and Jazelle States

The processors that supported both 32-bit as well as 16-bit

instructions required to switch between ARM state and Thumb
state incurring an additional overhead of state switching.

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Thumb 2

Figure: Thumb 2 instruction set

• No state switching is required which results in an improved

execution performance and saves instruction memory space as
well.
• Cortex-M processor uses Thumb2 instruction set

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Cont’d:

16-bit Thumb 32-bit Thumb2 16-bit Thumb 16-bit Thumb 32-bit Thumb2

Instruction Execution in Thumb2 Architecture

Figure: The 16-bit and 32-bit mixed instruction execution in Thumb2

ISA.

• Thumb2 instruction set allows free intermixing of 32 and 16

bit instructions.
• Cortex-M3 does not implement all of the instructions provided
by the Thumb2 instruction set.

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Why Use Assembly Language?

• An assembly language program provides complete as well as

precise control of the available hardware resources.
• When writing a program in a high level language, the user is
mostly unaware of the underlying hardware capabilities, which
can lead to highly inefficient implementation.
• Programming in assembly language also gives the user
complete understanding of the system architecture.

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Syntax of an assembly program

label opcode operand_1 , operand_2 , ... , operand_n ; Comments

Listing 1: Syntax of an assembly program.

label → For determining address of instruction

opcode → Represents instruction’s machine code
operands → No. of operands depends upon instruction
Comments → For better human understanding

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Instruction Set Groups

Thumb2
Instruction Set

Memory Access
Instructions Data Processing
Instructions

Multiply & Divide

Instructions
Bit Field Instructions

Saturating Instructions
Cortex-M3,
Branch & Control M4 and M4F
Instructions
Floating Point Cortex-M4
Instructions and M4F

Packing & Unpacking Cortex-M4F

Only
Miscellaneous Instructions
Instructions

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Add Instruction

ADD instruction illustration

ADD R1 , R2 ,#10 ; R1 = R2 + 10
ADD R6 , R5 , R3 ; R6 = R5 + R3
ADD R1 , #0 x6 ; R1 = R1 + 0 x6
ADD R4 , R2 ; R4 = R4 + R2
ADDS R6 , R5 , R3 ; R6 = R5 + R3 , flags are updated

MOV instruction illustration

MOV R2 , #0 x123 ; move immediate value of 0 x123 to R2
MOV R4 , #'A ' ; move ASCII value of A (i.e. 0 x41 ) to R4
MOV R7 , R3 ; move the contents of R3 to R7

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Load Store Instructions

LDR R2 , [ R1 ] ; load R2 with data from memory pointed to

; by R1
LDR R0 , = NUM1 ; load R0 with the value of constant NUM1
; ( this constant might represent
; the memory address )
STR R4 , [ R3 ] ; store R4 to a memory location addressed
; by R3

Listing 2: Memory access instructions.

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Branch Instructions

loop1 LDR R2 , [ R1 ] ; load R2 with data from memory

; pointed to by register R1
...
CBZ R5 , label1 ; Compare R5 with zero . If
; comparison result is true
; then branch to label1
...
B loop1 ; jump to the memory location
; labeled as loop1
label1
MOV R3 , #0 x034

Listing 3: Simple memory access instructions.

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Example Program

• Assembly Program to Compute the Sum of first five even

numbers
Initializions
sum← 0
loop counter ← 5
Even number ← 2
Computing Sum
repeat till loop counter is not equal to zero
sum ← sum + Even number
Even number ← Even number + 2
Decrease loop counter

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Example Program Cont’d

MOV R0 , #0 ; R0 will accumulate the sum

MOV R1 , #2 ; R1 will have the updated even number
MOV R2 , #5 ; the counter for the loop

lbegin
CBZ R2 , lend ; If R2 != 0 continue with the next
; instruction
ADD R0 , R1
ADD R1 , #2
SUB R2 , #1
B lbegin ; branch unconditionally to lbegin
lend

Listing 4: A simple program calculating the sum of the first five even
numbers.

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Assembly Source File

• An assembly source file is a collection of

(i) assembly language instructions
(ii) assembler directives
(iii) if required, may also include macro directives.
• The assembler translates assembly language source files to
machine understandable object file.
• Object file is used by the linker along with linker command file
(based on linker directives) and any libraries (if required) to
generate the executable.

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Assember Directives

• Assembler directives are pseudo-opcodes or pseudo-operations

performed by an assembler.
• They are not part of the assembly instruction set.
• They are executed during the assembling process at
compilation time
(assembly instructions are executed at runtime).

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Different Assember Directives

• AREA
• Size Directives: SPACE, DCB, DCW, DCD
• EQU: Symbolic name to a numeric constant
• ENTRY: Declares an entry point to a program
• END: Informs the assembler that it has reached the end of a
source file

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Different Assember Directives Cont’d:

• GLOBAL and EXPORT: Direct the assembler that the

associated labels are not defined in the current assembly
program file and need to be looked into some other object
files (generated from other source files) or libraries
• THUMB: Instructs the assembler to interpret subsequent
instructions as Thumb or Thumb2 instructions
• PRESERVE8: Specifies that the current file preserves 8-byte
alignment of the stack

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AREA Directive

The AREA directive is used to instruct the assembler for a new

code or data section.
AREA sectionname {, attr } {, attr } ...

Listing 5: Examples of AREA section directive.

• sectionname is the name assigned by the user to a particular

data or code section.
(i) |.text| is used to mention code sections generated by the C
compiler
(ii) STACK indicates the stack area, which is in the RAM

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AREA Directive Illustration

AREA Mydata , DATA , READWRITE ; Define a data section

; with section name Mydata

AREA STACK , NOINIT , READWRITE , ALIGN =3

AREA |. text |, CODE , READONLY , ALIGN =2

Listing 6: Examples of AREA section directive.

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AREA Directive Attributes

Attribute Description
READONLY Indicates that this section must not be written to. This is the default
for code areas.
NOINIT Use of this attribute indicates that the data section is uninitialized, or
initialized to zero. A section with this attribute contains only space
reservation directives SPACE or DCB, DCD, DCDU, DCQ, DCQU,
DCW, or DCWU with initialized values of zero. You can decide at link
time whether an area is uninitialized or zero initialized.
READWRITE Indicates that this section can be read from and written to. This is
the default for Data areas.
DATA Contains data, not instructions. READWRITE is the default.
CODE Contains machine instructions. READONLY is the default.
ALIGN=number By default, sections are aligned on a four-byte boundary. The number
can have any integer value from 0 to 31. The section is aligned on a
2number byte boundary. For example, if expression is 10, the section is
aligned on a 1 KB boundary.

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Reset Sequence and Memory Map

An assembly program needs to perform the following sequence of

activities to ensure that the user application program is executed
properly.
• Define the stack size and reserve appropriate memory space
for stack.
• Define the reset vector.
• Write the reset handler code to perform any system related
initializations and then make a jump to the user application
program.

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Assembly Language Introduction Selected Assembly Instructions Reset Sequence Instruction Encoding

Reset Sequence
Stack Pointer Reset Address System User Program
Loaded Loaded to PC Initialization Execution

Address Address Address Address

Reset
0x00000000 0x00000004 Reset Vector Main Function

Time

Figure: Reset sequence of Cortex-M processor.

• Only MSP is initialized on the reset and the value of PSP is

undefined on reset.
• The bit field T in the execution program status register
(EPSR) is set to ‘1’ to mark the Thumb state.
• The link register LR is reset to 0xFFFFFFFF.

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Memory Map
Other Memory (RAM) Initialization of SP
to 0x20008000
0x20008000
1st Stacked Item
0x20007FFC
2nd Stacked Item
0x20007FF8
Stack
.
. Memory
.

0x20007C00
Last possible stacked item Stack grows
Reset sequence of downward

Cortex-M mapped Other Memory (RAM)

0x20000000
to memory address
map. Other Memory (FLASH)

Reset Vector
Loading
System Initialization Code
0x00000100

Other Exception Vectors Interrupt

Vector
Table
0x00000008
0X00000101
0x00000004
0x20008000
0x00000000
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Assembly Language Introduction Selected Assembly Instructions Reset Sequence Instruction Encoding

Complete Assembly Language Program

THUMB ; Marks the THUMB mode of operation

StackSize EQU 0 x00000100 ; Define stack size of 256 byes

AREA STACK , NOINIT , READWRITE , ALIGN =3

MyStackMem SPACE StackSize

AREA RESET , READONLY

EXPORT __Vectors
__Vectors
DCD MyStackMem + StackSize ; stack pointer for empty stack
DCD Reset_Handler ; reset vector

AREA MYCODE , CODE , READONLY

ENTRY
EXPORT Reset_Handler
Reset_Handler
MOV R0 , #0 ; Initial value of sum
MOV R1 , #2 ; First even number
MOV R2 , #5 ; Counter for the loop iterations

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lbegin
CBZ R2 , lend ; Terminate loop if counter is zero
ADD R0 , R1 ; Build the sum
ADD R1 , #2 ; Generate next even number
SUB R2 , #1 ; Decrement the counter
B lbegin
lend
END

Listing 7: Complete assembly program calculating the sum of the first

five even numbers.

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Multiplication Assembly Code

; This ARM Assembly language program multiplies two

; positive numbers by repeated addition .

THUMB ; Marks the THUMB mode of operation

StackSize EQU 0 x00000100 ; Define stack size to be 256 byes

; Allocate space for the stack .

AREA STACK , NOINIT , READWRITE , ALIGN =3
StackMem SPACE StackSize

; Initialize the two entries of vector table

AREA RESET , DATA , READONLY
EXPORT __Vectors
__Vectors
DCD StackMem + StackSize ; SP value when stack is empty
DCD Reset_Handler ; reset vector
ALIGN

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; Data Variables are declared in DATA AREA

AREA ROMdata , DATA , READONLY
X DCD 10
Y DCD 3

AREA RAMdata , DATA , READWRITE

PRODUCT DCD 0 ; accumulates product of X and Y

; The user code ( program ) is placed in CODE AREA

AREA |. text |, CODE , READONLY , ALIGN =2
ENTRY ; ENTRY marks the starting point
; of the code execution
EXPORT Reset_Handler

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Reset_Handler ; User Code Starts from next line

LDR R0 , =X ; load the address of X in R0
LDR R1 , =Y ; load the address of Y in R1
LDR R2 , = PRODUCT ; load the address of PRODUCT in R2

LDR R3 , [ R0 ] ; load the value of X in R3

LDR R4 , [ R1 ] ; load the value of Y in R4
LDR R5 , [ R2 ] ; load the value of PRODUCT in R5

Lbegin
CBZ R4 , Lend
ADD R5 , R3
SUB R4 , #1
B Lbegin
Lend
STR R5 , [ R2 ] ; store the product back to PRODUCT
ALIGN
END ; End of program , matched with ENTRY

Listing 8: Assembly program example for multiplication.

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Instruction Encoding

Instruction encoding is the process of assigning a unique binary

codeword to each assembly instruction. One of the main jobs of an
assembler is to translate each assembly instruction to an equivalent
codeword.
Two type of encodings are discussed:
• 16-bit Instruction Encoding
• 32-bit Instruction Encoding

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Instruction Encoding Dependency

Operand 1 Operand 2 Encoding

Register R0 to R7 Register R0 to R7 16 bit
Register R0 to R7 Immediate value is limited to 3-bit (for 16 bit
different) or 8/12-bit (for same) source-
destination registers
Register R8 to R12 Register R0 to R7 32 bit
Register R0 to R7 Register R8 to R12 32 bit
Register R0 to R7 Immediate value exceeds 3-bit or 8/12-bit 32 bit

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16-bit vs 32-bit Instruction Encoding

ADDS Rd,Rs1, Rs

ADDS R6 , R5 , R3 ; R6 = R5 + R3 , Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

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16-bit vs 32-bit Instruction Encoding

ADDS Rd,Rs1, Rs

ADDS R6 , R5 , R3 ; R6 = R5 + R3 , Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

ADDS R6 , R5 , R9 ; R6 = R5 + R9 , Instruction is 32 - bit encoded

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ADDS Rd,Rs, imm

ADDS R4 , R2 , #6 ; R4 = R2 + 6, Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

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ADDS Rd,Rs, imm

ADDS R4 , R2 , #6 ; R4 = R2 + 6, Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

ADDS R4 , R2 , #14 ; R4 = R2 + 14 , Instruction is 32 - bit encoded

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ADD Rds, imm

ADDS R2 , #16 ; R2 = R2 + 16 , Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

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ADD Rds, imm

ADDS R2 , #16 ; R2 = R2 + 16 , Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

ADDS R2 , #356 ; R2 = R2 + 356 , Instruction is 32 - bit encoded

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ADD Rds, imm

ADDS R2 , #16 ; R2 = R2 + 16 , Instruction is 16 - bit encoded

ADDS R2 , #356 ; R2 = R2 + 356 , Instruction is 32 - bit encoded

ADDW R2 , #356 ; R2 = R2 + 356 , Instruction is 32 - bit encoded

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12-bit immediate value for ADD{S}

• For values which can be encoded in 8 bits, the 12-bit

immediate is just zero-extended immediate value i.e.
For imm=0-255 ⇒ imm12= 0000imm
• For values greater than 255, the 12-bit immediate is modified
as Thumb expanded Immediate value.

In binary 356 is 000101100100

Modified 12-bit immediate value is 111110110010

See article 5.1.2 of text book and Articles 3.3.1 and 4.2 of ARM
Architecture Reference Manual Thumb-2 Supplement

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Visualizing Instruction Encoding

Figure: Illustration of instruction encoding.

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32-Instruction Encoding: Thumb2 vs RISC-V

32-bit Thumb2 ADD Instruction for immediate and register
operands

32-bit RISC-V ADD Instruction for immediate and register operands

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