LC3 Assembly Programming:

Introduction

Based on slides © McGraw-Hill

Additional material © 2013 Farmer
Additional material © 2020 Narahari

Assembly Language:
Human-Readable Machine Language

§Computers like ones and zeros…

0001110010000110
§Humans like symbols…

ADD R6,R2,R6
§ How big of a pain was it to write/read machine instructions
§Assembler is a program that turns symbols into
machine instructions.

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 Programming in Assembly
§ Assembly language level is one-step up from machine
• All instructions used in Assembly are actual machine
instructions….somewhat!
• Use mnemonics and address labels to make it easier to understand
the program
o Labels converted to addresses and offsets by assembler
• “macros” and utilities to make it easier
§ Assembler directives
• Tell assembler what to do without the programmer explicitly writing out
the machine code to do the task
• Allocating storage
• Initializing data

LC-3 Assembly Language Syntax

§Each line of a program is one of the following:
• an instruction
• an assember directive (or pseudo-op)
• a comment
§Whitespace (between symbols) and case are ignored.
§Comments (beginning with “;”) one one line are also ignored.

§An instruction has the following format:

LABEL OPCODE OPERANDS ; COMMENTS

optional mandatory
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 Opcodes and Operands
§Opcodes
• reserved symbols that correspond to actual (LC-3) instructions
• listed in Appendix A
o ex: ADD, AND, LD, LDR, …

§Operands
• registers -- specified by Rn, where n is the register number
• numbers -- indicated by # (decimal) or x (hex)
• label -- symbolic name of memory location
• separated by comma
• number, order, and type correspond to instruction format
o ex:
ADD R1,R1,R3
ADD R1,R1,#3
LD R6,NUMBER
BRz LOOP

Labels and Comments

§Label
• placed at the beginning of the line
• assigns a symbolic name to the address corresponding to line
o ex: LOOP corresponds to some specific memory address
LOOP ADD R1,R1,#-1
BRp LOOP

§Comment
• anything after a semicolon is a comment
• ignored by assembler
• used by humans to document/understand programs
• tips for useful comments:
o avoid restating the obvious, as “decrement R1”
o provide additional insight, as in “accumulate product in R6”
o use comments to separate pieces of program

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 Assembler Directives
§Pseudo-operations.. To make programmer’s life easier
•do not refer to operations executed by program
• used by assembler
• look like instruction, but “opcode” starts with dot

Opcode Operand Meaning

.ORIG address starting address of program
.END end of program
.BLKW n allocate n words of storage
.FILL A allocate one word, initialize with
value A
.STRINGZ n-character allocate n+1 locations,
string initialize w/characters and null
terminator

Trap Codes
§LC-3 assembler provides “pseudo-instructions” for
each trap code, so you don’t have to remember
them… more on TRAP instructions later…
Code Equivalent Description
HALT TRAP x25 Halt execution and print message to
console.
IN TRAP x23 Print prompt on console,
read (and echo) one character from keybd.
Character stored in R0[7:0].
OUT TRAP x21 Write one character (in R0[7:0]) to console.
GETC TRAP x20 Read one character from keyboard.
Character stored in R0[7:0].
PUTS TRAP x22 Write null-terminated string to console.
Address of string is in R0.

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 ; Example Assembly Program – Add 2 to non-negative
number and store into another memory location
; load number from locations PLACE1,
.ORIG x3000 ;program starts at address x3000
LD R1, PLACE1 ; PLACE is location in memory
; note: offset not specified by
programmer
; assembler calculates offset needed
BRn Done ;if number is Negative goto end
ADD R3, R1, #2 ; Add 2 store into R3
ST R3, PLACE2 ; store result into PLACE2
Done HALT ;halt program
;
PLACE2 .BLKW 1 ; reserve/set aside one word in memory
PLACE1 .FILL x0005 ; initialize number to 5

.END ; end of program

; Example Assembly Program – Add 2 to non-negative

number and store into another memory location
; load number from locations PLACE1,
.ORIG x3000 ;program starts at address x3000
LD R1, PLACE1 ; PLACE is location in memory
; note: offset not specified by programmer
BRn Done ;if number is Negative goto end
ADD R3, R1, #2 ; Add 2 store into R3
ST R3, PLACE2 ; store result into PLACE2
Done HALT ;halt program
;
PLACE2 .BLKW 1 Must have Opcode and Operands
PLACE1 .FILL x0005

Label
.END ; end of program

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 ; Example Assembly Program – Add 2 to non-negative
number and store into another memory location
; load number from locations PLACE1,
.ORIG x3000 ;program starts at address x3000
LD R1, PLACE1 ; PLACE is location in memory
; note: offset not specified by programmer
BRn Done ;if number is Negative goto end
ADD R3, R1, #2 ; Add 2 store into R3
ST R3, PLACE2 ; store result into PLACE2
Done HALT ;halt program
;
PLACE2 .BLKW 1 Decimal #
PLACE1 .FILL x0005 Binary b
Hex x
.END ; end of program

.BLKW is Assembler Directive (reserve one location with label ‘PLACE2’ )

.FILL is Assembler Directive (reserve one location with label ‘PLACE1’ ) and
Initialize the value there to be x0005 11

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; Example Assembly Program – Add 2 to non-negative

number and store into another memory location
; load number from locations PLACE1,
.ORIG x3000 ;program starts at address x3000
LD R1, HERE ; PLACE is location in memory
; note: offset not specified by programmer
BRn Done ;if number is Negative goto end
ADD R3, R1, #2 ; Add 2 store into R3
ST R3, PLACE2 ; store result into PLACE2
Done HALT ;halt program
;
PLACE2 .BLKW 1
HERE .FILL x0005

.END ; end of program

This code would generate identical

machine code as previous with label
PLACE1 12

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 Assembly Process
§Assembler: Converts assembly language file (.asm)
into an executable file (.obj) …for the LC-3 simulator in our case.

§First Pass:
• scan program file
• find all labels and calculate the corresponding addresses;
this is called the symbol table
§Second Pass:
• convert instructions to machine language,
using information from symbol table
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First Pass: Constructing the Symbol Table

1. Find the .ORIG statement,
which tells us the address of the first instruction.
• Initialize location counter (LC), which keeps track of the
current instruction.

2. For each non-empty line in the program:

a) If line contains a label, add label and LC to symbol table.
b) Increment LC.
– NOTE: If statement is .BLKW or .STRINGZ,
increment LC by the number of words allocated.

3. Stop when .END statement is reached.

§ NOTE: A line that contains only a comment is considered an empty line.

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 Pass 1
§Construct the symbol table for the program

Symbol Address
Done
PLACE2
PLACE1

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Second Pass: Generating Machine Language

§For each executable assembly language statement,
generate the corresponding machine language instruction.
• If operand is a label,
look up the address from the symbol table.

§Potential problems:
• Improper number or type of arguments
o ex: NOT R1,#7
ADD R1,R2
ADD R3,R3,NUMBER

• Immediate argument too large

o ex: ADD R1,R2,#1023

• Address (associated with label) more than 256 from instruction

o can’t use PC-relative addressing mode

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 Pass 2
§Using the symbol table constructed earlier,
translate these statements into LC-3 machine language.

Statement Machine Language

LD R1, SIX

BRp AGAIN

LD R2, NUMBER

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; Example Assembly Program – Add 2 to non-negative

number and store into another memory location
; load number from locations PLACE1,
.ORIG x3000 ;program starts at address x3000
LD R1, PLACE1 ; PLACE is location in memory
; note: offset not specified by programmer
BRn Done ;if number is Negative goto end
ADD R3, R1, #2 ; Add 2 store into R3
ST R3, PLACE2 ; store result into PLACE2
Done HALT ;halt program
;
PLACE2 .BLKW 1 Decimal #
PLACE1 .FILL x0005 Binary b
Hex x
.END ; end of program

Assembler Directive (reserve one location with label ‘PLACE2’ )

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 Assembly Process
§Assembler: Converts assembly language file (.asm)
into an executable file (.obj) …for the LC-3 simulator in our case.

§First Pass:
• scan program file
• find all labels and calculate the corresponding addresses;
this is called the symbol table
§Second Pass:
• convert instructions to machine language,
using information from symbol table
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First Pass: Constructing the Symbol Table

1. Find the .ORIG statement,
which tells us the address of the first instruction.
• Initialize location counter (LC), which keeps track of the
current instruction.

2. For each non-empty line in the program:

a) If line contains a label, add label and LC to symbol table.
b) Increment LC.
– NOTE: If statement is .BLKW or .STRINGZ,
increment LC by the number of words allocated.

3. Stop when .END statement is reached.

§ NOTE: A line that contains only a comment is considered an empty line.

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 Pass 1
§Construct the symbol table for the program

Symbol Address
Done
PLACE2
PLACE1

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Second Pass: Generating Machine Language

§For each executable assembly language statement,
generate the corresponding machine language instruction.
• If operand is a label,
look up the address from the symbol table.

§Potential problems:
• Improper number or type of arguments
o ex: NOT R1,#7
ADD R1,R2
ADD R3,R3,NUMBER

• Immediate argument too large

o ex: ADD R1,R2,#1023

• Address (associated with label) more than 256 from instruction

o can’t use PC-relative addressing mode

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 Pass 2
§Using the symbol table constructed earlier,
translate these statements into LC-3 machine language.

Statement Machine Language

LD R1, SIX

BRp AGAIN

LD R2, NUMBER

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LC-3 Assembler
§Using “assemble” (Unix) or LC3Edit (Windows),
generates several different output files.
This one gets
loaded into the
simulator.

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 Multiple Object Files
§An object file is not necessarily a complete program.
• system-provided library routines
• code blocks written by multiple developers

§For LC-3 simulator, can manually load multiple object

files into memory, then start executing at a desired
address.
• system routines, such as keyboard input, are loaded automatically
o loaded into “system memory,” below x3000
o user code should be loaded between x3000 and xFDFF
• each object file includes a starting address
• be careful not to load overlapping object files

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Linking and Loading

§Loading is the process of copying an executable image
into memory.
• more sophisticated loaders are able to relocate images
to fit into available memory
o must readjust branch targets, load/store addresses

§Linking is the process of resolving symbols between

independent object files.
• suppose we define a symbol in one module,
and want to use it in another
• some notation, such as .EXTERNAL, is used to tell assembler that a
symbol is defined in another module
• linker will search symbol tables of other modules to resolve symbols
and complete code generation before loading

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 Style Guidelines
1. Provide a program header…standard stuff
2. Start labels, opcode, operands, and comments in same
column for each line. (Unless entire line is a comment.)
3. Use comments to explain what each register does.
4. Give explanatory comment for most instructions.
5. Use meaningful symbolic names.
1. Mixed upper and lower case for readability.
2. ASCIItoBinary, InputRoutine, SaveR1
6. Provide comments between program sections.

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Recap: Problem Solving and Problem

Decomposition
§ With an eye towards writing assembly programming/low-
level software

§ Flowcharts anyone ?

§ Decomposition:
• Break problem/solution into sub-problems/modules
o Structured programming
• Connect the modules…
o With conditionals, iterations, sequence,….

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 Example
§ Array of N numbers
§ Read length N of the array
§ Replace negative numbers by 0
§ Add all the (new) numbers
§ Print the sum

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Three Basic Constructs

§There are three basic ways to decompose a task:

Task

True Test False

Test False
condition
Subtask 1 condition

True
Subtask 1 Subtask 2
Subtask 2 Subtask

Sequential Conditional Iterative

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 Sequential
§do Subtask 1, then subtask 2, etc.
Read value of N
from keyboard

Process Array of Nums

Change –ve to 0 Go through Array
and Compute Sum
Compute Sum of nums
Print Sum

Print Sum)

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Conditional
§If condition is true, do Subtask 1;
else, do Subtask 2.

Yes No
x<0
Check if number >=0
Change –ve to 0

x=0 x=x

Next subtask…
(add values)

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 Iterative
§Do Subtask over and over,
as long as the test condition is true.

More nums False

Check each element to check
In array and compute sum

True

Check next number

Add to sum

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LC-3 Control Instructions

§How do we use LC-3 instructions to encode
the three basic constructs?

§Sequential
• Instructions naturally flow from one to the next,
so no special instruction needed to go
from one sequential subtask to the next.

§Conditional and Iterative

• Create code that converts condition into N, Z, or P.
Example:
Condition: “Is R0 = R1?”
Code: Subtract R1 from R0; if equal, Z bit will be set.
• Then use BR instruction to transfer control to the proper subtask.
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 Code for Conditional
PC offset to
Exact bits depend address C
on condition Instruction
being tested A
Generate
True False Condition
Test
Condition B 0000 ? C

Subtask 1
Subtask 1 Subtask 2
0000 111 D
C
Subtask 2
Unconditional branch
Next to Next Subtask D
Subtask Next PC offset to
Subtask address D

Assuming all addresses are close enough that PC-relative branch can be used.
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Code for Iteration

PC offset to
Exact bits depend address C
on condition Instruction
being tested A
Generate
Test False
Condition
Condition
0000 ? C
True B
Subtask
Subtask
0000 111 A
C
Next
Subtask
Next Unconditional branch
Subtask to retest condition
PC offset to
address A

Assuming all addresses are on the same page.

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 Converting Code to Assembly
§ Can use a standard template approach
§ Typical Constructs
• if/else
• while
• do/while
• for

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if/else
if(x > 0) LD R1, X
{ BRP THEN
r2 = r3 + r4; ADD R5,R6,R7
} BRNZP DONE
else THEN ADD R2,R3,R4
{ DONE ...
r5 = r6 + r7;
}

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 if/else
if(x > 0) LD R1,X
{ BRNZ ELSE
r2 = r3 + r4; ADD R2,R3,R4
} BRNZP DONE
else ELSE ADD R5,R6,R7
{ DONE ...
r5 = r6 + r7;
}

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while
x = 0; AND R1,R1,#0
i = 10; AND R2,R2,#0
while(i > 0) ADD R1,R1,#10
{ WHL BRNZ DONE
x = x + i; ADD R2,R2,R1
i--; ADD R1,R1,#-1
} BRNZP WHL

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