SYSTEM PROGRAMMING UNIT 2

ASSEMBLERS

Assembler Design
Assembler is system software which is used to convert an assembly language program to its Equivalent
object code. The input to the assembler is a source code written in assembly language (using mnemonics)
and the output is the object code. The design of an assembler depends upon the machine architecture as
the language used is mnemonic language.

Basic Assembler Functions:

The basic assembler functions are:
• Translating mnemonic language code to its equivalent object code.
• Assigning machine addresses to symbolic labels.

• The design of assembler can be to perform the following:

➢ Scanning (tokenizing)
➢ Parsing (validating the instructions)
➢ Creating the symbol table
➢ Resolving the forward references
➢ Converting into the machine language
• The design of assembler in other words:
➢ Convert mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equivalents
➢ Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine addresses
➢ Decide the proper instruction format Convert the data constants to internal machine
representations
➢ Write the object program and the assembly listing

So, for the design of the assembler we need to concentrate on the machine architecture of the
SIC/XE machine. We need to identify the algorithms and the various data structures to be used. According
to the above required steps for assembling the assembler also has to handle assembler directives, these do
not generate the object code but directs the assembler to perform certain operation. These directives are:
SIC Assembler Directive:
➢ START: Specify name & starting address.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

➢ END: End of the program, specify the first execution instruction.

➢ BYTE, WORD, RESB, RESW
➢ End of record: a null char (00)
➢ End of file: a zero-length record

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The assembler design can be done:

• Single pass assembler • Multi-pass assembler

Single-pass Assembler:

In this case the whole process of scanning, parsing, and object code conversion is done in single
pass. The only problem with this method is resolving forward reference. This is shown with an example
below:
10 1000 FIRST STL RETADR 141033
--
--
--
--
95 1033 RETADR RESW 1

In the above example in line number 10 the instruction STL will store the linkage register with the contents
of RETADR. But during the processing of this instruction the value of this symbol is not known as it is
defined at the line number 95. Since single-pass assembler the scanning, parsing and object code
conversion happens simultaneously. The instruction is fetched; it is scanned for tokens, parsed for syntax
and semantic validity. If its valid then it has to be converted to its equivalent object code. For this the
object code is generated for the opcode STL and the value for the symbol RETADR need to be added,
which is not available. Due to this reason usually the design is done in two passes. So a multi-pass
assembler resolves the forward references and then converts into the object code. Hence the process of the
multi-pass assembler can be as follows:

Pass-1
• Assign addresses to all the statements
• Save the addresses assigned to all labels to be used in Pass-2
• Perform some processing of assembler directives such as RESW, RESB to find
the length of data areas for assigning the address values.
• Defines the symbols in the symbol table (generate the symbol table)
Pass-2
• Assemble the instructions (translating operation codes and looking up addresses).
• Generate data values defined by BYTE, WORD etc.
• Perform the processing of the assembler directives not done during pass-1.
• Write the object program and assembler listing.

Assembler Design:
The most important things which need to be concentrated is the generation of Symbol table and
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

resolving forward references.

Symbol Table:
➢ This is created during pass 1
➢ All the labels of the instructions are symbols
➢ Table has entry for symbol name, address value.

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Forward reference:
➢ Symbols that are defined in the later part of the program are called forward referencing.
➢ There will not be any address value for such symbols in the symbol table in pass1.

Example Program:
The example program considered here has a main module, two subroutines
• Purpose of example program
➢ 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

• 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 (00)16
➢ The end of the file is indicated by a zero-length record

• Subroutines (JSUB, RSUB)

➢ RDREC, WRREC
➢ Save link register first before nested jump

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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The first column shows the line number for that instruction, second column shows the addresses
allocated to each instruction. The third column indicates the labels given to the statement, and is followed
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

by the instruction consisting of opcode and operand. The last column gives the equivalent object code.

The object code later will be loaded into memory for execution. The simple object program we use
contains three types of records:

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• Header record
➢ Col. 1 H
➢ Col. 2~7 Program name
➢ Col. 8~13 Starting address of object program (hex)
➢ Col. 14~19 Length of object program in bytes (hex)

• Text record
➢ Col. 1 T
➢ Col. 2~7 Starting address for object code in this record (hex)
➢ Col. 8~9 Length of object code in this record in bytes (hex)
➢ Col. 10~69 Object code, represented in hex (2 col. per byte)

• End record
➢ Col.1 E
➢ Col.2~7 Address of first executable instruction in object program (hex) “^” is only for
separation only

Object code for the example program:

Simple SIC Assembler: The program below is shown with the object code generated. The
column named LOC gives the machine addresses of each part of the assembled program (assuming the
program is starting at location 1000). The translation of the source program to the object program requires
us to accomplish the following functions:
1. Convert the mnemonic operation codes to their machine language equivalent.
2. Convert symbolic operands to their equivalent machine addresses.
3. Build the machine instructions in the proper format.
4. Convert the data constants specified in the source program into their internal machine
representations in the proper format.
5. Write the object program and assembly listing.

All these steps except the second can be performed by sequential processing of the source program,
one line at a time. Consider the instruction

10 1000 LDA ALPHA 00-----

This instruction contains the forward reference, i.e. the symbol ALPHA is used is not yet defined.
If the program is processed (scanning and parsing and object code conversion) is done line-by-line, we
will be unable to resolve the address of this symbol. Due to this problem most of the assemblers are
designed to process the program in two passes.
In addition to the translation to object program, the assembler has to take care of handling
assembler directive. These directives do not have object conversion but gives direction to the assembler
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

to perform some function. Examples of directives are the statements like BYTE and WORD, which directs
the assembler to reserve memory locations without generating data values. The other directives are
START which indicates the beginning of the program and END indicating the end of the program.
The assembled program will be loaded into memory for execution. The simple object program
contains three types of records: Header record, Text record and end record. The header record contains
the starting address and length. Text record contains the translated instructions and data of the program,

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together with an indication of the addresses where these are to be loaded. The end record marks the end
of the object program and specifies the address where the execution is to begin.

Algorithms and Data structure

The simple assembler uses two major internal data structures: the operation Code
Table (OPTAB) and the Symbol Table (SYMTAB).

OPTAB:

It is used to lookup mnemonic operation codes and translates them to their machine language
equivalents. In more complex assemblers the table also contains information about instruction format and
length. In pass 1 the OPTAB is used to look up and validate the operation code in the source program. In
pass 2, it is used to translate the operation codes to machine language. In simple SIC machine this process
can be performed in either in pass 1 or in pass 2. But for machine like SIC/XE that has instructions of
different lengths, we must search OPTAB in the first pass to find the instruction length for incrementing
LOCCTR. In pass 2 we take the information from OPTAB to tell us which instruction format to use in
assembling the instruction, and any peculiarities of the object code instruction.
OPTAB is usually organized as a hash table, with mnemonic operation code as the key. The hash
table organization is particularly appropriate, since it provides fast retrieval with a minimum of searching.
Most of the cases the OPTAB is a static table that is, entries are not normally added to or deleted from it.
In such cases it is possible to design a special hashing function or other data structure to give optimum
performance for the particular set of keys being stored.

SYMTAB:

This table includes the name and value for each label in the source program, together with flags to
indicate the error conditions (e.g., if a symbol is defined in two different places).

During Pass 1: labels are entered into the symbol table along with their assigned address value as they are
encountered. All the symbols address value should get resolved at the pass 1.

During Pass 2: Symbols used as operands are looked up the symbol table to obtain the address value to
be inserted in the assembled instructions.

SYMTAB is usually organized as a hash table for efficiency of insertion and retrieval.
Since entries are rarely deleted, efficiency of deletion is the important criteria for optimization.
Both pass 1 and pass 2 require reading the source program. Apart from this an intermediate file is created
by pass 1 that contains each source statement together with its assigned address, error indicators, etc. This
file is one of the inputs to the pass 2. A copy of the source program is also an input to the pass 2, which is
used to retain the operations that may be performed during pass 1 (such as scanning the operation field for
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

symbols and addressing flags), so that these need not be performed during pass 2. Similarly, pointers into
OPTAB and SYMTAB is retained for each operation code and symbol used. This avoids need to repeat
many of the table-searching operations.

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LOCCTR:

Apart from the SYMTAB and OPTAB, this is another important variable which helps in the
assignment of the addresses. LOCCTR is initialized to the beginning address mentioned in the START
statement of the program. After each statement is processed, the length of the assembled instruction is
added to the LOCCTR to make it point to the next instruction. Whenever a label is encountered in an
instruction the LOCCTR value gives the address to be associated with that label.

The Algorithm for Pass 1:

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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The algorithm scans the first statement START and saves the operand field (the address) as the starting
address of the program. Initializes the LOCCTR value to this address. This line is written to the
intermediate line. If no operand is mentioned the LOCCTR is initialized to zero. If a label is encountered,
the symbol has to be entered in the symbol table along with its associated address value. If the symbol
already exists that indicates an entry of the same symbol already exists. So, an error flag is set indicating
a duplication of the symbol. It next checks for the mnemonic code, it searches for this code in the OPTAB.
If found then the length of the instruction is added to the LOCCTR to make it point to the next instruction.
If the opcode is the directive WORD it adds a value 3 to the LOCCTR. If it is RESW, it needs to add the
number of data word to the LOCCTR. If it is BYTE it adds a value one to the LOCCTR, if RESB it adds
number of bytes. If it is END
directive then it is the end of the program it finds the length of the program by evaluating current LOCCTR
– the starting address mentioned in the operand field of the END directive. Each processed line is written
to the intermediate file.

The Algorithm for Pass 2:

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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Here the first input line is read from the intermediate file. If the opcode is START, then this line is directly
written to the list file. A header record is written in the object program which gives the starting address
and the length of the program (which is calculated during pass 1). Then the first text record is initialized.
Comment lines are ignored. In the instruction, for the opcode the OPTAB is searched to find the object
code. If a symbol is there in the operand field, the symbol table is searched to get the address value for
this which gets added to the object code of the opcode. If the address not found then zero value is stored
as operands address. An error flag is set indicating it as undefined. If symbol itself is not found then store
0 as operand address and the object code instruction is assembled.
If the opcode is BYTE or WORD, then the constant value is converted to its equivalent object code
(for example, for character EOF, its equivalent hexadecimal value ‘454f46’ is stored). If the object code
cannot fit into the current text record, a new text record is created and the rest of the instructions object
code is listed. The text records are written to the object program. Once the whole program is assembled
and when the END directive is encountered, the End record is written.

Design and Implementation Issues

Some of the features in the program depend on the architecture of the machine. If the program is
for SIC machine, then we have only limited instruction formats and hence limited addressing modes. We
have only single operand instructions. The operand is always a memory reference. Anything to be fetched
from memory requires more time. Hence the improved version of SIC/XE machine provides more
instruction formats and hence more addressing modes. The moment we change the machine architecture
the availability of number of instruction formats and the addressing modes changes. Therefore, the design
usually requires considering two things: Machine-dependent features and Machine-independent
features.

Machine-Dependent Features:
➢ Instruction formats and addressing modes
➢ Program relocation

Instruction formats and Addressing Modes

The instruction formats depend on the memory organization and the size of the memory. In SIC
machine the memory is byte addressable. Word size is 3 bytes. So, the size of the memory is 212 bytes.
Accordingly, it supports only one instruction format. It has only two registers: register A and Index
register. Therefore, the addressing modes supported by this architecture are direct, indirect, and indexed.
Whereas the memory of a SIC/XE machine is 220 bytes (1 MB). This supports four different types of
instruction types, they are:
• 1-byte instruction
• 2-byte instruction
• 3-byte instruction
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

• 4-byte instruction
Instructions can be:
➢ Instructions involving register to register
➢ Instructions with one operand in memory, the other in Accumulator (Single operand instruction)
➢ Extended instruction format

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Addressing Modes are:

➢ Index Addressing (SIC): Opcode m, x
➢ Indirect Addressing: Opcode @m
➢ PC-relative: Opcode m
➢ Base relative: Opcode m
➢ Immediate addressing: Opcode #c

1. Translations for the Instruction involving Register-Register addressing mode:

During pass 1 the registers can be entered as part of the symbol table itself. The value for these registers
is their equivalent numeric codes. During pass 2, these values are assembled along with the mnemonics
object code. If required a separate table can be created with the register names and their equivalent numeric
values.

2. Translation involving Register-Memory instructions:

In SIC/XE machine there are four instruction formats and five addressing modes. For formats and
addressing modes refer chapter 1.
Among the instruction formats, format -3 and format-4 instructions are Register- Memory type of
instruction. One of the operands is always in a register and the other operand is in the memory. The
addressing mode tells us the way in which the operand from the memory is to be fetched.
There are two ways:
Program-counter relative and Base-relative.
This addressing mode can be represented by either using format-3 type or format-4 type of instruction
format. In format-3, the instruction has the opcode followed by a 12-bit displacement
value in the address field. Where as in format-4 the instruction contains the mnemonic code followed by
a 20-bit displacement value in the address field.

Program-Counter Relative: In this usually format-3 instruction format is used. The instruction contains
the opcode followed by a 12-bit displacement value. The range of displacement values are from 0 -2048.
This displacement (should be small enough to fit in a 12-bit field) value is added to the current contents
of the program counter to get the target address of the operand required by the instruction. This is relative
way of calculating the address of the operand relative to the program counter. Hence the displacement of
the operand is relative to the current program counter value. The following example shows how the
address is calculated:

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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Base-Relative Addressing Mode: in this mode the base register is used to mention the displacement
value. Therefore, the target address is TA = (base) + displacement value This addressing mode is used
when the range of displacement value is not sufficient. Hence the operand is not relative to the instruction
as in PC-relative addressing mode. Whenever this mode is used it is indicated by using a directive BASE.
The moment the assembler encounters this directive the next instruction uses base-relative addressing
mode to calculate the target address of the operand.
When NOBASE directive is used then it indicates the base register is no more used to
calculate the target address of the operand. Assembler first chooses PC-relative, when the displacement
field is not enough it uses Base-relative.

LDB #LENGTH (instruction)

BASE LENGTH (directive)
:
NOBASE
For example:
12 0003 LDB #LENGTH 69202D
13 BASE LENGTH
::
100 0033 LENGTH RESW 1
105 0036 BUFFER RESB 4096
::
160 104E STCH BUFFER, X 57C003
165 1051 TIXR T B850

In the above example the use of directive BASE indicates that Base-relative addressing mode is to
be used to calculate the target address. PC-relative is no longer used. The value of the LENGTH is stored
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

in the base register. If PC-relative is used then the target address calculated is:
The LDB instruction loads the value of length in the base register which 0033. BASE
directive explicitly tells the assembler that it has the value of LENGTH.
BUFFER is at location (0036)16
(B) = (0033)16
disp = 0036 – 0033 = (0003)16

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20 000A LDA LENGTH 032026

::
175 1056 EXIT STX LENGTH 134000
Consider Line 175. If we use PC-relative
Disp = TA – (PC) = 0033 –1059 = EFDA
PC relative is no longer applicable, so we try to use BASE relative addressing mode.

Immediate Addressing Mode:In this mode no memory reference is involved. If immediate mode is used
the target address is the operand itself.

If the symbol is referred in the instruction as the immediate operand then it is immediate with PC-relative
mode as shown in the example below:

Indirect and PC-relative mode: In this type of instruction the symbol used in the instruction is the
address of the location which contains the address of the operand. The address of this is found using PC-
relative addressing mode.
For example: Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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The instruction jumps the control to the address location RETADR which in turn has the
address of the operand. If address of RETADR is 0030, the target address is then 0003 as calculated above.

Program Relocation

Sometimes it is required to load and run several programs at the same time. The system must be able to
load these programs wherever there is place in the memory. Therefore, the exact starting is not known
until the load time.
Absolute Program: In this the address is mentioned during assembling itself. This is called Absolute
Assembly.
Consider the instruction:
55 101B LDA THREE 00102D
This statement says that the register A is loaded with the value stored at location 102D. Suppose
it is decided to load and execute the program at location 2000 instead of location 1000. Then at address
102D the required value which needs to be loaded in the register A is no more available. The address also
gets changed relative to the displacement of the program. Hence, we need to make some changes in the
address portion of the instruction so that we can load and execute the program at location 2000.
Apart from the instruction which will undergo a change in their operand address value as
the program load address changes. There exist some parts in the program which will remain same
regardless of where the program is being loaded. Since assembler will not know actual location where the
program will get loaded, it cannot make the necessary changes in the addresses used in the program.
However, the assembler identifies for the loader those parts of the program which need modification. An
object program that has the information necessary to perform this kind of modification is called the
relocatable program.

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

The above diagram shows the concept of relocation. Initially the program is loaded at
location 0000. The instruction JSUB is loaded at location 0006. The address field of this instruction
contains 01036, which is the address of the instruction labeled RDREC. The second figure shows that if
the program is to be loaded at new location 5000. The address of the instruction JSUB gets modified to
new location 6036. Likewise, the third figure shows that if the program is relocated at location 7420, the

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JSUB instruction would need to be changed to 4B108456 that correspond to the new address of RDREC.
The only part of the program that require modification at load time are those that specify direct addresses.
The rest of the instructions need not be modified. The instructions which doesn’t require modification are
the ones that is not a memory address (immediate addressing) and PC-relative, Base-relative instructions.
From the object program, it is not possible to distinguish the address and constant the assembler must keep
some information to tell the loader. The object program that contains the modification record is called a
relocatable program.
For an address label, its address is assigned relative to the start of the program (START 0). The assembler
produces a Modification record to store the starting location and the length of the address field to be
modified. The command for the loader must also be a part of the object program. The Modification has
the following format:

Modification record
Col. 1 M
Col. 2-7 Starting location of the address field to be modified, relative to the
beginning of the program (Hex)
Col. 8-9 Length of the address field to be modified, in half-bytes (Hex)

One modification record is created for each address to be modified the length is stored
in half-bytes (4 bits) The starting location is the location of the byte containing the
leftmost bits of the address field to be modified. If the field contains an odd number of
half-bytes, the starting location begins in the middle of the first byte.

In the above object code, the red boxes indicate the addresses that need modifications.
The object code lines at the end are the descriptions of the modification records for those instructions
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

which need change if relocation occurs. M00000705 is the modification suggested for the statement at
location 0007 and requires modification 5-half bytes. Similarly, the remaining instructions indicate.

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Machine-Independent features:

These are the features which do not depend on the architecture of the machine. These
are:
▪ Literals
▪ Expressions
▪ Program blocks
▪ Control sections

Literals: A literal is defined with a prefix = followed by a specification of the literal value.
Example:
45 001A ENDFIL LDA =C’EOF’ 032010
-
-
93 LTORG
002D * =C’EOF’ 454F46

The example above shows a 3-byte operand whose value is a character string EOF. The object
code for the instruction is also mentioned. It shows the relative displacement value of the location where
this value is stored. In the example the value is at location (002D) and hence the displacement value is
(010). As another example the given statement below shows a 1-byte literal with the hexadecimal value
‘05’.

215 1062 WLOOP TD =X’05’ E32011

It is important to understand the difference between a constant defined as a literal and a constant
defined as an immediate operand. In case of literals the assembler generates the specified value as a
constant at some other memory location In immediate mode the operand value is assembled as part of the
instruction itself.
Example
55 0020 LDA #03 010003

All the literal operands used in a program are gathered together into one or more literal pools. This
is usually placed at the end of the program. The assembly listing of a program containing literals usually
includes a listing of this literal pool, which shows the assigned addresses and the generated data values.
In some cases, it is placed at some other location in the object program. An assembler directive LTORG
is used. Whenever the LTORG is encountered, it creates a literal pool that contains all the literal operands
used since the beginning of the program. The literal pool definition is done after LTORG is encountered.
It is better to place the literals close to the instructions.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

A literal table is created for the literals which are used in the program. The literal table contains
the literal name, operand value and length. The literal table is usually created as a hash table on the literal
name.

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Implementation of Literals:

During Pass-1:
The literal encountered is searched in the literal table. If the literal already exists, no action is taken; if it
is not present, the literal is added to the LITTAB and for the address value it waits till it encounters
LTORG for literal definition. When Pass 1 encounters a LTORG statement or the end of the program, the
assembler makes a scan of the literal table. At this time each literal currently in the table is assigned an
address. As addresses are assigned, the location counter is updated to reflect the number of bytes occupied
by each literal.

During Pass-2:
The assembler searches the LITTAB for each literal encountered in the instruction and replaces it with its
equivalent value as if these values are generated by BYTE or WORD. If a literal represents an address in
the program, the assembler must generate a modification relocation for, if it all it gets affected due to
relocation. The following figure shows the difference between the SYMTAB and LITTAB.

Symbol-Defining Statements:

EQU Statement: Most assemblers provide an assembler directive that allows the programmer to
define symbols and specify their values. The directive used for this EQU (Equate). The general form of
the statement is

Symbol EQU value

This statement defines the given symbol (i.e., entering in the SYMTAB) and assigning to
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

it the value specified. The value can be a constant or an expression involving constants and any other
symbol which is already defined. One common usage is to define symbolic names that can be used to
improve readability in place of numeric values.
For example
+LDT #4096

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This loads the register T with immediate value 4096, this does not clearly what exactly this value
indicates. If a statement is included as:

MAXLEN EQU 4096

and then
+LDT #MAXLEN

Then it clearly indicates that the value of MAXLEN is some maximum length value. When the
assembler encounters EQU statement, it enters the symbol MAXLEN along with its value in the symbol
table. During LDT the assembler searches the SYMTAB for its entry and its equivalent value as the
operand in the instruction. The object code generated is the same for both the options discussed, but is
easier to understand. If the maximum length is changed from 4096 to 1024, it is difficult to change if it is
mentioned as an immediate value wherever required in the instructions. We have to scan the whole
program and make changes wherever 4096 is used. If we mention this value in the instruction through the
symbol defined by EQU, we may not have to search the whole program but change only the value of
MAXLENGTH in the EQU statement
(only once).
Another common usage of EQU statement is for defining values for the general purpose registers. The
assembler can use the mnemonics for register usage like a-register A , X – index register and so on. But
there are some instructions which requires numbers in place of names in the instructions. For example in
the instruction RMO 0,1 instead of RMO A,X. The programmer can assign the numerical values to these
registers using EQU directive.
A EQU 0
X EQU 1 and so on
These statements will cause the symbols A, X, L… to be entered into the symbol table with their
respective values. An instruction RMO A, X would then be allowed. As another usage if in a machine that
has many general purpose registers named as R1, R2,, some may be used as base register, some may be
used as accumulator. Their usage may change from one program to another. In this case we can define
these requirements using EQU statements.
BASE EQU R1
INDEX EQU R2
COUNT EQU R3
One restriction with the usage of EQU is whatever symbol occurs in the right-hand side of the EQU should
be predefined. For example, the following statement is not valid:

BETA EQU ALPHA

ALPHA RESW 1
As the symbol ALPHA is assigned to BETA before it is defined. The value of ALPHA is not known.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

ORG Statement:
This directive can be used to indirectly assign values to the symbols. The directive is usually called ORG
(for origin).
Its general format is: ORG value
Where value is a constant or an expression involving constants and previously defined

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symbols. When this statement is encountered during assembly of a program, the assembler resets its
location counter (LOCCTR) to the specified value. Since the values of symbols used as labels are taken
from LOCCTR, the ORG statement will affect the values of all labels defined until the next ORG is
encountered. ORG is used to control assignment storage in the object program. Sometimes altering the
values may result in incorrect assembly.
ORG can be useful in label definition. Suppose we need to define a symbol table with the following
structure:
SYMBOL 6 Bytes
VALUE 3 Bytes
FLAG 2 Bytes
The table looks like the one given below.

The symbol field contains a 6-byte user-defined symbol; VALUE is a one-word representation of the
value assigned to the symbol; FLAG is a 2-byte field specifies symbol type and other information. The
space for the table can be reserved by the statement:
STAB RESB 1100
If we want to refer to the entries of the table using indexed addressing, place the offset value of the desired
entry from the beginning of the table in the index register. To refer to the fields SYMBOL, VALUE, and
FLAGS individually, we need to assign the values first as shown below:
SYMBOL EQU STAB
VALUE EQU STAB+6
FLAGS EQU STAB+9
To retrieve the VALUE field from the table indicated by register X, we can write a statement:
LDA VALUE, X

The same thing can also be done using ORG statement in the following way:
STAB RESB 1100
ORG STAB
SYMBOL RESB 6
VALUE RESW 1
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

FLAG RESB 2
ORG STAB+1100

The first statement allocates 1100 bytes of memory assigned to label STAB. In the second
statement the ORG statement initializes the location counter to the value of STAB. Now the LOCCTR
points to STAB. The next three lines assign appropriate memory storage to each of SYMBOL, VALUE
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and FLAG symbols. The last ORG statement reinitializes the LOCCTR to a new value after skipping the
required number of memory for the table STAB (i.e., STAB+1100).
While using ORG, the symbol occurring in the statement should be predefined as is required in EQU
statement. For example, for the sequence of statements below:
ORG ALPHA
BYTE1 RESB 1
BYTE2 RESB 1
BYTE3 RESB 1
ORG
ALPHA RESB 1
The sequence could not be processed as the symbol used to assign the new location counter value is not
defined. In first pass, as the assembler would not know what value to assign to ALPHA, the other symbol
in the next lines also could not be defined in the symbol table. This is a kind of problem of the forward
reference.

Expressions:
Assemblers also allow use of expressions in place of operands in the instruction. Each such expression
must be evaluated to generate a single operand value or address. Assemblers generally arithmetic
expressions formed according to the normal rules using arithmetic operators +, - *, /. Division is usually
defined to produce an integer result. Individual terms may be constants, user-defined symbols, or special
terms. The only special term used is * (the current value of location counter) which indicates the value of
the next unassigned memory location. Thus, the statement
BUFFEND EQU *
Assigns a value to BUFFEND, which is the address of the next byte following the buffer area. Some
values in the object program are relative to the beginning of the program and some are absolute
(independent of the program location, like constants). Hence, expressions are classified as either absolute
expression or relative expressions depending on the type of value they produce.

Absolute Expressions: The expression that uses only absolute terms is absolute expression. Absolute
expression may contain relative term provided the relative terms occur in pairs with opposite signs for
each pair.
Example: MAXLEN EQU BUFEND-BUFFER
In the above instruction the difference in the expression gives a value that does not depend on the location
of the program and hence gives an absolute immaterial of the relocation of the program. The expression
can have only absolute terms.
Example: MAXLEN EQU 1000

Relative Expressions: All the relative terms except one can be paired as described in “absolute”. The
remaining unpaired relative term must have a positive sign.
Example: STAB EQU OPTAB + (BUFEND – BUFFER)
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

Handling the type of expressions: to find the type of expression, we must keep track the type of symbols
used. This can be achieved by defining the type in the symbol table against each of the symbol as shown
in the table below:

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Program Blocks: Program blocks allow the generated machine instructions and data to appear in the
object program in a different order by Separating blocks for storing code, data, stack, and
larger data block.

Assembler Directive USE:

General form: USE [block name]
At the beginning, statements are assumed to be part of the unnamed (default) block. If no USE statements
are included, the entire program belongs to this single block. Each program block may actually contain
several separate segments of the source program. Assemblers rearrange these segments to gather together
the pieces of each block and assign address. Separate the program into blocks in a particular order. Large
buffer area is moved to the end of the object program. Program readability is better if data areas are placed
in the source program close to the statements that reference them.
In the example below three blocks are used:
➢ Default: executable instructions
➢ CDATA: all data areas that are less in length
➢ CBLKS: all data areas that consists of larger blocks of memory

Example Code

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

Arranging code into program blocks:

Pass 1
• A separate location counter for each program block is maintained.
• Save and restore LOCCTR when switching between blocks.

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• At the beginning of a block, LOCCTR is set to 0.

• Assign each label an address relative to the start of the block.
• Store the block name or number in the SYMTAB along with the assigned relative
address of the label
• Indicate the block length as the latest value of LOCCTR for each block at the end
of Pass1
• Assign to each block a starting address in the object program by concatenating the
program blocks in a particular order

Pass 2
• Calculate the address for each symbol relative to the start of the object program
by adding
➢ The location of the symbol relative to the start of its block
➢ The starting address of this block

Control Sections: A control section is a part of the program that maintains its identity after assembly;
each control section can be loaded and relocated independently of the others. Different control sections
are most often used for subroutines or other logical subdivisions. The programmer can assemble, load,
and manipulate each of these control sections separately. Because of this, there should be some means for
linking control sections together. For example, instructions in one control section may refer to the data or
instructions of other control sections. Since control sections are independently loaded and relocated, the
assembler is unable to process these references in the usual way. Such references between different control
sections are called external references.
The assembler generates the information about each of the external references that will allow the
loader to perform the required linking. When a program is written using multiple control sections, the
beginning of each of the control section is indicated by an assembler directive
– assembler directive: CSECT
The syntax
Secname CSECT
– separate location counter for each control section
Control sections differ from program blocks in that they are handled separately by the
assembler. Symbols that are defined in one control section may not be used directly another control
section; they must be identified as external reference for the loader to handle. The external references are
indicated by two assembler directives:

EXTDEF (external Definition): It is the statement in a control section, names symbols that are defined in
this section but may be used by other control sections. Control section names do not need to be named in
the EXTREF as they are automatically considered as external symbols.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

EXTREF (external Reference): It names symbols that are used in this section but are defined in some other
control section. The order in which these symbols are listed is not significant. The assembler must include
proper information about the external references in the object program that will cause the loader to insert
the proper value where they are required.

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Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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The assembler must also include information in the object program that will cause the
loader to insert the proper value where they are required. The assembler maintains two
new record in the object code and a changed version of modification record.

Define record (EXTDEF)

➢ Col. 1 D
➢ Col. 2-7 Name of external symbol defined in this control section
➢ Col. 8-13 Relative address within this control section (hexadecimal)
➢ Col.14-73 Repeat information in Col. 2-13 for other external symbols
Refer record (EXTREF)
➢ Col. 1 R
➢ Col. 2-7 Name of external symbol referred to in this control section
➢ Col. 8-73 Name of other external reference symbols

Modification record
➢ Col. 1 M
➢ Col. 2-7 Starting address of the field to be modified (hexadecimal)
➢ Col. 8-9 Length of the field to be modified, in half-bytes (hexadecimal)
➢ Col.11-16 External symbol whose value is to be added to or subtracted from the indicated field

A define record gives information about the external symbols that are defined in this control
section, i.e., symbols named by EXTDEF.
A refer record lists the symbols that are used as external references by the control section,
i.e., symbols named by EXTREF.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

The new items in the modification record specify the modification to be performed: adding or subtracting
the value of some external symbol. The symbol used for modification may be defined either in this control
section or in another section.

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The object program is shown below. There is a separate object program for each of the control
sections. In the Define Record and refer record the symbols named in EXTDEF and EXTREF are
included.
In the case of Define, the record also indicates the relative address of each external symbol within
the control section.
For EXTREF symbols, no address information is available. These symbols are simply named in
the Refer record.

ASSEMBLER DESIGN
Here we are discussing
❖ The structure and logic of one-pass assembler. These assemblers are used when it is necessary or
desirable to avoid a second pass over the source program.
❖ Notion of a multi-pass assembler, an extension of two-pass assembler that allows an assembler to
handle forward references during symbol definition.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

One-Pass Assembler
The main problem in designing the assembler using single pass was to resolve forward references. We can
avoid to some extent the forward references by:
➢ Eliminating forward reference to data items, by defining all the storage reservation statements at
the beginning of the program rather at the end.
➢ Unfortunately, forward reference to labels on the instructions cannot be avoided.

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(forward jumping).
➢ To provide some provision for handling forward references by prohibiting forward references to
data items.

There are two types of one-pass assemblers:

➢ One that produces object code directly in memory for immediate execution (Load-and-go
assemblers).
➢ The other type produces the usual kind of object code for later execution.

Load-and-Go Assembler
➢ Load-and-go assembler generates their object code in memory for immediate execution.
➢ No object program is written out, no loader is needed.
➢ It is useful in a system with frequent program development and testing
✓ The efficiency of the assembly process is an important consideration.
➢ Programs are re-assembled nearly every time they are run; efficiency of the assembly process is
an important consideration.

Forward Reference in One-Pass Assemblers: In load-and-Go assemblers when a forward reference is

encountered:
➢ Omits the operand address if the symbol has not yet been defined
➢ Enters this undefined symbol into SYMTAB and indicates that it is undefined
➢ Adds the address of this operand address to a list of forward references associated with the
SYMTAB entry
➢ When the definition for the symbol is encountered, scans the reference list and inserts the address.
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

➢ At the end of the program, reports the error if there are still SYMTAB entries indicated undefined
symbols.
➢ For Load-and-Go assembler
✓ Search SYMTAB for the symbol named in the END statement and jumps
to this location to begin execution if there is no error

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After Scanning line 40 of the program:

40 2021 J` CLOOP 302012

The status is that upto this point the symbol RDREC is referred once at location 2013, ENDFIL at
201F and WRREC at location 201C. None of these symbols are defined. The figure shows that how the
pending definitions along with their addresses are included in the symbol table.

The status after scanning line 160, which has encountered the definition of RDREC
and ENDFIL is as given below:

If One-Pass needs to generate object code:

• If the operand contains an undefined symbol, use 0 as the address and write the Text record to the
Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

object program.
• Forward references are entered into lists as in the load-and-go assembler.
• When the definition of a symbol is encountered, the assembler generates another Text record with the
correct operand address of each entry in the reference list.
• When loaded, the incorrect address 0 will be updated by the latter Text record containing the symbol
definition.
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Object Code Generated by One-Pass Assembler:

Multi_Pass Assembler:
• For a two-pass assembler, forward references in symbol definition are not allowed:
ALPHA EQU BETA
BETA EQU DELTA
DELTA RESW 1
Symbol definition must be completed in pass 1.
• Prohibiting forward references in symbol definition is not a serious inconvenience.
Forward references tend to create difficulty for a person reading the program.

Implementation Issues for Modified Two-Pass Assembler:

Implementation Issues when forward referencing is encountered in Symbol Defining
statements:
• For a forward reference in symbol definition, we store in the SYMTAB:
➢ The symbol names
➢ The defining expression
➢ The number of undefined symbols in the defining expression
• The undefined symbol (marked with a flag *) associated with a list of symbols depend on this
undefined symbol.
• When a symbol is defined, we can recursively evaluate the symbol expressions depending on the
newly defined symbol.

Multi-Pass Assembler Example Program

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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Multi-Pass Assembler (Figure 2.21 of Beck): Example for forward reference in

Symbol Defining Statements:

Chapter: ASSEMBLERS

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