MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions

Philipp Koehn

2 October 2019

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 1

pseudo instruction

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Assembler 2

• Assembler convert readable instructions into machine code

– assembly language: add $t0, $s1, $s2
– machine code: 00000010 00110010 01000000 00100000

• Make life easier with address labels

Address Instruction
loop ...
...
j loop

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Pseudo Instructions 3

• Some instructions would be nice to have

• For instance: load 32 bit value into register

li $s0, 32648278h

• Requires 2 instructions
lui $s0, 3264h
ori $s0, $s0, 8278h

• Pseudo instruction
– available in assembly
– gets compiled into 2 machine code instructions

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Syntactic Sugar 4

• Move

move $t0, $t1

• Compiled into add instruction

add $t0, $zero, $t

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Reserved Register 5

• Example: load word from arbitrary memory address

lw $s0, 32648278h

• Memory address 32648278h has to be stored in register

• Solution: use reserved register $at

lui $at, 3264h

ori $at, $s0, 8278h
lw $s0, 0($at)

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Another Example 6

• Branch if less than

blt $t0, $t1, address

• Compiled into add instruction

slt $at, $t0, $t1

bne $at, $zero, address

(slt = set if less than)

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 7

code example

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Factorial 8

• Compute n! = n × n − 1 × n − 2 × ... × 2 × 1

• Iterative loop
– initialize sum with n
– loop through n-1, n-2, ..., 1
– multiple sum with loop variable

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Implementation 9

• Registers
– $a0: n (loop variable)
– $v0: sum

• Initialize
move $v0, $a0 # initialize sum with n

• Loop setup
loop:
addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n
beq $a0, $zero, exit # = 0? then done
...
j loop

• Multiplication
mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # sum = sum * n

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Code 10

.text
main:
li $a0, 5 # compute 5!
move $v0, $a0 # initialize sum with n

loop:
addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n
beq $a0, $zero, exit # = 0? then done
mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # sum = sum * n
j loop

exit:
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 11

jumps and subroutines

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Jump 12

• MIPS instruction
j address

• Only 26 bits available for address (6 bits of op-code)

⇒ 32 bit address constructed by concatenating

– upper 4 bits from current program counter
– 26 bits as specified
– 2 bits with value "0"

• Proper 32 bit addressing available with

jr $register

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Jump and Link: Subroutines 13

• MIPS instructions
jal address
jalr $register

• Address handling as before

• Stores return address in register $ra (31st register)

• Return from subroutine

jr $ra

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Register Conventions 14

• Arguments to subroutine: registers $a0, $a1, $a2, $a3

• Return values from subroutine: registers $v0, $v1, $v2, $v3

• Conceptually

($v0, $v1, $v2, $v3) = f($a0, $a1, $a2, $a3)

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Example 15

• Subroutine to add three numbers

main:
li $a0, 10
li $a1, 21
li $a2, 33
jal add3

add3:
add $v0, $a0, $a1
add $v0, $v0, $a2
jr $ra

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Another Example 16

• Subroutine for a + b - c
main:
li $a0, 10
li $a1, 21
li $a2, 33
jal add-and-sub
add-and-sub:
add $a0, $a0, $a1
move $a1, $a2
jal my-sub
jr $ra
my-sub:
sub $v0, $a0, $a1
jr $ra

• What could go wrong?

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Safekeeping 17

• Recursive calls: must keep return address $ra in safe place

• May also want to preserve other registers

• Temporary registers $t0-$t9 may be overwritten by subroutine

• Saved registers $s0-$s7 must be preserved by subroutine

• Note
– all this is by convention
– you have to do this yourself

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 18

stack

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Stack 19

• Recall: 6502
– JSR stored return address on stack
– RTS retrieved return address from stack
– special instructions to store accumulator, status register

• MIPS: software stack

• By convention: stack pointer register $sp (29th register)

• Why not always use the stack? It’s slow

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Alternate Idea 20

• Store return address in saved register $s0

• But: now have to preserve $s0 on stack

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Store Return Address on Stack 21

• Decrease stack pointer

addi $sp, $sp, -4
32-bit address has 4 bytes

• Store return address

sw $ra 0($sp)
sw = store word

• Stack pointer points to last used address

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Retrieve Return Address from Stack 22

• Load return address

lw $ra 0($sp)
lw = store word

• Increase stack pointer

addi $sp, $sp, 4

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Multiple Registers 23

• Store multiple registers

addi $sp, $sp, -12

sw $ra 0($sp)
sw $s0 4($sp)
sw $s1 8($sp)

• Load
lw $ra 0($sp)
lw $s0 4($sp)
lw $s1 8($sp)
addi $sp, $sp, 12

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Frame Pointer 24

• What if we want to consult values stored on the stack?

• Example
– subroutine stores return address and some save registers on stack
– some code does something
(maybe even store more things on stack)
– subroutine wants to consult stored return address

• Stack pointer has changed

→ may be difficult to track down

• Solution
– store entry stack pointer in frame pointer $fp (30th register)
move $fp, $sp
– retrieve return address using frame pointer
lw $s0, 0($fp)

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 25

example

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Recall: Factorial 26

.text
li $a0, 5 # compute 5!
move $v0, $a0 # initialize sum with n

loop:
addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n
beq $a0, $zero, exit # = 0? then done
mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # sum = sum * n
j loop

exit:
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Implemented as a Function 27

• Subroutine call (function argument in $a0)

main:
li $a0, 5 # compute 5!
jal fact # call function

• Return from subroutine (return value is in $v0)

exit:
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Scaffolding 28

.text
main:
li $a0, 5 # compute 5!
jal fact # call function
jr $ra # done

fact:
(old code)

exit:
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Complete Code 29

.text
main:
li $a0, 5 # compute 5!
jal fact # call function
jr $ra # done

fact:
move $v0, $a0 # initialize sum with n

loop:
addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n
beq $a0, $zero, exit # = 0? then done
mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # sum = sum * n
j loop

exit:
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Recursive Implementation 30

• Idea: f(n) = f(n-1) * n

• Recursive call needs to preserve

– return address
– argument (n)

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Termination Condition 31

• Check if argument is 0

fact:
beq $a0, $zero, final # = 0? then done

(common case)

final:
li $v0, 1
jr $ra # done

• Note: no need to preserve registers

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Core Recursion 32

• Recursive call f(n-1)

addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n

jal fact # recursive call -> $v0 is f(n-1)

• Multiply with argument

mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # f(n-1) * n

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Save and Restore Registers 33

• Save registers

addi $sp, $sp, -8

sw $ra 0($sp) # return address on stack
sw $a0 4($sp) # argument on stack

• Restore registers

lw $ra 0($sp) # return address from stack

lw $a0 4($sp) # argument from stack
addi $sp, $sp, 8

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019
 Complete Code 34
fact:
beq $a0, $zero, final # = 0? then done
addi $sp, $sp, -8
sw $ra 0($sp) # return address on stack
sw $a0 4($sp) # argument on stack
addi $a0, $a0, -1 # decrement n
jal fact # recursive call -> $v0 is f(n-1)
lw $ra 0($sp) # return address from stack
lw $a0 4($sp) # argument from stack
addi $sp, $sp, 8
mul $v0, $v0, $a0 # f(n-1) * n
jr $ra # done
final:
li $v0, 1
jr $ra # done

Philipp Koehn Computer Systems Fundamentals: MIPS Pseudo Instructions and Functions 2 October 2019