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Assembler Tutorial ****************** This chapter explains how to use the RISC OS Forthmacs ARM assembler in order to create short machine language code sequences. This chapter is a companion to the "ARM Assembler" chapter. That chapter describes the syntax of individual assembly language instructions. This chapter addresses "higher level" issues, such as how to begin and end the assembly process and how to communicate arguments and result between Forth and assembly language. Motivation ========== For nearly all debugging jobs, writing assembly language is unnecessary. Test loops can be usually be written more quickly and easily in high-level Forth, and will execute quickly enough to get the job done. However, in some cases the ultimate in speed is needed for certain critical operations, and assembly language may be the best way to go. In other cases, very specific combinations of machine instructions may exhibit problem behavior, and those combinations may need to be reproduced. Finally, some maintainers of the RISC OS Forthmacs system software itself may need to understand the assembler. Assumptions =========== The chapter assumes that you already understand the ARM instruction set, including such issues as processor modes, interrupts and registers sets. If not, you should first study a ARM reference, such as the manual published by the chip manufacturer. Please note the sysntax of this ARM assembler, it uses - as most Forth assemblers - the operand first - operator last syntax. Example: a simple "code word" ============================= Here is a very simple assembly language program. It adds "1" to the contents of a register then returns to the Forth interpreter. This register r10 holds the top of stack value. code addone ( n -- n+1 ) r10 r10 1 # add c; To execute it and display the result, you would type, for example, 5 addone . Here's what is happening, line by line: code addone ( n -- n+1 ) code is a "defining word"; it creates a new command which can be executed by typing its name. The name of the new command in this case is ADDONE . The name could have been anything; I have chosen the name ADDONE because it describes the action of the program. You may already be familiar with another Forth defining word " : or COLON ". ":" also creates a new command; the difference between code and ":" is that ":" creates a new command whose behavior is described by a sequence of other Forth commands, whereas code creates a new command whose behavior is described by a sequence of assembly language instructions. After code creates the new command, it starts the assembler so that assembly language instructions may be entered. The stuff inside the parentheses is a comment; this particular comment indicates that the new command expects one argument ("n") on the stack before the word is executed, and after the command is executed, one result ("n+1") is left on the stack. The comment is optional, but its inclusion is strongly recommended. r10 r10 1 # add This is the assembly language instruction which defines the action of the new command. As you will recall from the "ARM Assembler" chapter, the RISC OS Forthmacs assembler syntax has the destination register first, followed by the source operand(s), followed by the operation name. So, in this case, the source operands are the global register r10 and the immediate number 1, the destination operand is the global register r10, and the operation is add, i.e. 1 is added to the contents of register r10, and the result is placed back in register r10. c; c; terminates the definition of a code definition. At the end of the instructions you have assembled, c; automatically appends one machine instruction, its effect is to return to Forth after the user-specified instructions have been executed. 5 addone . In order to invoke the new command, we enter the number 5 on the Forth stack, type the name of the command ADDONE , and then display the result by typing the print command "." . Perhaps you now wonder how the number got off the Forth stack and into the register r10, and afterwards how the number got out of r10 and back onto the Forth stack. The answer is simple: the top element of the Forth stack is always (!) kept in r10 , so no movement was necessary. That is why I chose r10 for the register in this example. Register Usage in Forth ======================= To use the assembler effectively, you need to know which registers are available for use, and which of them must be left alone. Here are the rules: r8, r9, r12, and r14 are used internally by the Forth interpreter or operating system, their values must be left alone (otherwise the system will crash). r10 contains the top of the Forth stack. It is used for passing arguments and results back and forth between Forth and assembly language. r13 contains a pointer to a memory area containing the rest of the Forth stack (all elements other than the topmost one). That stack area is used for extra arguments and results. The section entitled "Stack Usage" tells you more about managing the stack area. r0 - r6 may be used freely within assembly language code sequences. Forth does not depend on the contents of these registers. However, some Forth commands do use these registers as scratch registers, so your code should not attempt to keep important values in these registers from one time to the next. While your code is being executed, Forth will not change the contents of any of these registers, so you can depend on them for the duration of your assembly language sequence. When your code finishes and returns to Forth, the next time that you execute your code the register values may have changed. You can find more information about this subject in the "ARM Assembler" and "Forthmacs Implementation" chapters. While your machine code is executing, it will run at the full speed of the system, without any interference or overhead imposed by RISC OS Forthmacs. RISC OS Forthmacs does not itself use interrupts, so the processor will execute exactly the sequence of instructions which you have coded. It is possible that other software in the system may have set up some interrupts, but that is beyond the control of RISC OS Forthmacs. Disassembler ============ The RISC OS Forthmacs disassembler may be used to review the assembly language you have created: see addone The result will look something like this: code addone ( 1e878 ) add r10,r10,#1 ( 1e87c ) ldr pc,[r8],#4 The numbers along the left hand side are the addresses at which the various instructions appear. The addresses shown here will almost certainly be different from the addresses that you see. You will notice that even though our example contained only one assembly language instruction the disassembler shows 1 extra instruction. This extra instruction was automatically assembled by the c; command. Their purpose is to return control to Forth after the assembly language sequence has finished its execution (this is called the next instruction). The see command reads the name of a Forth command (in this case "addone"), determines what type of command it is (in this case "code ", meaning that the command's behavior was defined by the assembler), and then displays a reconstruction of the source code for that command. see also works for "colon" definitions, whose behaviour is defined in Forth instead of in assembly language. For an example of this, type "see find". Many of the normal Forth commands are defined in assembly language, and see can be used to look at how they are implemented. For example, type "see @" to see how the Forth "@" operator works (pronounced fetch, this operator takes an address from the top of the stack, reads the 32-bit contents of that address, and puts those contents back on top of the stack). You should try this right now and make sure you understand how it works. Note that the last instructions of "@" is exactly the same as the last instruction of "addone". Every code definition in RISC OS Forthmacs ends with these same three instructions. see automatically locates the address where the code for particular command begins. That address was allocated by code when the new command was defined. The disassembler can also be used to inspect machine code beginning at arbitrary addresses, not only that code which is created by code . Suppose that you know there is some code starting at address 100000 and you wish to look at it: 100000 dis On your system, this example probably won't work exactly as shown because your system may not have any code at address 100000 (in fact, it may not even have any memory there. The main point, though, is that you type the address of the code you wish to disassemble, followed by "dis". The disassembler will continue until it reaches a "definition ending" instruction, or until you stop it by typing the character "q", for "quit". It will also pause at the end of a screen and prompt you for a continuation character. After the disassembler has stopped, you can make it continue where it left off by typing +dis Setting the Starting Address ============================ In most cases, you won't need to specify a starting address for the code you assemble. When you use the code defining word to begin assembling, RISC OS Forthmacs will find some appropriate memory for you and assemble your code there ( at here). You can then locate the memory RISC OS Forthmacs has chosen by using the see command to disassemble the code, looking at the addresses displayed alongside the machine instructions. If you really need to assemble at a specific address, you can do so as follows (Note: in nearly all cases, this technique is unnecessary; very rarely does it matter where exactly you locate a bit of code, and allowing RISC OS Forthmacs to allocate the memory for you is sufficient and convenient). Set the dp by here @ your-adr dp ! code demo ...... c; here ! Conditional branches ==================== In order to implement conditional operations and loops, most assemblers provide branch instructions and labels. RISC OS Forthmacs has branches and labels too, but it also has a much better way, which eliminates most of the troublesome aspects of coding conditionals and loops in assembly language. The RISC OS Forthmacs way is called "structured conditionals". For example, suppose we want to test a condition and execute some code only if the condition is true. Specifically, we want to compare r0 and r1, and execute some code only if r0 is less than r1 . Traditional assembler: cmp r0, r1 bge temp ..some code we want to conditionally execute temp: Forthmacs assembler with structured conditionals: r0 r1 cmp < if ..some code we want to conditionally execute.. then As you can see, RISC OS Forthmacs eliminates the need to mentally reverse the sense of the comparison, eliminates the need to invent and keep track of label names, and uses conventional mathematical comparison symbols (e.g. "<"), rather then alphabetic mnemonics. The complete set of comparison symbols is given in the "ARM Assembler" chapter. The "if .. then" construct can also include an "else" clause: r0 r1 s cmp \ the s is optional < if ..code to execute if r0 < r1.. else ..code to execute if r0 >= r1.. then Of course, the assembler actually generates conditional branch instructions because that's what the hardware supports directly, but RISC OS Forthmacs takes care of the "bookkeeping" for you. Another way would be to use the conditional instructions offered by the ARM cpu. r0 r1 cmp xx xx lt xxx yy yy ge xxx Delayed Branches ================ ARM doesn't uses delayed branches at all, so don't worry. Loops ===== RISC OS Forthmacs structured conditionals also have features for easily creating loops. Here is a loop which executes forever: Source Generates begin Label1: top r0 ) ldr ldr r10,[r10,#0] again b Label1 This code assumes that the r10 register (top of stack, remember?) contains the address of a memory location, and the contents of that memory location is continuously read into the r0 register. This is an infinite loop; it won't stop until the system is reset, or power cycled, or externally interrupted in some way. Suppose we want the loop to execute 9 times then quit: r1 9 # mov begin r0 top ) ldr r1 r1 1 # s sub <= until We continue to loop "until" r1 <= 1 . Finally, here's an example where we perform a test at the top of the loop rather than at the bottom, illustrating "while": r1 9 # mov begin r1 r1 1 s sub > while r0 top ) ldr repeat This loop continues to execute "while" r11 > 1, and the "repeat" sends it back to the "begin". Structured conditionals and loops nest in the expected manner, to an arbitrary depth. For instance, a "begin .. until" can be completely contained within an "if .. then", which itself may be contained within a "begin .. while .. repeat". Scope Loops - Assembler vs. Forth ================================= You can use assembly language for creating scope loops, but it is usually preferable to write them in Forth, because the Forth version is usually easier to write, easier to read, and easier to debug. The one advantage of an assembly language loop is that it is tighter. However this rarely matters. For comparison, suppose that you want to continually read location 1000 so that you can observe the action on an oscilloscope. This is how you would do it in assembly language: code test r0 th 1000 # mov begin r1 r0 ) ldr again Here's how you would do the same thing in Forth: begin 1000 @ drop again Additionally, the Forth version may be easily adapted to stop looping as soon as a key is typed: begin 1000 @ drop key? until More importantly, many of today's complicated chips require fairly extensive initialization sequences in order to configure them to the correct operating mode. Such code is much easier to write and debug in Forth, because you can "try things out" by typing commands at the keyboard, the looking at the registers to see what happened. A set of simple Forth commands sufficient to do most hardware debugging jobs can easily be described on a single page, and many engineers and technicians have learned enough Forth in 30 minutes to be able to write sophisticated diagnostics for complicated hardware. Stack Usage =========== A previous example has shown how to access the top element on the stack which is stored in r10. Things get a little more complicated if more than 1 stack argument is needed. Remember that the top of the stack is stored in r10, and subsequent stack items are stored in a memory area whose address is contained in r13. For convenience, the assembler provides alternate names for r10 and r13, reflecting the use of these registers for the stack. r10 is also known as top (Top of Stack), and r13 is also known as sp (Stack Pointer). The basic rules for the Forth stack are: a) Upon entry to a code definition (assembly language), the top of the stack is contained in top. The next item on the stack is in the memory location whose address is contained in sp. The item after that is in memory at SP+4 , the next at SP+8 , etc. Note that successive stack items are 4 bytes (32-bits) apart. b) A definition may modify the stack contents, and upon exit from the definition the new top of the stack should be in top, and the next item should be in memory at that address contained in sp. c) Assembly code should not access memory at negative offsets from sp. This restriction safeguards against problems in an interrupt-driven environment, in case the same stack happens to be used for interrupt handlers. If items are removed from the stack by a code definition, care must be taken to make sure the correct top of stack value is left in top. Also remember that the RISC OS Forthmacs assembler provides macros to assist in managing the stack. Here are some examples; study them carefully: code and (s n1 n2 -- n3 ) r0 sp pop top top r0 and c; code min (s n1 n2 -- n1|n2 ) r0 sp pop top r0 cmp top r0 gt mov c; code drop (s n1 n2 -- n1 ) top sp pop c; code dup (s n1 -- n1 n1 ) top sp push c; code 1+ (s n -- n+1 ) top 1 incr c; code @ (s a_adr -- n ) top top ) ldr c; \ a somewhat optimized fill code fill (s adr cnt char -- ) r2 top top 8 #lsl orr r0 r1 top 3 sp ia! ldm \ r0-cnt r1-adr r2-data r0 4 # cmp gt if begin r3 r1 3 # s and r0 1 ne decr r2 r1 byte )+ ne str eq until r0 8 s decr r2 r2 r2 10 #lsl orr r3 r2 mov begin r2 r3 2 r1 ia! ge stm r0 8 ge s decr lt until r0 4 s incr r2 r1 )+ ge str r0 4 lt decr then begin r0 1 s decr r2 r1 byte )+ ge str lt until c; code >name \ (s cfa -- nfa ) top 1 decr \ skip flag byte begin r0 top byte -( ldr r0 0 # cmp ne until begin r0 top byte -( ldr r0 20 # cmp lt until c;