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Assembler - Design - Options

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4K views9 pages

Assembler - Design - Options

Uploaded by

xavierites69
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Assembler Design Options

Faculty: SREEDIVYA I
Subject: System Programming
One pass assembler
• Only one pass
• It involves forward references.
• One method to reduce forward reference problem is to define the
symbol in the program before reference.
• It is a difficult task and practically not easy.
• Two main types of one pass assembler are:
1. One type produces object code directly in memory for
immediate execution (load and go assembler)
2. Other type produces the usual kind of object program for later
execution.
Type 1: Load and Go Assembler

• The object code will be written directly to the memory


• So no need to use loaders
• Useful in systems involving program development and testing
(e.g. A university computing system for student use)
• This assembler avoids the overhead of an additional pass over the
source program.
• Thus handling of forward reference becomes less difficult.
• Assembler simply generate the object code as it scans the program
• If an instruction operand is a symbol that is not defined, then address
is omitted when instruction is assembled.(represented as -------)
• The symbol is entered into SYMTAB and is flagged to indicate that it
is undefined.
• The address of this undefined symbol is added to list of forward
references associated with the SYMTAB entry.
• When the definition for a symbol is encountered, the forward
reference list for that symbol is scanned and proper address is inserted
into any instructions previously generated.
• When the end of the program is encountered, the assembly is
complete.
• If there is no error in the program, assembler searches SYMTAB for
the value of symbol named in the END statement and execution starts
at that location.
• For load and go assemblers, the actual address must be known at
assembly time( actually it is assigned by the system itself)
Type 2
• One pass assemblers that produce object programs as output are often used on
systems where external working-storage devices are not available.
• They are also useful when the external storage is slow or inconvenient to use
• Here also forward references are entered into lists
• When the definition of a symbol is encountered, instructions that made forward
references to that symbol may no longer be available in memory for modification.
• This is because they are already written as part of a text record in object program.
• In this case, the assembler must generate another text record with the correct
operand address.
• When the program is loaded this address will be inserted into the instruction by
the action of the loader.
Multi-Pass Assemblers
• If we use a two-pass assembler, the following symbol definition cannot be allowed.
ALPHA EQU BETA
BETA EQU DELTA
DELTA RESW 1
• This is because ALPHA and BETA cannot be defined in pass1.
• If we allow multi-pass processing, DELTA is defined in pass1, BETA is defined in pass2,
and ALPHA is defined in pass3 and the above definitions can be allowed.
• This is the motivation for using a multi-pass assembler.
• It is unnecessary for a multi-pass assembler to make more than two passes over the entire
program
• Instead, only parts of the program involving forward references need to be processed in
multiple passes.
Implementation of a multi-pass assembler

• Use a symbol table to store symbols that are not totally defined yet.
• For an undefined symbol in its entry,
• Store the names and number of undefined symbols which contribute to the
calculation of its value
• Also keep a list of symbols whose values depend on the defined value of this
symbol
• When a symbol becomes defined, we use its value to reevaluate the values of all
of the symbols that are kept in this list.
• The above step is performed recursively.

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