Contents

Preface

xi

Introduction

A Short History of Assemblers and Loaders

Types of Assemblers and Loaders

11

1 Basic Principles
1.1 Assembler Operation
1.1.1 The source line

13
13
13

1.2 The Two-Pass Assembler

20

1.3 The One-Pass Assembler

24

1.4 Absolute and Relocatable Object Files

1.4.1 Relocation bits
29
1.4.2 One-pass, relocatable object les
1.4.3 The task of relocating
31

28
30

1.5 Two Historical Notes

32
1.5.1 Early relocation
32
1.5.2 One-and-a-half pass assemblers

32

1.6 Forcing Upper

33
1.6.1 Relocating packed instructions

34

vi

Contents

1.7 Absolute and Relocatable Address Expressions

1.7.1 Summary
36
1.8 Local Labels
36
1.8.1 The LC as a local symbol
38
1.9 Multiple Location Counters
39
1.9.1 The USE directive
39
1.9.2 COMMON blocks
41
1.10 Literals
43
1.10.1 The literal table
43
1.10.2 Examples
44
1.11 Attributes of Symbols
45
1.12 Assembly-Time Errors
46
1.13 Review Questions and Projects
49
1.13.1 Project 11
50
1.13.2 Project 12
52
1.13.3 Project 13
53
1.13.4 Project 14
54

2 The Symbol Table

A Linear Array
60
A Sorted Array
60
Buckets with Linked Lists
61
A Binary Search Tree
62
A Hash Table
63
2.5.1 Closed hashing
63
2.5.2 Open hashing
65
2.6 Review Questions and Projects
2.6.1 Project 21
66
2.6.2 Project 22
66
2.6.3 Project 23
67

35

59

2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5

66

3 Directives
3.1 Introduction
69
3.2 Program Identication Directives
73
3.3 Source Program Control Directives
74
3.4 Machine Identication Directives
76
3.5 Loader Control Directives
77
3.6 Mode Control Directives
77
3.7 Block Control & LC Directives
79
3.8 Segment Control Directives
85
3.9 Symbol Denition Directives
86
3.10 Base Register Denition Directives
89

69

Contents

3.11 Subprogram Linkage Directives

90
3.12 Data Generation Directives
93
3.13 Macro Directives
99
3.14 Conditional Assembly Directives
99
3.15 Micro Directives
99
3.15.1 micro substitution
100
3.16 Error Control Directives
100
3.17 Listing Control Directives
101
3.18 Remote Assembly Directives
103
3.19 Code Duplication Directives
104
3.20 Operation Denition Directives
105
3.21 OpCode Table Management Directives
3.22 Summary
107
3.23 Review Questions and Projects
108
3.23.1 Project 31
108
3.23.2 Project 32
108

vii

106

4 Macros
4.1 Introduction
109
4.1.1 The Syntax of macro denition and expansion
112
4.2 Macro Parameters
114
4.2.1 Properties of macro parameters
116
4.3 Operation of Pass 0
121
4.4 MDT Organization
122
4.4.1 The REMOVE directive
123
4.4.2 Order of search of the MDT
123
4.5 Other Features of Macros
124
4.5.1 Associating macro parameters with their arguments.
4.5.2 Delimiting macro parameters
125
4.5.3 Numeric values of arguments
125
4.5.4 Attributes of macro arguments
125
4.5.5 Directives related to arguments
126
4.5.6 Default arguments
127
4.5.7 Automatic label generation
127
4.5.8 The IRP directive
128
4.5.9 The PRINT directive
129
4.5.10 Comment lines in macros
129
4.6 Nested Macros
130
4.6.1 Nested macro expansion
130
4.7 Recursive Macros
133
4.8 Conditional Assembly
134
4.8.1 Global SET symbols
139

109

124

viii

Contents

4.8.2 Array SET symbols

140
4.9 Nested Macro Denition
141
4.9.1 The traditional method
144
4.9.2 Reveszs method
146
4.9.3 A note
154
4.10 Summary of Pass 0
154
4.11 Review Questions and Projects
156
4.11.1 Project 41
157
4.11.2 Project 42
157

5 The Listing File

5.1
5.2
5.3
5.4
5.5

A 6800 Example
160
A VAX Example
164
A MASM Example
169
An MPW Example
172
Review Questions and Projects
5.5.1 Project 51
175

159

175

6 Special Assembler Types

6.1 High-Level Assemblers
177
6.1.1 NEAT/3
178
6.1.2 PL360
181
6.1.3 PL516
183
6.1.4 BABBAGE
184
6.2 Summary
186
6.3 Meta Assemblers
186
6.4 Disassemblers
189
6.5 Cross Assemblers
193
6.6 Review Questions and Projects
6.6.1 Project 61
194

177

194

7 Loaders
7.1 Assemble-Go Loaders
196
7.2 Absolute Loaders
198
7.3 Linking Loaders
199
7.4 The Modify Loader Directive
7.5 Linkage Editors
211
7.6 Dymanic Linking
212
7.7 Loader Control
213
7.8 Library Routines
214
7.9 Overlays
215
7.10 Multiple Location Counters

195

209

219

Contents

ix

7.11 Bootstrap Loaders

220
7.12 An N+1 address Assembler-Loader
221
7.13 Review Questions and Projects
224
7.13.1 Project 71
225

8 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

229

8.1 The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)

230
8.1.1 The 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors
230
8.1.2 MASM options
231
8.1.3 MASM listing
233
8.1.4 MASM source line format
233
8.1.5 MASM directives
233
8.1.6 MASM expressions
234
8.1.7 MASM macros
235
8.2 The Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)
235
8.2.1 Special TASM features
236
8.2.2 TASM local labels
237
8.2.3 Automatic jump-sizing
237
8.2.4 Forward references to code and data
238
8.2.5 Conclusions:
239
8.2.6 TASM macros
239
8.2.7 The Ideal mode
239
8.2.8 TASM directives
240
8.3 The VAX Macro Assembler
240
8.3.1 Special Macro features
240
8.3.2 Data types
241
8.3.3 Local labels
242
8.3.4 Macro directives
242
8.3.5 Macros
243
8.3.6 Addressing modes
243
8.4 The Macintosh MPW Assembler
243
8.4.1 Modules
245
8.4.2 Listing le
245
8.4.3 Segments
246
8.4.4 Expressions & literals
246
8.4.5 Directives
246

References
A Addressing Modes
A.1 Introduction
254
A.2 Examples of Modes
256
A.2.1 The Direct mode
256
A.2.2 The Relative mode
257
A.2.3 The Immediate mode
257
A.2.4 The Index mode
258

249
254

Contents

A.2.5 The Indirect mode

259
A.2.6 Multilevel or cascaded indirect
260
A.2.7 Other addressing modes
260
A.2.8 Zero Page mode
260
A.2.9 Current Page Direct mode
261
A.2.10 Implicit or Implied mode
261
A.2.11 Accumulator mode
261
A.2.12 Stack mode
261
A.2.13 Stack Relative mode
261
A.2.14 Register mode
262
A.2.15 Register Indirect mode
262
A.2.16 Auto Increment/Decrement mode
262
A.3 Base Registers
262
A.4 General Remarks
265
A.5 Review Questions
267

B Hexadecimal Numbers
B.1 Review Questions

268

270

C Answers to Exercises
Index

271
281

Preface

My computing experience dates back to the early 1960s, when higher-level languages were fairly new. It is therefore no wonder that my introduction to computers
and computing came through assembler language; specically, the IBM 7040 assembler language. After programming in assembler exclusively (and enthusiastically)
for more than a year, I nally studied Fortran. However, my love aair with assemblers has continued, and I very quickly discovered the lack of literature in this
eld. In strict contrast to compilers, for which a wide range of literature exists,
very little has ever been written on assemblers and loaders. References [1,2,3,64]
are the best ones known to me, that describe and discuss the principles of operation of assemblers and loaders. Assembler language textbooks areof coursevery
common, but they only talk about what assemblers do, not about how they do it.
One reason for this situation is that, for many yearsfrom the mid 1950s to
the mid 1970sassemblers were in decline. The development of Fortran and other
higher-level languages in the early 1950s overshadowed assemblers. The growth of
higher-level languages was taken by many a programmer to signal the demise of
assemblers, with the result that the use of assemblers dwindled. The advent of the
microprocessor, around 1975, caused a signicant change, however.
Initially, there were no compilers available, so programmers had to use assemblers, even primitive ones. This situation did not last long, of course, and today, in
the early 1990s, there are many compilers available for microcomputers, but assemblers have not been neglected. Virtually all software development systems available

xii

Preface

for modern computers include an assembler. The assemblers described in Ch. 8 are
typical examples.
References [57] list three Z-80 assemblers running under CP/M. In spite of
being obsolete, they are good examples of modern assemblers. They are all state
of the art, relocatable assemblers that support macros and conditional assembly.
References [5,6] also include linking loaders. These assemblers reect the interest
in the Z-80 and CP/M in the early 80s. Current processors, such as the 80x86 and
the 680x0 families, continue the tradition. Modern, sophisticated assemblers are
available for these processors, and are used extensively by programmers who need
optimized code in certain procedures.
The situation with loaders is dierent. Loaders have always been used. They
are used with as well as with assemblers, but their use is normally transparent to
the programmer. The average programmer hardly notices the existence of loaders,
which may explain the lack of literature in this area.
This book diers from the typical assembler text in that it is not a programming
manual, and it is not concerned with any specic assembler language. Instead
it concentrates on the design and implementation of assemblers and loaders. It
assumes that the reader has some knowledge of computers and programming, and it
aims to explain how assemblers and loaders work. Most of the discussion is general,
and most of the examples are in a hypothetical, simple, assembler language. Certain
examples are in the assembler languages of actual machines, and those are always
specied. Some good references for specic assembler languages are [5, 6, 7, 13, 26,
27, 30, 31, 32, 35, 37, 39, 101].
This work has its origins at a point, a few years ago, when my students started
complaining about a lack of literature in this eld. Since I include assemblers and
loaders in classes that I teach every semester, I responded by developing class notes.
The notes were an immediate success, and have grown each semester, until I had
enough material for an expository paper on the subject. Since I was too busy to
polish the paper and submit it, I pretty soon found myself in a situation where the
work was too large for a paper. So here it is at last, in the form of a book.
This is mostly a professional book, intended for computer professionals in general, and especially for systems programmers. However, it can be used as a supplementary text in a systems programming or computer organization class at any
level.
Chapter 1 introduces the one-pass and two-pass assemblers, discusses other
important conceptssuch as absolute- and relocatable object lesand describes
assembler features such as local labels and multiple location counters.
Data structures for implementing the symbol table are discussed in chapter 2.
Chapter 3 presents many directives and dicusses their formats, meaning, and
implementation. These directives are supported by many actual assemblers and,
while not complete, this collection of directives is quite extensive.
The two important topics of macros and conditional assembly are introduced
in chapter 4. The treatment of macros is as complete as practically possible. I have

Preface

xiii

tried to include every possible feature of macros and the way it is implemented,
so this chapter can serve as a guide to practical macro implementation. At the
same time, I have tried not to concentrate on the macro features and syntax of any
specic assembler.
Features of the listing le are outlined, with examples, in chapter 5, while
chapter 6 is a general description of the properties of disassemblers, and of three
special types of assemblers. Those topics, especially meta-assemblers and high-level
assemblers, are of special interest to the advanced reader. They are not new, but
even experienced programmers are not always familiar with them.
Chapter 7 covers loaders. There is a very detailed example of the basic operation of a one pass linking loader, followed by features and concepts such as dynamic
loading, bootstrap loader, overlays, and others.
Finally, chapter 8 contains a survey of four modern, state of the art, assemblers.
Their main characteristics are described, as well as features that distinguish them
from their older counterparts.
To make it possible to use the book as a textbook, each chapter is sprinkled
with exercises, all solved in appendix C. At the end of each chapter there are review
problems and projects. The review questions vary from very easy questions to tasks
that require the student to nd some topic in textbooks and study it. The projects
are programming assignments, arranged from simple to more complex, that propose
various assemblers and loaders to be implemented. They should be done in the order
specied, since most of them are extensions of their predecessors. Some instructors
would nd appendix A, on addressing modes, useful.

References are indicated by square brackets. Thus [14] (or Ref. [14]) refers to
Grishmans book listed in the reference section.
This is the attention symbol. It is placed in front of paragraphs that require
special attention, that present fundamental concepts, or that are judged important
for other reasons.
Acknowledgement: I would like to acknowledge the help received from B. A.
Wichmann of the National Physical Laboratory in England. He sent me information
on the PL516 high-level assembler, the BABBAGE language, and the GE 4000
family of minicomputers. His was the only help I have received in collecting and
analyzing the material for this book. Johnny Tolliver, of Oak Ridge National Labs,
should also be mentioned. His version of the MakeIndex program proved invaluable
in preparing the extensive index of this book.

A human being; an ingenious assembly of portable plumbing

Christopher Morley

Introduction

A work on assemblers should naturally start with a denition. However, computer science is not as precise a eld as mathematics, so most denitions are not
rigorous. The denition I like best is:
An assembler is a translator that translates source instructions (in symbolic language) into target instructions (in machine language), on a one to one basis.
This means that each source instruction is translated into exactly one target instruction.

This denition has the advantage of clearly describing the translation process
of an assembler. It is not a precise denition, however, because an assembler can
do (and usually does) much more than just translation. It oers a lot of help to
the programmer in many aspects of writing the program. The many types of help
oered by the assembler are grouped under the general term directives (or pseudoinstructions). All the important directives are discussed in chapters 3 and 4.
Another good denition of assemblers is:
An assembler is a translator that translates a machineoriented language into machine language.

Introduction

This denition distinguishes between assemblers and compilers. Compilers being

translators of problem-oriented languages or of machine-independent languages.
This denition, however, says nothing about the one-to-one nature of the translation, and thus ignores a most important operating feature of an assembler.
One reason for studying assemblers is that the operation of an assembler reects the architecture of the computer. The assembler language depends heavily on
the internal organization of the computer. Architectural features such as memory
word size, number formats, internal character codes, index registers, and general
purpose registers, aect the way assembler instructions are written and the way the
assembler handles instructions and directives. This fact explains why there is an
interest in assemblers today and why a course on assembler language is still required
for many, perhaps even most, computer science degrees.
The rst assemblers were simple assemble-go systems. All they could do was
to assemble code directly in memory and start execution. It was quickly realized,
however, that linking is an important feature, required even by simple programs.
The pioneers of programming have developed the concept of the routine library very
early, and they needed assemblers that could locate library routines, load them into
memory, and link them to the main program. It was this task of locating, loading,
and linkingof assembling a single working program from individual piecesthat
created the name assembler [4]. Today, assemblers are translators and they work
on one program at a time. The tasks of locating, loading, and linking (as well as
many other tasks) are performed by a loader.
A modern assembler has two inputs and two outputs. The rst input is short,
typically a single line typed at a keyboard. It activates the assembler and species
the name of a source le (the le containing the source code to be assembled). It
may contain other information that the assembler should have before it starts. This
includes commands and specications such as:
The names of the object le and listing le.
Display (or do not display) the
listing on the screen while it is being generated. Display all error messages but do
not stop for any error. Save the listing le and do not print it (see below). This
program does not use macros. The symbol table is larger (or smaller) than usual
and needs a certain amount of memory.
All these terms are explained elsewhere. An example is the command line that
invokes Macro, the VAX assembler. The line:
MACRO /SHOW=MEB /LIST /DEBUG ABC
activates the assembler, tells it that the source program name is abc.mar (the .mar
extension is implied), that binary lines in macro expansions should be listed (shown),
that a listing le should be created, and that the debugger should be included in
the assembly.
Another typical example is the following command line that invokes the Microsoft Macro assembler (MASM) for the 80x86 microprocessors:
MASM /d /Dopt=5 /MU /V

Introduction

It tells the assembler to create a pass 1 listing (/D), to create a variable opt and
set its value to 5, to convert all letters read from the source le to upper case (MU),
and to include certain information in the listing le (the V, or verbose, option).
The second input is the source le. It includes the symbolic instructions and
directives. The assembler translates each symbolic instruction into one machine
instruction. The directives, however, are not translated. The directives are our
way of asking the assembler for help. The assembler provides the help by executing
(rather than translating) the directives. A modern assembler can support as many
as a hundred directives. They range from ORG, which is very simple to execute,
to MACRO, which can be very complex. All the common directives are listed and
explained in chapters 3 and 4.
The rst and most important output of the assembler is the object le. It
contains the assembled instructions (the machine language program) to be loaded
later into memory and executed. The object le is an important component of the
assembler-loader system. It makes it possible to assemble a program once, and later
load and run it many times. It also provides a natural place for the assembler to
leave information to the loader, instructing the loader in several aspects of loading
the program. This information is called loader directives and is covered in chapters
3 and 7. Note, however, that the object le is optional. The user may specify no
object le, in which case the assembler generates only a listing.
The second output of the assembler is the listing le. For each line in the source
le, a line is created in the listing le, containing:
The Location Counter (see chapter 1). The source line itself. The machine
instruction (if the source line is an instruction), or some other relevant information
(if the source line is a directive).
The listing le is generated by the assembler, sent to the printer, gets printed,
and is then discarded. The user, however, can specify either not to generate a listing
le or not to print it. There are also directives that control the listing. They can
be used to suppress parts of the listing, to print page headers, or to control the
printing of macro expansions.

The cross-reference information is normally a part of the listing le, although

the MASM assembler creates it in a separate le and uses a special utility to print
it. The cross-reference is a list of all symbols used in the program. For each symbol,
the point where it is dened and all the places where it is used, are listed.
Exercise .1 Why would anyone want to suppress the listing le or not to print it?
As mentioned above, the rst assemblers were assemble-go type systems. They
did not generate any object le. Their main output was machine instructions loaded
directly into memory. Their secondary output was a listing. Such assemblers are
also in use today (for reasons explained in chapter 1) and are called one-pass assemblers. In principle, a one pass assembler can produce an object le, but such a
le would be absolute and its use is limited.

Introduction

Most assemblers today are of the two-pass variety. They generate an object le
that is relocatable and can be linked and loaded by a loader.
A loader, as the name implies, is a program that loads programs into memory.
Modern loaders, however, do much more than that. Their main tasks (chapter
7) are loading, relocating, linking and starting the program. In a typical run,
a modern linking-loader can read several object les, load them one by one into
memory, relocating each as it is being loaded, link all the separate object les into
one executable module, and start execution at the right point. Using such a loader
has several advantages (see below), the most important being the ability to write
and assemble a program in several, separate, parts.
Writing a large program in several parts is advantageous, for reasons that will
be briey mentioned but not fully discussed here. The individual parts can be
written by dierent programmers (or teams of programmers), each concentrating
on his own part. The dierent parts can be written in dierent languages. It is
common to write the main program in a higher-level language and the procedures in
assembler language. The individual parts are assembled (or compiled) separately,
and separate object les are produced. The assembler or compiler can only see one
part at a time and does not see the whole picture. It is only the loader that loads
the separate parts and combines them into a single program. Thus when a program
is assembled, the assembler does not know whether this is a complete program or
just a part of a larger program. It therefore assumes that the program will start at
address zero and assembles it based on that assumption. Before the loader loads the
program, it determines its true start address, based on the memory areas available
at that moment and on the previously loaded object les. The loader then loads the
program, making sure that all instructions t properly in their memory locations.
This process involves adjusting memory addresses in the program, and is called
relocation.
Since the assembler works on one program at a time, it cannot link individual
programs. When it assembles a source le containing a main program, the assembler
knows nothing about the existence of any other source les containing, perhaps,
procedures called by the main program. As a result, the assembler may not be
able to properly assemble a procedure call instruction (to an external procedure) in
the main program. The object le of the main program will, in such a case, have
missing parts (holes or gaps) that the assembler cannot ll. The loader has access
to all the object les that make up the entire program. It can see the whole picture,
and one of its tasks is to ll up any missing parts in the object les. This task is
called linking.
The task of preparing a source program for execution includes translation (assembling or compiling), loading, relocating, and linking. It is divided between the
assembler (or compiler) and the loader, and dual assembler-loader systems are very
common. The main exception to this arrangement is interpretation. Interpretive
languages such as BASIC or APL use the services of one program, the interpreter,
for their execution, and do not require an assembler or a loader. It should be clear
from the above discussion that the main reason for keeping the assembler and loader

Introduction

separate is the need to develop programs (especially large ones) in separate parts.
The detailed reasons for this will not be discussed here. We will, however, point out
the advantages of having a dual assembler-loader system. They are listed below, in
order of importance.
It makes it possible to write programs in separate parts that may also be in
dierent languages.
It keeps the assembler small. This is an important advantage. The size of the
assembler depends on the size of its internal tables (especially the symbol table and
the macro denition table). An assembler designed to assemble large programs is
large because of its large tables. Separate assembly makes it possible to assemble
very large programs with a small assembler.
When a change is made in the source code, only the modied program needs to
be reassembled. This property is a benet if one assumes that assembly is slow and
loading is fast. Many times, however, loading is slower than assembling, and this
property is just a feature, not an advantage, of a dual assembler-loader system.
The loader automatically loads routines from a library. This is considered by
some an advantage of a dual assembler-loader system but, actually, it is not. It
could easily be done in a single assembler-loader program. In such a program, the
library would have to contain the source code of the routines, but this is typically
not larger than the object code.

Introduction

The words of the wise are as goads, and as nail fastened by masters of
assemblies

Ecclesiastes 12:11

A Short History of
Assemblers and Loaders

One of the rst stored program computers was the EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) developed at Cambridge University in 1949 by
Maurice Wilkes and W. Renwick [4, 8 & 97]. From its very rst days the EDSAC
had an assembler, called Initial Orders. It was implemented in a read-only memory
formed from a set of rotary telephone selectors, and it accepted symbolic instructions. Each instruction consisted of a one letter mnemonic, a decimal address, and
a third eld that was a letter. The third eld caused one of 12 constants preset by
the programmer to be added to the address at assembly time.
It is interesting to note that Wilkes was also the rst to propose the use of
labels (which he called oating addresses), the rst to use an early form of macros
(which he called synthetic orders), and the rst to develop a subroutine library [4].
Reference [65] is a very early description of the use of labels in an assembler The
IBM 650 computer was rst delivered around 1953 and had an assembler very similar
to present day assemblers. SOAP (Symbolic Optimizer and Assembly Program) did
symbolic assembly in the conventional way, and was perhaps the rst assembler to
do so. However, its main feature was the optimized calculation of the address of
the next instruction. The IBM 650 (a decimal computer, incidentally), was based
on a magnetic drum memory and the program was stored in that memory. Each

A Short History of Assemblers and Loaders

instruction had to be fetched from the drum and had to contain the address of
its successor. For maximum speed, an instruction had to be placed on the drum
in a location that would be under the read head as soon as its predecessor was
completed. SOAP calculated those addresses, based on the execution times of the
individual instructions. Chapter 7 has more details, and a programming project,
on this process.
One of the rst commercially successful computers was the IBM 704. It had
features such as oating-point hardware and index registers. It was rst delivered
in 1956 and its rst assembler, the UASAP-1, was written in the same year by Roy
Nutt of United Aircraft Corp. (hence the name UASAPUnited Aircraft Symbolic
Assembly Program). It was a simple binary assembler, did practically nothing
but one-to-one translation, and left the programmer in complete control over the
program. SHARE, the IBM users organization, adopted a later version of that
assembler [9] and distributed it to its members together with routines produced
and contributed by members. UASAP has pointed the way to early assembler
writers, and many of its design principles are used by assemblers to this day. The
UASAP was later modied to support macros [62].
In the same year another assembler, the IBM Autocoder was developed by R.
Goldnger [10] for use on the IBM 702/705 computers. This assembler (actually
several dierent Autocoder assemblers) was apparently the rst to use macros. The
Autocoder assemblers were used extensively and were eventually developed into
large systems with large macro libraries used by many installations.
Another pioneering early assembler was the UNISAP, [47] for the UNIVAC I
& II computers, developed in 1958 by M. E. Conway. It was a one-and-a-half pass
assembler, and was the rst one to use local labels. Both concepts are covered in
chapter 1.
By the late fties, IBM had released the 7000 series of computers. These came
with a macro assembler, SCAT, that had all the features of modern assemblers.
It had many directives (pseudo instructions in the IBM terminology), an extensive
macro facility, and it generated relocatable object les.
The SCAT assembler (Symbolic Coder And Translator) was originally written
for the IBM 709 [56] and was modied to work on the IBM 7090. The GAS (Generalized Assembly System) assembler was another powerful 7090 assembler [58].
The idea of macros originated with several people. McIlroy [22] was probably
the rst to propose the modern form of macros and the idea of conditional assembly.
He implemented these ideas in the GAS assembler mentioned above. Reference [60]
is a short early paper presenting some details of macro denition table handling.
One of the rst full-feature loaders, the linking loader for the IBM 704709
7090 computers [59], is an example of an early loader supporting both relocation
and linking.
The earliest work discussing meta-assemblers seems to be Ferguson [24]. The
idea of high-level assemblers originated with Wirth [61] and had been extended,

A Short History of Assemblers and Loaders

Machine Language

Assembler Language
Absolute Assembler
Directives
Relocation
Bits

External
Routines

External
Relocatable
Routines

Absolute Assembler
with
Library Routines

Relocatable
Assembler
and Loader

Linking Loader

Macros

Macro Assembler

Conditional Assembly

Full-Feature, Relocatable
Macro Assembler, with
Conditional Assembly
Phases in the historical development of assemblers and loaders.

10 A Short History of Assemblers and Loaders

a few years later, by an anonymous software designer at NCR, who proposed the
main ideas of the NEAT/3 language [85,86].
The diagram summarizes the main phases in the historical development of
assemblers and loaders.

I would like to present a brief historical background as a preface to the

language specication contained in this manual.

John Warnock Postscript Language Reference Manual, 1985.

Types of
Assemblers and Loaders

A One-pass Assembler: One that performs all its functions by reading the source
le once.
A Two-Pass Assembler: One that reads the source le twice.
A Resident Assembler: One that is permanently loaded in memory. Typically
such an assembler resides in ROM, is very simple (supports only a few directives
and no macros), and is a one-pass assembler. The above assemblers are described
in chapter 1.
A Macro-Assembler: One that supports macros (chapter 4).
A Cross-Assembler: An assembler that runs on one computer and assembles programs for another. Many cross-assemblers are written in a higher-level language to
make them portable. They run on a large machine and produce object code for a
small machine.
A Meta-Assembler: One that can handle many dierent instruction sets.
A Disassembler: This, in a sense, is the opposite of an assembler. It translates
machine code into a source program in assembler language.

12 Types of Assemblers and Loaders

A high-level assembler. This is a translator for a language combining the features

of a higher-level language with some features of assembler language. Such a language
can also be considered a machine dependent higher-level language. The above four
types are described in chapter 6.
A Micro-Assembler: Used to assemble microinstructions. It is not dierent in
principle from an assembler. Note that microinstructions have nothing to do with
programming microcomputers.
Combinations of those types are common. An assembler can be a Macro CrossAssembler or a Micro Resident one.
A Bootstrap Loader: It uses its rst few instructions to either load the rest of
itself, or load another loader, into memory. It is typically stored in ROM.
An Absolute Loader: Can only load absolute object les, i.e., can only load a
program starting from a certain, xed location in memory.
A Relocating Loader: Can load relocatable object les and thus can load the same
program starting at any location.
A Linking Loader: Can link programs that were assembled separately, and load
them as a single module.
A Linkage Editor: Links programs and does some relocation. Produces a load
module that can later be loaded by a simple relocating loader. All loader types are
discussed in chapter 7.

1. Basic Principles

The basic principles of assembler operation are simple, involving just one problem, that of unresolved references. This is a simple problem that has two simple
solutions. The problem is important, however, since its two solutions introduce,
in a natural way, the two main types of assemblers namely, the one-pass and the
two-pass.

1.1 Assembler Operation

As mentioned in the introduction, the main input of the assembler is the source
le. Each record on the source le is a source line that specifes either an assembler
instruction or a directive.

1.1.1 The source line

A typical source line has four elds. A label (or a location), a mnemonic (or
operation), an operand, and a comment.
Example:

LOOP ADD R1,ABC PRODUCING THE SUM

In this example, LOOP is a label, ADD is a mnemonic meaning to add, R1 stands

for register 1, and ABC is the label of another source line. R1 and ABC are two
operands that make up the operand eld. The example above is, therefore, a doubleoperand instruction. When a label is used as an operand, we call it a symbol. Thus,
in our case, ABC is a symbol.

14 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

The comment is for the programmers use only. It is read by the assembler, it
is listed in the listing le, and is otherwise ignored.
The label eld is only necessary if the instruction is referred to from some
other point in the program. It may be referred to by another instruction in the
same program, by another instruction in a dierent program (the two programs
should eventually be linked), or by itself.
The word mnemonic comes from the Greek oo, meaning pertaining to
memory; it is a memory aid. The mnemonic is always necessary. It is the operation.
It tells the assembler what instruction needs to be assembled or what directive to
execute (but see the comment below about blank lines).
The operand depends on the mnemonic. Instructions can have zero, one, or
two operands (very few computers have also three operand instructions). Directives
also have operands. The operands supply information to the assembler about the
source line.
As a result, only the mnemonic is mandatory, but there are even exceptions
to this rule. One exception is blank lines. Many assemblers allow blank linesin
which all elds, including the mnemonic, are missingin the source le. They make
the listing more readable but are otherwise ignored.
Another exception is comment lines. A line that starts with a special symbol (typically a semicolon, sometimes an asterisk and, in a few cases, a slash) is
considered a comment line and, of course, has no mnemonic. Many modern assemblers (see, e.g., references [37], [99][102]) support a COMMENT directive that has the
following form:
COMMENT delimiter text delimiter
Where the text between the delimiters is a comment. This way the programmer
can enter a long comment, spread over many lines, without having to start each
line with the special comment symbol. Example:
COMMENT =This is a long
comment that . . .
.
.
. . . sucient to describe what you want=
Old assemblers were developed on punched-card based computers. They required the instructions to be punched on cards such that each eld of the source
line was punched in a certain eld on the card. The following is an example from
the IBMAP (Macro Assembler Program) assembler for the IBM 7040 [12]. A source
line in this assembler has to be punched on a card with the format:

Sec. 1.1

Assembler Operation

Columns

Field

1-6
7
8-

Label
Blank
Mnemonic

15

and also obey the following rules:

The operand must be separated from the mnemonic by at least one blank, and
must start on or before column 16.
The comment must be separated from the operand by at least one blank. If there
is no operand, the comment may not start before column 17.
The comment extends through column 80 but columns 7380 are normally used
for sequencing and identication.
It is obviously very hard to enter such source lines from a keyboard. Modern
assemblers are thus more exible and do not require any special format. If a label
exists, it must end with a :. Otherwise, the individual elds should be separated
by at least one space (or by a tab character), and subelds should be separated by
either a comma or parentheses. This rule makes it convenient to enter source lines
from a keyboard, but is ambiguous in the case of a source line that has a comment
but no operand.
Example:

EI ;ENABLE ALL INTERRUPTS

The semicolon guarantees that the word ENABLE will not be considered an
operand by the assembler. This is why many assemblers require that comments
start with a semicolon.
Exercise 1.1 Why a semicolon and not some other character such as $ or @ ?
Many modern assemblers allow labels without an identifying :. They simply
have to work harder in order to identify labels.
The instruction sets of some computers are designed such that the mnemonic
species more than just the operation. It may also contain part of the operand.
The Signetics 2650 microprocessor, for example, has many mnemonics that include
one of the operands [13]. A Store Relative instruction on the 2650 may be written
STRR,R0 SAV; the mnemonic eld includes R0 (the register to be stored in location
SAV), which is an operand.
On other computers, the operation may partly be specied in the operand
eld. The instruction IX7 X2+X5, on the CDC Cyber computers [14] means: add
register X2 and register X5 as integers, and store the sum in register X7. The
operation appears partly in the operation eld (I) and partly in the operand eld
(+), whereas X7 (an operand) appears in the mnemonic. This makes it harder
for the assembler to identify the operation and the operands and, as a result, such
instruction formats are not common.

16 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

Exercise 1.2 What is the meaning of the Cyber instruction FX7 X2+X5?
To translate an instruction, the assembler uses the OpCode table, which is a
static data structure. The two important columns in the table are the mnemonic
and OpCode. Table 11 is an example of a simple OpCode table. It is part of the
IBM 360 OpCode table and it includes other information.
mnemonic
A
AD
ADR
AER
AE

OpCode
5A
6A
2A
3A
1A

type length
RX
RX
RR
RR
RR

4
4
2
2
2

Table 11
The mnemonics are from one to four letters long (in many assemblers they
may include digits). The OpCodes are two hexadecimal digits (8 bits) long, and the
types (which are irrelevant for now) provide more information to the assembler.
The OpCode table should allow for a quick search. For each source line input,
the assembler has to search the OpCode table. If it nds the mnemonic, it uses the
OpCode to start assembling the instruction. It also uses the other information in
the OpCode table to complete the assembly. If it does not nd the mnemonic in the
table, it assumes that the mnemonic is that of a directive and proceeds accordingly
(see chapter 3).

The OpCode table thus provides for an easy rst step of assembling an instruction. The next step is using the operand to complete the assembly. The OpCode
table should contain information about the number and types of operands for each
instruction. In table 11 above, the type column provides this information. Type
RR means a Register-Register instruction. This is an instruction with two operands,
both registers. The assembler expects two operands, both numbers between 0 and
15 (the IBM 360 has 16 general-purpose registers). Each register number is assembled as a 4 bit eld.
Exercise 1.3 Why does the IBM 360 have 16 general purpose registers and not a
round number such as 15 or 20?
Example: The instruction AR 4,6 means: add register 6 (the source) to register 4 (the destination operand). It is assembled as the 16-bit machine instruction
1A46, in which 1A is the OpCode and 46, the two operands.
Type RX stands for Register-indeX. In these instructions the operand consists
of a register followed by an address.
Example: BAL 5,14. This instruction calls a procedure at location 14, and
saves the return address in register 5 (BAL stands for Branch And Link). It is
assembled as the 32-bit machine instruction 4550000E in which 00E is a 12-bit

Sec. 1.1

Assembler Operation

address eld (E is hexadecimal 14), 45 is the OpCode, 5 is register 5, and the two
zeros in the middle are irrelevant to our discussion. (A note to readers familiar
with the IBM 360This example ignores base registers as they do not contribute
anything to our discussion of assemblers.)
Exercise 1.4 What are the two zeros in the middle of the instruction used for?
This example is not a typical one. Numeric addresses are rarely used in assembler programming, since keeping track of their values is a tedious task better left to
the assembler. In practice, symbols are used instead of numeric addresses. Thus the
above example is likely to be written as BAL 5,XYZ, where XYZ is a symbol whose
value is an address. Symbol XYZ should be the label of some source line. Typically
the program will contain the two lines
XYZ

17

A
.
.
BAL

4,ABC

;THE SUBROUTINE STARTS HERE

5,XYZ

;THE SUBROUTINE IS CALLED

Besides the basic task of assembling instructions, the assembler oers many
services to the user, the most important of which is handling symbols. This task
consists of two dierent parts, dening symbols, and using them. A symbol is
dened by writing it as a label. The symbol is used by writing it in the operand
eld of a source line. A symbol can only be dened once but it can be used any
number of times. To understand how a value is assigned to a symbol, consider the
example above. The add instruction A is assembled and is eventually loaded into
memory as part of the program. The value of symbol XYZ is the memory address of
that instruction. This means that the assembler has to keep track of the addresses
where instructions are loaded, since some of them will become values of symbols.
To do this, the assembler uses two tools, the location counter (LC), and the symbol
table.
The LC is a variable, maintained by the assembler, that contains the address
into which the current instruction will eventually be loaded. When the assembler
starts, it clears the LC, assuming that the rst instruction will go into location 0.
After each instruction is assembled, the assembler increments the LC by the size
of the instruction (the size in words, not in bits). Thus the LC always contains
the current address. Note that the assembler does not load the instructions into
memory. It writes them on the object le, to be eventually loaded into memory by
the loader. The LC, therefore, does not point to the current instruction. It just
shows where the instruction will eventually be loaded. When the source line has
a label (a newly dened symbol), the label is assigned the current value of the LC
as its value. Both the label and its value (plus some other information) are then
placed in the symbol table.
The symbol table is an internal, dynamic table that is generated, maintained,
and used by the assembler. Each entry in the table contains the denition of a
symbol and has elds for the name, value, and type of the symbol. Some symbol

18 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

tables contain other information about the symbols. The symbol table starts empty,
labels are entered into it as their denitions are found in the source, and the table
is also searched frequently to nd the values and types of symbols whose names are
known. Chapter 2 discusses various ways to implement symbol tables.
In the above example, when the assembler encounters the line
XYZ A 5,ABC ;THE SUBROUTINE STARTS HERE
it performs two independent operations. It stores symbol XYZ and its value (the
current value of the LC) in the symbol table, and it assembles the instruction.
These two operations have nothing to do with each other. Handling the symbol
denition and assembling the instruction are done by two dierent parts of the
assembler. Many times they are performed in dierent phases of the assembly.
If the LC happens to have the value 260, then the entry
name
XYZ

value
0104

type
REL

will be added to the symbol table (104 is the hex value of decimal 260, and the type
REL will be explained later).
When the assembler encounters the line
BAL 5,XYZ

it assembles the instruction but, in order to assemble the operand, the assembler
needs to search the symbol table, nd symbol XYZ, fetch its value and make it part
of the assembled instruction. The instruction is, therefore, assembled as 45500104.
Exercise 1.5 The address in our example, 104, is a relatively small number. Many
times, instructions have a 12-bit eld for the address, allowing addresses up to
212 1 = 4095. What if the value of a certain symbol exceeds that number?
This is, in a very general way, what the assembler has to do in order to assemble
instructions and handle symbols. It is a simple process and it involves only one
problem which is illustrated by the following example.

XYZ

BAL
.
.
A

5,XYZ

;CALL THE SUBROUTINE

4,ABC

;THE SUBROUTINE STARTS HERE

In this case the value of symbol XYZ is needed before label XYZ is dened. When the
assembler gets to the rst line (the BAL instruction), it searches the symbol table
for XYZ and, of course, does not nd it. This situation is called the future symbol
problem or the problem of unresolved references. The XYZ in our example is a future
symbol or an unresolved reference.

Sec. 1.1

Assembler Operation

19

Obviously, future symbols are not an error and their use should not be prohibited. The programmer should be able to refer to source lines which either precede
or follow the current line. Thus the future symbol problem has to be solved. It
turns out to be a simple problem and there are two solutions, a one-pass assembler
and a two-pass assembler. They represent not just dierent solutions to the future
symbol problem but two dierent approaches to assembler design and operation.
The one-pass assembler, as the name implies, solves the future symbol problem
by reading the source le once. Its most important feature, however, is that it
does not generate a relocatable object le but rather loads the object code (the
machine language program) directly into memory. Similarly, the most important
feature of the two-pass assembler is that it generates a relocatable object le, that
is later loaded into memory by a loader. It also solves the future symbol problem
by performing two passes over the source le. It should be noted at this point that
a one-pass assembler can generate an object le. Such a le, however, would be
absolute, rather than relocatable, and its use is limited. Absolute and relocatable
object les are discussed later in this chapter. Figure 11 is a summary of the most
important components and operations of an assembler.
Pass
indicator

Source
file

Location counter

Error
proc.
Source line
buffer

Main
Program

Lexical scan
routine

Object
code
assembly
area

Object
file

Table search procedures

Opcode
table

Directive
table

Symbol
table

Figure 11. The Main Components and Operations of an Assembler.

20 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

1.2 The Two-Pass Assembler

A two-pass assembler is easier to understand and will be discussed rst. Such

an assembler performs two passes over the source le. In the rst pass it reads the
entire source le, looking only for label denitions. All labels are collected, assigned
values, and placed in the symbol table in this pass. No instructions are assembled
and, at the end of the pass, the symbol table should contain all the labels dened in
the program. In the second pass, the instructions are again read and are assembled,
using the symbol table.
Exercise 1.6 What if a certain symbol is needed in pass 2, to assemble an instruction, and is not found in the symbol table?
To assign values to labels in pass 1, the assembler has to maintain the LC. This
in turn means that the assembler has to determine the size of each instruction (in
words), even though the instructions themselves are not assembled.
In many cases it is easy to gure out the size of an instruction. On the IBM 360,
the mnemonic determines the size uniquely. An assembler for this machine keeps
the size of each instruction in the OpCode table together with the mnemonic and
the OpCode (see table 11). On the DEC PDP-11 the size is determined both
by the type of the instruction and by the addressing mode(s) that it uses. Most
instructions are one word (16-bits) long. However, if they use either the index or
index deferred modes, one more word is added to the instruction. If the instruction
has two operands (source and destination) both using those modes, its size will be
3 words. On most modern microprocessors, instructions are between 1 and 4 bytes
long and the size is determined by the OpCode and the specic operands used.
This means that, in many cases, the assembler has to work hard in the rst
pass just to determine the size of an instruction. It has to look at the mnemonic
and, sometimes, at the operands and the modes, even though it does not assemble
the instruction in the rst pass. All the information about the mnemonic and
the operand collected by the assembler in the rst pass is extremely useful in the
second pass, when instructions are assembled. This is why many assemblers save
all the information collected during the rst pass and transmit it to the second pass
through an intermediate le. Each record on the intermediate le contains a copy
of a source line plus all the information that has been collected about that line in
the rst pass. At the end of the rst pass the original source le is closed and is no
longer used. The intermediate le is reopened and is read by the second pass as its
input le.
A record in a typical intermediate le contains:
The record type. It can be an instruction, a directive, a comment, or an invalid
line.
The LC value for the line.
A pointer to a specic entry in the OpCode table or the directive table. The
second pass uses this pointer to locate the information necessary to assemble or
execute the line.

Sec. 1.2

The Two-Pass Assembler

21

A copy of the source line. Notice that a label, if any, is not use by pass 2 but
must be included in the intermediate le since it is needed in the nal listing.
Fig. 12 is a ow chart summarizing the operations in the two passes.
There can be two problems with labels in the rst pass; multiply-dened labels
and invalid labels. Before a label is inserted into the symbol table, the table has to
be searched for that label. If the label is already in the table, it is doubly (or even
multiply-) dened. The assembler should treat this label as an error and the best
way of doing this is by inserting a special code in the type eld in the symbol table.
Thus a situation such as:
AB
ADD 5,X
.
.
AB
SUB 6,Y
.
.
JMP AB
will generate the entry:
name

value

type

AB

MTDF

in the symbol table.

Labels normally have a maximum size (typically 6 or 8 characters), must start

with a letter, and may only consist of letters, digits, and a few other characters.
Labels that do not conform to these rules are invalid labels and are normally considered a fatal error. However, some assemblers will truncate a long label to the
maximum size and will issue just a warning, not an error, in such a case.
Exercise 1.7 What is the advantage of allowing characters other than letters and
digits in a label?
The only problem with symbols in the second pass is bad symbols. These are
either multiply-dened or undened symbols. When a source line uses a symbol in
the operand eld, the assembler looks it up in the symbol table. If the symbol is
found but has a type of MTDF, or if the symbol is not found in the symbol table (i.e.,
it has not been dened), the assembler responds as follows.
It ags the instruction in the listing le.
It assembles the instruction as far as possible, and writes it on the object le.
It ags the entire object le. The ag instructs the loader not to start execution
of the program. The object le is still generated and the loader will read and load
it, but not start it. Loading such a le may be useful if the user wants to see a
memory map (see discussion of memory maps in chapter 7).

22 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

pass 1

read line
from source file

eof
?

close source file

rewind intermediate
file

yes

no
label
defined
?

yes

pass 2

store name & value

in symbol table

no
determine size
of instruction

LC:=LC+size

write source line & other

info on intermediate file

Figure 12. The Operations of the Two-Pass Assmbler (part 1).

The JMP AB instruction above is an example of a bad symbol in the operand
eld. This instruction cannot be fully assembled, and thus constitutes our rst
example of a fatal error detected and issued by the assembler.
The last important point regarding a two-pass assembler is the box, in the ow
chart above, that says write object instruction onto the object le. The point is that
when the two-pass assembler writes the machine instruction on the object le, it has
access to the source instruction. This does not seem to be an important point but,
in fact, it constitutes the main dierence between the one-pass and the two-pass

Sec. 1.2

The Two-Pass Assembler

23

pass 2
2
read next line from
intermediate file

yes
stop

eof
?
no
assemble
instruction

write object instruction

onto object file

write source & object

lines onto listing file

Figure 12. The Operations of the Two-Pass Assmbler (part 2).

assemblers. This point is the reason why a one-pass assembler can only produce
an absolute object le (which has only limited use), whereas a two-pass assembler
can produce a relocatable object le, which is much more general. This important
topic is explained later in this chapter.

24 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

1.3 The One-Pass Assembler

The operation of a one-pass assembler is dierent. As its name implies, this
assembler reads the source le once. During that single pass, the assembler handles
both label denitions and assembly. The only problem is future symbols and, to
understand the solution, lets consider the following example:
LC
36

67

89

126

AB

BEQ
.
.
BNE
.
.
JMP
.
.
anything

AB

;BRANCH ON EQUAL

AB

;BRANCH ON NOT EQUAL

AB

;UNCONDITIONALLY

Symbol AB is used three times as a future symbol. On the rst reference, when
the LC happens to stand at 36, the assembler searches the symbol table for AB, does
not nd it, and therefore assumes that it is a future symbol. It then inserts AB into
the symbol table but, since AB has no value yet, it gets a special type. Its type is
U (undened). Even though it is still undened, it now occupies an entry in the
symbol table, an entry that will be used to keep track of AB as long as it is a future
symbol. The next step is to set the value eld of that entry to 36 (the current
value of the LC). This means that the symbol table entry for AB is now pointing
to the instruction in which AB is needed. The value eld is an ideal place for the
pointer since it is the right size, it is currently empty, and it is associated with
AB. The BEQ instruction itself is only partly assembled and is stored, incomplete,
in memory location 36. The eld in the instruction were the value of AB should be
stored (the address eld), remains empty.
When the assembler gets to the BNE instruction (at which point the LC stands
at 67), it searches the symbol table for AB, and nds it. However, AB has a type
of U, which means that it is a future symbol and thus its value eld (=36) is not
a value but a pointer. It should be noted that, at this point, a type of U does not
necessarily mean an undened symbol. While the assembler is performing its single
pass, any undened symbols must be considered future symbols. Only at the end of
the pass can the assembler identify undened symbols (see below). The assembler
handles the BNE instruction by:
Partly assembling it and storing it in memory location 67.
Copying the pointer 36 from the symbol table to the partly assembled instruction
in location 67. The instruction has an empty eld (where the value of AB should
have been), where the pointer is now stored. There may be cases where this eld

Sec. 1.3

The One-Pass Assembler

25

in the instruction is too small to store a pointer. In such a case the assembler must
resort to other methods, one of which is discussed below.
Copying the LC (=67) into the value eld of the symbol table entry for AB,
rewriting the 36.
When the assembler reaches the JMP AB instruction, it repeats the three steps
above. The situation at those three points is summarized below.
memory
loc

contents

36

BEQ .
.

symbol
table
n
v
t

AB

.
.
36
.
.

memory
loc

contents

36

BEQ .
.
BNE 36

U
67

symbol
table
n
v
t

AB

.
.
67
.
.

memory
loc

contents

36

BEQ .
.
BNE 36
.
.
JMP 67

U
67

89

symbol
table
n
v
t

AB

.
.
89
.
.

It is obvious that an indenite number of instructions can refer to AB as a future

symbol. The result will be a linked list linking all these instructions. When the
denition of AB is nally found (the LC will be 126 at that point), the assembler
searches the symbol table for AB and nds it. The type eld is still U which tells
the assembler that AB has been used as a future symbol. The assembler then follows
the linked list of instructions using the pointers found in the instructions. It starts
from the pointer found in the symbol table and, for each instruction in the list, the
assembler:
saves the value of the pointer found in the address eld of the instruction. The
pointer is saved in a register or a memory location (temp in the gure below), and
is later used to nd the next incomplete instruction.
Stores the value of AB (=126) in the address eld of the instruction, thereby
completing it.
The last step is to store the value 126 in the value eld of AB in the symbol
table, and to change the type to D. The individual steps taken by the assembler in
our example are shown in the table below.
It, therefore, follows that at the end of the single pass, the symbol table should
only contain symbols with a type of D. At the end of the pass, the assembler scans
the symbol table for undened symbols. If it nds any symbols with a type of U, it
issues an error message and will not start the program.
Figure 13 is a ow chart of a one-pass assembler.
The one-pass assembler loads the machine instructions in memory and thus
has no trouble in going back and completing instructions. However, the listing
generated by such an assembler is incomplete since it cannot backspace the listing

26 Basic Principles

Address

Contents

Contents

Contents

36

BEQ .
.
BNE 36
.
.
JMP 126

BEQ -

BEQ 126

BNE 126

BNE 126

JMP 126

JMP 126

temp=67

temp=36

temp=/

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

67

89

Ch. 1

le to complete lines previously printed. Therefore, when an incomplete instruction

(one that uses a future symbol) is loaded in memory, it also goes into the listing
le as incomplete. In the example above, the three lines using symbol AB will be
printed with asterisks * or question marks ?, instead of the value of AB.
The key to the operation of a one-pass assembler is the fact that it loads the
object code directly in memory and does not generate an object le. This makes it
possible for the assembler to go back and complete instructions in memory at any
time during assembly.
The one-pass assembler can, in principle, generate an object le by simply
writing the object program from memory to a le. Such an object le, however,
would be absolute. Absolute and relocatable object les are discussed below.
One more point needs to be mentioned here. It is the case where the address
eld in the instruction is too small for a pointer. This is a common case, since
machine instructions are designed to be short and normally do not contain a full
address. Instead of a full address, a typical machine instruction contains two elds,
mode and displacement (or oset), such that the mode tells the computer how to
obtain the full address from the displacement (see appendix A). The displacement
eld is small (typically 812 bits) and has no room for a full address.
To handle this situation, the one-pass assembler has an additional data structure, a collection of linked lists, each corresponding to a future symbol. Each linked
list contains, in its nodes, pointers to instructions that are waiting to be completed.
The list for symbol AB is shown below in three successive stages of its construction.
When symbol AB is found, the assembler uses the information in the list to
complete all incomplete instructions. It then returns the entire list to the pool of
available memory.
An easy way to maintain such a collection of lists is to house them in an array.
Fig. 15 shows our list, occupying positions 5,9,3 of such an array. Each position

Sec. 1.3

The One-Pass Assembler

start.
lc=0

6
1

read line
from
source

eof

enter name,
pointer &
type of U

3
yes

5
7

no

label
defined

27

yes

copy pointer
from s.t. to
instruction
being
assembled

no

scan line

a
symbol
used

place LC in
s.t. to point
to current
instruction
being
assembled

no
3
3

assemble line

yes

search
symbol
table

not
found

load in memory
6
print LC, source
& object codes

found

3
yes

type
=D

no

Figure 13. The Operations of the One-Pass Assmbler (part 1).

has two locations, the rst being the data item stored (a pointer to an incomplete
instruction) and the second, the array index of the next node of the list.

28 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

search
s.t.

found

no

type
=U

Error!
label is
doubly
defined

yes
enter
name
LC &
type=D
in s.t.

follow pointer
in value field.
complete all
instr. waiting
for value of
the symbol

no
stop

U
symbol
?
yes

store LC in
value field of
s.t., change
type to D

Error!
undefined
symbol(s)

scan
s.t.

stop

Figure 13. The Operations of the One-Pass Assmbler (part 2).

Exercise 1.8 What would be good Pascal declarations for such a future symbol
list:
a. Using absolute pointers.
b. Housed in an array.

1.4 Absolute and Relocatable Object Files

To illustrate the concept of absolute and relocatable object les, the following
example is used, assuming a two-pass assembler.
LC
86

104

TO

JMP TO
.
.
ADD 1,2

The JMP instruction is assembled as JMP 104 and is written onto the object le.
When the object le is loaded starting at address 0, the JMP instruction is loaded
at location 86 and the ADD instruction, at location 104. When the JMP is executed,
it will cause a branch to 104, i.e., to the ADD instruction.

Sec. 1.4

Absolute and Relocatable Object Files

symbol table
n

AB

symbol table

AB

36

29

symbol table

AB

67

t
U

89

36

67

36

LC=36

LC=67

LC=89

Figure 14. A linked list for symbol AB.

symbol table
n

AB

36

89

67

Figure 15. Housing a linked list in an array.

On subsequent loads, however, the loader may decide to load the program
starting at a dierent address. On large computers, it is common to have several
programs loaded in memory at the same time, each occupying a dierent area.
Assuming that our program is loaded starting at location 500, the JMP instruction
will go into location 586 and the ADD, into location 604. The JMP should branch to
location 604 but, since it has not been modied, it will still branch to location 104
which is not only the wrong location, but is even outside the memory area of the
program.
1.4.1 Relocation bits
In a relocatable object le, this situation is taken care of by cooperation between
the assembler and the loader. The assembler identies and ags each item on the
object le as either absolute or relocatable. The JMP instruction above would be
relocatable since it uses a symbol (TO). The ADD instruction, on the other hand,
would be absolute. It is assembled as ADD 12 and will always add registers 1 and
2 regardless of the start address of the program.

30 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

In its simplest form, agging each item is done by adding an extra bit, a
relocation bit, to it. The relocation bit is set by the assembler to 0, if the item
is absolute and to 1, if it is relocatable. The loader, when reading the object le
and loading instructions, reads the relocation bits. If an object instruction has a
relocation bit of 0, the loader simply loads it into memory. If it has a relocation bit
of 1, the loader relocates it by adding the start address to it. It is then loaded into
memory in the usual way. In our example, the JMP TO instruction will be relocated
by adding 500 to it. It will thus be loaded as JMP 604 and, when executed, will
branch to location 604 i.e. to the ADD instruction.
The relocation bits themselves are not loaded into memory since memory should
contain only the object code. When the computer executes the program, it expects
to nd just instructions and data in memory. Any relocation bits in memory would
be interpreted by the computer as either instructions or data.
This explains why a one-pass assembler cannot generate a relocatable object
le. The type of the instruction (absolute or relocatable) can be determined only
by examining the original source instruction. The one-pass assembler loads the
machine instructions directly in memory. Once in memory, the instruction is just
a number. By looking at a machine instruction in memory, it is impossible to tell
whether the original instruction was absolute or relocatable. Writing the machine
instructions from memory to a le will create an object le without any relocation
bits, i.e., an absolute object le. Such an object le is useful on computers were the
program is always loaded at the same place. In general, however, such les have
limited value.
Some readers are tempted, at this point, to nd ways to allow a one-pass
assembler to generate relocation bits. Such ways exist, and two of them will be
described here. The point is, however, that the one-pass assembler is a simple,
fast, assemble-load-go program. Any modications may result in a slow, complex
assembler, thereby losing the main advantages of one-pass assembly. It is preferable
to keep the one-pass assembler simple and, if a relocatable object le is necessary, to
use a two-pass assembler (see also the discussion of a one-and-a-half pass assembler
below).
Another point to realize is that a relocatable object le contains more than
relocation bits. It contains loader directives and linking information (covered in
chapter 7). All this is easy for a two-pass assembler to generate but hard for a
one-pass one.
1.4.2 One-pass, relocatable object les
Two ways are discussed below to modify the one-pass assembler to generate a
relocatable object le.
1. A common approach to modify the basic one-pass assembler is to have it generate
a relocation bit each time an instruction is assembled. The instruction is then
loaded into memory and the relocation bit may be stored in a special, packed array
outside the program area. When the object code is nally written on the object

Sec. 1.4

Absolute and Relocatable Object Files

31

le, the relocation bits may be read from the special array and attached each to its
instruction.
Such a method may work, but is cumbersome, especially because of future symbols. In the case of a future symbol, the assembler does not know the type (absolute
or relocatable) of the missing symbol. It thus cannot generate the relocation bit,
resulting in a hole in the special array. When the symbol denition is nally found,
the assembler should complete all the instructions that use this symbol, and also
generate the relocation bit and store it in the special array (a process involving bit
operations).
2. Another possible modication to the one-pass assembler will be briey outlined.
The assembler can write each machine instruction on the object le as soon as it is
generated and loaded in memory. At that point the source instruction is available
and can be examined, so a relocation bit can be prepared and written on the object
le with the instruction. The only problem is, as before, instructions using future
symbols. They must go on the object le incomplete and without relocation bits.
At the end of the single pass, the assembler writes the entire symbol table on the
object le.
The task of completing those instructions is left to the loader. The loader
initially skips the rst part of the object le and reads the symbol table. It then
rereads the le, and loads instructions in memory. Each time it comes across an
incomplete instruction, it uses the symbol table to complete it and, if necessary, to
relocate it as well.
The trouble with this method is that it shifts assembler tasks to the loader,
forcing the loader to do what is essentially a two-pass job.
None of these modications is satisfactory. The lesson to learn from these
attempts is that, traditionally, the one-pass and two-pass assemblers have been
developed as two dierent types of assemblers. The rst is fast and simple; the
second, a general purpose program which can support many features.
Chapter 7 discusses typical formats of relocatable object les and other items
added by the assembler to those les, to be used by the loader.
1.4.3 The task of relocating
The role of the loader is not as simple as may seem from the above discussion.
Relocating an instruction is not always as simple as adding a start address to it.
On the IBM 7090/7094 computers [65,66], for example, many instructions have the
format:
Field
OpCode
Decrement
Tag
Address
Size (in bits)
3
15
3
15
The exact meaning of the elds is irrelevant except that the Address and Decrement
elds may both contain addresses. The assembler must determine the types of both
elds (either can be absolute or relocatable), and prepare two relocation bits. The
loader has to read the two bits and should be able to relocate either eld. Relocating
the Decrement eld means adding the start address just to that eld and not to the
entire instruction.

32 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

Exercise 1.9 How can the loader add something to a eld in the middle of an
instruction ?
The discussion of separate assembly in chapter 3 (the EXTRN and ENTRY directives) shows that each eld can in fact have three dierent types, Absolute,
Relocatable, and special relocation. Thus the assembler generally has to generate
two relocation bits for each eld which, in the case of the IBM 7090/7094 (or similar computers), implies a total of four relocation bits. Chapter 7 shows how those
pairs of relocation bits are used as identication bits, identifying each line in the
relocatable object le as one of four types: an absolute instruction, a relocatable
instruction, an instruction requiring special relocation, or as a loader directives.
On the IBM PC, an absolute object le uses the extension .COM, and a relocatable object le, the extension .EXE.

1.5 Two Historical Notes

1.5.1 Early relocation
The mathematician John von Neumann, the principal contributor to early computer design, was using relocatable code as early as 1945 [11].
1.5.2 One-and-a-half pass assemblers
Some old assemblers use a technique which is intermediate between one-pass
and two-passes. Such assemblers are called one-and-a-half pass assemblers. In the
rst pass, such an assembler generates an object le on a tape (usually a paper
tape), but that object le is incomplete. Instructions with forward references are
only partly assembled and go into the object le with a hole in them. Once such
an instruction is written on the le, it is impractical to backspace the tape, nd the
instruction, and store a pointer in it. As a result, the object le remains incomplete.
However, each time an instruction uses a future symbol, an entry is added to the
symbol table with the name of the symbol and the current LC value (which is a
pointer to the instruction). At the end of the pass, the nal value of the LC is
written on the same tape, followed by the entire symbol table (which at that point
should be complete). In the second pass (the half pass), such an assembler reads
the tape backwards (easy to do with paper tape). It rst reads the symbol table
and stores it in memory. Then it reads the LC value and the object instructions,
from last to rst. The instructions are stored in memory (in reverse, from the LC
value backwards) and each incomplete instruction is completed using information
from the symbol table.
The UNISAP assembler [47] for the UNIVAC I computer is an example of a
one-and-a-half pass assembler.

Sec. 1.6

Forcing Upper

33

1.6 Forcing Upper

In most computers, the main problem in designing the instruction set is to
keep the instructions short. Normally we want an instruction to occupy one or two
memory words, at most three words. On some computers, however, this problem
does not exist. Computers such as the CDC Cyber or the Cray have very long
words (6064 bits per word) and, consequently, several instructions can be packed
in one word. On the Cyber computers, instructions are 15-, 30-, or 60-bits long, so
1, 2, 3, or even 4 instructions can be loaded in one word; on the Cray computers,
instructions are 16- or 32-bits long, with similar consequences.
On such computers, the LC must contain two parts, one pointing to the current
word and the other, to a position in the word. There are four positions in a word,
numbered 03, each corresponding to one quarter of the word. At run time, it is
only possible to branch to position 0, and this creates a special problem with labels.
An instruction with a label can be referred to from some other place in the program
and, as a result, must be the rst one (position 0) in a word. The assembler on such
a machine must recognize this situation and, each time it sees a label, make sure
that the labeled instruction is loaded into the start (position 0) of the next word.
This is called forcing the next instruction up, and is done by the assembler padding
the rest of the current word with NOP instructions. Example:
LC.P
LC.P
15.0
15.1
15.2
16.0

SB5 A6
SB6 X5
SX6 A6+B6
SA1 5

15.0
15.1
16.0
16.1

L1

SB5 A6
SB6 X5
L2 SX6 A6+B6
SA1 5

The P part of the LC indicates the position in the current word. The example
on the left does not have any labels but still has some forcing upper. Three 15-bit
instructions are loaded into location 15, positions 0, 1, 2. The next instruction,
SA1 5, is 30 bits long and does not t in the rest of the word. It is forced into
position 0 of word 16, and position 3 of location 15 is padded with a NO instruction
(which is not shown). In the example on the right, label L2 causes a forcing up of
the third instruction, resulting in two NO instructions padding location 15.

Note. The position counter in the Cyber actually indicates the number of
bits remaining in the current word. It is initialized to 60 and is decremented by the
size of the instruction, in bits. The programmer can explicitly indicate a forcing
upper of an instruction by placing a plus + in the label eld of the instruction. A
hyphen - in this eld suppresses an automatic forcing upper.
Exercise 1.10 What are other ways to explicitly request a forcing upper?
Exercise 1.11 What other case causes a forcing upper situation?

34 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

1.6.1 Relocating packed instructions

An interesting problem is, how does the assembler handle relocation bits when
several instructions are packed in one word?
In a computer such as the Cyber, only 30- and 60-bit instructions may contain
addresses. There are only six ways of combining instructions in a 60-bit word, as
the following diagram shows.

60
30

30

30

15

15

15

15

30

15

15

15

15

30
15

15

Figure 16. Packing long instructions.

The assembler has to generate one of the values 05 as a 3-bit relocation eld
attached to each word as it is written on the object le. The loader reads this eld
and uses it to perform the actual relocation.

60

0
1

30

30

30
15

15

15

15

15

15

15

15

30
30
15

15

Figure 17. Adding relocation information.

Sec. 1.7

Absolute and Relocatable Address Expressions

35

1.7 Absolute and Relocatable Address Expressions

Most assemblers can handle address expressions. Generally, an address expression may be written instead of just a symbol. Thus the instruction LOD R1,AB+1
loads reg. 1 from the memory location following AB; the instruction ADD R1,AB+5
similarly operates on the memory location whose address is 5 greater than the address AB. More complex expressions can be used, and the following two points should
be observed:
Many assemblers (almost all the old ones and some of the newer ones) do not
recognize operator precedence. They evaluate any expression strictly from left to
right and do not even allow parentheses. Thus the expression A+B*C will be evaluated by the assembler as (A+B)*C and not, as might be expected, as A+(B*C).
The reason is that complex address expressions are rarely necessary in assembler
programs and it is therefore pointless to add parsing routines to the assembler.
However, see Ch. 8 for some interesting exceptions.
When an instruction using an expression is assembled, the assembler should generate a relocation bit based on the expression. Every expression should therefore
have a well dened type. It should be either absolute or relative. As a result, certain
expressions are considered invalid by the assembler. Examples: AB+1 has the same
type as AB. Typically AB is relative, but it is possible to dene absolute symbols (see
the discussion of EQU & SET in chapter 3). In general, an expression of the form
rel+abs, rel-abs, are relative, and expressions of the form abs abs are absolute.
An expression of the form rel rel is especially interesting. Consider the case
LC
16

27

A LOD
.
.
B STO

The value of A is 16 and its type is relative (meaning A is a regular label, dened
by writing it to the left of an instruction). Thus A represents address 16 from the
start of the program. Similarly B is address 27 from the start of the program. It is
thus reasonable to dene the expression B-A as having a value of 27 16 = 11 and
a type of absolute. It represents the distance between the two locations, and that
distance is 11, regardless of where the program starts.
Exercise 1.12 What about the expression A-B? is it valid? If yes, what are its
value and type?
On the other hand, an expression of the form rel + rel has no well-dened
type and is, therefore, invalid. Both A & B above are relative and represent certain
addresses. The sum A+B, however, does not represent any address. In a similar
way abs abs is abs, rel abs is rel but rel rel is invalid. abs/abs is abs, rel/abs
is rel but rel/rel is invalid. All expressions are evaluated at the last possible
moment. Expressions in any pass 0 directives (see Ch. 4 for a discussion of pass 0)

36 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

are evaluated when the directive is executed, in pass 0. Expressions in any pass 1
directives are, similarly, evaluated in pass 1. All other expressions (in instructions
or in pass 2 directives) are evaluated in pass 2.
An extreme example of an address expression is A-B+C-D+E where all the
symbols involved are relative. It is executed from left to right (((A-B)+C)-D)+E,
generating the intermediate types: (((rel rel) + rel) rel) + rel ((abs + rel)
rel) + rel (rel rel) + rel abs + rel rel. A valid expression.

In general, expressions of the type X+A-B+C-D+ +M-N+Y are valid when X,Y
are absolute and A,B, ,M,N are relative. The relative symbols must come in
pairs like A-B except the last one M-N, where N may be missing. If N is missing, the
entire expression is relative, otherwise, it is absolute.
Exercise 1.13 How does the assembler handle an expression such as A-B+K-L in
which all the symbols are relative but K,L are external?
1.7.1 Summary
The two-pass assembler generates the machine instructions in pass two, where it
has access to the source instructions. It checks each source instruction and generates
a relocation bit according to:
If the instruction uses a relative symbol, then it is relocatable and the relocation
bit is 1.
If the instruction uses an absolute symbol (see the discussion of EQU in chapter 3)
or uses no symbols at all, the instruction is absolute and the relocation bit is 0.
An instruction in the relative mode contains an oset, not the full address, and
is therefore absolute (see App. A for the ralative mode).
The one-pass assembler generates the object le at the end of its single pass,
by dumping all the machine instructions from memory to the le. It has no access
to the source at that point and therefore cannot generate relocation bits.
As a result, those two types of assemblers have evolved along dierent lines,
and represent two dierent approaches to the overall assembler design, not just to
the problem of resolving future symbols.

1.8 Local Labels

In principle, a label may have any name that obeys the simple syntax rules of
the assembler. In practice, though, label names should be descriptive. Names such
as DATE, MORE, LOSS, RED are preferable to A001, A002,. . .
There are exceptions, however. The use of the non-descriptive label A1 in the
following example:
.
JMP A1
DDCT DS 12 reserve 12 locations for array DDCT
A1
.
.

Sec. 1.8

Local Labels

37

is justied since it is only used to jump over the array DDCT. (Note that the arrays
name is descriptive, possibly meaning deductions or double-dictionary) The DS directive is explained in chapter 3. We say that A1 is used only locally, to serve a
limited purpose.
As a result, many assemblers support a feature called local labels. It is due
to M. E. Conway who used it in the early UNISAP assembler for the UNIVAC I
computer [47]. The main idea is that if a label is used locally and does not require
a descriptive name, why not give it a name that will signify this fact. Conway used
names such as 1H, 2H for the local labels. The name of a local label in our examples
is a single decimal digit. When such a label is referred to (in the operand eld), the
digit is followed by either B or F (for Backward or Forward).
LC
.
.
13
1:
...
.
.
17
JMP 1F
.
.
24 1: LOD R2,1B
.
.
31
1: ADD R1,2F
.
.
102 2: DC 1206,-17
.
.
115
SUB R3,2B-1

jump to 24

1B here means address 13

2F is address 102

102-1=101

Example. Local labels.

The example shows that local labels is a simple, useful, concept that is easy to
implement. In a two-pass assembler, each local label is entered into the symbol table
as any other symbol, in pass 1. Thus the symbol table in our example contains:
Symbol Table
n
v
1
1
1
2

13
24
31
102

38 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

The order of the labels in the symbol table is important. If the symbol table is
sorted between the two passes, all occurrences of each local label should remain
sorted by value. In pass 2, when an instruction uses a local label such as 1F, the
assembler identies the specic occurence of label 1 by comparing all local labels
1 to the current value of the LC. The rst such instruction in our example is the
JMP 1F at LC=17. Clearly, the assembler should look for a local label with the
name 1 and a value 17. The smallest such label has value 24. In the second
case, LC=24 and the assembler is looking for a 1B. It needs the label with name 1
and a value which is the largest among all values < 24. It therefore identies the
label as the 1 at 13.
Exercise 1.14 If we modify the instruction at 24 above to read 1:
would the 1F refer to address 31 or 24?

LOD R2,1F

In a one-pass assembler, again the labels are recognized and put into the symbol
table in the single pass. An instruction using a local label iB is no problem, since
is needs the most recent occurence of the local label 1 in the table. An instruction
using an iF is handled like any other future symbol case. An entry is opened in the
symbol table with the name iF, a type of U, and a value which is a pointer to the
instruction.
In the example above, a snapshot of the symbol table at LC=32 is:
Symbol Table
n
v
t
1
1
1
2

13
24
31
31

D
D
D
U

31 is the value of the third 1

31 is a pointer to the ADD instruction

An advantage of this feature is that the local labels are easy to identify as such,
since their names start with a digit. Most assemblers require regular label names
to start with a letter.
In modern assemblers, local labels sometimes use a syntax dierent from the
one shown here. See Ch. 8 for examples.
1.8.1 The LC as a local symbol
Virtually all assemblers allow a notation such as BPL *+6 where * stands
for the current value of the LC. The operand in this case is located at a point 6
locations following the BPL instruction.
The LC symbol can be part of any address expression and is, of course, relocatable. Thus *+A is valid if A is absolute, while *-A is always okay (and is absolute
if A is relative, relative if A is absolute). This feature is easy to implement. The
address expression involving the * is calculated, using the current value of the LC,
and the value is used to assemble the instruction, or execute the directive, on the
current source line. Nothing is stored in the symbol table.

Sec. 1.8

Local Labels

39

Some assemblers use the asterisk for multiplication, and may designate the
period . or the $ for the LC symbol.

On the PDP-11 the notation X: .=.+8 is used to increment the LC by 8, and

thus to reserve eight locations (compare this to the DS directive).
Exercise 1.15 What is the meaning of JMP *, JMP *-*?

1.9 Multiple Location Counters

This feature makes it possible to write the source program in a certain way,
convenient to the programmer, and load it in memory in a dierent way, suitable
for execution. It happens many times that, while writing a program, a new piece of
data, say an array, is needed at a certain point. It is handy to write the declaration
of the array immediately following the rst instruction that uses it, like:
ADD D,...
D DS 12
However, at run time, the hardware, after executing the ADD instruction, would
try to execute the rst element of array D as an instruction. Obviously, instructions and data have to be separated, and normally all the arrays and constants are
declared at the end of the program, following the last executable instruction (HLT).
1.9.1 The USE directive
Multiple location counters make it possible to enjoy the best of both worlds.
The data can be declared when rst used, and can be loaded at the end of the
program or anywhere else the programmer wishes. This feature uses several directives, covered in chapter 3, the most important of which will be described here.
It is based on the principle that new location counters can be declared and given
names, at assembly time, at any point in the source code. The example above can
be handled by declaring a location counter with a name (such as DATA) instructing
the assembler to assemble the DS directive under that LC, and to switch back to
the main LCwhich now must have a namelike any other LC. Its name is (a
space).
This is done by the special directive USE:

ADD D, ...
USE DATA
DS 12
USE *
.
.

This directive directs the assembler to start using (or to resume the use of) a new
location counter. The name is specied in the operand eld, so an empty operand
means the main LC. The asterisk * implies the previous LC, the one that was used
before the last USE.

40 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

Exercise 1.16 The previous section discusses the use of asterisk as the LC value.
When executing a USE *, how does the assembler know that the asterisk is not the
LC value?
The USE directives divide the program into several sections, which are loaded,
by the loader, into separate memory areas. The sections are loaded in the order in
which their names appear in the source. Fig. 18 is a good example:

USE

USE

USE

USE

USE

USE

.
. (1)
.
DATA
.
. (2)
.
*
.
. (3)
.
BETA
.
. (4)
.
DATA
.
. (5)
.
<space>
.
. (6)
.
GAMMA
.
. (7)
.
END

Figure 18. Dividing a program into sections.

At load time, the dierent sections would be loaded in the order MAIN, DATA,
BETA, GAMMA or 1,3,6,2,5,4,7. Chapter 7 explains the details of such a load, which
involves an additional loader pass.
Exercise 1.17 Can we start a program with a USE ABC? in other words, can the
rst section be other than the main section?
Another example of the same feature is procedures. In assembler language, a
procedure can be written as part of the main program. However, the procedure

Sec. 1.9

Multiple Location Counters

41

should only be executed when called from the main program. Therefore, it should
be separated from the main instruction stream, since otherwise the hardware would
execute it when it runs into the rst instruction of the procedure. So something
like:
.
0

15
16
17

45
46

104

.
LOD ...
.
.
SUB ...
CALL P
P ADD R5,N
.
.
RET
CLR ...
.
.
END

is wrong. The procedure is dened on lines 1745 and is called on line 16. This
makes the source program more readable, since the procedure is written next to its
call. However, the hardware would run into the procedure and start executing it
right after it executes line 16, i.e., right after it has been called. The solution is to
use a new LCnamed, perhaps, PROCby placing a USE PROC between lines 16, 17
and a USE * between lines 45, 46.
1.9.2 COMMON blocks
Fortran programmers are familiar with the COMMON statement. This is a block
of memory reserved in a common area, accessible to the main program and to all
its procedures. It is allocated by the loader high in memory, overlaying the loader
itself. The common area cannot be preloaded with constants, since it uses the same
memory area occupied by the loader. In many assemblers, designed to interface with
Fortran programs, there is a preassigned LC, called //, such that all data declared
under it end up being loaded in the common area. The concept of labeled common
in Fortran also has its equivalent in assembler language. The Fortran statement
COMMON/NAM/A(12),B(5) can be written in assembler language as:

A
B
C

.
USE /NAM/
DS 12
DS 5
USE DAT
DC 56,-90
USE
.
.

42 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

The two arrays A, B would be loaded in the labeled common /NAM/, while the
constants labeled C would end up as part of section DAT.
The IBM 360 assembler has a CSECT directive, declaring the start of a control
section. However, a control section on the 360 is a general feature. It can be used to
declare sections like those described here, or to declare sections that are considered
separate programs and are assembled separately. They are later loaded together,
by the loader, to form one executable program. The dierent control sections are
linked by global symbols, declared either as external or as entry points. The entire
concept is explained in chapter 3, as part of the discussion of the EXTRN, ENTRY
directives.
The VAX Macro assembler (see Ch. 8) [77] has a .PSECT directive similar to
CSECT, and it does not support multiple LCs. A typical VAX example is:
.TITLE CALCULATE PI
.PSECT DATA, NOEXE,WRT
A=2000
B: .WORD 6
C: .LONG 8
.PSECT CODE, EXE,NOWRT
.ENTRY PI,0
.
.
<instructions>
.
.
$EXIT
.PSECT CONS, NOEXE,NOWRT
K: .WORD 1230
.END
PI
Each .PSECT includes the name of the section, followed by attributes such as
EXE, NOEXE, WRT, NOWRT.
The memory on the 80x86 microprocessors is organized in 64k (highly overlapping) segments. The microprocessor can only generate 16-bit addresses, i.e., it
can only specify an address within a segment. A physical address is created by
combining the 16-bit processor generated address with the contents of one of the
segment registers in a special way (see refs. [38, 57] for the details). There are four
such registers: The DS (data segment), CS (code segment), SS (stack segment) and
ES (extra segment).
When an instruction is fetched, the PC is combined with the CS register and
the result is used as the address of the next instruction (in the code segment). When
an instruction species the address of a piece of data, that address is combined with
the DS register, to obtain a full address in the data segment. The extra segment
is normally used for string operations, and the stack segment, for stack-oriented
instructions (PUSH, POP or any instructions that use the SP or BP registers).

Sec. 1.9

Multiple Location Counters

43

The choice of segment register is done automatically, depending on what the

computer is doing at the moment. However, there are directives that allow the user
to override this choice, when needed.
As a result of this organization, there is no need for multiple LCs on those
microprocessors.

1.10 Literals
Many instructions require their operands to be addresses. The ADD instruction
is typically written ADD AB,R3 or ADD R3,AB where AB is a symbol and the instruction adds the contents of location AB to register 3. Sometimes, however, the
programmer wants to add to register 3, not the contents of any memory location
but a certain constant, say the number 7. Modern computers support the immediate mode which allows the programmer to write ADD #-7,R3. The number
sign # indicates the immediate mode and it implies that the instruction contains
the operand itself, not the address of the operand. Most old computers, however,
do not support this mode; their instructions have to contain addresses, not the
operands themselves. Also, in many computers, an immediate operand must be a
small number.
To help the programmer in such cases, some assemblers support literals.A notable example is the MPW assembler for the Macintosh computer (see Ch. 8). A
literal is a constant preceded by an equal sign =. Using literals, the programmer
can write ADD =-7,R3 and the assembler handles this by:
Preloading the constant 7 in the rst memory location in the literal table (however, see the LITORG directive in chapter 3 for an exception). The literal table is
loaded in memory immediately following the program.
Assembling the instruction as ADD TMP,R3 where TMP is the address where the
constant was loaded
Such assemblers may also support octal (=O377 or =377B), hex (=HFF0A),
real (=1.37 or =12E-5) or other literals.
1.10.1 The literal table
To handle literals, the assembler maintains a table, the literal table, similar
to the symbol table. It has columns for the name, value, address and type of each
literal. In pass 1, when the assembler nds an instruction that uses a literal, such as
7, it stores the name (7) in the rst available entry in the literal table, together
with the value (1 . . . 110012 ) and the type (decimal). The instruction itself is treated
as any other instruction with a future symbol. At the end of pass 1, the assembler
uses the LC to assign addresses to the literals in the table. In pass 2, the table
is used, in much the same way as the symbol table, to assemble instructions using
literals. At the end of pass 2, every entry in the literal table is treated as a DC
directive and is written on the object le in the usual way. There are three points
to consider when implementing literals.

44 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

Two literals with the same name are considered identical; only one entry is generated in the literal table. On the other hand, literals with dierent names are treated
as dierent even if they have identical values, such as =12.5 and =12.50.
All literals are loaded following the end of the program. If the programmer wants
certain literals to be loaded elsewhere, the LITORG directive can be used. It is fully
described in chapter 3, but the following example claries a point that should be
mentioned here.
.
ADD =-7,R3
.
LITORG
.
SUB =-7,R4
.
The rst 7 is loaded, perhaps with other literals, at the point in the program
where the LITORG is specied. The second 7, even though identical to the rst, is
loaded separately, together with all the literals used since the LITORG, at the end of
the program.
The LITORG directive is commonly used to make sure that a literal is loaded
in memory close to the instruction using it. This may be important in case the
relative mode is used.

The LC can be used as a literal = . This is an example of a literal whose name

is always the same, but whose value is dierent for each use.
Exercise 1.18 What is the meaning of JMP =*?
1.10.2 Examples
As has been mentioned before, some assemblers support literals even though
the computer may have an immediate mode, because an immediate operand is
normally limited in size. However, more and more modern computers, such as the
68000 and the VAX, support immediate operands of several sizes. Their assemblers
do not have to support any literals. Some interesting VAX examples are:
1. MOVL #7,R6 is assembled into D0 07 56. D0 is the OpCode, 07 is a byte with
two mode bits and six bits of operand. The two mode bits (00) specify the
short literal mode. This is really a short immediate mode. Even though the
word literal is used, it is not a use of literal but rather an immediate mode.
The dierence is that, in the immediate mode, the operand is part of the
instruction whereas, when a literal is used, the instruction contains the address
of the operand, not the operand itself. The third byte (56) species the use of
register 6 in mode 5 (register mode). The assembler has generated a three-byte
MOVL instruction in the short literal mode. This mode is automatically selected
by the assembler if the operand ts in six bits.
2. MOVW I^#7,R6 is assembled into B0 8F 0007 56. Here the user has forced
the assembler to use the immediate mode by specifying I^. The immediate

Sec. 1.10

Literals

45

operand becomes a word (2 bytes or 16 bits) and the instruction is now 5 bytes
long. The second byte species register F (which happens to be the PC on
the VAX) in mode 8 (autoincrement). This combination is equivalent to the
immediate mode, where the immediate operand is stored in the third byte of
the instruction. The last byte (56) is as before.
3. Again, a MOVL instruction but in a dierent context.
LC
MOVL #DATA,R6 assembled into D0 8F 00000037 56
.
.
0037 DATA .BYTE ...
.
.
Even though the operand is small (0037) and ts in six bits, the assembler
has automatically selected the immediate mode (8F) and has generated the
constant as a long word (32 bits). The reason is that the source instruction
uses a future symbol (DATA). The assembler has to determine the instruction
size in pass 1 and, since DATA is a future symbol, the assembler does not have
its value and has to assume the largest possible value. The result is a seven
byte instruction instead of the three bytes in the rst example!
Incidentally, the qoute in (00000047) indicates that the constant is relocatable.

1.11 Attributes of Symbols

The value of a symbol is just one of several possible attributes of the symbol,
stored, together with the symbol name, in the symbol table. Other attributes may
be the type, LC name, and length. The LC name is important for relocation. So far
the meaning of relocation has been to add the start address of the program. With
multiple LCs, the meaning of to relocate is to add the start address of the current
LC section. When a relocatable instruction is written on the object le, it is no
longer enough to assign it a relocation bit of 1. The assembler also has to write the
name of the LC under which the instruction should be relocated. Actually, a code
number is written instead of the name. Chapter 7 says more about this feature.
Not every assembler supports the length attribute and, when supported, this
attribute is dened in dierent ways by dierent assemblers. The length of a symbol
is dened as the length of the associated instruction. Thus A LOD R1,54 assigns to
label A the size of the LOD instruction (in words). However the directive C DS 3may
assign to label C either length 3 (the array size) or length 1 (the size of each array
element). Also, a directive such as D DC 1.786,STRNG,9 may assign to D either
length 3 (the number of constants) or the size of the rst constant, in words.
The most important attribute of a symbol is its value, such as in SUB R1,XY.
However, any attribute supported by the assembler should be accessible to the

46 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

programmer. Thus things such as TA, LB specify the type and length of symbols
and can be used throughout the program. Examples such as:
H DC LX the length of X (in words) is preloaded in location H
G DS LX array G has LX elements
AIF (TX=ABS).Z a conditional assembly directive, see chapter 4.
are possible, even though not common.

1.12 Assembly-Time Errors

Many errors can be detected at assembly time, both in pass 1 and pass 2.
Chapter 4 discusses pass 0, in connection with macros and, that pass, of course,
can have its own errors.
Assembler errors can be classsied in two ways, by their severity, and by their
location on the source line. The rst classication has three classes: Warnings,
errors, and fatal errors. A warning is issued when the assembler nds something
suspicious, but there is still a chance that the program can be assembled and run
successfully. An example is an ambiguous instruction that can be assembled in
several ways. The assembler decides how to assemble it, and the warning tells the
user to take a careful look at the particular instruction. A fatal erroris issued when
the assembler cannot continue and has to abort the assembly. Examples are a bad
source le or a symbol table overow.
If the error is neither a warning nor fatal, the assembler issues a message and
continues, trying to nd as many errors as possible in one run. No object le is
created, but the listing created is as complete as possible, to help the user to quickly
identify all errors.
The second classication method is concerned with the eld of the source instruction where the error was detected. Wrong comments cannot be detected by
the assembler, which leaves four classes of errors, label, operation, operand, and
general.
1. Label Errors. A label can either be invalid (syntactically wrong), undened,
or multiply-dened. Since labels are handled in pass 1, all label errors are
detected in that pass. (although undened errors are detected at the end of
pass 1).
2. Operation errors. The mnemonic may be unknown to the assembler. This is a
pass 1 (or even pass 0) error since the mnemonic is necessary to determine the
size of the instruction.
3. Operand errors. Once the mnemonic has been determined, the assembler knows
what operands to expect. On many computers, a LOD instruction requires
a register followed by an address operand. A MOV instruction may require
two address operands, and a RET instruction, no operands. An error wrong
operand(s) is issued if the right type of operand is not found.

Sec. 1.12

Assembly-Time Errors

47

Even if the operands are of the right type, their values may be out of range.
In a seemingly innocent instruction such as LOD R16,#70000, either operand, or
even both, may be invalid. If the computer has 16 registers, R0-R15, then R16 is
out of range. If the computer supports 16-bit integers, then the number 70000 is
too large.
Even if the operands are valid, there may still be errors such as a bad addressing
mode. Certain instructions can only use certain modes. A specic mode can only
use addresses in a certain range. Project 14 at the end of this chapter describes
an assembler where such restrictions exist and quite a few errors are possible.
4. General errors do not pertain to any individual line and have to do with the general status of the assembler. Examples are out of memory, cannot read/write
le xxx, illegal character read from source le, table xxx overow phase
error between passes.
The last example is particularly interesting and will be described in some detail. It is issued when pass 1 makes an assumption that turns out, in pass 2,
to be wrong. This is a severe error that requires a reassembly. Phase errors require a computer with sophisticated instructions and complex memory management; they dont exist on computers with simple architectures. The Intel 80x86
microprocessorswith variable-size instructions, several oset sizes, and segmented
memory managementare a good example of computer architecture where phase
errors may easily occur.
Here are two examples of phase errors on those microprocessors. (Refs. [38, 57]
are good introductions to 8086/8088 architecture and instruction set):
An instruction in a certain code segment refers to a variable declared in a data
segment following the code segment. In pass 1, the assembler assumes that the
variable is declared in the same segment as the instruction, and is a future symbol.
The instruction is determined accordingly. In pass 2, when the time comes to
assemble the instruction, all the variables are known, and the assembler discovers
that the variable in question is far. A longer instruction is necessary, the pass-1
assumption turns out to be wrong, and pass 2 cannot assemble the instruction. This
error is illustrated below.
CODE S

CODE S
DATA S
ABC
DATA S

SEGMENT PUBLIC
..
..
MOV
..
..
ENDS
DB
..
ENDS
END

AL,ABC

SEGMENT PUBLIC
123

START

48 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

an instruction in the relative mode has a eld for the relative address (the oset).
Several possible oset sizes are possible on the 80x86, depending on the distance
between the instruction and its operand. If the operand is a future symbol, even
in the same segment as the instruction, the assembler has to guess a size for the
oset. In pass 2 the operand is known and, if it too far from the instruction, the
oset size guessed in pass 1 may turn out to be too small.
The Microsoft macro assembler (MASM), a typical modern assembler for the
80x86 microprocessors, features a list of about 100 error messages. Even an early
assembler such as IBMAP for the IBM 7090 [65] had a list of 125 error messages,
divided into four classes according to the severity of the error.

Sec. 1.13

Review Questions and Projects

49

1.13 Review Questions and Projects

1. What is the general format of an assembler instruction? What is the meaning
of each eld?
2. What is the dierence between a label and a symbol?
3. List some typical zero-operand instructions.
4. In old assemblers the source le was punched on cards, one line per card. Why
was it important to punch a sequence number on each card?
5. Use your knowledge of data structures; what are good data structures for an
OpCode table? The table is static (no insertions or deletions) and is searched very
often.
6. For each of the projects below, if the project describes a 2-pass assembler, design
a format for the intermediate le. What information should each record contain?
7. Look at several textbooks on assembler language programming for dierent
computers. What are the rules for:
a. Symbol names.
b. The syntax of a source line.
8. The asterisk * is a favorite character of assembler writers and has been mentioned in this chapter many times, in connection with several dierent assembler
features. What are those features?
9. Look up several textbooks on assembler language programming, to review the
concept of multiple location counters.
10. Manually perform pass 1 over the following section, build the symbol table
and show it at the end of the pass. Assumptions: The LC starts at 0. Mnemonics
ending with an R specify instructions of size 1; all others, instructions of size 2.

N
Q
P
Z

AR 1,2
LR 3,4
SBI M,3
CR 4,5
MVI #5,Q
MR 6,7
JMP D

11. The asterisk * is used, among other things, to indicate the LC value. It can
be used in address expressions such as *+4. Since such an expression indicates an
address greater than the current address, is it an unresolved reference?
12. What feature of assembler language leads to the idea of a two-pass assembler?
13. Compare and contrast literals and the immediate mode. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

50 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

1.13.1 Project 11
Your task is to implement and test the assembler described below. The entire
project should be done twice, as a two-pass and as a one-pass assembler. The source
and object codes described here are extremely simple, as they ought to be for a rst
project, and are based on a hypothetical, simple, second generation computer. The
computer is supposed to have a single working register, traditionally called the
Accumulator (Acc). It has M words of storage, each N bits long. Neither M nor
N are specied, and part of your task is to come up with several sets of reasonable
values, select two sets, and use one for the two-pass and the other, for the one-pass,
assembler. This would guarantee a full understanding of the way those values aect
the design of the instruction set, the source instructions, and the object instructions.
More about M , N below.
The instruction set is both small and simple, making it easy to implement
the assembler, but hard to write programs for the computer (however, your test
programs should be short and can be meaningless, since they only test the assembler,
not the hardware).
mnem
LOD
STO
ADD
BZE
BNE
BRA
INP
OUT
CLA
HLT

OpCode
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
0

operand description
yes

no

AccMem(op)
Mem(op)Acc
AccAcc+Mem(op)
branch to Op if Acc=0
same for Acc<0
unconditional branch
Accthe next character in the input stream
next char in output streamAcc
Acc0
stop

The test program below is completely meaningless but it illustrates several

useful points.
1. This simple assembler supports symbols. To be sure, symbols can only be
one letter, but they can be future symbols.
2. The object code is shown in decimal, not binary. The precise bit pattern and
length of each object instruction depends on the choice of M , N . One such choice is
demonstrated below. LC values are not shown either, since instruction sizes depend
on the choice of M , N . This is also the reason why the values of symbols X, Y are
unknown.
3. There are no directives, again implying a simple assembler (but harder to
use). This is the reason absolute addresses are used in the example.
4. You design the syntax of the source line. For this rst project it is best
to use xed format, making use of the fact that each mnemonic is three characters
long and symbols are a single letter.

Sec. 1.13

Review Questions and Projects

Label Source

X
Y

INP
STO
INP
STO
BZE
ADD
OUT
BRA
LOD
ADD
STO
HLT

50
51
X
50
Y
50
50
52

51

Object
7
2
7
2
4
3
8
6
1
3
2
0

50
51
X
50
Y
50
50
52

Test Program
Before implementing the assembler, values for M , N should be selected. One
simple, although not a very practical, choice is M = 1024 = 1k, N = 16. This implies that each operand is 10 bits long, and also makes it easy to t each instruction
in one memory word. Each instruction will now have a 6-bit OpCode, allowing for
up to 64 instructions, and a 10-bit operand which, in many cases, will be unused.
The example above is now duplicated, as table 12, with the object codes shown in
binary.

LC Label
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
X
9
10
Y
11

Source
INP
STO 50
INP
STO 51
BZE X
ADD 50
OUT
BRA Y
LOD 50
ADD 50
STO 52
HLT

Object
OpCode
Op
000111
0
000010 0000110010
000111
0
000010 0000110011
000100 0000001000
000011 0000110010
001000
0
000110 0000001010
000001 0000110010
000011 0000110010
000010 0000110100
000000
0

Table 12.
The most important point about this choice of M , N is the many unused
Op elds (in a third of the instructions in our example). This clearly points to
a very common principle of instruction set design: variable length instructions.
Instructions with an Op eld should be longer than ones with only an OpCode.

52 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

A choice of M = 256(= 28 ), N = 8 may clarify this point. M = 256 implies

8-bit addresses. Now each OpCode may occupy one word (8 bits) and each operand,
another word (8 bits). Instructions are now either one or two words long, a step
toward a more realistic instruction set.
Exercise 1.19 Rewrite the table above for this choice of M , N .
Exercise 1.20 There is now room for 256 OpCodes, too many for our simple
computer. We probably need only a 4- or 5-bit OpCode, leaving either 3 or 4
unused bits in the rst word of each instruction. What would be a good way to
extend the hardware, so we can use those bits?
Testing: After a choice of M , N is made, the assembler (actually, two assemblers) can be implemented. Testing is a very important task in each of the projects
described here. You should prepare enough test programs to test every instruction
in every valid mode, every directive, and every error situation. Since the present
project is so simple, there are no directives, no modes, and only a few possible
errors. Subsequent projects will have, of course, more possible errors.
Exercise 1.21 What are the assembler errors in this project?
Output: The one-pass assembler should generate the object program in memory, and a listing le. The object program should then be printed by you and
checked by hand. The two-pass assembler should generate both an object and a
listing le. The object le should later be printed, again to verify it by hand.
1.13.2 Project 12
Extend the assembler of project 11 in the following ways:

1. Label names no longer have to be a single letter. They can be up to 6 letters

and digits, and should start with a letter.
Exercise 1.22 Why is it a good idea to require a label to start with a letter? what
is wrong with 1A as a label?
When local labels are supported, the assembler loses this advantage, since local
label names do start with a digit. On the other hand, it becomes easier to distinguish
a local symbol from a regular one.
2. As a result, the source line format may have to be redesigned. Source lines
should have a free format, and you can select one of the two possibilities:
a. A label, if it exists, must start in position 1. Without a label, position 1
must be left blank.
b. A label must be followed by a colon, and a comment must be preceded by a
semicolon. This requires the programmer to work harder but simplies the lexical
analysis. The individual elds of a source line should be separated by commas.
3. The three directives END, DS, and DC should be supported.

Sec. 1.13

Review Questions and Projects

53

a. END simply signies the end of the source code.

b. The general format of the DS directive is:
label DS operand
where the label is optional and the operand should be a non-negative integer.
The DS is similar to the array or DIMENSION statement in higher-level languages,
and is a convenient way to reserve storage in assembler programs. It is described
in chapter 3.
A one-pass assembler executes an A DS 5 by rst placing label A in the symbol
table (its value is the usual LC) and then incrementing the LC by 5. Since the onepass assembler loads the instructions directly in memory, this skips 5 locations,
which then become the array.

A two-pass assembler executes the DS in both passes. In pass 1 it places A in

the symbol table and increments the LC by 5. In pass 2 it has to actually reserve
the 5 locations. Your assembler should do it by placing 5 records with zeros in the
object le.
Exercise 1.23 How would the assembler execute an A DS 5000?
c. The general format of the DC directive is:
label DC constant
where you can limit yourself to non-negative integer constants. Executing this
directive is similar to a DS. In pass 1, the assembler calculates the size of the constant
(in your case, always 1 word), and increments the LC by that size. In pass 2, it writes
the constant on the object le, with a relocation bit of 0 (absolute). Assemblers
normally allow more than one constant in the DC, and the general format of this
directive is explained in chapter 3.
The two-pass version should now identify each record on the object le as either
an object instruction or a loader directive. This is done by adding one id bit to
each record.
1.13.3 Project 13
Extend project 12 by adding relocation bits. This can only be done for the
two-pass assembler. The relocation bit of an instruction is determined in pass 2,
when the instruction is assembled. If the instruction uses a relocatable symbol, the
relocation bit should be 1. If the instruction uses an absolute symbol (as, e.g., in
EQU 7) or no symbol at all, the relocation bit should be 0. Instructions without
operands should always have a relocation bit of zero.
If the assembler produces variable length instructions, they should be written
on the object le in a way that would make it easy for the loader to read and
identify the relocation bits. The choice of M = 8, N = 8 mentioned before, for
instance, has resulted in instructions being either 8- or 16-bits long. A reasonable
design of the object le in such a case is to write the instructions as 10-bit records,
where the rst 8 bits are the instruction (or part of it), bit 9 identies the record

54 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

as either an instruction or a loader directive, and bit 10 is the relocation bit. A

short instruction would be written as one record with a relocation bit of 0. A long
instruction would be written as two records, the rst always having a relocation bit
of 0 and the second, the proper relocation bit (the rst record contains the OpCode
and is therefore absolute). This way the loader can read a record (either a short
instruction or half of a long one), relocate it if necessary, and immediately load it
in memory, without having to identify short and long instructions.
A DC directive is limited, in our case, to an operand which is a non-negative
integer. Thus our DCs always generate a record with a relocation bit of 0. In general,
however, a DC may generate relocatable constants, as in table 13.
LC
.
.
A
.
.
DC

108

R1,...

Table 13.
The DC generates the record 0...0108 01 since the value of label A is 108
locations from the start of the program.
Notice that now we have three types of records on the object le, namely, absolute instructions, relocatable instructions, and loader directives. They should each
be identied by two bits (see also discussion of special relocation in this chapter).
1.13.4 Project 14
This is more than an extension of previous projects. Here we describe a more
realistic assembler that can handle more registers, more directives, and addressing
modes. It still is a very simple assembler, though. A special feature of this assembler
is that it can operate as either a one-pass or a two-pass assembler. As usual, it
should read a source le with a test program, assemble it into machine code and
either load the machine code directly in memory (the one-pass version), or write it
on an object le (the two-pass one). It is suggested to write the one-pass and twopass assemblers as two separate parts of the project, sharing common procedures.
Examples of common procedures are symbol table search, OpCode table search,
and lexical scan of the source line.
The Hypothetical Processor
It has sixteen 16-bit registers, two status ags Z, N , and can handle up to 64k
addresses (a choice of M = 16). All instructions have the following format:
OpCode Register
4

Mode Operand
2

Sec. 1.13

Review Questions and Projects

55

and are 16-bit long. Each instruction is loaded into one memory word, implying
a choice of N = 16. This roughly corresponds to the architecture of early thirdgeneration computers. The concept of a status ag is explained in any book on
computer organization and in many books on assembler language. As mentioned
before, it is not necessary to understand status ags in order to implement the
assembler.
The source instructions are:
Op- Mnemonic
valid
Code Operands Z N modes
0
LOD R,Op x x
0123
1
STO R,Op
012
2
ADD R,Op x x
0123
3
COM R
x x
0
4
DIV R,Op x x
0123
5
JZE Op
012
6
JNE Op
012
7
JMP Op
012
8
PRT R,Op
012
9
OUT Op
012
10
HLT none
0

Description
Load register R from the loc. specied by Op
Store R in memory
Add contents of memory location to register R
Complement every bit in R
RQuotient(R/Op). Integer/integer division
Jump to address Op if Z=1
Jump if N=1
Unconditional jump
Print R characters, starting from location Op.
Print the operand as an integer
Stop the processor

All other OpCodes are not implemented yet and are reserved for future use. It
is important to understand that the assembler only assembles the instructions, and
does not execute them. Therefore the decription of the instructions in not important.
Omitting that column from the table above would not make it impossible (or even
harder) to implement the assembler. An assembler generally does not know what
the instructions do, what the addressing modes mean, and when and how the status
ags are used. These are all run-time features, handled by the hardware.
The modes:
0 - Direct, 1 - Relative. 2 - Indirect. 3 - Immediate. They are special cases
of the modes explained in appendix A. Note that certain instructions can only use
certain modes. An error should be detected (and handled as shown below) if such
an instruction tries to use an invalid mode. Also note that mode 1 can generate,
when the instruction is executed, addresses > 64k. Those are illegal addresses on
our machine, but can only be detected at run time, so you dont have to worry
about them.

The indirect & immediate modes are explicitly selected by the programmer. If
a mode is not specied, the assembler should try the direct mode (as on lines 50,
52 in the example below). Since the Op eld is six bits, a direct address must t
in six bits and is therefore limited to the range 063. If the direct mode cannot be
used (the Op is > 63), the assembler should try the relative mode (as on line 55).
If that mode cannot be used either, the assembler should issue an error, assemble
the line as all zeros, and set a ag that will prevent execution of the program.
Exercise 1.24 In what cases is the relative mode invalid?

56 Basic Principles

Ch. 1

The Directives
1. PASS n where n is either 1 or 2. This should always be the rst line and it
species the number of passes.
2. ORG n where n is a non-negative integer. This diredctive resets the LC to n.
It is executed in pass 1 and only aects the LC.
3. label EQU n where n is as above. This directive places the label in the symbol
table with a value n and a type of abs. It is executed in pass 1 and only aects the
symbol table.
4. DC m initializes the current location to m, where m is a number as abve or
a string of up to three characters.
5. END n indicates the end of the source program. Here n is a symbol and, if
present, it indicates the address of the rst executable instruction.
see chapter 3 for more information on those directives.
The Object le
Should contain the machine instructions (absolute and relative), and loader
directives. Each item should be identied by one bit as either an instruction, data
or a loader directive. There are no relocation bits. Design your own format and
document your design.
The loader directives are generated by the assembler in response to the ORG,
END directives.
An example test program
Such a program does not have to be meaningful but, in our case, it is. It
calculates the expression [(A + B) + C]/D = [(2 + 2) + 8]/2 = 2 and stores it in
register R1.
address
source
code RMOp address
source
code RMOp
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59

DC 2
LOD R1,A
ADD R1,@B
COM R1
ADD R1,#1
ADD R1,C
DIV R1,D
JZE N
PRT 3,E
HLT
PRT 2,F

0
2
3
2
2
4
5
8
10
8

2
1061
1262
1000
1301
1063
1109
0059
3108
0000
3109

60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69

HLT
A CD 2
B DC G
C DC 8
D DC 2
E DC YES

DC NO

10 0000
2
49
8
2
89 ASCII
69
83
78
79

END

Notice that the program starts at address 49 but the rst executable instruction
is at address 50. The program is loaded in memory locations 4970 so it would
straddle address 63. This is done in order to illustrate both the direct and relative
modes.

Sec. 1.13

Review Questions and Projects

57

General Notes
1. Pass 1 is especially simple since all the instructions have the same size.
You will also nd that the intermediate le contains a copy of the source and
almost nothing else. To make this project more interesting, you should redesign the
instruction set to have a few long instructions. Perhaps all the instructions with an
Op eld should be 32 bits long.
2. Notice that the Op eld is only 6 bits wide. In a one-pass assembler, this
may make it impossible to store a pointer in this eld and you may have to resort
to storing all the unresolved references of each future symbol, in a linked list, as
described earlier in this chapter.

The shortage of a single kind of bolt would hold up the entire assembly. . .

Henry Ford, Today and Tomorrow (1926)

2. The Symbol Table

The organization of the symbol table is the key to fast assembly. Even when
working on a small program, the assembler may use the symbol table hundreds
of times and, consequently, an ecient implementation of the table can cut the
assembly time signicantly even for short programs.
The symbol table is a dynamic structure. It starts empty and should support
two operations, insertion and search. In a two-pass assembler, insertions are done
only in the rst pass and searches, only in the second. In a one-pass assembler,
both insertions and searches occur in the single pass. The symbol table does not
have to support deletions, and this fact aects the choice of data structure for
implementing the table. A symbol table can be implemented in many dierent
ways but the following methods are almost always used, and will be discussed here:
A linear array.
A sorted array with binary search.
Buckets with linked lists.
A binary search tree.
A hash table.

60 The Symbol Table

Ch. 2

2.1 A Linear Array

The symbols are stored in the rst N consecutive entries of an array, and a
new symbol is inserted into the table by storing it in the rst available entry (entry
N + 1) of the array. A typical Pascal code for such an array would be:
var symtab: record
N: 0..lim;
tabl: array[0..lim] of record
name: string;
valu: integer;
type: char;
end;
end;
Where lim is some suitable constant. The variable N is initially set to zero, and it
always points to the last entry in the array. An insertion is done by:
Testing to make sure that N < lim (the symbol table is not full). Incrementing
N by 1. Inserting the name, value, and type into the three elds, using N as an
index.
The insertion takes xed time, independent of the number of symbols in the table.
To search, the array of names is scanned entry by entry. The number of steps
involved varies from a minimum of 1 to a maximum of N . Every search for a nonexistent symbol involves N steps, thus a program with many undened symbols
will be slow to assemble because the average search time will be high. Assuming a
program with only a few undened symbols, the average search time is N/2. In a
two-pass assembler, insertions are only done in the rst pass so, at the end of that
pass, N is xed. All searches in the second pass are performed in a xed table.
In a one-pass assembler, N grows during the pass, and thus each search takes an
average of N/2 steps, but the values of N are dierent.
Advantages: Fast insertion. Simple operations.
Disadvantages: Slow search, specially for large values of N . Fixed size.

2.2 A Sorted Array

The same as a linear array, but the array (actually, the three arrays) is sorted,
by name, after the rst pass is completed. This, of course, can only be done in a
two-pass assembler. To nd a symbol in such a table, binary search is used, which
takes (see, for example, reference [15]) an average of log2 N steps. The dierence
between N and log2 N is small when N is small but, for large values of N , the
dierence can get large enough to justify the additional time spent on sorting the
table.
Advantages: Fast insertion and fast search. Since the table is already sorted, the
preparation of a cross-reference listing (see chapter 5) is simplied.
Disadvantages: The sort takes time, which makes this method useful only for a
large number of symbols (at least a few hundred).

Sec. 2.3

Buckets with Linked Lists

61

2.3 Buckets with Linked Lists

An array of 26 entries is declared, to serve as the start of the buckets. Each
entry points to a bucket that is a linked list of all those symbols that start with
the same letter. Thus all the symbols that start with a C are linked together in
a list that can be reached by following the pointer in the third entry of the array.
Initially all the buckets are empty (all pointers in the array are null). As symbols
are inserted, each bucket is kept sorted by symbol name. Notice that there is no
need to actually sort the buckets. The buckets are kept in sorted order by carefully
inserting each new symbol into its proper place in the bucket. When a new symbol
is presented, to be inserted in a bucket, the bucket is rst located by using the rst
character in the symbols name (one step). The symbol is then compared to the
rst symbol in the bucket (the symbol names are compared). If the new symbol
is less (in lexicographic order) than the rst, the new one becomes the rst in
the bucket. Otherwise, the new symbol is compared to the second symbol in the
bucket, and so on. Assuming an even distribution of names over the alphabet, each
bucket contains an average of N/26 symbols, and the average insertion time is thus
1 + (N/26)/2 = 1 + N/52. For a typical program with a few hundred symbols, the
average insertion requires just a few steps.
A search is done by rst locating the bucket (one step), and then performing
the same comparisons as in the insertion process above. The average search thus
also takes 1 + N/52 steps.
Such a symbol table has a variable size. More nodes can be allocated and added
to the buckets, and the table can, in principle, use the entire available memory.
Advantages: Fast operations. Flexible table size.
Disadvantages: Although the number of steps is small, each step involves the use
of a pointer and is therefore slower than a step in the previous methods (that use
arrays). Also, some programmers always tend to assign names that start with an A.
In such a case all the symbols will go into the rst bucket, and the table will behave
essentially as a linear array.

Such an implementation is recommended only if the assembler is designed to

assemble large programs, and the operating system makes it convenient to allocate
storage for list nodes.
Exercise 2.1 What if symbol names can start with a character other than a letter?
Can this data structure still be used? If yes, how?

62 The Symbol Table

Ch. 2

2.4 A Binary Search Tree

This is a general data structure used not just for symbol tables, and is quite
ecient. It can be used by either a one pass or two pass assembler with the same
eciency.
The table starts as an empty binary tree, and the rst symbol inserted into
the table becomes the root of the tree. Every subsequent symbol is inserted into
the table by (lexicographically) comparing it with the root. If the new symbol is
less than the root, the program moves to the left son of the root and compares the
new symbol with that son. If the new symbol is greater than the root, the program
moves to the right son of the root and compares as above. If the new symbol turns
out to be equal to any of the existing tree nodes, then it is a doubly-dened symbol.
Otherwise, the comparisons continue until a node is reached that does not have a
son. The new symbol becomes the (left or right) son of that node.
Example: Assuming that the following symbols are dened, in this order, in
a program.
BGH J12 MED CC ON TOM A345 ZIP QUE PETS
Symbol BGH becomes the root of the tree, and the nal binary search tree is
shown in Fig. 21.

BGH
A345
CC

J12
MED
ON
TOM
QUE

ZIP

PETS
Figure 21. A Binary Search Tree

Sec. 2.4

A Binary Search Tree

63

Reference [15] is a good source for binary search trees and it also discusses the
average times for insertion, search, and deletion (which, in the case of a symbol
table, is unnecessary). The minimum number of steps for insertion or search is
obviously 1. The maximum number of steps depends on the height of the tree. The
tree in Fig. 21 above has a height of 7, so the next insertion will require from 1
to 7 steps. The height of a binary tree with N nodes varies between log2 N (which
is the height of a fully balanced tree), and N (the height of a skewed tree). It can
be proved that an average binary tree is closer to a balanced tree than to a skewed
tree, and this implies that the average time for insertion or search in a binary search
tree is of the order of log2 N .
Advantages: Ecient operation (as measured by the average number of steps).
Flexible size.
Disadvantages: Each step is more complex than in an array-based symbol table.
The recommendations for use are the same as for the previous method.

2.5 A Hash Table

This method comes in two varieties, open hash, which uses pointers and has
a variable size, and closed hash, which is a xed-size array.
2.5.1 Closed hashing
A closed hash table is an array (actually three arrays, for the name, value, and
type), normally of size 2N , where each symbol is stored in an entry. To insert a
new symbol, it is necessary to obtain an index to the entry where the symbol will
be stored. This is done by performing an operation on the name of the symbol, an
operation that results in an N -bit number. An N -bit number has a value between
0 and 2N 1 and can thus serve as an index to the array. The operation is called
hashing and is done by hashing, or scrambling, the bits that constitute the name
of the symbol. For example, consider 6-character names, such as abcdef. Each
character is stored in memory as an 8-bit ASCII code. The name is divided into
three groups of two characters (16-bits) each, ab cd ef. The three groups are
added, producing an 18-bit sum. The sum is split into two 9-bit halves which
are then multiplied to give an 18-bit product. Finally N bits are extracted from
the middle of the product to serve as the hash index. The hashing operations are
meaningless since they operate on codes of characters, not on numbers. However,
they produce an N -bit number that depends on all the bits of the original name.
A good hash function should have the following two properties:
It should consider all the bits in the original name. Thus when two names that are
slightly dierent are hashed, there should be a good chance of producing dierent
hash indexes.
For a group of names that are uniformly distributed over the alphabet, the function should produce indexes uniformly distributed over the range 0 . . . 2N 1.
Once the hash index is produced, it is used to insert the symbol into the array.
Searching for symbols is done in an identical way. The given name is hashed, and
the hashed index is used to retrieve the value and the type from the array.

64 The Symbol Table

Ch. 2

Ideally, a hash table requires xed time for insert and search, and can be
an excellent choice for a large symbol table. There are, however, two problems
associated with this method namely, collisions and overow, that make hash tables
less than ideal.
Collisions involve the case where two entirely dierent symbol names are hashed
into identical indexes. Names such as SYMB and ZWYG6 can be hashed into the same
value, say, 54. If SYMB is encountered rst in the program, it will be inserted
into entry 54 of the hash table. When ZWYG6 is found, it will be hashed, and
the assembler should discover that entry 54 is already taken. The collision problem
cannot be avoided just by designing a better hash function. The problem stems from
the fact that the set of all possible symbols is very large, but any given program
uses a small part of it. Typically, symbol names start with a letter, and consist of
letters and digits only. If such a name is limited to six characters, then there are
26 365 ( 1.572 billion) possible names. A typical program rarely contains more
than, say, 500 names, and a hash table of size 512 (= 29 ) may be sucient. When
1.572 billion names are mapped into 512 positions, more than 3 million names will
map into each position. Thus even the best hash function will generate the same
index for many dierent names, and a good solution to the collision problem is the
key to an ecient hash table.
The simplest solution involves a linear search. All entries in the symbol table
are originally marked as vacant. When the symbol SYMB is inserted into entry 54,
that entry is marked occupied. If symbol ZWYG6 should be inserted into entry 54
and that entry is occupied, the assembler tries entries 55, 56 and so on. This implies
that, in the case of a collision, the hash table degrades to a linear table.
Another solution involves trying entry 54 + P where P and the table size are
relative primes. In either case, the assembler tries until a vacant entry is found or
until the entire table is searched and found to be all occupied.
Morris [16] presents a complete analysis of hash tables, where it is shown that
the average number of steps to insert (or search for a) symbol is 1/(1 p) where p
is the percent-full of the table. p = 0 corresponds to an empty table, p = 0.5 means
a half-full table, etc. The following table gives the average number of steps for a
few values of p.

number
of steps

0
.4
.5
.6
.7
.8
.9
.95

1
1.66
2
2.5
3.33
5
10
20

Sec. 2.5

A Hash Table

65

It is clear that when the hash table gets more than 50%60% full, performance
suers, no matter how good the hashing function is. Thus a good hash table design
makes sure that the table never gets more than 60% occupied. At that point the
table is considered overowed.
The problem of hash table overow can be handled in a number of ways. Traditionally, a new, larger table is opened and the original table is moved to the new one
by rehashing each element. The space taken by the original table is then released.
Hopgood [17] is a good analysis of this method. A better solution, though, is to use
open hashing.
2.5.2 Open hashing
An open hash table is a structure consisting of buckets, each of which is the
start of a linked list of symbols. It is very similar to the buckets with linked lists
discussed above. The principle of open hashing is to hash the name of the symbol
and use the hash index to select a bucket. This is better than using the rst
character in the name, since a good hash function can evenly distribute the names
over the buckets, even in cases where many symbols start with the same letter. Aho
et al. [18] presents an analysis of open hashing.

66 The Symbol Table

Ch. 2

2.6 Review Questions and Projects

1. Given a program in which the following labels, in this order, are dened:
AND,ZUG,ZIP,ACT,BIG,ZAP,ACVTS,BIGGER
Insert them in buckets and show the nal result.
2. Sort the above labels alphabetically and use binary search to locate label BIGGER.
Note that the number of labels is even. In such a case, how do you pick up the label
in the middle of the table?
3. Using the hash method described in this chapter, hash symbol BIGGER. Assuming
a hash table of size 512, what index is produced?
4. Tree implementations typically use pointers, but there is a way to implement
a binary tree in an array without using any pointers, not even indexes to array
elements. This method is ideally suited to a complete binary tree (one where every
node, except the leaves, has two sons) but can be used, with less eciency, for any
binary tree, including a binary search tree. Study the method in any textbook on
data structures, and apply it to the tree of gure 21.
5. Review the methods described in this chapter for symbol table implementation.
For each method, decide whether the method is better suited for a one-pass or a
two-pass assembler, or whether it is equally suited for both. State your reasons.
6. A two-pass assembler stores symbols in the symbol table in pass 1 and searches
the table in pass 2. In between the passes it may sort the table. However, the
assembler sometimes has to search the table even in pass 1, such as for an A EQU
B directive. How does each of the methods described in this chapter lend itself to
this feature?
2.6.1 Project 21
Implement a linear array symbol table and a sorted array symbol table. Use
them in one of the assemblers implemented in the chapter 1 projects. Prepare several
test programs, each with successively more labels dened and more symbols used.
Assemble each test program twice, using the two symbol table implementations
above, and measure the time it takes to assemble each test program. If the computer
does not have an internal clock, use your watch. The aim is to nd the point where
the sorted symbol table becomes faster than the linear one. At how many symbols
does it occur in your case?
2.6.2 Project 22
A sorted symbol table can be implemented in two ways. It can be sorted at
the end of pass 1 or it can be kept in sorted order during pass 1, while new symbols
are entered. Compare the two methods by a simulation, as in project 21.

Sec. 2.6

Review Questions and Projects

67

2.6.3 Project 23
Implement, test, and compare the following four hashing algorithms:
1. Split the symbol name into groups of two characters each. Add all the groups.
Divide the sum by the table size. The hash index is the remainder of the
division.
2. Split the symbol name into two groups, as equal in size as possible. Add the
two groups. Square the sum. Use the center 16-bit part of the result, and
divide it by the table size. Again, the hash index is the remainder.
3. Split the symbol name into two groups as before. Perform the Exclusive-Or
of the two groups. The hash index is a chunk of size log2 [the table size] taken
from the center of the result.
4. Convert the symbol name into groups of four bits each. Each character of the
name is split into two such groups. Convert each four-bit group into a decimal
digit according to the rule: If the group is 9, leave it alone; otherwise, mask
o the lefmost bit. Thus the character 11010110 is split into 1101, 0110 and
the rst group (whose value is 13) is converted into 0101 (=5). The result is
56.
Each character results in two decimal digits. Concatenate all the left decimal
digits to form one decimal number, and all the right decimal digits, to form another
number. The two decimal numbers should be added, the result reversed (e.g. 12345
becomes 54321), and divided by the table size. The hash index is the remainder,
after being converted back into binary.
To test and compare the four methods, prepare a list of names whose size is
60%70% of the hash table size. Apply each method to the list. Measure the time
it takes to insert all names in the hash table, and also measure quantities such as
the average number of steps for an insert, and the distribution of hash indexes.

In a symbol there is concealment and yet revelation

Thomas Carlyle
An idea, in the highest sense of that word, cannot be conveyed but by a
symbol

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

3. Directives

3.1 Introduction
In addition to assembling instructions, the assembler oers help to the programmer in the form of directives. The directives are commands to the assembler,
directing it to perform operations other than assembling instructions. The directives are thus executed by the assembler, not assembled by it. They may aect all
the operations of the assembler. Directives may aect the object code, the symbol
table, the listing le, and the values of internal assembler parameters. Certain directives are executed in pass 1 and others, in pass 2. Many directives are executed
in both passes. Directives that have to do with macros and conditional assembly
are normally executed in a special pass, pass 0. Regardless of when a directive is
executed, it must be passed over to pass 2, to be included in the listing le.
Some directives are passed by the assembler to the loader, through the object
le. They are eventually executed by the loader. Other directives are used as
programming tools, to simplify the process of writing the program and preparing
the source le.
Simple assemblers may support only a few directives, while large, modern assemblers may support about a hundred. Perhaps the fastest way for the assembler
to identify each directive, is to include all the directives in the OpCode table. The
table should, in such a case, contain more information, identifying each item as
either a machine instruction or a directive. The table should also specify the pass

70 Directives

Ch. 3

(0,1 or 2) in which the directive should be executed, and should contain the start
address of the routine that executes the directive. If a directive is executed in both
passes, the table should include two such addresses.
Exercise 3.1 Some assemblers require each directive to start with a period ., for
easy identication. Why isnt such a convention adopted by every assembler?
Figure 31 is a generalization of gure 12, that includes directives.
pass 1

read line
from source file

generate END
record on intermediate file

1
yes

directive
?

yes

no

yes
store name
& value in
symbol table

END
?

close source file

rewind intermediate
file

no

label
defined
?

a
pass 1
directive?

pass 2
no

yes

no

execute it
determine size
of instruction

LC:=LC+size

write source line & other

info on intermediate file

generate a
record on
intermediate file

Figure 31a. A Two-Pass Assembler with Directives (part 1).

Sec. 3.1

Introduction

71

pass 2
2
read next line from
intermediate file

yes
stop

END
?
no
directive
?

yes

a
pass 2
directive
?

no

no
yes
assemble
instruction

execute it

write object instruction

onto object file

write source & object

lines onto listing file

Figure 31b. A Two-Pass Assembler with Directives (part 2).

The directives listed below are classied by function and, within each function
group, they are listed alphabetically (except when certain directives are needed to
explain others). For each directive, the general format is shown, followed by a short
description and by the way it is executed by the assembler (its implementation).
An important point to keep in mind about directive execution is that all directives
that aect the LC must be executed in pass 1. In general, a pass 1 directive is any
directive that aects the layout of the program (as a result, it mustdirectly or

72 Directives

Ch. 3

indirectlyaect the LC).

Note that the names of directives are determined by the assembler writer and,
as a result, the same directive may have dierent names in dierent assemblers. In
several cases, two or three names are mentioned for the same directive.
This chapter lists many directives used by many assemblers. Most are rarely
used and are only supported by a few assemblers. Some directives, however, are
commonly used and are widely supported; those are identied below by an asterisk.
The following is a list of the directives described here, classied by function.
Program Identication (IDENT).
Source Program Control (*END, ICTL, INCLUDE, PUNCH, REPRO).
Machine Identication (MACHINE, p286, PPU).
Loader Control (LCC).
Mode Control (ABS, BASE, CODE, QUAL, COL).
Block Control & Location Counter Manipulation (BEGIN, COMM, *DS, =, EVEN,
LIMIT, ODD, ORG, OVERLAY, POS, USE, *).
Segment Control (SEGMENT, ASSUME, GROUP).
Symbol Denition (*EQU, MAX, MIN, MICCNT, SET).
Base Register Denition (USING, DROP).
Subprogram Linkage (CSECT, *ENTRY, *EXTRN).
Data Generation (ASCII, ASCIIZ, BSSZ, CON, *DATA, DEC, DEF, DIS, LIT, LITORG,
PACKED, RECORD, STRUC, VFD).
Macro (*ENDM, IRP,*MACRO, REMOVE, SYSLIST, SYSNDX).
Conditional Assembly (AGO, AIF, ANOP, ELSE, ENDIF, GBLx, IF-ELSE-ENDIF, IFF,
IFT, IIF, LCLx, SET).
Micro (DECMIC, MICRO, OCTMIC).
Error Control (ERR, ERRxx).
Listing Control (EJECT, *LIST, PDC, SBTTL, SPACE, TITLE, XREF, %OUT).
Remote Assembly (HERE, RMT).
Code Duplication (DUP, ECHO, ENDD, STOPDUP).
Operation Denition (OPDEF, PURGDEF).
OpCode Table Management (OPSYN).
Every assembler manual should describe all the directives supported by the
assembler. References [26, 27, 30, 32, 37, 99, 100, 102, 103] are typical examples of
large, sophisticated assemblers supporting many directives.

Sec. 3.2

Program Identification Directives

73

3.2 Program Identication Directives

(IDENT)
1. IDENT
Label
none

Operation
IDENT

Operand
name,origin

The name in the operand eld becomes the name of the program. This directive is for the benet of the loader, which uses the program name to identify the
individual programs loaded, and to print a memory map. This directive is normally
not required and many assemblers do not even support it. Some assemblers use the
TITLE directive for this purpose. To execute it, the assembler writes the name on
the object le together with a special code (a loader directive) that tells the loader
what it is. chapter 7 contains examples of loader directives and memory maps. The
origin eld, if used, indicates the start address of the program. It is only used for
absolute assembly.
A few words about loader directives are in order. The relocatable object le
contains machine instructions (each with its relocation bit) and should also contain
loader directives. Both machine instructions and loader directives are written as
binary numbers on the object le and should be explicitly distinguished. The assembler does this by adding one more bit to the relocation bit. With two such bits
(identifying bits), the assembler can identify a record on the object le as one of
four dierent types. So far we have seen three types, machine instructions (absolute
and relative), and loader directives. The fourth type is machine instructions that
require special relocation. They are discussed later in this chapter, in the section
on the ENTRY, EXTRN directives.
Throughout this book we will assume that the identication bits have the
following meaning:
00an absolute machine instruction.
01a relative machine instruction.
10a machine instruction that needs special relocation.
11a loader directive.
See chapter 7 about specic loader directives.

74 Directives

Ch. 3

3.3 Source Program Control Directives

(*END, ICTL, INCLUDE, PUNCH, REPRO).
2. END
Label
none

Operation
END address

Operand
expression

Indicates to the assembler the end of the source program. Upon reading the
END from the source le, the assembler stops reading and completes assembling the
program. Certain assemblers allow the source le to have more than one program,
each having its own END, to indicate separate assembly. In such a case, the assembler
completes one assembly and then tries to read beyond the END to see if there is
another program on the same source le.
The expression in the operand eld indicates the address of the rst executable
instruction. It is thus possible to start the source program with some data items or
with a procedure, and follow them by the main program. In such a case the rst
source line is not the rst executable instruction. The assembler does not know
where execution should start and, if it should start at any point other than the
beginning, that point should be specied in the operand eld of the END.
Example:
label

mnemonic

SUB

LOAD
.
RET
DATA
STRT CLR
.
.
END

operand

comment

A,R1

Program starts with a procedure

1,2,3
R2

End of procedure
Some data items
First executable instruction

STRT

Indicates where to start execution

3. ICTL
Label
none

Operation
ICTL

Operand
b,e,c

The ICTL directive was used in punched card-based assemblers. It species

card columns for the beginning b and end e of the instructions punched on the card,
and for the start c of instructions on continuation cards.
Example: ICTL 25,,26 species that instructions start on column 25 and continuation cards start on column 26. Since no value is specied for e, the default value
of 71 is assumed.

Sec. 3.3

Source Program Control Directives

75

When a source line is too long to t on one card, a continuation is indicated by

punching something on the column following the end column (usually column 72).
The next card is then assumed to be a continuation card.
Exercise 3.2 How should the assembler test the values of b,e,c for validity?
4. INCLUDE
Label
none

Operation
INCLUDE

Operand
lename

When the INCLUDE directive is encountered, the assembler opens the le specied in the INCLUDE and uses it as a source le. When that le is fully read, the
assembler returns to the original source le. The new source le may itself include
an INCLUDE directive, that will direct the assembler to start reading a third source
le.
Note. A similar loader directive is mentioned in chapter 7. It it used to explicitly
include an object le in the load.
5. PUNCH
Label
optional

Operation
PUNCH

Operand
string

The string in the operand eld is punched on a card. The PUNCH directive has
no other eect on the assembly.
6. REPRO
Label
none

Operation
REPRO

Operand
address

The next source line is punched on a card. There is no eect on the assembly.
Exercise 3.3 If it does not aect the assembly, what is this directives used for?

76 Directives

Ch. 3

3.4 Machine Identication Directives

(MACHINE, p286, PPU)
7. MACHINE
Label
none

Operation
MACHINE

Operand
processor code

This directive is used by assemblers that serve a family of computers, such as the
CDC 6000 series, 7000 series, & Cyber series computers. The dierent computers
in such a family are upper compatible, but not identical. Some of them support
instructions and hardware features that others do not. The processor code tells
the assembler on what machine the program is supposed to run and the assembler,
based on this information, can detect errors in the source code that stem from small
incompatibilities berween dierent machines in the same family.
8. p286
Label
none

Operation
p286

Operand
none

The 80x86 is a family of microprocessors that are dierent but are upper compatible. A program intended for the 80286 microprocessor must use this directive,
so that the assembler can generate instructions specic to that machine. There are
also p186 and similar directives.
9. PPU
Label
none

Operation
PPU

Operand
string

This directive is specic to the Cyber 70/76 or CDC 7600. Those machine have
one CP (Central Processor) and several PPUs (Peripheral Processing Units). The
CP and the PPUs have dierent architectures and, as a result, dierent assembler
languages. The same assembler, however, can handle programs in either language.
The directive declares the program as a PPU, rather than as a CP, program. The
string operand has to do with the way certain PPU instructions are assembled [30].

Sec. 3.4

Machine Identification Directives

77

3.5 Loader Control Directives

(LCC)
10. LCC
Label
none

Operation
LCC

Operand
loader directive

The loader directive in the operand eld is written on the object le. The
loader directive should be coded as a number. This directive allows the advanced
user to explicitly insert loader directives in the object le.
Exercise 3.4 What are examples of loader directives?

3.6 Mode Control Directives

(ABS, BASE, CODE, QUAL, COL)
These directives dene the operating characteristics of the assembler. They
allow the programmer to change the way the assembler generates object code (ABS),
interprets binary data (BASE), generates character data (CODE), qualies symbols
(QUAL), and determines the beginning of comments (COL)
11. ABS
Label
none

Operation
ABS

Operand
none

Directs the assembler to generate an absolute object le, rather than a relocatable one.
12. BASE
Label
none

Operation
BASE or RADIX

Operand
number base

The number base operand can be 2, 8, 10, 16, or B, O, D, H, and it determines

the number base (or radix) of all constants used from that point until the next BASE
directive.Thus

BASE 8
.
.
DATA 56 the constant will be interpreted as 568
DATA 80 this would be agged as an error since 8 is invalid as an octal digit
Exercise 3.5 In what pass is BASE executed, and how?

78 Directives

Ch. 3

13. CODE
Label
none

Operation
CODE

Operand
char

Computers use dierent character codes, such as the ASCII and EBCDIC. If
the assembler supports more than one code, this directive tells it what code to use
for the current assembly. The operand can be a single letter code such as A (for
ASCII), E (for EBCDIC), D (for Display, the CDC 6-bit code) or anything else.
14. QUAL
Label
none

Operation
QUAL

Operand
qualier or blank

A symbol can be qualied (local) or unqualied (global). If the assembler

supports this feature then symbols with the same name can be used in dierent
procedures without conict. A qualied symbol is referred to by writing /qualier/symbol. See table 31 for an example. Note, in the table, how a blank space in
the operand eld stops qualifying. All symbols dened from that point are global.
QUAL
.
.
ABC ...
.
.
QUAL
.
.
ABC ...
.
.
JMP

all symbols dened from this point are

qualied by /PROC1/

PROC1

the full name is /PROC1/ABC

symbols dened from here are qualied by /PROC2/

PROC2

the full name is /PROC2/ABC

/PROC2/ABC jumps to the second denition of ABC

Table 31. Qualied Symbols.

15. COL
Label
none

Operation
COL

Operand
column number

A source line with a comment but without an operand eld may present a
problem to the assembler. Consider the line ABC HLT 2 TIMES. On many com-

Sec. 3.6

Mode Control Directives

79

puters, the HLT instruction may be written with or without an operand, and the
assembler has to determine whether the 2 is an operand or part of the comment.
Most assemblers require a special character, such as a semicolon, to precede a comment. Some old, punched card based assemblers, consider a certain column as the
beginning of comments. The COL directive can alter that column. Thus COL 40
means that anything on column 40 or after is a comment.

3.7 Block Control & LC Directives

(BEGIN, COMM, *DS, =, EVEN, LIMIT, ODD, ORG, OVERLAY, POS, USE, *)
These directives aect the layout of the program and must, therefore, be executed in pass 1.
16. BEGIN
Label
none

Operation
BEGIN

Operand
Op1,Op2

Where Op1 is a location counter name, and Op2 is a start value for that location
counter.
Some assemblers can use several location counters to assemble one program
(see example below). The dierent location counters are assigned names, can be
initialized by the programmer to any values, and can be used in any order. The
default location counter (the one used in the absence of any BEGIN) is called blank
and is initialized to zero. This directive causes the assembler to start using the
location counter named in Op1, and initializes that location counter to the value of
Op2. The directive may appear anywhere in the program and is used to separate
the program into parts that are written in a certain order and are eventually loaded
in memory in a dierent order.
If the rst line of the program is not a BEGIN, the assembler generates a
BEGIN ,0 as the rst line. Such a program starts by using the blank location
counter, which is initialized to zero (but see also the discussion of ORG).
17. COMM
Label
name

Operation
COMM

Operand
expr

This directive declares the name to be that of an array of size expr. The
array will later be located in blank common. This is handy for compatibility with
Fortran and other languages that use COMMON. The actual storage space is allocated
by the loader, and the directive is executed by the assembler by generating a loader
directive and placing it in the object le.

80 Directives

Ch. 3

18. DS
Label
optional

Operation
DS

Operand
an expression

The DS (Dene Storage) directive reserves a number of storage locations to be

used later, as an array. The reserved locations are not preloaded with any value.
This directive has the same eect as the DIMENSION statement in Fortran or the
array declaration in Pascal.
Example:
AB
CD
EF

DS 5
DS N
DS NN

N must be a predened symbol

Storage for NN words, reserved as a linear array

To execute the DS, the assembler evaluates the expression in the operand eld
(the array size) and increments the LC by this amount. This guarantees that the
next instruction will be loaded in the word following the reserved area.
Example:
LC
15
15
16
19
20
25

N
B
C

EQU 5
CLR R3
DS 3
ADD R2,AB
DS N
N=5
...

The above example is easily handled by the assembler. It results, however, in

a fatal mix of instructions and data. At run time, after the computer executes the
CLR instruction, it fetches the contents of the next location and tries to execute it
as an instruction. That location, however, is the rst location of the array B and
thus contains data and not an instruction.

The DS directives should therefore be concentrated at the beginning or, preferably, at the end of the program, following all executable instructions.
Exercise 3.6 What are some ways of mixing instructions and data?
Modern computers have a word size thats a multiple of 8, so their assemblers
have directives such as BYTE (to reserve bytes), WORD (to reserve words), LONG (to
reserve longwords). Older assemblers use names such as BSS (Block Starting with
Symbol), or BES (Block Ending with Symbol). Those are all similar to DS.
Exercise 3.7 The directive B BES 5 causes ve words of storage to be reserved,
and assigns B a value that is the address of the rst word following this array. Why
isnt B assigned the address of the last word of the array, and what is the use of
BES?

Sec. 3.7

Block Control & LC Directives

81

Exercise 3.8 The directive DS 0 seems useless. Still, it has an important use on
some computers, what is it?
19. =
Label
*

Operation
=

Operand
address expr

The = is similar to DS and is used to reserve storage. The directive *=*+7

increments the LC by 7 and thus amounts to reserving 7 words of storage. In some
assemblers (such as the VAX Macro assembler, see Ch. 8) this directive can be
used to modify the value of any modiable symbol, but we refer to such symbols as
SET symbols and describe the SET directive in chapter 4.
20. EVEN
Label
none

Operation
EVEN

Operand
none

It directs the assembler to advance the LC to the next even value if it is

currently odd. This is useful on 16-bit computers with byte addressable memory,
such as the PDP-11 or the M68000. On such computers, a memory word consists
of two consecutive bytes, the rst of which starts on an even address. Anything on
the source line following this directive will have a word address.
21. LIMIT
Label
none

Operation
LIMIT

Operand
none

This is executed by generating a DS 2 directive at the beginning of the program. The loader then stores the upper and lower address boundaries of the program
in those two locations. This is done so that the program could determine its own
boundaries in memory at run time.
22. ODD
Label
none

Operation
ODD

Operand
none

Similar to EVEN above, only it directs the assembler to increment the LC by 1

if it is even.
23. ORG
Label
optional

Operation
ORG

Operand
expression

82 Directives

Ch. 3

The ORG directive instructs the assembler to continue the assembly from the
memory location specied by the operand. The operand must be an expression
that can be immediately evaluated, and its value must be a valid address (i.e., it
cannot be negative). Thus the operand can be a number, a known symbol, or an
expression that can be evaluated by the assembler at this point. Such an operand
is called denable.
Example:

AB ORG 100

Meanscontinue the assembly from location 100 and assign 100 as the value
of symbol AB.
To execute this directive, the assembler:
Evaluates the operand (pass 1).
Resets the LC to the value of the operand (pass 1).
Stores the label, if there is one, in the symbol table, with the LC as its value
(pass 1).
Prepares a loader directive on the object le (pass 2). This tells the loader where
to load subsequent instructions.
The LC points to the current address and, by resetting it, the programmer
instructs the assembler to load the instructions that follow into a dierent memory
area.
Example:
LC

Source

0000

LOAD
.
.
ADD
ORG 170
COMP
SUB
.
.

0150
0170
0171

The assembler starts at location 0. It resets the LC to 0 and the rst block of
instructions, from the LOAD to the ADD, will be assembled and loaded into memory
locations 0000 through 0150. The ORG 170 causes the COMP instruction to be
loaded into memory location 170, followed by SUB in location 171, and so on. The
area from location 151 to location 169 remains empty and can be used to store data.
There are two problems, however:
It is hard to refer to this area since it is not labeled (but see the description of
the EQU directive for ways to label any memory location).

Sec. 3.7

Block Control & LC Directives

83

At run time, the computer will execute the ADD instruction and will then proceed
to location 0151, trying to execute its contents as an instruction. Since location
0151 does not contain an instruction, an error will occur.
The precise error depends on the contents of location 0151. If it contains a bit
pattern that happens to be the code of an instruction, the computer will execute it
and proceed to location 0152. If, however, location 0151 contains a bit pattern that
is not the code of any instruction, an interrupt will be generated by the hardware.
Most 8-bit microprocessors, unfortunately, simply skip such invalid bit patterns,
with no interrupts generated.

If the ORG above is changed to ORG 150, the assembler will reset the LC to
150, with the result that the COMP instruction will go into location 0150 (overwriting
the ADD), the SUB, into location 0151, and so on. The assembler executes the ORG
without checking its operand, and it is therefore easy to make mistakes.
Exercise 3.9 What is a common use of ORG?
Since the assembler does not load the program into memory, it can not directly
execute the ORG. It resets the LC (in pass 1) and writes a loader directive on the
object le (in pass 2). The actual execution is done by the loader when it nds the
loader directive in the object le.
24. OVERLAY
Label
none

Operation
OVERLAY

Operand
n

Declares the following code an overlay. The overlay ends at the next OVERLAY
directive or at the end of the program. Overlays are useful when a large program
has to t in a small memory, or in a multi-user computer where many application
programs compete for limited memory. The program can be logically divided into a
main part and a number of overlays. At run time, the main part resides in memory
and calls any overlay when needed. The overlays are loaded on top of each other
(they overlay each other). Overlays are discussed in detail in chapter 7.
25. POS
Label
none

Operation
POS

Operand
expression

In a computer with a large word size, several instructions can be packed in one
word. An assembler for such a computer uses, in addition to the LC, a position
counter, SC. The SC tells the assembler where, in the current word, to assemble
the next instruction. If the next instruction is longer than the rest of the word,
the assembler lls the current word with NOP, resets the SC to 0, and increments
the LC by 1. The next instruction thus goes into the next word. This process is
called a forcing up of the next instruction, and it is discussed in chapter 1. The

84 Directives

Ch. 3

POS directive resets the SC to the value of the expression in the operand eld. The
expression should not be greater than the word size.
26. USE
Label
none

Operation
USE

Operand
LC name or *

This directive tells the assembler to start using the LC named in the operand.
This can be an existing LC or a new one. An asterisk in the operand means returning
to the previously used LC. The special name // refers to the special LC used for
the blank common block.
Example:
LC
00
00
02

56
00
00
10
12
57

USE
A LOD ...
C STO ...
.
.
ADD ...
USE XY
D DS 10
E DC 1,2
.
USE *

the value of symbol A is 0 relative to the main block

C has a value of 2 relative to the main block

a new LC is initialized to 0
symbol D has value of 0 relative to block XY

switch to the previous LC. Its current value is 57.

More information on the use of USE and on multiple LCs can be found in
chapter 1 and in references [26, 27].
* The asterisk is not a directive in the usual sense. It is not written on a separate
source line but is rather part of the operand of instructions. It stands for the LC
value, and is very useful. A typical simple example is:
BPL *+2
ADD ...
COM ...
the BPL instruction branches to the COM instruction. This is useful in short local
communication between instructions, but requires the programmer to know the size
of each instruction. The example above would work if the instructions involved are
1 word long each. If the ADD instruction is two words long, the BPL would branch
to the middle of the ADD.

Sec. 3.8

Segment Control Directives

85

3.8 Segment Control Directives

(SEGMENT, ASSUME, GROUP)
The concept of a segment has originated with large operating systems running
on mainframe computers. However, with the advent of microprocesors that can
address large memories, this concept has become useful for microcomputers. The
Intel 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors should specically be mentioned in connection with segments. All important assemblers for these families support memory
segmentation and have many directives for that purpose.
A segment is a part of the program, a part that can have any size. The programmer divides the program into partseach a main program, a procedure, a group of
procedures, or a data blockand declares each part as a segment. The segment,
therefore, is a logical part of the program. Depending on memory availability, the
loader loads each segment into a dierent memory area, and the operating system
keeps track of where each segment is located. Since segments are logical parts of a
program, they can be shared by programs and can be given access codes. A segment
can be dened as Execute only, as Read/Write, as Read only, etc.
Segmentation on the Intel 80x86 & 80x88 is dierent. It stems from the inability of older microrpocessors to directly address large memories. This type of
segmentation is described in chapter 1 (in connection with multiple location counters) and in ref. [35, 38]. Many texts on operating systems (see, e.g., [41]) describe
segments and segment addressability in detail.
27. SEGMENT
Label
symbol

Operation
SEGMENT

Operand
parameters

Used to declare the start of a segment. The end of the segment is dened by
an ENDS directive. Example:
MINE

SEGMENT PUBLIC
DB 0
B
DW 0
MINE ENDS
All segments using the parameter PUBLIC and having the same name are concatenated into one module (see reference [35] for more information on possible parameters).
28. ASSUME
Label
none

Operation
ASSUME

Operand
seg reg:name

When a program uses segments, every address must have two parts, a segment
address and an oset within the segment. The segment address must be loaded

86 Directives

Ch. 3

by the program into one of the segment registers. The oset is included in the
individual instructions. Thus when an instruction is executed that uses an address,
the hardware fetches the oset from the instruction, adds it to the contents of one
of the segment registers, and ends up with a complete address. This process is
called address mapping. The user is responsible for loading the start address of
each segment into a segment register. The user then needs to tell the assembler
what each of the segment registers contains. This is done by the ASSUME directive.
Thus ASSUME DS:MINE tells the assembler that segment register DS contains the
start address of segment MINE. The ASSUME directive does not load the address into
the registerthat must be done by an instruction at run timeit only tells the
assembler to assume that the register has been loaded.
29. GROUP
Label
optional

Operation
GROUP

Operand
list of segment names

This directs the assembler to group several segments into one contiguous module.
The assembler generates a loader directive, and the actual grouping is done by
the loader.

3.9 Symbol Denition Directives

(*EQU, MAX, MIN, MICCNT, SET, USING)
30. EQU
Label
symbol

Operation
EQU or =

Operand
expression

Where the label is mandatory and the operand is an expression that cannot
include any future symbols. The directive is executed by assigning the operand as
the value of the symbol. The symbol is stored in the symbol table with its value
and with the proper type. This is the rst example of a symbol whose value is not
the LC. The EQU directive makes it possible to dene symbols with any values and
any type, absolute or relative.
Example:
LC

0000

AB
CD
EF
GH
IJ

EQU
EQU
ADD
EQU
EQU

0
5
1,2
AB+1
EF+1

Sec. 3.9

Symbol Definition Directives

87

will cause the following to be stored in the symbol table:

name

value type

AB
CD
EF
GH
IJ

0
5
0
1
1

ABS
ABS
REL
ABS
REL

The symbol types are worth noting in this example. GH is absolute since it is
dened by absolute quantities only. IJ is relative since its denition contains at least
one relative quantity. See also the discussion of address expressions in chapter 1.
The dierence between GH and IJ is in the way they are used. GH is identical
to the number 1 and the two can be used interchangeably. Thus:
ADD
ADD

R1,R2
RGH,R2

are identical instructions that add registers 1 and 2. They are assembled into
identical machine instructions and are treated by the loader identically. Symbol IJ,
however, is relative and thus stands for address 1. As a result, ADD RIJ,R2 is
wrong and would produce an assembler error message, since the assembler expects
a register number (an absolute number) at this point, but
LOAD
LOAD

R3,1
R3,IJ

is okay since the second operand of LOAD should be an address. Note, however,
that the two instructions are not identical. They go on the object le with dierent
identication bits.
Chapter 1 explains how the type of a symbol is used by the assembler to
generate relocation bits.
The main use of EQU is in assigning meaningful names to registers and locations
that are frequently used in the program. In the Apple II computer, for example,
addresses C000 and C010 have a special meaning. They are the data register and
the strobe (see reference [40] p. 79) of the keyboard. The directives:
KYBD
STRB

EQU $C000
EQU $C010

make it easy to input from the keyboard since the programmer has to memorize
the symbols KYBD ,STRB instead of the addresses C000, C010. Notice that the $ is
used above to specify a hexadecimal constant.
Exercise 3.10 A 2-pass assembler can handle future symbols and an instruction
can therefore use a future symbol as an operand. This is not always true for directives. The EQU directive, for example, cannot use a future symbol. The directive
A EQU B+1 is easy to execute if B is previously dened, but impossible if B is a
future symbol. Whats the reason for this?

88 Directives

Ch. 3

Exercise 3.11 Suggest a way for the assembler to eliminate this limitation such
that any source line could use future symbols.
31. MAX and MIN
Label
symbol

Operation
MAX or MIN

Operand
list of expressions

The label is mandatory and is assigned the value of the largest (smallest)
expression in the operand eld.
Example:
AB
CD
GH
NOW

EQU
EQU
EQU
MAX

0
5
LQ+AB
where LQ is a dened symbol
AB,CD,GH

Symbol NOW is assigned the maximum of the three operands. These directives are
similar to EQU and are used in those rare cases where the largest (or smallest) of a
group of symbols is needed.
Exercise 3.12 How is MAX executed and in what pass?
32. MICCNT
Label
symbol

Operation
MICCNT

Operand
micro name

The symbol is set to the number of characters in the value of the micro (micros
are discussed in a later section). What makes this directive interesting is that the
symbol can be redened. Thus:
FST

AB

SC

AB

MICRO 1,,*STRING*
.
.
MICCNT FST
.
.
MICRO 1,,*ALPHA*
.
.
MICCNT SC

denes a 6 character micro

AB is set to 6

denes a 5-character micro

AB is reset to 5

Sec. 3.9

Symbol Definition Directives

89

33. SET
Label
symbol

Operation
SET

Operand
expression

The SET directive is similar to the EQU directive except that it allows a redenition of the symbol. Thus the usage:
.
.
G SET 1
.
.
G SET 2
.
.

point 1

point 2

is valid. Between points 1 and 2, the value of symbol G will be 1. From point 2 on,
the value of G will be 2. The SET directive is another example where a symbol can
be redened. The execution of the SET directive and the reason for having such a
directive are discussed in chapter 4. Certain assemblers (see Ch. 8) use = instead
of SET.

3.10 Base Register Denition Directives

(USING, DROP)
The USING directive is used to declare the currrent base register and its value.
Base registers are used in only a few computersmost notably the IBM 360, 370
seriesand are explained in appendix A. The value itself is stored in the base
register at run time by an instruction, and the assembler has no control over it.
However, the assembler should know the values of all the base registers at any time.
Thus the USING is more like a promise to the assembler that the right value would be
stored. The asembler uses the base register to assemble instructions and to calculate
displacements. At any time, several registers can be declared as base registers, each
holding a dierent value. When an instruction needs to use a base register, the
assembler selects the base register that would result in the smallest displacement.
From time to time, the programmer may decide to drop a base register and convert
it back to normal use. The DROP directive is used for that purpose.
34. USING
Label
none

Operation
USING

Operand
name

90 Directives

Ch. 3

35. DROP
Label
none

Operation
DROP

Operand
name

3.11 Subprogram Linkage Directives

(CSECT, *ENTRY, *EXTRN)
ENTRY & EXTRN These have to do with the separate assembly of programs. Many
times the user wants to assemble several programs separately, and then to link and
execute them as one program. This problem can be approached in three ways:
Each program must reside on a separate source le and each source le contains
just one program. Upon reading the END directive, the assembler inputs the name
of the next program from the user, locates the source le, and proceeds to assemble
it.
A source le may contain several programs. On reading the END, the assembler
completes the current assembly, erases the symbol table, closes the object le, and
then tries to read the same source le, to see if there is any other program to
assemble.
The source le contains one program, divided into sections by means of a special
directive, such as CSECT.
In a typical assembly run, the user species the names of all the source les,
and the assembler goes over the les, assembling all the programs on a given source
le before going to the next le. One of the programs is the main program and the
other ones are procedures or coroutines. The only problem in separate assembly is
the instructions where a program calls another one.
Example:

TITLE A
.
.
JSR Q
a Jump SubRoutine instruction
.
.
END
TITLE B
ADD ..
.
.
LOD ..
.
.
END

Sec. 3.11

Subprogram Linkage Directives

91

In this example, program A calls a procedure Q located in program B. Notice that

program B contains another procedure P and may contain any number of procedures.
The assembler cannot assemble the JSR instruction because symbol Q is not
dened in program A. The programmer, however, wants to call procedure Q from
program A and to dene Q in program B. Clearly, symbol Q should be treated in a
special way in program A. It is not dened in A, but it is a dened symbol and it is
dened outside of A. The use of symbol Q is a special case, it is not an error, and
should be specially treated by the assembler. To declare Q as a special symbol, one
that is dened outside (external to) program A, the EXTRN directive should be used.
36. CSECT
Label
none

Operation
CSECT

Operand
a symbol

This directive is used on the IBM 360 computers to divide a program into parts,
to be assembled separately. Each part starts with a CSECT and ends with the next
CSECT of with the END diective. The PSECT directive on the VAX is similar. It is
described in Ch. 1.
37. EXTRN
Label
none

Operation
EXTRN

Operand
list of symbols

The symbols in the operand eld are declared as external symbols, symbols
that are used in the current program but are declared elsewhere. In the example
above, the declaration:
EXTRN Q or EXTRN P,Q
should be added to program A, preferably at the beginning of the program. The
assembler still does not have a value for Q but, because of the EXTRN declaration, it
treats the JSR instruction in a special way and does not consider it an error. The
programs are separately assembled and, therefore, when the assembler assembles A,
it knows nothing about program B (it does not have a value for symbol Q). When
the assembler gets to program B, it has already forgot everything about A (it has
erased the symbol table). Thus, in principle, the assembler cannot assemble the
JSR instruction. Only the loader, while loading all the programs as one executable
module, can use values of special symbols from one program in another. Thus our
JSR instruction presents a special case, a case that cannot be fully handled by the
assembler, and requires the help of the loader. It is interesting to note here that a
one pass assembler, since it does not use a separate loader, cannot handle separate
source les and thus cannot support the EXTRN, ENTRY directives.
The assembler writes the JSR instruction on the object le without the value of
Q, and with special identication bits (id ) indicating that the instruction is incomplete, and that it is missing the value of symbol Q. The loader eventually reads the

92 Directives

Ch. 3

object le, reads the JSR instruction, recognizes the id bits, and completes the instruction when it nds the value of symbol Q. This process is explained in chapter 7,
and in this section we will concentrate on the execution of the EXTRN directive.
The EXTRN species that Q is a special symbol, a symbol dened outside the
current program. The assembler stores Q in the symbol table with a special type
ext, and without a value. The instruction itself is assembled, and is written on the
object le, without the value of Q in its address eld. The assembler stores a pointer
in the empty address eld, to point to the symbol table entry for Q. At the end of
pass 2, the symbol table is erased, but the special entries[ in the symbol table] are
copied by the assembler onto the object le, for later use by the loader. The object
le thus contains the object code followed by the special symbol table. It will later
be shown that there are other items in the object le. The following diagram shows
the symbol table entry (entry 5) for symbol Q.

1.
2.
.
.
5.
6.

name

value type

..

..

..

Q
..

..

ext
..

The JSR instruction goes on the object le as the record OpCode, 5, id=10.
The id indicates (to the loader) that the 5 in the address eld is not the value of a
symbol but a pointer to the special-symbol table at the end of the object le. That
table includes the entry 5 Q ext among, perhaps, other ones.
After recognizing the id and nding the entry, the loader knows that the JSR
instruction needs the value of symbol Q. This value is dened in program B and
should, therefore, be included in the object le generated by that program.
The id is a generalization of the concept of a relocation bit, and is discussed in
this chapter, in conjunction with the IDENT directive.

The EXTRN directive is executed in both passes. In pass 1 the symbol is entered
into the symbol table as a special symbol of type ext. In pass 2, the object
instruction is generated and the id bits added to it. Also, the special symbol table
is written onto the object le.
Exercise 3.13 What if an external symbol is used in an address expression, such
as JSR Q+1 or DC Q+1?
It should be noted that Macro, the VAX assembler, treats undened symbols
as external. When an undened symbol appears in a VAX assembler program, the
assembler does not issue an error. It treats the symbol as external, and the error is
eventually issued by the linker (when it does not nd a corresponding entry point
in any of the object les loaded). This feature is not always desirable, and can be
disabled by the DISABLE GLOBAL directive.

Sec. 3.11

Subprogram Linkage Directives

93

38. ENTRY
Label
none

Operation
ENTRY

Operand
list of symbols

The symbols in the operand eld are dened as entry points to the current
program. An entry point is a point in the program where it can be entered by a call
from another program. In program B above, Q (and possibly P) are entry points,
and the directive:
ENTRY Q or ENTRY P,Q
should appear at the beginning of B. The assembler executes the directive by storing
the symbols in the symbol table with a type of ent. An example follows:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

name

value type

..
..
P
..
..
Q
..

..
..
12
..
..
23

rel
abs
ent
rel
rel
ent

At the end of pass 2, the symbol table is erased, but the special entries, those with
a type of ext or ent, go on the object le. When the loader reads the object le for
B, it nds the entry for Q and uses the value of Q to complete the JSR instruction
from program A.
This directive is executed partly in pass 1 (setting the type in the symbol table)
and partly in pass 2 (writing the special symbol table on the object le).

3.12 Data Generation Directives

(ASCII, ASCIIZ, BSSZ, CON, *DATA, DEC, DEF, DIS, LIT, LITORG, PACKED, RECORD,
STRUC, VFD)
39. ASCII
Label
optional

Operation
ASCII

Operand
char string

The ASCII codes of all the characters in the string are generated and stored in
consecutive bytes in memory. If there is a label, its value is the address of the rst
byte. Example:
ASCII "HELLO THERE"
generates (in octal): 150 145 154 154 157 040 164 150 145 162 145 in 11
consecutive bytes.

94 Directives

Ch. 3

40. ASCIIZ
Label
optional

Operation
ASCIIZ

Operand
char string

Same as the ASCII directive above except that the string of bytes is followed
by a zero byte. This feature is for generating strings that C programs can use.
41. BSSZ
Label
symbol

Operation
BSSZ

Operand
expression

Similar to BSS except the block being reserved is initialized to all zeros.
Exercise 3.14 Why is BSSZ described here and not next to BSS?
42. CON
Label
symbol

Operation
CON

Operand
expr1,expr2,. . .

The expressions are evaluated and stored in consecutive words, one value per
word. This directive is similar to DATA (see below) except that expressions, rather
than constants, can be used, and each value is stored in one word.
43. DATA (or DC)
Label
Optional

Operation
DATA or DC

Operand
list of integer, real, or character constants, or symbols

The DATA or DC (Dene Code) directive preloads the constants in the operand
eld in successive memory locations. The constants can be of dierent types
(some assemblers support a large number of constant types, both numeric and
non-numeric) and can have dierent lengths.
Example: AB DC 1,-5.3,DOD$,XY The operand eld contains four constants
(notice the three separating commas) that are of dierent types. The rst is the
integer 1, the second, a real number, the third, a string of length four, and the
fourth, the value of symbol XY. The assembler generates the binary values of all
items and stores them in consecutive locations, updating the LC in the process.
The assembler executes the DC in both passes. In pass 1 it eveluates the size of each
constant and updates the LC. In pass 2 it generates the binary constants and writes
them on the object le. Many assemblers permit expressions in a DC directive, thus
DC A-1,B-C,. . . is valid but all the symbols involved should be known at the time
the DC is encountered in pass 1. Such a DC may include an external symbol and,

Sec. 3.12

Data Generation Directives

95

in such a case, the assembler cannot evaluate the expression and has to generate a
modify loader directive.
If the programmer knows the sizes of the data items, they can refer to any of
the items by calculating the sizes of the preceding ones. Assuming that an integer
number occupies one word, a real, two words, and each word can contain two
characters, the total size of the rst three items in the example above is ve and the
following is true: The instruction LOD AB+1,R1 will load the real constant 5.3,
whereas STO R1,AB+4 will store register 1 in the word containing the characters
D$ (thereby erasing those characters). The instruction CMP AB+5,R2 will compare
the value of symbol XY (stored in location AB+5) with the contents of register 2.
Some assemblers use DATA instead of DC while others support separate directives for dierent data types. OCT, DEC, BCD are a few such directives, supported
mostly by old assemblers, that preload octal, decimal, and strings in storage. The
examples below are from the ASM 86 assembler (references [3335])a modern,
powerful assembler for Intel 16-bit microprocessorsbut are typical to data directives supported by many modern assemblers.
DB (Dene Byte), DW (Dene Word), DD (Dene Double), DQ (Dene Quade,
a quade is 8 consecutive bytes or 64 bits), DT (Dene Ten), ten consecutive bytes).
These directives are powerful, as the following examples illustrate:
DB
DW
DW
DB
DQ
DD
DB

12DUP(0)
?,?,?
3DUP(?)
2DUP(1,3DUP(2))
1.234E
-9.8E-34
HELLO,0DH,0AH

12 bytes are preloaded with zeros

3 words are reserved but not preloaded
same as above
eight bytes are preloaded with 1,2,2,2,1,2,2,2
a 64-bit real value
a 32-bit real value
7 bytes, the last 2 with CR (0D16) & LF (0A16).

44. DIS
Label
symbol

Operation
DIS

Operand
n,string

A total of n characters from the string are preloaded into successive words in
memory (as many words as necessary to hold n characters). If n is larger than
the length of the string, the string is repeatedly loaded into memory until all n
characters have been loaded.
45. DEF
Label
symbol

Operation
DEF

Operand
m[,I]

Where m is an address (absolute or relative) and the optional I indicates indirect addressing. This directive is used in the HP1000 & 2100 minicomputers [79]

96 Directives

Ch. 3

to generate addresses in memory to be used for indirect addressing and cascaded

indirect. The indirect mode and cascaded indirect are covered in chapter 7.
46. DEC
Label
symbol

Operation
DEC

Operand
d1[,d2,...,dn]

Generates a string of decimal constants. This directive is used on computers

that support decimal constants.
47. LIT
Label
none

Operation
LIT

Operand
list of expressions

The expressions are evaluated and their values inserted into the literal table.
This directive is normally not necessary since literals are added to the literal table
when they are found in the source. However, if LIT is used early in the program to
load the literal table, the assembler will not load it with duplicate values. Some experienced programmers like to know what their literal table contains. They initially
preload it with all the literals they think their program is using. At the end of the
second pass, they print the literal table and, if it contains anything not inserted by
them (through the LIT), they check for a possible error.
48. LITORG
Label
none

Operation
LITORG

Operand
expression

Where the operand eld is an address expression. This directive explicitly

species the beginning address of the literals block.
Examples:
LITORG $FF00 All literals declared up to this point should be stored starting at
hex address FF00. This example is typical for a mini or microcomputer where the
user is responsible for part of the memory allocation and assignment of addresses.
LITORG * All literals declared up to this point should be stored in memory
starting at this point. The asterisk is the current value of the LC. The assembler
stores all literals that have been dened so far in a block starting at the current
LC value, updating the LC. The next source line will be assembled at the address
following this block. This example is common on computers with explicit base
addressing, like the IBM 360, 370.
To implement literals and the LITORG directive, a two-pass assembler uses two
tools. The intermediate le and a literal table. The intermediate le is generated

Sec. 3.12

Data Generation Directives

97

by the rst pass and is read by the second pass. It contains a copy of the source
le plus information on literals. The literal table contains the name, value, size and
other attributes of each literal used in the program.
Example:
name

value size

1000
13.6
-1
DATUM
13.60

4
8
4
5
8

Where the value eld contains the binary values of the literals. In the rst pass,
each time a literal is found in the source program, the literal table is checked for
a literal with the same name. If no such literal exists, the new literal is added
to the table, otherwise, the existing literal is used. The relative address of the
literal is then written on the intermediate le following the instruction that uses
the literal. Notice that literals with dierent names and identical values (like 13.6,
13.60) appear as dierent entries in the literal table. When a LITORG is encountered
(or, in the absence of a LITORG, at the end of the rst pass), the assembler copies
the value elds from the literal table to memory (to the memory address specied
in the LITORG or, with no LITORG, the address following the end of the program)
and erases the table. Thus, several literal tables may be generated during the rst
pass. In the second pass the intermediate le is read and, when an instruction is
encountered that uses a literal, the assembler nds the relative address of the literal
in the le, following the instruction. It uses this address to calculate the absolute
address of the literal, and assembles the instruction with that absolute address.
Literalsliterals are treated in some detail in chapter 1.
49. PACKED
Label
symbol

Operation
PACKED

Operand
list of expressions

The expressions are calculated and their values are stored in successive memory
locations in packed decimal form.
50. RECORD
Label
symbol

Operation
RECORD

Operand
eld1:size1,eld2:size2,. . .

This is a powerful directive supported by the ASM 86 assembler. It denes

a template[ for data items] for 8- or 16-bit data item values that are declared
elsewhere. The RECORD directive itself does not load data in memory; it just denes
the format for data items loaded by other directives.
Example:

ID RECORD YR:3,CODE:4,GEN:1

98 Directives

Ch. 3

Symbol ID is now the name of a record (just a template, not any actual area in
memory) containing three elds: YR, a 3-bit value, CODE, a number between 0 and
15, and GEN, a single bit. The total length of the record is thus 8 bits. Each size
eld is the size (in bits) of a eld in the record. To actually allocate memory to
such a record, other directives are used. For example: ACT ID 6DUP(?) ACT is 6
consecutive bytes, each a record of type ID, uninitialized. SAM ID 12DUP(5,0,1)
SAM is 12 consecutive bytes, each a record of type ID. The individual elds are
initialized to YR=5, CODE=0, GEN=1.
Records allow for easy manipulation of small elds and individual bits while
packing them tightly in either bytes or words. The following example species
default values for the individual elds.
VOL RECORD X:8=A,Y:8=B
The following source lines illustrate actual storage allocation.
BAT VOL <,Q> BAT is a record of type VOL with eld Y initialized to Q and
eld X having its default value A.
CAT VOL<> CAT is a record of type VOL (2 bytes) where the X, Y elds have the
default values.
To access a record, an instruction such as below can be used.
MOV AX,OFFSET CAT. This is an 8086 MOV instruction [37,38] whose general form
is
MOV destination,source
The MOV instruction above moves OFFSET CAT (the address of record CAT) to
the 16-bit register AX. The instruction
MOV AH,OFFSET SAM[3] moves the address of the third component of the array
SAM of records to the 8-bit register AH.
For more information on records see [34,35,37].
51. STRUC
Label
symbol

Operation
STRUC

Operand
none

This directive is similar to the record feature in Pascal. It is another of the

powerful directives supported by many 80x86 assemblers. The STRUC is a template, not a memory area and, once it is dened, many memory areas of the same
structure can be declared.
DIM
LEN
WID
HGT
MISC
DIM

STRUC
DB 3,5
DB 0
DW 0
DB 10DUP(?)
ENDS

Sec. 3.12

Data Generation Directives

99

This denes a structure called DIM with 4 elds, the rst one is named LEN and is
2 bytes long. The last one has the name MISC and is ten bytes long. To actually
build such a structure in memory, source lines such as:
DAN
BAN

DIM
DIM 5DUP(?)

can be used. The rst declares DAN as a structure of type DIM, the second one
declares BAN as an array of 5 such structures. To access a eld in a structure, the
name of the structure should be followed by a .field name.
MOV DAN.LEN,AL moves the 8-bit register AL to eld LEN of structure DAN.
52. VFD
Label
symbol

Operation
VFD

Operand
l1/expr1,l2/expr2,. . .

The expressions are evaluated, the value of expri is extended or truncated to a

length of li bits, and all the generated groups of bits are concateneted and packed
tight into consecutive words. This directive is used in those rare cases where the
programmer knows the binary values of some constants and wants them packed in
memory. VFD stands for Variable Field Denition.

3.13 Macro Directives

(*ENDM, IRP,*MACRO, REMOVE, SYSLIST, SYSNDX)
Those directives are described in detail in chapter 4.

3.14 Conditional Assembly Directives

(AGO, AIF, ANOP, ELSE, ENDIF, GBLx, IF-ELSE-ENDIF, IFF, IFT, IIF, LCLx, SET)
Again, conditional assembly and the above directives are described in detail
in chapter 4, except that SET has been briey described in this chapter since it is
similar to EQU.

3.15 Micro Directives

(DECMIC, MICRO, OCTMIC)
The micro feature enables the programmer to assign names to strings of characters. This allows for more exibility in manipulating strings at assembly time,
especially if the micro feature is used with the AIF, DUP, STOPDUP and SET directives.
53. DECMIC
Label
name

Operation
DECMIC

Operand
expr,n

Like OCTMIC below except that the rightmost n decimal digits are used.

100 Directives

Ch. 3

54. MICRO
Label
name

Operation
MICRO

Operand
n1,n2,dstring

dstring is a delimited string (it is preceded and followed by the same character). A substring of n2 characters, starting at position n1 is extracted and is
assigned the name in the label eld. The name then becomes a micro name. If n2
is zero, the substring starts at position n1 and goes to the end of the original string.
Examples:
AN MICRO 1,,/STRING/ AN is the name of string STRING
BC MICRO 2,3,*NONESUCH* BC is the name of ONE
55. OCTMIC
Label
name

Operation
OCTMIC

Operand
expr,n

The expression (which must be numeric) is evaluated by the assembler and the
rightmost n octal digits extracted. They become the string assigned as the value of
name.
Example: Suppose B is a symbol (EQU or SET) with absolute value 1024. Then
J OCTMIC B,6 will assign the string 002000 to micro name J (since 20008=1024).
3.15.1 micro substitution
It is done by placing a micro name between the two micro delimiters (=) at
any point in any source line (except a comment line). The string is then substituted
for the micro name. Examples:
COMP =BC=,R1 is assembled as COMP ONE,R1
ADD #=J=,R2 is assembled as ADD #002000,R2.

3.16 Error Control Directives

(ERR, ERRxx)
56. ERR
Label
ag

Operation
ERR

Operand
none

This directive generates an assembler error of the type indicated by the ag.
This can be useful in certain conditional assemblies. The example below assumes
knowledge of macros and conditional assembly.

Sec. 3.16

SCD
A

Error Control Directives

MACRO P1,P2
IIF P1=0
ERR
.
.
ENDM
.
.
SCD 0,GG

101

an error of type A will be generated if the

macro is expanded with 0 as the value of
parameter P1

this expansion will cause such an error

57. ERRxx
Label
ag

Operation
ERRxx

Operand
expression

Will generate an assembler error of type flag when a condition detected during
pass 2 is true.
Example:
.
.
H DS 0
R ERRPL H-XFF00
END

H is an array of length 0. It is the last address in the program

if H-FF0016 is positive (PL), generate an error of type R.

The condition xx can be PL, MI, ZR, NZ.

3.17 Listing Control Directives

(EJECT, *LIST, PDC, SBTTL, SPACE, TITLE, XREF, %OUT)
These are relatively simple directives that only aect the listing le, not the
object code generated. The listing is generated during pass 2, when instructions are
being assembled, except that the Microsoft macro assembler (MASM) can optionally
create a pass-1 listing. This is discussed in Ch. 8, and may be useful in debugging.
58. EJECT
Label
none

Operation
EJECT

Operand
none

It causes the next line of the listing to appear at the top of the next page
following the page heading. Some assemblers use PAGE instead of EJECT.

102 Directives

Ch. 3

59. LIST
Label
none

Operation
LIST

Operand
ON or OFF

Used to control the listing of the program. LIST ON instructs the assembler
to list subsequent lines. LIST OFF instructs it to suppress listing. The LIST directive may appear anywhere in the program and is eective until the next LIST is
encountered or until the end of the program, whichever occurs rst. Some assemblers support two directives LIST, NOLIST instead of a LIST ON/OFF. It should be
emphasized that the LIST directive aects the listing le only. It does not aect
the assembly of the program. The entire program is assembled but the programmer
may decide to list only certain parts of it.
60. PDC
Label
none

Operation
PDC

Operand
none

PDC is used to print all the constants generated by a DC directive. It is described

in chapter 5.
61. SBTTL
Label
none

Operation
SBTTL

Operand
a string

Species a one-line subheading for the listing le. The assembler prints the
subheading as the second line of each listing page. The rst line is the heading (see
TITLE below for other features of the subheading).
62. SPACE
Label
none

Operation
SPACE

Operand
n

Inserts n blank lines in the listing. When the number of blank lines exceeds
the number of lines left on the page, a page is ejected, a new heading is printed,
and the rest of the blank lines are allocated on the new page.
63. TITLE
Label
none

Operation
TITLE

Operand
a string

Species a one line heading for the listing le. The assembler prints the heading
at the beginning of every page. The TITLE directive can appear anywhere in the

Sec. 3.17

Listing Control Directives

103

program, and each TITLE supersedes its predecessor. Each TITLE except the rst
one also causes a page eject. This directive is similar to SBTTL above and both have
the same features.
64. XREF
Label
none

Operation
XREF

Operand
string

Controls the printing of the cross-reference table. This table lists all the symbols dened in the program and for each symbol, the numbers of all source lines
referring to it. The operand is a string containing characters that specify whether
to print the table and how to list references to a symbol, by line number within the
source le, or by page number and line within the page.
65. %OUT
Label
none

Operation
%OUT

Operand
string

It is useful for displaying progress through a long assembly. When the %OUT is
encountered, the operand (a string) is displayed on the standard output device.

3.18 Remote Assembly Directives

(HERE, RMT)
A pair of RMT directives denes source code that is to be remotely saved for
later assembly. The HERE directive directs the assembler to assemble part of the
remote code at a certain point. If any remote code remains unassembled when END
is encountered, it is assembled at the end of the program.
66. HERE
Label
optional

Operation
HERE

Operand
none

A remote code that was saved before is fetched and assembled. If the label eld
has a name, only remote code with that name is assembled. If there is no name, all
unlabeled remote code existing at this point is fetched and assembled.
67. RMT
Label
name

Operation
RMT

Operand
none

The name is optional. A pair of RMT directives with the same name (or both
without names) delimit a section of code that is saved, to be later assembled by a
HERE directive.

104 Directives

Ch. 3

3.19 Code Duplication Directives

(DUP, ECHO, ENDD, STOPDUP)
They provide a handy way to duplicate parts of the code. The assembler is
given a sequence of source lines, and it duplicates and assembles it repeatedly. The
duplication can be stopped after a specied number of times, or upon a certain
condition being satised.
68. DUP
Label
name

Operation
DUP

Operand
rep,lcnt

rep species how many times to duplicate and assemble the sequence. lcnt
species the number of source lines in the sequence. The sequence starts on the line
following the DUP and is lcnt lines long. The lcnt parameter is optional and if it
is missing, the sequence goes up to the nearest ENDD. The name is also optional and
serves to identify the sequence duplicated. DUP sequences may be nested, in which
case the names are important and dene the inner and outer DUP ranges.
Example:
OUT

DUP 3
ADD
INN DUP 2
SUB
INN ENDD
LOD
OUT ENDD

duplicate 3 times
an inner DUP duplicated twice

The resulting code will be:

ADD SUB SUB LOD ADD SUB SUB LOD ADD SUB SUB LOD
Note that the dierent duplicates may be dierent. Using the SET or ECHO directives,
the user may specify dierent operands each time the DUP range is duplicated.
69. ECHO
Label
name

Operation
ECHO

Operand
lcnt,p1=list1,p2=list2,. . .

The name and lcnt elds are as before. p1, p2,. . . are parameters that appear in the sequence to be duplicated. Each time the sequence is duplicated, each
occurence of p1 in the body of the sequence is replaced with something from list1,
each occurence of p2 is replaced with something from list2, etc.
Each listi should have the form (a1,a2,...,an) where a1 is substituted for
pi on the rst duplication, a2 is substituted for pi in the second duplication, and
so on.

Sec. 3.19

Code Duplication Directives

105

Duplication of the sequence is repeated until the shortest listi is exhausted. If

any of listi is null, the sequence is duplicated zero times and is therefore eectively
skipped.
It should be noted that ECHO is very similar to the MACRO directive. It is a
powerful directive and is handled by the assembler in a way very similar to handling
a macro. The main dierence between ECHO and macros is that the ECHO does not
require separate denition and expansion.
70. ENDD
Label
name

Operation
ENDD

Operand
none

This is used to terminate the sequence of a DUP or ECHO.

71. STOPDUP
Label
none

Operation
STOPDUP

Operand
none

It is used to prematurely terminate a DUP duplication before the repeat count

is reached, or an ECHO duplication before the shortest list is exhausted. It is used
with conditional assembly such that it is only executed when a decision is made to
terminate the duplication.

3.20 Operation Denition Directives

(OPDEF, PURGDEF)
72. OPDEF
Label
name

Operation
OPDEF

Operand
parameters

This is a very powerful directive, used to add new instructions, or to redene

existing machine instructions. name is the name of the instruction being added
to the instruction set. If it is the name of an existing instruction, then the new
instruction overrides the existing one. The parameters are the operands of the new
instruction. The new instruction is dened in terms of existing ones, so an OPDEF
takes more than one line. A complete denition starts with an OPDEF line, followed
by several lines of denition, and is terminated by a line with the ENDM directive
(which also terminates the denition of a macro, see chapter 4). Example:
ADDX

OPDEF P1,P2
ADD #2,P1
ADD P1,P2
ENDM

106 Directives

Ch. 3

A new instruction, ADDX, is dened (or is replacing an existing ADDX instruction)

that adds its two parameters and adds 2 to the sum. It is dened in terms of existing
ADD instructions so the parameters P1,P2 can be any valid operands of the existing
ADD instruction. To use the new instruction, ADDX X,Y is written in the mnemonic
and operand elds on a source line.
73. PURGDEF
Label
name

Operation
PURGDEF

Operand
none

The instruction named in the label eld is removed. It can only be something
originally dened with an OPDEF.

3.21 OpCode Table Management Directives

(OPSYN)
74. OPSYN
Label
mnemonic

Operation
OPSYN

Operand
mnemonic

This makes the mnemonic in the label eld synonymous with the mnemonic in
the operand eld. However, if the operand eld is blank, this directive deletes the
instruction from the OpCode table (actually, it is deactivated in the table).
Example:

STORE OPSYN STA

Declares the new mnemonic STORE to be the same as the existing mnemonic
STA. The programmer may use this directive to change the names of mnemonics
to more familiar ones, or to ones easier to remember. Notice that STA can still be
used. This directive applies to mnemonics of instructions and of directives. Thus
EQUATE OPSYN EQU declares EQUATE as another way of saying EQU.
This directive is rarely supported by assemblers since it is hard to implement. It
requires the OpCode table to be dynamic, so that the assembler can insert the new
mnemonics. The OpCode table is usually static, which allows for a fast search. In a
dynamic OpCode table the search is slower and, since OpCode table search is done
very often, a dynamic OpCode table should be very carefully designed. The main
design guideline is: If the OPSYN directive has not been used (no new mnemonics
added to the OpCode table), the search time in the dynamic table should be the
same as that of a static table. Only the actual insertion of new mnemonics should
degrade the search time. Such an OpCode table can be designed in two ways:
1. As a hash table (chapter 2). A hash table can be designed such that originally
any mnemonic can be found in a one step search. As mnemonics are added,
the search time degrades.

Sec. 3.21

OpCode Table Management Directives

107

2. As a main (static) OpCode table, including the original mnemonics, plus an

auxiliary, dynamic table, for the added mnemonics. Executing an OPSYN with
such a double table involves two steps:
Locating the old mnemonic in the main OpCode table and setting a pointer
to point to it.
Adding the new mnemonic to the auxiliary table together with the pointer
from step 1.
To search the OpCode table, the assembler rst searches the main table in the
usual way. If the mnemonic is not found, the assembler searches the auxiliary table
and, on nding the mnemonic, uses the pointer to nd the entry in the main table
that corresponds to that mnemonic.

3.22 Summary
Directives illustrate the hidden power of the assembler. It should now be clear
to the reader that the main task of assembling instructions is simple, and consumes
only a fraction of the power of the assembler. The many directives presented here
range from very simple to very complex (the most complicated ones are covered in
the next chapter), they provide the user with many services, and constitute more
than half the volume of a typical two-pass assembler. One-pass assemblers, designed
for speed, support just a few directives and are, therefore, much simpler.

108 Directives

Ch. 3

3.23 Review Questions and Projects

1. Classify all the directives mentioned in this chapter, except the macro and
conditional assembly directives, according to the pass in which they are executed.
Note that many directives are executed in both passes.
2. What is the dierence between A EQU 7 and A DC 7? What operations does
the assembler have to perform in pass 1 and in pass 2 in order to execute those
directives?
3. Compare the STRUC directive with a Pascal record. What are some dierences
between them?
4. What is the dierence between ENDD and STOPDUP?
5. The directives TITLE, SBTTL mentioned above provide for up to two title lines
on each listing page. Sometimes a programmer wants more than two such lines.
Design a HEAD directive where the programmer could print any number of header
lines on each page.
6. After reading chapter 7, nd uses for the LCC directive. What loader control
features described in chapter 7 could be specied by the programmer using LCC?
7. Compare the COMM directive to the method described in chapter 1 (using //
location counters) to declare COMMON blocks.
8. Compare the IRP and DUP directives. Why were they listed here under dierent
classes?
9. Directives have dierent names in dierent assemblers. Using several assembler
manuals, list dierent names for the LIST, EXTRN, & ENTRY directives.
10. Study the directives described in this chapter. Try to identify the three that
are the easiest for the assembler to execute, and the three that are the hardest.
3.23.1 Project 31
Extend project 13 by adding the EXTRN, ENTRY directives plus ve more directives of your choice (except macros, conditional assembly and listing control
directives).
3.23.2 Project 32
The OPDEF, PURGDEF and OPSYN directives aect the OpCode table. If those
directives are supported, the OpCode table can no longer be static. Design and
implement a dynamic OpCode table and add it to any of chapter 1 projects, to
support the three directives above.
Pseudo instructions (also called directives or simply pseudos) provide
information or directions to the assembler that aect the translation
process

Roy S. Ellizey, Computer System Software (1987)

4. Macros

Webster [42] denes the word macro (derived from the greek o) as meaning long, great, excessive or large. The word is used as a prex in many compound
technical terms, e.g., Macroeconomics, Macrograph, Macronesia. We will see that
a single macro directive can result in many source lines being generated, which justies the use of the word macro in assemblers. As mentioned in the introduction,
macros were introduced into assemblers very early in the history of computing, in
the 1950s.

4.1 Introduction

Strictly speaking, macros are directives but, since they are so commonly used
(and also not easy for the assembler to execute), most assemblers consider them features, rather then directives. The concept of a macro is not limited to assemblers, It
is useful in many applications and has been used in many software systems. References [1922] describe the use and implementation of macros in general. Knuth[36]
describes the use of macros in a large software system. Dellert [92] is an interesting
example of the use of macros in reprogramming (translating or rewriting a program
from computer A to computer B).
A macro is similar to a subroutine (or a procedure), but there are important
dierences between them. A subroutine is a section of the program that is written
once, and can be used many times by simply calling it from any point in the program.
Similarly, a macro is a section of code that the programmer writes (denes) once,

110 Macros

Ch. 4

and then can use many times. The main dierence between a subroutine and a
macro is that the former is stored in memory once (just one copy), whereas the
latter is duplicated as many times as necessary.
A subroutine call is specied by an instruction that is executed by the hardware.
The hardware saves the return address and causes a branch to the start of the
subroutine. Macros, however, are handled in a completely dierent way. A macro
call is specied by a directive that is executed by the assembler. The assembler
generates a copy of the macro and places it in the program, in place of the directive.
This process is called macro expansion, and each expansion causes another copy of
the macro to be generated and placed in the program, thus increasing the size of
the object code.
As a result, subroutines are completely handled by the hardware, at run time;
macros are completely handled by the assembler, at assembly time. The assembler
knows nothing about subroutines; the hardware knows nothing about macros. A
subroutine call instruction is assembled in the usual way and is treated by the
assembler as any other instruction. Macro denition and macro expansion, however,
are executed by the assembler, so it has to know all the features, options and
exceptions associated with them. The hardware, on the other hand, executes the
subroutine call instruction, so it has to know how to save the return address and
how to branch to the subroutine. The hardware, however, gets to execute the object
code after it has been assembled, with the macros expanded in place. By looking
at an instruction in the object code, it is impossible to tell whether it came from
the main program or from an expanded macro. The hardware thus executes the
program in total ignorance of macros.
Figure 41 illustrates the dierences between subroutines and macros:
When program A in gure 41a is executed, execution starts at label K and each
CALL N instruction causes the subroutine (section 1) to be executed. The order of
execution will thus be 2,1,3,1,4. Even though section 1 is the rst in the program,
it is not the rst to be executed since it constitutes the denition of a subroutine.
When the program is assembled, the assembler reads and assembles the source le
straight through. It does not change the positions of the dierent sections, and
does not treat section 1 (the subroutine) in any special way. The order of execution
has therefore to do only with the way the CALL instruction works. This is why
subroutines are a hardware feature.
Program B (Fig. 41b) is handled in a dierent way. The assembler reads the
MACRO, ENDM directives and thus recognizes the two instructions DIV, OUT as the
body of macro N. It then places a copy of that body wherever it nds a source line
with N in the operation eld. The output is the same program, with the macro
denition removed, and with all the expansions in place. This output (Fig. 41c) is
ready to be assembled, in the usual way, by passes 1 and 2. This is why macros are
an assembler feature and handling them is done by a special pass, pass 0, where a
new source le is generated (Fig. 41d) to be read by pass 1 as its source le.
Having a separate pass 0 simplies the design of the assembler, since it divides
the entire assembly job in a logical way between the three passes. The user, of

Sec. 4.1

K
N

K
K

Introduction

CALL
LOD
..
.
RET
CALL
IN P
..
.

SU B
CALL N
CALL N
K CALL N

ADD
3
..

BP L
K CALL N
CALL N
K CALL N

M U LT
4
..

HLT
K CALL N
EN D K
K

N MACRO
DIV
OUT
ENDM
K INP
.
.
.
SUB
N
ADD
.
.
.
BPL
N
MULT
.
.
.

111

Source le

K INP
.
.
.

Pass 0
macro denitions
& expansions

SUB
DIV
OUT
ADD
.
.
.

New source le

BPL
DIV
OUT
MULT
.
.
.
HLT
END

HLT
END

Figure 41. The dierence between macros and subroutines.

a. A program with a subroutine N. b. A program with a macro N.
c. Same program after the macro expansion. d. A summary of pass 0.

course, has to pay a price in the form of increased assembly time, but this is a
reasonable price to pay for the added power of the assembler. It is possible to
combine passes 0 and 1 into one pass, which speeds up the assembler. However,
this results in a very complex pass 1, which takes more time to write and debug,
and reduces assembler reliability.
The task of pass 0 is thus to read the source le, handle all macro denitions
and expansions, and generate a new source le that is identical to the original
le, except that it does not have the macro denitions, and it has all the macro
expansions in place. In principle, the new source le should have no mention of
macros; in practice, it needs to have some macro information which eventually is
transferred to pass 2, to be written on the listing le. This point is further discussed
below.

112 Macros

Ch. 4

4.1.1 The Syntax of macro denition and expansion

To dene a macro, the MACRO, ENDM directives are used.
NU

MACRO
LOD A
ADD B
STO C
ENDM

the header, or prototype of the macro.

the body (or model
statements) of the
dened macro.
the trailer of the denition

Those two directives always come in pairs. The MACRO directive denes the start of
the macro denition, and should have the macro name in the label eld. The ENDM
directive species the end of the denition.
Some assemblers use dierent syntax to dene a macro. The IBM 360 assembler
uses the following syntax:
&p1

MACRO
name
.
.
MEND

&p2,&p3,. . .

instead of ENDM

where &p1, &p2 are parameters (explained later), each starting with an ampersand
&.
To expand a macro, the name of the macro is placed in the operation eld, and
no special directives are necessary.
.
.
COMP ..
NU
SUB ..
.
.
The assembler recognizes NU as the name of a macro, and expands the macro by
placing a copy of the macro denition between the COMP and SUB instructions. The
object code generated will contain the codes of the ve instructions:
COMP ..
LOD A
ADD B
STO C
SUB ..
Handling macros involves two separate phases. Handling the denition and
handling the expansions. A macro can only be dened once (see the discussion of

Sec. 4.1

Introduction

113

nested macros later for exceptions, however), but it can be expanded many times.
Handling the denition is a relatively simple process. The assembler reads the
denition from the source le and saves it in a special table, the Macro Denition
Table (MDT). The assembler does not try to check the denition for errors, to
assemble it, execute it, or do anything else with it. It just saves the denition as it
is (again, there is an exception, mentioned below, that has to do with identifying
parameters). On encountering the MACRO directive, the assembler switches from the
normal mode of operation to a special macro-denition mode in which it:
locates available space in the MDT
reads source lines and saves them in the MDT until an ENDM is read.
Upon reading ENDM from the source le, the assembler switches back to the
normal mode. If the ENDM is missing, the assembler stays in the macro denition
mode and saves source lines in the MDT until an obvious error is found, such as
another MACRO, or the END of the entire program. In such a case, the assembler
issues an error (run away denition) and aborts the assembly.
Handling a macro expansion starts when the assembler reads a source line that
is not any instruction or directive. The assembler searches the MDT for a macro
with that name and, on locating it, switches from the normal mode of operation to
a special macro-expansion mode in which it:
Reads a source line from the MDT.
Writes it on the new source le, unless it is a pass 0 directive, in which case it is
immediately executed.
Repeats the two steps until the end of the macro is located in the MDT.
The following example illustrates this process. The macro denition contains
an error and a label.
BAD MACRO
ADD #1,R4
A$D R5
wrong mnemonic
LAN CMP R3,R5
ENDM
The denition is stored in the MDT with the error (A$D) and the label. Since the
assembler copies the macro denition verbatim, it does not recognize LAN as a label
at this point. The macro may later be expanded several times, causing several
copies to be written onto the new source le. Pass 0 does not check these copies in
any way and, as a result, does not issue any error messages (note that pass 0 does
not handle labels and does not maintain the symbol table). When pass 1 reads the
new source le, it discovers the multiple denitions of LAN and issues an error on
the second and subsequent denitions. When pass 2 assembles the instructions, it
discovers the bad A$D instructions and ags each of them.

114 Macros

Ch. 4

Exercise 4.1 In such a case, how can we ever dene a macro with a label?
This does not sound like a good way to implement macros. It would seem
better to assemble the macro when it is rst encountered, i.e., when its denition is
found, and to store the assembled version in the MDT. The reason why assemblers
do not do that but rather treat macros as described above, is because of the use of
parameters.

4.2 Macro Parameters

The use of parameters is the most important feature of macros. It is similar
to the use of parameters in subroutines, but there are important dierences. The
following examples illustrate the use of parameters in a simple macro. They show
that parameters can be used in all the elds of an instruction, not just in the
operation eld.
1
2
3
4
MG1 MACRO
MG2 MACRO A,B,C
MG3 MACRO A,B,C
MG4 MACRO P
LOD G
LOD A
A G
LOD G
ADD H
ADD B
B H
P
ADD H
STO I
STO C
C I
STO I
ENDM
ENDM
ENDM
ENDM
Example 1 is a simple, three-line macro without parameters. Every time it is
expanded, the same source lines are generated. They add the contents of memory
locations G and H, and store the result in location I. Example 2 uses three parameters
A,B,C for the three locations involved. The macro still does the same thing but,
each time it is expanded, dierent locations are added, and the result is stored in a
dierent location. When such a macro is expanded, the user should specify values
(actual arguments) for the three parameters. Thus the expansion MG2 X,Y,Z would
generate:
LOD X
ADD Y
STO Z
For the assembler to be able to assemble those instructions, the arguments
X,Y,Z must be valid symbols dened in the program, i.e., the program should
contain:
X DS 4
Y DC 44
Z EQU $FF00
or some similar lines on which labels X,Y,Z are dened.
This example shows why the assembler cannot assemble a macro at the time
the denition is found in the source le. The macro lines may depend on parameters
that are assigned values only when the macro is expanded. Thus in general, macro
lines can only be assembled or executed when the macro is expanded.
The process of assigning the value of an actual argument to a formal parameter
is called binding. Thus the formal parameter A is bound to the actual argument

Sec. 4.2

Macro Parameters

115

X. The process of placing the actual arguments in place of the formal parameters
when expanding a macro, is called parameter substitution.
Exercise 4.2 Consider the case of an actual argument that happens to be identical
to a formal parameter. If the macro of example 2 above is expanded as MG2 B,X,Y,
we would end up with the expansion
LOD B
ADD X
STO Y
However, B is the name of the second parameter. Would the assembler perform
double substitution, to end up with LOD X?
Example 3 is even more striking. Here the parameters are used in the operation
eld. The operands are always the same. When such a macro is expanded, the
user should specify three arguments which are valid mnemonics. The expansion
MG3 LOD,SUB,STO would generate:
LOD G
SUB H
STO I
whereas the expansion MG3 LOD,CMP,JNE would generate
LOD G
CMP H
JNE I
which is a very dierent macro. It is obvious now that such a macro cannot be
assembled when it is dened.
In example 4 the parameter is in the label eld. Each expansion of this macro
will have to specify an argument for the parameter, and that argument will become
a new label. Thus MG4 NON generates
NON

LOD G
ADD H
STO I

BON

LOD G
ADD H
STO I

and MG4 BON generates

Each expansion involves the creation of a new label that will be added to the
symbol table in pass 1. To avoid multiply-dened labels, each expansion should use
a dierent argument. The argument could also be null (see below), which would
generate no label. It is important to realize, however, that the label becomes known
only when the macro is expanded and not before. Macro expansions, therefore, must
be done early in the assembly process. They cannot be done in the second pass
because the symbol table must be stable during that pass. All macro expansions
are done in pass 0 (except in assemblers that combine passes 0 and 1).

116 Macros

Ch. 4

Exercise 4.3 How many parameters can a macro have?

Another, more important, reason why macros must be expanded early is the
need to maintain the LC during the rst pass. The LC is used, during that pass, to
assign values to symbols. It is important, therefore, to execute each expansion and
to increment the LC while individual lines are expanded. If macros are handled in
pass 0, then pass 1 is not concerned about them and it proceeds normally.
The main advantage of having a separate pass 0 is simplicity. Pass 0 only
handles macros and pass 1 remains unchanged. Another advantage is that the
memory area used for the MDT in pass 0 can be used for other purposeslike
storing the symbol tablein the other passes. The main disadvantage of pass 0 is
the additional time it takes, but there is a simple way to speed it up. It is only
necessary to require that all macro denitions appear at the very beginning of the
source le. When pass 0 starts, it examines the rst source line. If it is not a MACRO
directive, pass 0 assumes that there are no macro denitions (and, consequently, no
macro expansions) in the program, and it immediately starts pass 1, directing it to
use the original, instead of the new, source le.
Another point that should be noted here is the listing information that relates
to macros. In principle, the new source le, generated by pass 0, contains no
macro information. Pass 0 completely handles all macro denitions and expansions,
and pass 1 needs to know nothing about macros. In practice, though, the user
wants to see a listing of the macro denitions and, sometimes, also listings of all
the expansions. This information can only be generated by pass 0 and should be
transferred, rst to pass 1 through the new source le, and then to pass 2where
the listing is createdthrough the intermediate le. This listing information cannot
be transferred by storing it in memory since, with many denitions and expansions,
it may be too large.
A related problem is the listing of macro expansions. The denition of a macro
should obviously be listed, but a macro may be expanded many times, and the user
may want to suppress the listing of all or some of the expansions. Special directives
that tell the assembler how to handle listing of macro expansions are discussed later
in this chapter.
4.2.1 Properties of macro parameters
The last example of the use of parameters is a macro whose arguments may be
compound.
C

MACRO L1,L2,L3,L4,L5,L6
ADD L1,L2(2)
L2 is assumed compound and its 2nd component used
L3
BL4 DEST
CL5D L6
.
.
ENDM

Sec. 4.2

Macro Parameters

117

An expansion of such a macro may look like this

C SUM,(D,T,U),(SUB R1,L1),Z,,SN
The second argument is compound and has three components. The third argument
is also compound, since it has a space and a comma in it, and therefore must be
parenthesized. The parentheses of a compound argument are stripped o during
expansion. The fth argument is null.
The above expansion generates:
ADD//SUM,T
SUB/R1,SUM
BZ/DEST
CD/SN
.
.

the symbol / stands for a space

which illustrates the following points about handling arguments in a macro expansion:
1. There are two spaces between the ADD and the SUM on the rst line. This
is because the macro denition has two spaces between the ADD and the L1.
In the second line, though, there is only one space between the SUB and the
R1. This is because the argument in the expansion has one space in it. The
assembler expands a macro by copying the arguments, as strings, into the
original macro line without any editing (except that when the argument is
compound, its parentheses are stripped o). In the third line, the parameter
occupies three positions (L4) but the argument Z only takes one position.
When Z is substituted for L4, the source line becomes two positions shorter,
which means that the rest of the line is moved two positions to the left. The
assembler also preserves the original space between L4 and DEST. As a result,
the expanded line has one space between BZ and DEST.
2. The second line of the denition simply reads L3. The assembler replaces L3
by the corresponding argument SUB R1,L1 and, before trying to assemble
it, scans the line again, looking for more occurrences of parameters. In our
example it nds that the newly generated line has an occurrence of L1 in it.
This is immediately replaced by the argument corresponding to L1 (SUM) and
the line is then completely expanded. The process of macro expansion turns
out to be a little more complex than originally described.
3. In line three of the denition the quote () separates the character B from the
parameter L4. On expanding this line, the assembler treats the quote as a
separator, removes it, and concatenates the argument Z to the character B,
thus forming BZ. If BZ is a valid mnemonic, the line can be assembled. This is
another example of a macro line that has no meaning before being completely
expanded.
4. The argument corresponding to parameter L5 is null. The result is the string
CD with nothing between the C and the D. Again, if CD is a valid mnemonic (or

118 Macros

Ch. 4

directive), the line can eventually be assembled (or executed). Otherwise, the
assembler ags it as an error.

Note that there is a dierence between a null argument and an argument that is
blank. In the expansion C SUM,(D,T,U),(SUB/R1,L1),Z,/,SN, the fth argument
is a blank space, which ends up being inserted between the C and the D in the
expanded source line. The nal result is C/D/SN which is not the same as CD/SN. It
could even be interpreted by the assembler as C=label, D=mnemonic, SN=operand.
If a mnemonic D exists, the instruction would be assembled and C would be placed
in the symbol table, without any error messages or warnings.
Exercise 4.4 What if the last argument of an expansion is null? How can the
assembler distinguish between a missing last argument and a null one?
A little thinking shows that the precise names of the formal parameters are
not important. The parameters are only used when the macro is expanded. No
parameter names are used after pass 0 (except that the original names should appear
in the listing). As a result, the assembler replaces the parameter names with serial
numbers when the macro is placed in the MDT. This makes it easier to locate
occurences of the parameters when the macro is later expanded. Thus in one of the
examples above:
D MACRO A,B,C
LOD A
ADD B
STO C
ENDM
macro D is stored in the MDT as:

D 3 //LOD/#1 //ADD/#2 //STO/#3

The vertical bar is used to separate source lines in the MDT. The 3 in the
second eld indicates that the macro has three parameters, and #1, #2 etc., refer
to the parameters. The bold vertical bar signals the end of the macro in the
MDT. This editing slows down the assembler when handling a macro denition but
it speeds up every expansion. Since a macro is dened once but may be expanded
many times, the advantage is clear.
It is now clear that three special characters are needed when macros are placed
in the MDT. In general, the assembler should use characters that cannot appear in
the original denition of the macro, and each assembler has a list of characters that
are invalid inside macros, or are even prohibited anywhere in the source le.
The example above is simple since each parameter is a single letter. In the
general case, a parameter may be a string of characters, called a token. The editing
process mentioned above is done by breaking up each source line into tokens. A
token is an indivisible unit of the line and is made up of a string of letters and digits,
or a single special character. Each token is compared to all parameter names and,
in case of a match, the token is replaced by its serial number. The example above

Sec. 4.2

Macro Parameters

119

may now be rewritten with the paramater names changed to more than one letter.
D

MACRO AD,BCD,ST7
LOD AD
ADD BCD
STO ST7
ENDM

Lets follow the editing of the second line. It is broken up into the two tokens
ADD and BCD, and each token is compared with all three parameter names. The rst
token ADD almost matches the rst parameter AD. The second one BCD exactly
matches the second parameter. That token is replaced by the serial number #2
of the parameter, and the entire lineincluding the serial numberis stored in the
MDT. Our new example will be stored in the MDT in exactly the same way as
before, illustrating the fact that parameter names can be changed without aecting
the meaning of the macro.
start
mode:=N
1
4

Input

mode

macro
name

yes
mode:=E

N
no
3
yes
mode:=D

MACRO
no

output

no
END

yes
pass 0
directive

Execute it

yes
stop

no
1
4

Figure 42a. Summary of Pass 0 (part I).

120 Macros

Ch. 4

input

N,D

output

mode

read line
from source

read line
from MDT

write lineon
new source

write line
in MDT

return

E,N

mode

return

Figure 42b. Summary of Pass 0 (part II).

expansion
mode

definition
mode

input

locate space
in MDT

yes
end of
macro

mode:=N
store macro
name and
parameters

no
1
scan line &
substitute
parameters

input
yes

output

Execute it
no

MEND
yes
mode:=N

pass 0
directive
no

3
output

Figure 42c. Summary of Pass 0 (part III).

Sec. 4.3

Operation of Pass 0

121

4.3 Operation of Pass 0

Pass 0 is devoted to handling macros. Macro denitions and expansions are
fully done in pass 0, and the output of that pass, the new source le, contains
no trace of any macros (except the listing information mentioned earlier). The
le contains only instructions and directives, and is ready for pass 1. Pass 0 does
not handle label denitions, does not use the symbol table, does not maintain the
LC, and does not calculate the size of instructions. It should, however, execute
certain directives that pertain to macros, and it has to handle two types of special
symbols. The directives are called pass 0 directives, they have to do with conditional
assembly, and are explained later in this chapter. The special symbols involved are
SET symbols and sequence symbols. They are fully handled by pass 0, are stored in
a temporary symbol table, and are discarded at the end of the pass. The following
rules (and Fig. 42) summarize the operations of pass 0.
1. Read the next source line.
2. If it is MACRO, read the entire macro denition and store in MDT. Goto 1.
3. If it is a pass 0 directive, execute it. Goto 1. Such a directive is written on the
new source le but in a special way, not as a normal directive, since it is only
needed for the listing in pass 2.
4. If it is a macro name, expand it by bringing in lines from the MDT, substituting
parameters, and writing each line on the new source le (or executing it if it a
pass 0 directive). Goto 1.
5. In any other case, write the line on the new source le. Goto 1
6. If current line was the END directive, stop (end of pass 0).

To implement those rules, the concept of an operating mode is introduced.

The assembler can be in one of three modes: the normal mode (N)in which it
reads lines from the source le and writes them to the new source le; the macro
denition mode (D)in which it reads lines from the source le and writes them
into the MDT; and the macro expansion mode (E)in which it reads lines from the
MDT, substitutes parameters, and writes the lines on the new source le. A fourth
mode (DE) is introduced later in this chapter in connection with nested macros.
Exercise 4.5 Normally, the denition of a macro must precede any expansions of
it. If we eliminate that restriction, what modications do we have to make to the
assembler?

122 Macros

Ch. 4

4.4 MDT Organization

Most computers have operating systems (OS) that provide supervision and
oer services to the users. The date and time are two examples of such services. To
use such a service (e.g., to ask the OS for the date) the user has to place a request
to the OS. Since the typical user cannot be expected to be familiar with the OS, the
OS provides built-in macros, called system macros. To get the date, for example,
the user should write a source line such as DATE D where DATE is a system macro,
and D is an array in which DATE stores the date. As a result, the MDT does not
start empty. When pass 0 starts, the MDT contains all the system macros. As
more macro denitions are added to the MDT, it grows larger and larger and the
problem of ecient search becomes more and more important. The MDT should
be organized to allow for ecient search, and most MDTs are organized in one of
two ways: as a chained MDT, or as an array where each macro is pointed to from
a Macro Name Table (MNT).
A chained MDT is a long array containing all the macro denitions, linked with
backwards pointers. Each denition points to its predecessor and each is made up
of individual elds separated by a special character that we will denote . A typical
denition contains:
# of

...

name

pointer params first line . . . last line

name

pointer

...

where the last separator is immediately followed by the name of the next macro.
Such an MDT is easy to search by following the pointers and comparing names.
Since the pointers point backwards, the table is searched from the end to the beginning; an important feature. It guarantees that when a multiply-dened macro is
expanded, the back search will always nd the last denition of the macro. Multiplydened macros are a result of nested macro denitions(see later), or of macros that
users write to supersede system macros. In either case, it is reasonable to require
that the most recent denition always be used. The advantage of this organization
is its exibility. It is only limited by one parameter, the size of the array. The total
size of all the denitions cannot exceed this parameter. Thus we can dene a few
long macros or many short ones.
The other way to organize the MDT is to store the macros in an MDT array
with separators as described before, but without pointers. An additional array,
called the MNT, contains pairs <macro name, pointer> where the pointers point
to the start of a denition in the MDT array. The advantage of this organization is
that the MNT has xed size entries, allowing for a faster search of names. However,
the total amount of macros that can be stored in such an MDT is limited by two
parameters. The size of the MDT arraywhich limits the total size of all the
macrosand the size of the MNTwhich limits the number of macros that can
be dened. The following diagram is an example of such an MDT organization. It
shows an MDT array with 3 macros. The rst has 3 parameters, the second, 4, and
the third, 2. The MNT array has xed-size entries.

Sec. 4.4

MDT Organization

3 1st line .... last line 4

name1

name2

line .... line 2 line .... line

name3

123

MDT Array

MNT with fixed

length entries

Figure 43. MNTMDT structure.

4.4.1 The REMOVE directive
Regardless of the way the MDT is organized, if the assembler supports system
macros, it should also support a directive to remove a macro from the MDT. A user
writing a macro to redene an existing system macro may want the redenition
to be temporary. They dene their macro, expand it as many times as necessary,
and then remove it such that the original system macro can be used again. Such a
directive is typically called REMOVE.

In old assemblers this directive is executed by removing the pointer that points
to the macro, not the macro itself. Removing the macro itself and freeing the space
in the MDT is done by many new assemblers (see Ch. 8). It is done by changing
the macro denition to a null string, and storing another (smaller) macro in the
space thus freed. After dening and removing many macros, the MDT becomes
fragmented; it can be defragmented by moving macros around and changing pointers
in the MNT.
Exercise 4.6 What could be a practical example justifying the actual removal of
a macro from the MDT?
4.4.2 Order of search of the MDT
Pass 0 has to identify each source line as either a macro name, a pass 0 directive,
or something else. To achieve quick identication, the pass 0!directives should be
stored in the MDT with a special ag, identifying them as directives. This way,
only the MDT has to be searched in pass 0.
An assembler combining passes 0 and 1 has to do more searching. Each source
line has to be identied as either an instruction (its size should be determined), as
a pass 0 or pass 1 directive (to be executed), as a pass 2 directive (to be written on
the intermediate le), or as a macro name (to be expanded).
One approach is to search the OpCode table rst (it should contain all the
mnemonics and directives) and the MDT next, the idea being that most source
lines are either instructions or directives, macro expansions are relatively rare.
The alternative approach is to search the MDT rst and the OpCode table next.
This way, the programmer can dene macros which redene existing instructions or
directives. If this approach is used, the MDT must be designed to allow for quick
search.

124 Macros

Ch. 4

4.5 Other Features of Macros

4.5.1 Associating macro parameters with their arguments.
Associating macro parameters with their actual arguments can be done in
three ways. By position, by name, and by numeric position in the argument list.
The rst method is the simplest and most common. If the macro is dened as
M MACRO P1,P2,P3 then the expansion M ADA,JON,YON obviously associates the
actual value ADA with the rst parameter P1, the actual value JON with the second
parameter P2, etc. The expansion M ADA,,NON has an empty second argument,
and the second parameter P2 is therefore bound to a null value.

Associating by name, however, is dierent. Using the macro denition above,

we can have an expansion M P2=DON,P1=SON,P3=YON. Here each of the three actual
arguments SON, DON, YON is explicitly associated with one of the parameters.
Exercise 4.7 What is the meaning, if at all, of the expansion
M P2=DON,P1=DON,P3=DON?
It is possible to combine the two methods, such as in M P3=MAN,DAN,P1=JAN.
Here the second argument has no name association and it therefore corresponds
to the second parameter. This, of course, implies that an expansion such as
M P2=MAN,DAN,P1=JAN, is wrong.
Exercise 4.8 There is, however, a way to assign such an expansion a unique meaning. What is it?
The third method uses a special parameter named SYSLIST such that SYSLIST(i) refers to the ith argument of the current macro expansion. A possible
denition is
M MACRO
no parameters are declared.
LOD SYSLIST(2)
STO SYSLIST(1)
ENDM
The expansion M X,Y will generate
LOD Y
STO X

Sec. 4.5

Other Features of Macros

125

4.5.2 Delimiting macro parameters

In all the examples shown above, macro parameters were delimited by a comma
,. It is possible, however, to use other characters as delimiters, or to use a scheme
where parameters can be delimited in a general way. Such a scheme is used by the
TeX typesetting system [36] that has many features of a programming language,
although its main task is to set type.

In TeX, a macro can be dened by \def\xyz#1.#2./{. . .}. This denes a

macro xyz with two parameters. The rst is delimited by a period ., and the
second, by a period and a space ./. In the expansion
\xyz-12.45,=a98.62./abc. . .
the rst parameter would be bound to -12, and the second, to 45,=a98.62. Note
that the comma is part of the second actual argument, not a delimiter. Also, the
period in 98.62 is considered part of the second argument, not a delimiter.
Exercise 4.9 What happens if the user forgets the period-space?
4.5.3 Numeric values of arguments
5. Macro arguments are normally treated as strings. However, Macro, the VAX
assembler, can optionally use the value, rather than the name, of an argument.
This is specied by means of a \. A simple example is:
.MACRO
CLRL
.ENDM

CLEER ARG
RARG

After dening this macro, we assign CONS=5, and expand CLEER twice. The
expansion CLEER CONS generates CLRL RCONS (which is probably wrong),
whereas the expansion CLEER \CONS generates CLRL R5.
4.5.4 Attributes of macro arguments

Each argument in a macro expansion has attributes that can be used to make
decisionsinside the macro denitioneach time the macro is expanded. At the
time the macro denition is written, the arguments are unknown. They only become
known when the macro is expanded, and may have dierent attributes each time
the macro is expanded.
Exercise 4.10 Chapter 1 mentions attributes of symbols. What is the dierence
between attributes of symbols and of macro arguments?
We will cover the six attributes supported by the IBM 360 assembler and will
use, as an example, the simple macro denition:
M

MACRO P1
P1
ENDM

126 Macros

Ch. 4

followed by the three expansions:

M FIRST
M SEC
M (X,Y,Z)

the argument is compound

We assume that symbols FIRST, SEC are dened by:

FIRST DC P+1.25. DC is the Dene Code directive, and symbol FIRST is the
name of a packed decimal constant.
SEC ADD 5,OP. Symbol SEC is the label of an ADD instruction
The example illustrates the following attributes:
The count attribute, K, is the length of the actual argument. Thus KP1 is 5 in
the rst expansion, 3 in the second one, and 7, in the third.
The type attribute, T, is the type of the actual argument. In the rst expansion
it is P (for Packed decimal) and in the second, I (since the argument is an
Instruction). In the third expansion the type is N (a self-dened term).
The length attribute, L, is the number of bytes occupied by the argument in
memory; 2 in the rst case, since the packed decimal constant 1.25 occupies two
bytes, and 4 in the second case, since the ADD instruction takes 4 bytes. The
compound argument of the third expansion has no length attribute.
The integer attribute, I, is the number of decimal digits in the integer part of the
argument; 1 in the rst expansion, 0 in the second.
The scaling attribute, S, is the number of decimal digits in the fractional part of
the argument; 2 in the rst example and 0 in the second one.
The number attribute, N only has a meaning if the argument is compound. It
species the number of elements in the compound argument. In the third example
above NP1 is 3.
The attributes can be used in the macro itself and the most common examples
involve conditional assembly (see later in this chapter).
4.5.5 Directives related to arguments
Macro, the VAX assembler, supports several interesting arguments that make
it easy to write sophisticated macros. Here are a few:
The .NARG directive provides the number of actual arguments. There may be
fewer arguments than parameters. Its format is .NARG symbol and it return the
number of arguments in the symbol. Thus macro Block below:
.MACRO
.NARG
...
.BLKW
.ENDM

Block A,B,C,D
Num
Num

Sec. 4.5

Other Features of Macros

127

creates a block of 14 words each time it is expanded, depends on the number of

arguments in the expansion.
The directive .NCHR returns the size of a character string. The general format of
this directive is .NCHR symbol,<string>. Thus after dening:

L:

.MACRO
.NCHR
...
.BLKW
.ENDM

Exmpl L,S
Size,S
Size

the expansion Exmpl M,<Yours T> will generate M: .BLKW 7

The IF-ELSE-ENDIF directive, mentioned later in this chapter, can be used to
determine whether an argument is BLANK or NOT BLANK, or whether two arguments
are IDENTICAL or DIFFERENT. It can also be used outside macros to compare any
quantities known in pass 0, and to determine if a pass 0 quantity is dened or not.
4.5.6 Default arguments

Some assemblers allow a denition such as N MACRO M1,M2=Z,M3, meaning

that if the actual argument binding M2 is null in a certain expansion, then M2 will
be bound to Z by default.
Exercise 4.11 What is the meaning of N MACRO M1,M2=,M3?
4.5.7 Automatic label generation
When the denition of a macro contains a label, successive expansions will
result in the label being multiply-dened.
L

MACRO
P1 ..
BNZ G12
A
LOD ..
.
.
G12 STO ..
ENDM

branch on non-zero to label G12

just a line with a label

Each time this macro is expanded, symbols A, G12 will be dened. As a result, the
second and subsequent expansions will cause assembler errors.
Most assemblers oer help in the form of automatically generated unique
names. They are called local labels or automatic labels. Here are two examples,
the rst one from the MPW assembler for the Macintosh computer. The two lines
with labels in the above denition can be written as:

128 Macros

Ch. 4

A
G12

SYSNDX LOD ...

SYSNDX STO ...

and every time the macro is expanded, the assembler will append a sux of the
form 00001, 00002,. . . to any label generated. This way all labels generated are
unique. In our example they will be A00001, G1200002, A00003, . . .
The second example is from Macro, the VAX assembler. When a local label
is needed in a macro, a parameters shoudl be added preceded by a ?. Thus in:

NEG:
DONE:

.MACRO
TSTL
BLSS
MOVL
BRB
MNEGL
.ENDM

ABS A,B,?NEG,?DONE
A
NEG
A,B
DONE
A,B

4.5.8 The IRP directive

A pair of IRP directives, placed inside a macro, dene a sequence of lines. They
direct the assembler to repeatedly duplicate and assemble the sequence a number
of times determined by a compound parameter. Here is an example from the MPW
assembler for the Macintosh computer:

MAC

MACRO P1,P2
IRP P1
ADD P1
IRP
.
.
ENDM

P1 should be a compound parameter.

this will be repeated for every component of P1

The sequence to be duplicated consists of the single instruction ADD. Each time it is
duplicated, one of the components of the compound parameter P1 is selected. The
expansion:
MAC (A,B,#3),H
will generate
ADD A
ADD B
ADD #3
.
.
Here is another IRP example, from Macro, the VAX assembler.

Sec. 4.5

Other Features of Macros

.MACRO
.NARG
.IRP
.IIF
.ENDR
CALLS
.ENDM

129

CallProc Name,A,B,C,D
Num
Temp,<D,C,B,A>
NOT BLANK,Temp, PUSHL Temp
#<Num-1>,Name

The IRP directive loops 4 times, assigning the actual arguments of D, C, B, A to

Temp. The .IIF directive (see Ch. 3) generates a PUSHL instruction, to push the
arguments address on the stack, for any non-blank argument. Finally, a CALLS
instruction is generated, to preform the actual procedure call. This is a handy
macro that can be used to call procedures with up to 4 parameters.
IRP stands for Indenite RePeat.
4.5.9 The PRINT directive

When a program contains many long macros that are expanded many times,
the programmer may not want to see all the expansions listed in the printed output. The PRINT directive may be used to suppress listing of macro expansions
(PRINT NOGEN) or to turn on such listings (PRINT GEN). This directive does not
aect the listing of the macro denitions or of the body of the program. Those
listings are controlled by the LIST, NOLIST directives.
Exercise 4.12 Is the PRINT NOGEN itself listed?
Macro, the VAX assembler, supports the similar directives .SHOW & .NOSHOW.
Thus one can write, e.g., .NOSHOW ME to suppress listings of all macro expansions
(ME stands for Macro Expansion), or .SHOW MEB (where MEB stands for Macro
Expansion Binary) to list just lines that actually create binary code generated
during macro expansions.
4.5.10 Comment lines in macros
If a macro denition contains comment lines such as in:
MACRO A,B,C
* WATCH OUT, PARAMETER B IS SPECIAL
.
.
C R1
* THE PREVIOUS LINE CHANGES ITS MEANING
.
.
The comments should be printed, together with the denition of the macro, in the
listing le, but should they also be printed with each expansion? The most general

130 Macros

Ch. 4

answer is: It depends. Some comments refer to the lines in the body of the macro
and should be printed each time an expansion is printed (as mentioned elsewhere,
the printing of macro expansions is optional). Other comments refer to the formal
parameters of the macro, and should be printed only when the macro denition
is printed. The decision should be made by the programmer, which means that
the assembler should have two types of comment lines, the regular type, which is
indicated by an asterisk, and the special type, indicated by another character, such
as a !, for comments that should be printed only as part of a macro denition.

4.6 Nested Macros

Another useful feature of macros is the ability to nest them. This can be done
in two ways: Nested macro denition and nested macro expansion. We will discuss
the latter rst.
4.6.1 Nested macro expansion
This is the case where the expansion of one macro causes another macro (or
even more than one macro) to be expanded. Example:
C

MACRO
COMP
JMP
ENDM
A MACRO
ADD
C
SUB
ENDM
B MACRO
LOD
A
STO
ENDM

There is nothing unusual about macro C. An expansion of macro A, however, is

special since it involves an expansion of C. An expansion of B is even more involved.
Most assemblers support nested macro expansion since it is useful and also easy
to implement. They allow it up to a certain maximum depth. In our example,
expanding B turns out to be nested to a depth of 2. Expanding C is nested to a
depth of 0.
Exercise 4.13 Why is nested macro expansion useful?
To understand how this feature is implemented, we expand macro B in the
example above. Keep in mind that this is done in pass 0. The assembler locates B
in the MDT and switches to the macro expansion mode. In that mode, it fetches
the source lines from the MDT instead of from the source le. Otherwise, that

Sec. 4.6

Nested Macros

131

mode is very similar to the normal mode. Each line is identied as either the name
of a macro, a pass 1 directive, or something else. If the line is the name of a
macro, the assembler suspends the expansion of B, fully expands the new macro,
and then returns to complete Bs expansion. If the line is a pass 0 directive, the
assembler executes it. If the line is something else, the assembler scans it, substitutes
parameters, and writes the line on the new source le. During this process the
assembler maintains a pointer that always points to the current line in the MDT.
When the expansion of B starts, the macro is located in the MDT, and a
pointer is set to point to its rst line. That line (LOD) is fetched and identied as an
instruction. It is written on the new source le, and the pointer is updated to point
to the second line (A). The second line is then fetched and is identied as a macro
name. The assembler then suspends the expansion of B and starts expanding A by
performing the following steps:
It locates macro A in the macro denition table
It sets a new pointer to the rst line of macro A.
It saves the values of the actual arguments of macro B.
From then on, macro A is expanded in the usual way until its second line (C) is
fetched. At that point the new pointer points to that line. The assembler suspends
the expansion of A and starts the expansion of macro C by performing three steps as
above. While expanding macro C, the assembler uses a third pointer and, since C is
not nested, the expansion terminates normally and the third pointer is discarded.
At that point the assembler returns to the expansion of macro A and resumes using
the second pointer (which should be incremented to point to the next waiting line
of A). When the expansion of A is completed, the assembler discards the second
pointer and switches to the rst onewhich means resuming the expansion of the
original macro B. Three typical steps in this process are shown in gure 44 below.
In part I, the second line of B has been fetched and the (rst) pointer points to
that line. The expansion of macro A has just started and the second pointer points
to the rst line of A.
In part II, the second pointer points to the second line of A. This means that
the line being processed is the second line of A. The expansion of C has just started.
In part III, the expansion of C has been completed, the third pointer discarded,
and the assembler is in the process of fetching the third line of A.
The rules for nested macro expansion therefore are:
In the macro expansion mode, when encountering the name of a macro, nd it in
the MDT, set up a new pointer to point to the rst line, save the arguments of the
current macro, and continue expanding, using the new pointer.
After fetching and expanding the last source line of a macro, discard the current
pointer and start using the previous one (and the previous set of arguments).
If there is no previous pointer, the (nested) macro expansion is over.

132 Macros

Ch. 4

C 0 COMP JMP A 0 ADD C SUB B 0 LOD A STO

C 0 COMP JMP A 0 ADD C SUB B 0 LOD A STO

II

C 0 COMP JMP A 0 ADD C SUB B 0 LOD A STO

III
Figure 44. Three typical steps in a nested macro expansion.
From this discussion it is clear that the pointers are used in a Last In First Out
(LIFO) order, and should thus be stored in a stack. This stack is called the macro
expansion stack (MES), and its size determines the number of possible pointers and
thus the maximum depth of nesting.
Implementing nested macro expansions is, therefore, done by declaring a stack
and using it while expanding a macro. All other details of the expansion remain
the same as in a normal expansion (however, see conditional assembly below).
The following is a set of rules and a ow chart (gure 45, a generalized subset
of gure 42) which illustrate the main operations of a pass 0 supporting nested
macro expansions.
1. Input line from MDT (since mode=E).
2. If it is a pass 0 directive, execute it. Goto 1.
3. If is is a macro name, start a new expansion. Goto 1.
4. If it is an end-of-macro character, stop current expansion and look back in
MES.
If MES empty, change mode to N. Goto main input.
Elsestart using previous pointer in MES, remain in E mode. Goto 1.
5. Line is something else, substitute parameters and write line on new source le.
Goto 1.

Sec. 4.6

Nested Macros

expansion
mode

input

end of
macro

empty

MES

mode:=N

yes

133

not empty

resume
using
previous
parameters

no
pass 0
directive

Execute it

no
macro
name

yes

open up a new pointer in MES, to

point to start of new macro in MDT

no
scan line &
substitute
parameters

output

Figure 45. A Summary of pass 0 with nested macro expansions.

4.7 Recursive Macros

A very important special case of nested macro expansion is the case where a
macro expands itself. Macro NOGOOD below is such an example but, as its name
implies, not a good one.
NOGOOD MACRO
INST1
NOGOOD
INST2
ENDM
An attempt to expand this macro will generate INST1 and will then start the inner
expansion. The inner expansion will do the same thing. It will generate INST1 and
start a third expansion. There is nothing in this macro to stop any of the inner
expansions and go back to complete the outer ones. Such an expansion will very
quickly overow the MES, no matter how large it is.
It turns out, though, that such macros, called recursive macros, are very useful.
To implement such a macro, a mechanism is necessary that will stop the recursion
(the self expansion) at some point. Such a mechanism is supported by many assemblers and is called conditional assembly.

134 Macros

Ch. 4

4.8 Conditional Assembly

This is a general feature that is not limited to macros. If an assembler supports
this feature then it can be used throughout the program. Its main use, however,
happens to be inside macros. In the case of a recursive macro, conditional assembly
is mandatory. In order to stop a recursive expansion, a quantity is needed that will
have dierent values for each inner expansion. By updating this quantity each time
an expansion starts, the programmer can stop the recursive expansion when that
quantity satises a certain condition.
Such a quantity must have two attributes. It must have a value in pass 0 at
assembly time (and thus it cannot be the contents of any register or of memory;
they only get dened at run time) and the assembler should be able to change its
value (therefore it cannot be a constant or a regular symbol; they have xed values).
Such a quantity must therefore be either an actual argument of a macro or a new
feature, and that feature is called a SET symbol.
SET symbols are special symbols that can be dened and redened by the SET
directive, which is very similar to the EQU directive. The dierences between SET
and EQU symbols are:
SET symbols are only used in pass 0 to implement conditional assembly; EQU
symbols are dened in pass 1 and used in pass 2. The SET directive is thus a pass
0 directive.
SET symbols can be redened. Thus it is permissible to have Q SET 0 followed
by Q SET 1 or by Q SET Q+1. Q is a SET symbol and its value can be changed
and used in pass 0. The SET directive is the only way to redene symbols (see,
however, the MICCNT directive in chapter 3) but it should be emphasized that SET
symbols are dierent from other symbols. They are stored in a temporary symbol
table (the main symbol table does not exist in pass 0) and are discarded at the end
of pass 0. The recursive macro above can now be written:
NOGOOD
Q

MACRO
INST1
SET Q+1
NOGOOD
INST2
ENDM

Before such a macro is expanded, Q needs to be assigned a value with a SET

directive. Assigning a value to Q in any other way would make it a xed symbol.
The two source lines:
Q SET 1
NOGOOD
will start a recursive expansion where, in each step, the value of Q (in the temporary
symbol table) will be incremented by 1. This expansion is still an innite one and,
in order to stop it after N steps, a test is necessary, to compare the value of Q to

Sec. 4.8

Conditional Assembly

135

N. This test is another pass 0 directive, typically called AIF (Assembler IF). Its
general form is AIF exp.symbol, where exp is a boolean expression containing
only quantities known to the assembler. The assembler evaluates the expression
and, if its value is true, the assembler goes to the line labeled .symbol.
The next version of the same macro is now:
GOOD
Q

.F

MACRO
INST1
SET Q+1
AIF Q=N.F
GOOD
INST2
ENDM

if Q equals N then go to line labeled .F

An expansion such as
N EQU 2
Q SET 0
GOOD
will generate the following:
1.
2.

3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.

INST1
SET Q+1
AIF Q=N.F
GOOD
INST1
SET Q+1
AIF Q=N.F
INST2
INST2

generated for the rst time

sets Q to 1 in the temp. symbol table
Q not equal N so do not go to .F
start expanding next level
generated for the second time
sets Q to 2 in the temp. symbol table
Q equals 2 so go to .F
generated for the rst time. Notice that .F
does not appear since it is not a regular symbol

Of the 9 lines expanded, lines 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 are pass 0 directives. They are executed
and do not appear in the nal program. Lines 1, 5, 8, 9 are instructions, and are
the only ones actually expanded and written onto the new source le.

The macro has been recursively expanded to a depth of 2 because of the way
symbols Q, N have been dened. It is also possible to say AIF Q=2.F, in which case
the depth of recursion will depend only on the initial value of Q.
Exercise 4.14 Is it valid to write AIF Q>N.F?
An important question that should be raised at this point is: what can N be?
Clearly it can be anything known in pass 0, such as another (non-future) SET symbol,
a constant, or an actual argument of the current macro. This, however, oers only
a limited choice and some assemblers allow N to be an absolute symbol, dened by
an EQU. An EQU, however, is a pass 1 directive, so such an assembler should look at
each EQU directive in pass 0 andif the EQU denes an absolute symbolexecute

136 Macros

Ch. 4

it, store the symbol in the temporary symbol table, and write the EQU on the new
source le for a second execution in pass 1. In pass 1, all EQU directives are executed
and all EQU symbols, absolute and relative, end up in the permanent symbol table.
Some assemblers go one more step and combine pass 0 with pass 1. This makes
for a very complex pass but, on the other hand, it means that conditional assembly
directives can use any quantities known in pass 1. They can use the values of any
symbols in the symbol table (i.e., any non-future symbols), the value of the LC,
and other things known in pass 1 such as the size of the last instruction read. The
following is an example along these lines.

.
.
P DS 10
N DS 3
.
.
Q SET P
GOOD
.
.

P is the start address of an array of length 10

N is the start address of an array of length 3 immediately
following array P. Thus N=P+10
The value of Q is an address
depth of recursion will be 10 since
it takes 10 steps to increment the
value of Q from address P to address N.

The next example is more practical. It is a recursive macro FACT that calculates
a factorial. Calculating a factorial is a common process and is done by computers
all the time. In our example, however, it is done at assembly time, not at run time.
FACT
S
K

MACRO N
SET S+1
SET K*S
AIF S=N.DON
FACT N
ENDM

.DON
The expansion:
S
K

SET 0
SET 1
FACT 4

will calculate 4! (=24) and store it in the temporary symbol table as the value of the
SET symbol K. The result can only be used at assembly time, since the SET symbols
are wiped out at the end of pass 0. Symbol K could be used, for example, in an
array declaration such as: FACT4 DS K which declares FACT4 as an array of length
4!. This, of course, can only be done if the assembler combines passes 0 and 1.
The FACT macro is rewritten below using the IIF directive. IIF stands for
Immediate IF. It has the form IIF condition,source line. If the condition is true,

Sec. 4.8

Conditional Assembly

137

the source line is expanded, otherwise, it is ignored.

FACT
S
K

MACRO N
SET S+1
SET K*S
IIF S=N,(FACT N)
ENDM

Some assemblers support directives such as:

IFT. The general form is IFT cond. If the condition is true, the assembler skips
the next source line.
IFF. The general form is IFF cond. This is the opposite of IFT.
EXIT. This terminates the present expansion. It is used inside an IF to terminate
the expansion early if a certain condition is true.
IF1, IF2, ENDC. These exist on the MASM assembler for the IBM PC. Anyhting between an IF1 and an ENDC will be done (assembled or executed) in pass 1.
Similarly for IF2. These directives are illustrated in the MASM example in Ch. 5.
IF-ELSE-ENDIF. These can only appear together and they extend the simple IF
into an IF-THEN-ELSE construct. Example:
IF X=2
line 1
ELSE
line 2
line 3
ENDIF

If X=2, then line 1 will be expanded, otherwise, lines 2 & 3 will be expanded.
Exercise 4.15 What can X be?
The IBM 360, 370 assemblers, were the rst ones to oer an extensive conditional assembly facility, and similar facilities are featured by nost modern assemblers. It is interesting to note that the MPW assembler for the Macintosh computer
supports conditional assembly directives that are almost identical to those of the old
360. Some of the conditional assembly features supported by the 360, 370 assemblers will be discussed here, with examples. Notice that those assemblers require
all macro parameters and all SET symbols to start with an ampersand &.
The AIF directive on those assemblers has the format AIF (exp)SeqSymbol.
The expression may contain SET symbols, absolute EQU symbols, constants, attributes of arguments, arithmetic operators, the six relationals (EQ NE GT LT GE
LE), the logical operators AND OR NOT, and parentheses. SeqSymbol (sequence symbol) is a symbol that starts with a period. Such a symbol is a special one, it has no
value and is not stored in any symbol table. It is used only for conditional assembly

138 Macros

Ch. 4

and thus only exists in pass 0. When the assembler executes an AIF and decides to
go to, say, symbol .F, it searches, in the MDT, for a line labeled .F, sets the current
MES pointer to point to that line, and continues the macro expansion. If a line
fetched from the MDT has such a label, the line goes on the new source le without
the label, which guarantees that only pass 0 will see the sequence symbols. In contrast, regular symbols (address symbols and absolute symbols) do not participate
in pass 0. They are dened in pass 1, and their values used in pass 2.
Examples:
AIF (&A(&I) EQ ABC).TGT where &A is a compound parameter and &I is a SET
symbol used to select one component of &A.
AIF (T&X EQ O).KL if the type attribute of argument &X is O, meaning a null
argument, then go to symbol .KL.
AIF (&J GE 8).HJ where &J could be either a parameter or a SET symbol.
AIF (&X AND &B EQ ( ).LL where &X is a B type SET symbol (see below) and
&B is either a C type SET symbol or a parameter.
The AGO Directive: The general format is AGO SeqSymbol. It directs the
assembler to the line labeled by the symbol. (This is an unconditional goto at
assembly time, not run time.)
The ANOP (Assembler No OPeration) directive. The assembler does nothing in
response to this directive, and its only use is to provide a line that can be labeled
with a sequence symbol. This directive is used in one of the examples at the end of
this chapter.
SET symbols. They can be of three types. A (arithmetic), B (boolean) or C
(character). An A type SET symbol has an integer value. B type have boolean
values of true/false or 1/0. The value of a C type SET symbol is a string.
Any SET symbol has to be declared as one of the three types and its type cannot
be changed. Thus:
LCLA &A,&B
LCLB &C,&D
LCLC &E,&F
declare the six symbols as local SET symbols of the appropriate types. A local SET
symbol is only known inside the macro in which it is declared (or inside a control
section, but those will not be discussed here). There are also three directives to
assign values to the dierent types of SET symbols.
&A SETA
&A SETA
&B SETA

&C SETB

1
&A+1
1+(B1011*XFF1-15)/&A-NSYSLIST(&A) where B1011 is a binary constant,
XFF1 is a hex constant, and N is the number attribute
(the number of components) of the second argument of the current
expansion (the second, because &A=2).
(&A LT 5)

Sec. 4.8

&D
&E
&E
&F
&F
&E

SETB
SETC
SETC
SETC
SETC
SETC

Conditional Assembly

139

1 means true
the null string
12 the string 12
34
0&E&F.5 the string 012345. The dot separates the value of &F from the 5
ABCDEF(2,3) the string BCD. Substring notation is allowed.

4.8.1 Global SET symbols

The three directives GBLA, GBLB, GBLC declare global SET symbols. This feature
is very similar to the COMMON statement in Fortran. Once a symbol has been declared
global in one macro denition, it can be declared global in other macro denitions
that follow, and all those declarations will use the same symbol.
N1
&S

N2
&S

N3

MACRO
GBLA &S
SETA 1
AR &S,2
N2
ENDM
MACRO
LCLA &S
SETA 2
SR &S,2 the local symbol is used
N3
ENDM
MACRO
GBLA &S
CR &S,2 the global symbol is used
ENDM

The expansion N1 will generate

AR 1,2
SR 2,2
CR 1,2

140 Macros

Ch. 4

4.8.2 Array SET symbols

Declarations such as LCLA &A(7) are allowed, and generate a SET symbol
which is an array. Such symbols can be very useful in sophisticated applications.
References [2527] contain more information on the macro facilities of the .
The following examples summarize many of the features of conditional assembly
discussed here.
SUM
&SS
&L
.B
&SS

.F

MACRO &L,&P1,&P2,&P3
LCLA &SS
SETA 1
ST&P1 5,TEMP
L&P1 5,&P2(1)
AIF (&SS GE N&P2).F
SETA &SS+1
A&P1 5,&P2(&SS)
AGO .B
ST&P1 5,&P3
L&P1 5,TEMP
MEND

save register 5 in temp

load rst component of P2
if done go to .F
use &SS as a loop index
add next component of P2
loop
store sum in P3
restore register 5

The expansion SUM LAB,D,(A,B,C),DEST will generate

LAB

STD 5,TEMP
LD 5,A
AD 5,B
AD 5,C
STD 5,DEST
LD 5,TEMP

This macro uses the conditional assembly directives to loop and generate several
AD (Add Double) instructions. The number of instructions generated equals the
number of components (the N attribute) of the third argument.
A more sophisticated version of this macro lets the user specify, in argument
&REG, which register to use. If argument &REG is omitted (its T attribute equals O)
the macro selects register 5.
SUM
MACRO &L,&P1,&P2,&P3,&REG
LCLC &CC
LCLC &RR
LCLA &AA
&AA
SETA 1
&CC
SETC &L
&RR
SETC &REG
AIF (T&REG NE O).Q
is argument &REG a null?
&RR
SETC 5
yes, use register 5

Sec. 4.8

&CC
&CC
.Q
&CC
.B
&AA

.F

.H

Conditional Assembly

ST&P1 &RR,TEMP
SETC
ANOP
L&P1 &RR,&P2(1)
AIF (&AA GE N&P2).F
SETA &AA+1
A&P1 &RR,&P2(&AA)
AGO .B
ST&P1 &RR,&P3
AIF (T&REG NE O).H
L&P1 &RR,TEMP
ENDM

141

and label this instruction

a source line just to have a label
this inst. is labeled if &REG is not null
if done, go to .F
the main ADD instr. to be generated
loop
same text as above
restore the register

The expansion SUM LAB,D,(A,B,C),DEST, generates code identical to the one

generated for the previous example. The expansion SUM LAB,D,(A,B,C),DEST,3
will generate similar code, the only dierence being that register 3 will be used
instead of register 5.

4.9 Nested Macro Denition

This is the case where the denition of one macro contains the denition of
another. Example:
X MACRO
MULT
the body of X starts here. . .
Y MACRO
ADD
JMP
ENDM
DIV
and ends here. It is 6 lines long
ENDM
The denition of macro Y is nested inside the denition of X. This feature is not
as useful as nested macro expansion but many modern assemblers support it (older
assemblers typically did not). In this section we will see what this feature means,
and look at two dierent ways of implementing it.
The rst thing that needs to be modied, in order to implement this feature, is
the macro denition mode. In this mode, the assembler reads source lines and stores
them in the MDT until it encounters an ENDM. The rst modication has to do with
the MACRO directive itself. When the assembler reads a line with a MACRO directive
while it is in the macro denition mode, it treats it as any other line (i.e., it stores
it in the MDT) but it also increments a special counter, the denition level counter,
by 1. This counter starts at 1 when entering denition mode, and is updated to
reect the current level of nested denitions. When the assembler encounters an
ENDM directive, it decrements the counter by 1 and tests it. If the counter is positive,
the assembler treats the ENDM as any other line. If the counter is zero, the assembler
knows that the ENDM signals the end of the entire nested denition, and it switches
back to the normal mode. This process is described in more detail below.

142 Macros

Ch. 4

In our example, X will end up in the MDT as the 6-line macro:

X 0 MULT Y MACRO ADD JMP ENDM DIV
(We ignore any pointers.) Macro Y will not
be recognized as a macro but will be stored in the MDT as part of the denition of
macro X.
Another method for matching MACRO-ENDM pairs while reading-in a macro denition is to require each ENDM to contain the name of the macro it terminates. Thus
the above example should be written:
X

MACRO
MULT
Y MACRO
ADD
JMP
ENDM Y
DIV
ENDM X

This requires more work on the part of the programmer but, on the other hand,
makes the program easier to read.
Exercise 4.16 In the case where both macros X, Y end at the same point
X

MACRO
MACRO
ENDM Y
ENDM X

do we still need two ENDM lines?

The next thing to modify is the macro expansion mode. While expanding
macro X, the assembler will encounter the inner MACRO directive. This implies that
the assembler should be able to switch to the macro denition mode from the macro
expansion mode, and not only from the normal mode. This feature does not add
any special diculties and is straightforward to implement. While in the macro
expansion mode, if the assembler encounters a MACRO directive, it switches to the
macro denition mode, allocates an available area in the MDT for the new denition
and creates that denition. Specically, the assembler:
fetches the next source line from the MDT, not from the source le.
stores the line in the macro denition table, as part of the denition of the new
macro.
repeats until it encounters an ENDM line (more precisely, until it encounters an ENDM
line that matches the current MACRO line). At this point the assembler switches back
to the macro expansion mode, and continues with the normal expansion.

Sec. 4.9

Nested Macro Definition

143

Now may be a good point to mention that such nesting can be done in one
direction only. A macro expansion may cause the assembler to temporarily switch to
the macro denition mode; a macro denition, however, cannot cause the assembler
to switch to the expansion mode. When the assembler is in a macro expansion
mode, it may expand a macro with nested denition, so it has to enter the macro
denition mode from within the macro expansion mode. However, if the assembler
is in the macro denition mode and the macro being dened species the expansion
of an inner macro, the assembler does not start the nested expansion while in the
process of dening the outer macro. It therefore does not enter the macro expansion
mode from within the macro denition mode. The reason being that when a macro
is dened, its denition is stored in the MDT without any attempt to assemble,
execute, or expand anything. As a result, the assembler can only be in one of the
four following modes: normal, denition, expansion, & denition inside expansion.
They will be numbered 14 and denoted N,D,E,& DE, respectively.
In the example above, when macro X is dened, macro Y becomes part of the
body of X and is not recognized as an independent macro. When X is expanded,
though, macro Y is dened and, from that point on, Y can also be expanded. The
only reason to implement and use this feature is that macro X can be expanded
several times, each expansion of X creating a denition of Y in the MDT, and those
denitionsbecause of the use of parametersdo not have to be the same.
Each time Y is expanded, the assembler should, of course, expand the most
recent denition of Y (otherwise nested macro denition would be a completely
useless feature). Expanding the most recent denition of Y is simple. All that the
assembler has to do is to search the MDT in reverse order; start from the new macros
and continue with the older ones. This feature of backward search has already been
mentioned, in connection with macros that redene existing instructions.
The above example can be written, with the inclusion of parameters, and with
some slight changes, to make it more realistic.
X
Y

MACRO A,B,C,D
MULT A
MACRO C
C
ADD DIR
JMP B
ENDM Y
DIV C
Y D
ENDM X

The body of X now contains a denition of Y and also an expansion of it. An

expansion of X will generate:
A MULT instruction.
A denition of Y in the MDT.

144 Macros

Ch. 4

A DIV instruction.
An expansion of Y, consisting of three lines, the last two of which are ADD, JMP.
The expansion X SEC,TOR,DIC,BPL will generate:
Y

MULT SEC
MACRO C
C
ADD DIR
JMP TOR
ENDM Y
DIV DIC
Y BPL
BPL
ADD DIR
JMP TOR

rst line
macro Y gets stored
in the macro denition
table with the B parameter
changed to TOR but with
the C parameter unchanged
second line
a line which is expanded to give third line. BPL is substituted for the C parameter
fourth line
fth line

The only thing that may be a surprise in this example is the fact that macro Y
is stored in the MDT without C being substituted. In other words. Y is dened as
Y MACRO C and not as Y MACRO DIC. The rule in such a case is the same as in a
block structured language. Parameters of the outer macro are global and are known
inside the inner macro unless they are redened by that macro. Thus parameter B
is replaced by its value TOR when Y is dened, but parameter C is not replaced by
DIC.
Since we are interested in how things are done by the assembler, the implementation of this feature will be discussed in detail. In fact, we will describe in
detail two ways to implement nested macro denitions. One is the traditional way,
described in [28,61]. The other, due to Revesz [81] is newer and more elegant.
4.9.1 The traditional method
Normally, when a macro denition is entered into the MDT, each parameter
is replaced with a serial number #1, #2, . . . To support nested macro denition,
the assembler replaces each parameter, not with a single serial number, but with a
pair of numbers (denition level, serial number). To determine those pairs, a stack,
called the macro denition stack (MDS), is used.
When the assembler starts pass 0, it clears the stack and initializes a special
counter (the Dlevel counter mentioned above) to 0. Every time the assembler encounters a MACRO line, it increments the level counter by 1 and pushes the names
of the parameters of that level into the stack, each with a pair (level counter, i )
attached, where i is the serial number of the parameter. The assembler then starts
copying the denition into the MDT, comparing every token on every line with the
stack entries (starting with the most recent stack entry). If a token in one of the
macro lines matches a stack entry, the assembler considers it to be a parameter (of
the current level or any outer one). It fetches the pair (l,i ) from the stack entry
that matched, and stores #(l,i ) in the MDT instead of storing the token itself. If

Sec. 4.9

Nested Macro Definition

145

the token does not match any stack entry, it is considered a stand-alone token and
is copied into the MDT as part of the source line.
When an ENDM is encountered, the stack entries for the current level are popped
out and Dlevel is decremented by 1. After the last ENDM in a nested denition is
encountered, the stack is left empty and Dlevel should be 0.
The example below shows three nested denitions and the contents of the MDT.
It also shows the macro denition stack when the third, innermost, denition is
processed (the stack is at its maximum length at this point).
The following points should be noted about this example:
Lines 3,5,8,10 in the MDT show that the assembler did not treat the inner macros
Q, R as independent ones. They are just part of the body of macro P.
On line 4, the #(2,1) in the MDT means parameter 1 (A) of level 2 (Q), while the
#(1,3) means parameter 3 (C) of level 1 (P).
On line 7, #(3,3) is parameter 3 (E) of level 3 (R) and not that of level 2 (Q). The
H is not found in the stack and is therefore considered a stand-alone symbol, not a
parameter.
On line 11, the assembler is back to level 1 where none of the symbols is a parameter. The stack at this point only contains the four bottom lines, and symbols
E,F,G,H are all considered stand-alone.

#
1

source line
P

2
3

4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

MACRO A,B,C,D
A,B,C,D
MACRO A,B,E,F
A,B,C,D
MACRO A,C,E,G
A,B,C,D
E,F,G,H
ENDM R
E,F,G,H
ENDM Q
E,F,G,H
ENDM P

MDT
P4
#(1,1),#(1,2),#(1,3),#(1,4)
Q MACRO #(2,1),#(2,2),#(2,3),#(2,4)
#(2,1),#(2,2),#(1,3),#(1,4)
R MACRO #(3,1),#(3,2),#(3,3),#(3,4)
#(3,1),#(2,2),#(3,2),#(1,4)
#(3,3),#(2,4),#(3,4),H
ENDM R
#(2,3),#(2,4),G,H
ENDM Q
E,F,G,H

Figure 46 is a ow chart (a generalized subset of gure 42) summarizing the

operations described above.

146 Macros

Ch. 4

stack
G
E
C
A
F
E
B
A
D
C
B
A

(3,4)
(3,3)
(3,2)
(3,1)
(2,4)
(2,3)
(2,2)
(2,1)
(1,4)
(1,3)
(1,2)
(1,1)

top

bottom

4.9.2 Reveszs method

There is another, newer and more elegant methoddue to G. Revesz [81]for
implementing nested macro denitions. It uses a single serial numberinstead of
a pairto tag each macro parameter, and also has the advantage that it allows for
an easy implementation of nested macro expansions and nested macro denitions
within a macro expansion.
The method is based on the following observation: When a macro A is being
dened, we are only concerned with the denition of A (the level 1 denition) and
not with any inner, nested denitions, since A is the only one that is stored in the
MDT as a separate macro. In such a case why be concerned about the parameters
of all the inner, higher level, nested denitions inside A? Any inner denitions are
only handled when A is expanded, so why not determine their actual arguments at
that point?
This is an example of an algorithm where laziness pays. We put o any work
to the latest possible point in time, and the result is simple, elegant, and correct.
The method uses the two level counters Dlevel and Elevel as before. There are
also three stacks, one for formal parameters (P), the second for actual arguments
(A), and the third, (MES), for the nested expansion pointers. A non-empty formal
parameter stack implies that the assembler is in the denition mode (D), and a
non-empty argument stack, that it is in the expansion mode (E). By examining the
state (empty/non empty) of those two stacks, we can easily tell in which of the 4
modes the assembler currently is.
Following are the details of the method in the case of a nested denition. When
the assembler is in mode 1 or 3, and it nds a MACRO line, it switches to mode 2 or
4 respectively, where it:
1. Stores the names of the parameters in stack P, each with a serial number
attached. Since stack P should be originally empty, this is level 1 in P.

Sec. 4.9

Nested Macro Definition

147

Dlevel:=Dlevel+1

no

Dlevel=1
?

yes
Clear MDS. Locate space in MDS for
a new macro. Store macro name in MDT

Scan parameters. For each par, push

its name and the pair (Dlevel,i)in MDS
7
input

no
5

yes
MEND

Figure 46. The classical method for nested macro denitions (part I).
2. Opens up an area in the MDT for the new macro.
3. Brings in source lines to be stored in the MDT, as part of the new denition.
Each line is rst checked to see if it is a MACRO or a MEND.
4. If the current source line is MACRO, the line itself goes into the MDT and the
assembler enters the names of the parameters of the inner macro in stack P as
a new, higher level. Just the names are entered, with no serial numbers.
This, again, is an important principle of the method. It distinguishes between
the parameters of level 1 and those of the higher levels, but it does not distinguish
between the parameters of the dierent higher levels. Again the idea is that, at
macro denition time we only handle the level 1, outer macro, so why bother to
resolve parameter conicts on higher levels at this time. Such conicts will be
resolved by the same method anytime an inner macro is dened (becomes level 1).
5. If the current line is a MEND, the line itself again goes into the MDT and the
assembler removes the highest level of parameters from P. Thus after nding

148 Macros

Ch. 4

5
6
Break lines up into tokens.
Compare every token with
all param names in MDS,
from top to bottom

Pop up all MDS entries

for current Dlevel

Dlevel:=Dlevel+1
match
yes

Fetch the pair (l,i)

associated with the
matched name

no

Store token
in MDT

Dlevel=0
?
no

yes
mode:=N

7
Store (l,i) in MDT
instead of token
1

Figure 46. The classical method for nested macro denitions (part II).
the last MEND, stack P should be empty again, signifying a non-macro denition
mode. The assembler should then switch back to the original mode (either 1
or 3).
6. If the source line is neither of the above, it is scanned, token by token, to determine what tokens are parameters. Each token is compared with all elements
on stack P, from top to bottom. There are three cases:
a: No match. The token is not a parameter of any macro and is not replaced
by anything.
b: The token matches a name in P that does not have a serial number attached. The token is thus a parameter of an inner macro, and can be
ignored for now. We simply leave it alone, knowing that it will be replaced by some serial number when the inner macro is eventually dened
(that will happen when some outer macro is eventually expanded).
c: The token matches a name in P that has a serial number attached. The to-

Sec. 4.9

Nested Macro Definition

pass 0

Initialize
Dlevel:=0
Elevel:=0
mode:=N

149

MACRO?

ENDM?

mode

D,DE

N,E
1
4

macro name?
mode
E,DE
N,D

5
Read next
line from
source file

Increment pointer
located at top of
MES. Use it to read
next line from MDT

mode

DE
6

eof
?

7
D

yes
end of
pass 0

output

Figure 47a. Reveszs method for nested macro denitions (part I).
ken is thus a parameter of the currently dened macro (the level 1 macro),
and is replaced by the serial number.
After comparing all the tokens of a source line, the line is stored in the MDT.
It is a part of the currently dened macro.
The important point is that the formal parameters are replaced by serial numbers only for level 1, i.e., only for the outermost macro denition. For all other
nested denitions, only the names of the parameters are placed on the stack, reecting the fact that only level 1 is processed in macro denition mode. That level
ends up being stored in the MDT with each of its parameters being replaced by a
serial number.
On recognizing the name of a macro, which can happen either in mode 1
(normal) or 3 (expansion), the assembler enters mode 3, where it:

150 Macros

Ch. 4

MACRO

ENDM

mode
E

N
mode:=D

Dlevel

mode:=DE
=0

Dlevel:= D,
Dlevel+1 DE

Error!
Unmatched
ENDM

=1

Place
in
current def
in MDT

Copy line
into current
definition
in MDT

Dlevel:=0
mode:=N

Pop current
level of
params
from P

Dlevel
>1

=1

Allocate space
in MDT for
new macro. Push
each param, with
#i attached,
into P

Push all
params into
stack P, but
without #i

mode:=N

>1

Dlevel:=
Dlevel+1

Generate the 1st macro

line in MDT
name MACRO #1 #2 ..

Figure 47b. Reveszs method for nested macro denitions (part II).
7. Loads stack A with a new level containing the actual arguments. If the new
macro has no arguments, the new level is empty, but it should always be in
stack A as a level.
8. Inserts a new pointer in the MES, pointing to the rst linein the MDTof
the macro to be expanded.
9. Starts expanding the macro by bringing in individual lines from the MDT.
Each line is scanned and all serial numbers are replaced by arguments from
stack A. The line is then checked to distinguish three cases:

Sec. 4.9

Nested Macro Definition

151

macro name
6

mode:=E
Elevel:=Elevel+1

Push actual args, with

#i attached, into stack A

For each token on source line,

if token is #i, search stack A
top to bottom. On finding a match,
replace #i with argument from A.

7
Push a new pointer into
MES, pointing to 1st line
of macro to be expanded

For each token on source line,

search stack P, top to bottom,
for a pair (token,#i).
If found, replace token with #i

Figure 47c. Reveszs method for nested macro denitions (part III).
d: The line is MACRO, the assembler enters mode 4 (denition mode within
expansion mode) and follows rules 16 above.
e: The current line is MEND, the assembler again follows the rules above and
may decide, if this is the last MEND, to return from mode 4 back to mode
3.
f: For any other line, the line is written on the new source le as explained
earlier.
On recognizing the end of the macro (no more lines to expand), the assembler:
10. Removes the highest level from stack A.
11. Deletes the top pointer from the MES.
12. Checks the MES and stack A. There are three cases:
g: Neither is empty. There is an outer level of expansion, the assembler stays
in mode 3 and resumes the expansion as above.
h: Only one is empty. This should never happen and can only result from
a bug in the assembler itself. The assembler should issue a message like
impossible error, inform a systems programmer.
i: Both are empty. This is the end of the expansion. The assembler switches
to mode 1.

152 Macros

Ch. 4

Dlevel
>0

=0

D,
DE
=0

Elevel

Copy into current

definition in MDT

>0
E

N
Error!
illegal
character
read while
in normal
mode

Pop current
levelof args
from stack A

Dlevel:=Dlevel-1

>1
Dlevel

Pop top of MES

=1

Elevel:=Elevel-1

mode
D

Elevel

mode:=N

DE
mode:=E

=0
>0
1

Figure 47d. Reveszs method for nested macro denitions (part IV).

The following example illustrates a macro L1 whose denition is nested by L2

which, in turn, is nested by a level 3 macro, L3.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

L1 MACRO
MOV
CMP
L2 MACRO
MOV
CMP
L3 MACRO
MOV
CMP
MEND

A,B,C,D
A,B
C,D
E,F,D,C
E,C
A,X
A,E,C,G
C,E
A,G
L3

L1
MOV
CMP
L2
MOV
CMP
L3
MOV
CMP
MEND

#1#2#3#4
#1#2
#3#4
MACRO E,F,D,C
E,C
#1,X
MACRO A,E,C,G
C,E
A,G
L3

L2
MOV
CMP
L3
MOV
CMP
MEND

#1#2#3#4
#1,#4
M,X
MACRO A,E,C,G
C,#1
A,G
L3

L3 MACRO #1#2#3#4
MOV #3,W
CMP #1,#4
(end of macro)

Sec. 4.9
11
12
13
14
15
16

Nested Macro Definition

ADD
SUB
MEND
ADD
SUB
MEND

A,F
C,B
L2
E,F
G,B
L1

ADD
SUB
MEND
ADD
SUB

Source denition

#1,F
C,#2
L2
E,F
G,#2
(end of macro)

ADD
SUB

Denition of L1

153

M,#2
#4,N
(end of macro)

Denition of L2

Denition of L3

When macro L1 is dened, in pass 0, the result is a 14 lines denition (lines

215) in the MDT. During the denition, stack P goes through several levels as
below:

after
line

1
D
C
B
A

#4
#3
#2
#1

4
C
D
F
E
D
C
B
A

#4
#3
#2
#1

7
G
C
E
A
C
D
F
E
D
C
B
A

10
C
D
E
F
D
C
B
A

13
D
C
B
A

#4
#3
#2
#1

16
empty

#4
#3
#2
#1

#4
#3
#2
#1

When L1 is rst expanded with, say, arguments M,N,P,Q, it results in:

1. The 14 lines brought from the MDT and examined. Lines 2,3,14,15 are eventually written on the new source le, as: MOV M,N CMP P,Q ADD E,F SUB G,N.
2. Lines 413 become the 8-line denition of L2 in the MDT as shown above.
Later, when L2 is expanded, with arguments W,X,Y,Z, it results in:
1. Lines 5,6,11,12 written on the new source le as:
MOV W,Z CMP M,X ADD M,Y SUB Z,M.
2. Lines 710 stored in the MDT as the 2-line denition of L3. From that
point on, L3 can also be expanded.
Figure 47 is a summary of this method, showing how to handle nested macro
denitions and expansions, as well as denition mode nested inside expansion mode.

154 Macros

Ch. 4

4.9.3 A note
The TEX typesetting system, mentioned earlier, supports a powerful macro
facility that also allows for nested macro denitions. It is worth mentioning here
because it uses an unconventional notation. To dene a macro a with two parameters, the user should say \def\a#1#2{...#1...#2...}. Each #p refers to one of
the parameters. To nest the denition of macro b inside a, a double ## notation
is used. Thus in the denition \def\a#1{..#1..\def\b##1{..##1..#1}} the
notation ##1 refers to the parameter of b, and #1, to that of macro a.
The rule is that each pair ## is reduced to one #. This way, macro denitions
can be nested to any depth.
Example:
\def\a#1{#1\def\b##1{[#1,##1] \def\x####1{(#1,##1,####1)}\x X}\b Y}
The denition of macro a consists of:
Printing as parameter in quotes.
Dening macro b.
Expanding b with the argument Y.
Similarly, the denition of macro b includes:
Printing as parameter and bs parameter in square brackets.
Dening macro x with one parameter.
Expanding x with the argument X.

Macro x simply prints all three arguments, as, bs and its own, in parentheses.
Exercise 4.17 What is the result of the expansion \a A?
The reader should convince himself that the rule above really allows for unlimited nesting of macro denitions.

4.10 Summary of Pass 0

In order to concentrate all macro operations in one place, many assemblers
perform an additional pass, pass 0, mentioned before, in which all macros are dened
and expanded. The result of pass 0 is a new source le that serves as the source
input for pass 1. To simplify the handling of macros, many assemblers require all
macros to be dened at the beginning of the program. The last ENDM in that block of
macro denitions is followed by a source line that is not a MACRO, and this signals to
the assembler the end of macro denitions. From that point on, the assembler only

Sec. 4.10

Summary of Pass 0

155

expects macro expansions and will ag any macro denition as an error. Example :
A

X
N

BEGIN EX
MACRO P,Q
.
.
ENDM
MACRO C,II
.
.
ENDM
DS 12 an array declaration
MACRO
.
.
ENDM
.
.

The denition of macro N will be agged since it occurs too late in the source.
With this separation of macro denition and expansion, pass 0 is easy to implement. In the normal mode such an assembler simply copies the source le into
the new source. Macro denitions only aect the MDT, while macro expansions
are written onto the new source le.
Such an assembler, however, cannot support nested macro denitions. They
generate new macro denitions too late in pass 0.
An assembler that supports nested macro denitions cannot impose the restriction above, and can only require the user to dene each macro before it is
expanded.
Having a separate pass 0 simplies pass 1. The ow charts in his chapter prove
that pass 0 is at least as complicated as pass 1, so keeping them separate reduces
the total size and the complexity of the assembler. Combining pass 0 and pass 1,
however, has the following advantages:
No new source le needed, saving both le space and assembly time.
Proceduressuch as input procedures or procedures for checking the type of a
symbolthat are needed in both passes, only need to be implemented once.
All pass 1 facilities (such as EQU and other directives) are available during macro
expansion. This simplies the handling of conditional assembly.

156 Macros

Ch. 4

4.11 Review Questions and Projects

1. The process of expanding a macro includes two main steps, binding the formal paremeters to their actual arguments, and substituting each parameter in the
macros body by its bound argument. Write a procedure, in pseudo-code, to implement the two steps. Assume that nested macro denition is not allowed, but nested
macro expansion is allowed.
2. The syntax of macro denition and expansion diers from assembler to assembler. Use several textbooks and assembler manuals to study dierent conventions
of dening macros and naming parameters. Summarize the resuts in a table of the
form:

Syntax of
macro def

Syntax of

Maximum #

Maximum #

param-names

of macros

of params per macro

Assembler A
Assembler B

3. Continue the table of question 2 with columns for: Types of SET symbols, Syntax
of SET symbol name, Syntax of sequence symbol name.
4. A macro named LOD can be used to redene the LOD instruction. An assembler
supporting this feature simply searches the MDT backwards. What is another way
of redening assembler instructions?
5. Review the block structure feature found in higher-level languages. What is the
main dierence between this feature and the scope of parameters in a nested macro
denition?
6. What stacks are involved in nested macro denition and expansion? When (in
what passes) are these stacks used? Is it possible to use the memory occupied by
these stacks for something else?
7. What is a pass 0 directive? Make a list of all pass 0 directives mentioned in this
chapter .
8. Compare the two methods described in this chapter for MDT implementation,
the one with the MNT and the one without it.
9. Apply the two methods described in this chapter for handling nested macro
denition to the case:

Sec. 4.11

Review Questions and Projects

157

MACRO
MACRO
ENDM B
MACRO
ENDM C
ENDM A

The denitions of the two macros B, C are nested in the denition of A, but are
separate (not nested inside each other).
10. What is the main dierence between the parameters of a macro and those of a
procedure?
11. How should a programmer decide whether to use a macro or a procedure in a
given situation?
4.11.1 Project 41
Modify project 31 to include macros with parameters. The macros should
also support unique label generation but should not be nested in any way. No
conditional assembly is necessary.
4.11.2 Project 42
The EQU, DC directives are very useful. In fact, they can be used, together with
the MACRO, ENDM directives, to implement an assembler. The following macro:
ADD
P1

LC

MACRO P1,P2,P3
EQU *
BYTE 2A
BYTE P2
BYTE P3
SET LC+3
ENDM

may be used to assemble an ADD instruction. The expansion ADD X,2,Y would

158 Macros

Ch. 4

result in:
X

EQU *
BYTE 2A
BYTE 2
BYTE Y

Label X dened and set to the current LC

OpCode of ADD
Register 2
The value of Y (from the symbol table) is substituted

After writing such a macro for every instruction, source programs can easily be
assembled. Most instructions contain elds that are longer or shorter than one byte,
so a data-generating directive is necessary, that would be more general than BYTE.
The DC directive, for example, could be modied such that DC 17(2,6) would
generate the constant 17 = 10012 as a 6-bit eld, starting at bit position 2 of the
current byte. The result is xx010001 where the xx eld should be lled by the next
DC.
Your task: Select a simple assembler language, such as the one described in
project 11, and implement it by writing a full set of such macros.

. . . the church is founded and founded irremovably because founded, like

the world, macro macro and microcosm, upon the void
James Joyce, Ulysses
. . . Then there are young men who dance around and get paid by the
women, theyre called macros and arent much use to anyone . . .
Noel Coward, To Step Aside, (1939)
Bostonians calmly die

Anonymous, (An anagram of conditional assembly)

5. The Listing File

The listing le is the second output of the assembler. It is generated in pass 2,

and is eventually printed. To be useful, such a le should include, for each source
line, a copy of the source (including comments) and the object codes, the value of
the LC for the instruction, and any error messages pertaining to the line.
In addition, the listing may, optionally, contain a cross reference table of all the
symbols used in the program. This is a list of all symbols, sorted alphabetically by
symbol name, with their values and attributes and, for each symbol, the LC values
of all the instructions using it. If a symbol is used a lot in the program, the cross
reference for it may require more than one line of print. The cross reference can be
an invaluable debugging tool and is generated by many assemblers. It contains all
the information in the symbol table and more.
It has already been mentioned, in chapter 1, that a one-pass assembler cannot
print the values of future symbols in the listing. Thus, for this type of assembler,
the cross reference table is certainly important.
To implement the cross reference table, another column is added to the symbol
table, with a pointer to a linked list. Each node in this list contains the LC value for
an instruction using that symbol. The lists are built in pass 2, while instructions are
assembled. Each time an instruction uses a symbol, the symbol table is searched.
On locating the symbol, its value is used in assembling the instruction, and another
node is added to the list of that symbol.

160 The Listing File

Ch. 5

Because of the work involved in preparing the cross-reference information, and

because this information is important, the MASM assembler has a separate utility,
CREF, to prepare the cross-reference listing.
The only use the assembler makes of comments is to write them on the listing
le. Therefore, each comment must be transferred from pass 1 to pass 2 in the
intermediate le. A similar thing is true for macros. In principle, passes 1 and 2
need to know nothing about macros. In practice, however, they have to be involved
in a limited way, because some macro information has to be included in the listing.
The listing le should include all the source code of the macro denitions (except the
denitions of system macros). Since a macro may be expanded many times and the
expansions may be similar, listing the expansions is optional. All this information
must be written, by pass 0, on the new source le. Pass 1, in turn, reads it, and
writes it on the intermediate le. Finally, pass 2 reads it o the intermediate le
and writes it on the listing le, in a readable format.
Some source lines are directives that do not generate any object code, and an
interesting question is what to print in the object code eld when these lines are
listed. Each assembler may print something else, but the following examples are
typical.
A: EQU 1. The operand 1 should be printed in the object code eld, since
the operand of the EQU may be an address expression (as in EQU B+G), and the
programmer should be able to see the value of that expression. The same thing is
true for other directives such as DS, ORG,. . .

Exercise 5.1 What should be printed in the object code eld when a macro denition is listed?

Y: DC 11,2,$. The rst constant (11) should be printed. The complete list
of constants generated by the DC may be too long but, if the programmer wants to
see it, a special directive such as PDC (print dened constants) may be used.
Chapter 3 mentions several directives used to control the listing. They can
be used to print a title and a sub-title (including, perhaps, the date and time) on
every page, to suppress the listing or parts of it, to eject a page at any point in the
listing, and to control the listing of the cross-reference and of macros. In general,
such directives are executed in pass 2 and are easy to implement.

5.1 A 6800 Example

The rst example is part of a listing produced by the 6800 assembler. It is
simple and easy to read.

TITLE OF PROGRAM
SUBTITLE
line
00001

LC

Object

6800 ASSEMBLER
VER 1.5
Source
NAME SOLVE

PAGE 1
DEC. 10,1991

Sec. 5.1
00002
00003
00004
00005
00006
00007
00008
00009
00010
00011
00012
00013
00014
00015
00016
00017
00018
00019
00020
00021
00022
00023
00024

A 6800 Example

0000

E1D1
E1AC
E07E

0000
0001
0002
0003
0005
0007
0008

0A
00
00
0000
0000
00
00

************************
* THIS PROGRAMS SOLVES...
* IT ALSO GENERATES THE ...
* AND, FINALLY, THE ...
************************
*
ORG 0
*
* EXTERNAL PROCEDURES DEFINITION
*
OUTCH
EQU $E1D1
OUTPUT SINGLE CHAR.
INCH
EQU $E1AC
INPUT CHAR.
PDATA1 EQU $E07E
PRINT MESSAGE
*
* INTERNAL STORAGE
*
DEFLT
BYTE 10
DEFAULT IS DECIMAL
BASE
BYTE 0
BASE=DEFAULT
ROTCNT BYTE 0
COUNT FOR ROTATE
INVAL
WORD 0
VALUE OF INPUT
TMPVAL WORD 0
TEMP. INPUT
INCNT
BYTE 0
COUNT OF INPUT CHARS.
LSTCHR BYTE 0
LAST CHAR BEFORE CR

TITLE OF PROGRAM
INITIALIZE

6800 ASSEMBLER
VER 1.5

line

LC

Object

Source

00025
00026
00027
00028
00029
00030
00031
00032
00033
00034
00035
00036
00037
00038
00039
00040

0009
000B
000D
0010
0013
0016
0019

96
97
7F
7F
BD
CE
A6

00
01
0003
0004
0231
A018
00

001B
001D

81
26

42
4D

001F

C0

05

00041
00042
00043

0021
0023
0025

2F
D7
08

47
07

161

VALIN

LDA
STA
CLR
CLR
JSR
LDX
LDA

A DEFLT
A BASE
INVAL
INVAL+1
MSGIN
#BUFFER
A 0,X

PAGE 2
DEC. 10,1991

START INPUT
HIGH ORDER BYTE
LOW ORDER BYTE
WAIT FOR INPUT
GET ADDRESS OF BUFF.
FIRST CHAR.

*
CMP A #B
BNE PRCHK

START OF BASE?
NO, LOOK FOR PREFIX

*
* SEE IF ATTEMPT TO CHANGE DEFAULT BASE
* MUST BE IN THE FORM:
* BASE XX, WHERE XX=2,8,10,16
*
SUB B #5
MUST BE 6 OR 7 CHARS
BLE BASERR
STA B
INX

IF LE 5, ERROR
INCNT STORE TO CHECK LATER
POINT PAST ASE

162 The Listing File

00044
00045
00046
00047
00048

0026
0027
0028
0029

Ch. 5

08
08
08
08

INX
INX
INX
INX

TITLE OF PROGRAM
INPUT MESSAGE

6800 ASSEMBLER
VER 1.5

line

LC

Object

Source

00049
00050
00051
00052
00053
00054
00055
00056
00057
00058
00059
00060

002A
002C
002E
0031
0033
0035
0038
003A

A6
C6
BD
81
2E
7A
27
08

00
0A
021E
09
35
0007
1C

003B
003D
003F

97
A6
C6

01
00
0A

.
.
.
0066
0068

97
20

00
9F

006A

20

5C

00083
00084
00085
00086
00087
00088
00089
00090

FINALLY, POINT TO IT

LDA
LDA
JSR
CMP
BGT
DEC
BEQ
INX

A 0,X
B #10
VALCK
A #9
BASERR
INCNT
BVALCK

PAGE 3
DEC. 10,1991

LOAD INDEXED AS USUAL

USE VALID. CHECK
HAS TO BE DECIMAL
ELSE ERROR
WAS THAT LAST DIGIT
YES, CHECK BASE
NO, POINT TO NEXT

006C 81
006E 26
0070 86
.
.
TITLE OF PROGRAM
CHECK FOR PREFIX

25
04
02

line

Object

Source

008A
008C

97
08

01

008D
.
.

7A

0007

LC

BASTOR
*
BASERR
*
PRCHK

STA A BASE
LDA A 0,X
LDA B #10

STORE DIGIT IN BASE

STA A DEFLT
BRA VALIN

FINALLY, REPLACE IT
READ INPUT AGAIN

BRA ERROR

BRANCH TO ERR ROUTINE

CMP A #%
BNE OCPCK
LDA A #2

IS IT BINARY?
NO, CHECK IF OCTAL
LOAD 2 FOR BINARY

6800 ASSEMBLER
VER 1.5

PAGE 5
DEC. 10,1991

.
.
00108
00109
00110
00111

*
PRINIT

STA A BASE
INX
DEC INCNT

REPLACE BASE

Sec. 5.1

00450
00451
00452
00453
00454
00455
00456
00457
00458
00459

.
A06D
A071
A072
A076
A077
A078

A 6800 Example

20444543
04
20484558
04
0D0A0000
04

DECM
HEXM
CRLFM

163

FCC / DEC/
BYTE 4
FCC / HEX/
BYTE 4
BYTE $D,$A,0,0,4

*
A018
A018

BUFFER
*

A02C

ORG $A018
RMB 20

INPUT BUFFER

END

ERROR SUMMARY
0 ERROR(S) IN ASSEMBLY
BINARY SUMMARY
684 BYTES OUTPUT
684 BYTES TO RAM
0 BYTES TO ROM
TITLE OF PROGRAM
ERROR AND XREF
line

LC

Object

6800 ASSEMBLER
VER 1.5

PAGE 14
DEC. 10,1991

Source

SYMBOL TABLE STATISTICS

69 ENTRIES 6.74 PERCENT FULL
CROSS-REFERENCE TABLE
24.90 PERCENT FULL
CROSS-REFERENCE LISTING
BASE 0001 ABS 17D 27 58 66 69 109 146 155 162 235 258 288 329
BASERR 006A ABS 41 53 63 73 82 87D
BASTOR 0066 ABS 76 77 80 83D
.
.
.
VALLP 0224 ABS 370 372D 377
VALOUT 0134 233D
END OF LISTING

Note the following:

The rst symbol in the cross-listing (BASE) is used many times. The last symbol
(VALOUT) is dened on line 233 (its value is 0134) but is never used.
Each listing page was assumed to be 24 lines long. In reality, pages are longer, depending on the paper size used by the printer. Many assemblers support a directive
to specify the number of lines on a listing page.

164 The Listing File

Ch. 5

The subtitle is dierent on each of our pages. This is the eect of the SUBTTL
directive, which itself is not listed.
The object code is simple and short. It occupies between one and three bytes
per source line and can therefore be easily included in the listing line. On other
computers, the object code may be longer and may have very dierent sizes for each
source line. In such cases, the assembler may devote, say, 8 printing positions to
the object code per listing line and, if the object code is longer, print the rest on a
second, and even a third, line. This is the situation on the VAX computer (see next
example) where each source line can generate between one and three 32-bit words.
Source line 00454 produces several constants. Its listing is, therefore, long, consisting of two lines.

5.2 A VAX Example

The next example is a typical listing produced by Macro, the VAX assembler.
It was produced by the single command:
MACRO /LIST /CROSS REFERENCE=(ALL) /NOOBJECT TEST
which itself deserves a few words:
The /LIST option is self explainable. The default value of this parameter is
/NOLIST.
The /CROSS REFERENCE=(ALL) produces a lot of cross-reference information. In
practice this is rarely needed, and the default value of this option is
/CROSS REFERENCE=(SYMBOLS,MACROS). The only important cross reference information is that of symbols. It can point to unused symbols that are, perhaps, the
result of mistyping.
The default value of /NOOBJECT is, of course, /OBJECT. The object le is normally
the most important output.
The word TEST is the name of the source le (its full name is TEST.MAR).

FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
30-OCT-1991 18:38:08 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1

00000000EF

00000000EF

0000
00000000
0001 0000
0005 0002
00000000
0000 0000
0002
0002
0002
0002
B0 0002

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11

one:
five:

.title Fibonaccis
.psect cons noexe,nowrt
.word 1
.word 5
.psect code exe,wrt
.entry fib,0
.macro move x,y,z
movw y,x
movw z,y
.endm move
movw one,a

Page 1
(1)

Sec. 5.2
00000002EF

A VAX Example
01
00000006EF

B0 000D 12
B4 0014 13
00000000 14
00000002
0000 15 a:
00000004
0002 16 b:
0000001A 17
00000002EF 00000006EF
B1 001A 18 loop:
06
12 0025 19
0000005CEF
17 0027 20
00000002EF 00000000EF
A1 002D 21 next:
00000004EF
0038
003D 22
%MACRO-E-UNRECSTMT, Unrecognized statement !
003D
003D 23
003D 24
00000000EF 00000002EF
B0 003D
00000002EF 00000004EF
B0 0048
0053
0053 25
00000006EF
B6 0053 26
BE AF
17 0059 27
005C 28 done:
00000006
00000008

00000004
0004
0006
0008

29
30
31
32

c:
k:

165

movw #1,b
clrw k
.psect data noexe,wrt
.blkw 1
.blkw 1
.psect code exe,wrt
cmpw k,five
bneq next
jmp done
addw3 a,b,c
output c

.show me
move a,b,c
movw b,a
movw c,b
.noshow me
incw k
jmp loop
$exit s
.psect data noexe,wrt
.blkw 1
.blkw 1
.end fib

FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
Page 2
Symbol table 30-OCT-1991 18:38:08 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1 (1)
A
B
C
DONE
FIB
FIVE
K
LOOP
NEXT
ONE
SYS$EXIT

00000000
00000002
00000004
0000005C
00000000
00000002
00000006
0000001A
0000002D
00000000
********

PSECT name

Allocation

R
R
R
R
RG
R
R
R
R
R
GX

03
03
03
02
02
01
03
02
02
01
02
+----------------+
! Psect synopsis !
+----------------+

PSECT No.

Attributes

166 The Listing File

.ABS.
CONS
CODE
DATA

00000000
00000004
00000065
00000008

Ch. 5

( 0.)
( 4.)
(101.)
( 8.)

00
01
02
03

(0.)
(1.)
(2.)
(3.)

NOPIC
NOPIC
NOPIC
NOPIC

USR
USR
USR
USR

CON
CON
CON
CON

ABS
REL
REL
REL

LCL
LCL
LCL
LCL

NOSHR
NOSHR
NOSHR
NOSHR

NOEXE NORD NOWRT NOVEC BYTE

NOEXE RD NOWRT NOVEC BYTE
EXE RD WRT NOVEC BYTE
NOEXE RD WRT NOVEC BYTE

FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
Page 3
Cross reference 30-OCT-1991 18:38 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1 (1)
+------------------------+
! Symbol Cross Reference !
+------------------------+
SYMBOL
A
B
C
DONE
FIB
FIVE
K
LOOP
NEXT
ONE
SYS$EXIT

VALUE
00000000-R
00000002-R
00000004-R
0000005C-R
00000000-R
00000002-R
00000006-R
0000001A-R
0000002D-R
00000000-R
00000000-XR

DEFINITION
15 (1)
16 (1)
30 (1)
28 (1)
6 (1)
4 (1)
31 (1)
18 (1)
21 (1)
3 (1)
28 (1)

REFERENCES...
#-11 (1) #-21 (1) #-24 (1)
#-12 (1) #-21 (1) #-24 (1)
#-21 (1) #-24 (1)
20 (1)
#-18 (1)
#-13 (1) #-18 (1) #-26 (1)
27 (1)
#-19 (1)
#-11 (1)

FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
Page 4
Cross reference 30-OCT-1991 18:38 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1 (1)
+------------------------+
! Macros Cross Reference !
+------------------------+
MACRO SIZE DEFINITION REFERENCES...
$EXIT S
1 28 (1)
28 (1)
MOVE
1 7 (1)
24 (1)
FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
Page 5
Cross reference 30-OCT-1991 18:38 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1 (1)
+------------------------+
! Opcode Cross Reference !
+------------------------+
OPCODE
ADDW3
BNEQ
CALLS
CLRW
CMPW
INCW
JMP

VALUE
00A1
0012
00FB
00B4
00B1
00B6
0017

21
19
28
13
18
26
20

REFERENCES...
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1) 27 (1)

Sec. 5.2

MOVW
PUSHL

A VAX Example

00B0
00DD

167

11 (1) 12 (1) 24 (1)

28 (1)

FIBONACCIS
30-OCT-1991 19:43:55 VAX MACRO V5.0-8
Page 6
Cross reference 30-OCT-1991 18:38 SYS$USER3:[VACSC0HN]TEST.MAR;1 (1)
+----------------------------+
! Directives Cross Reference !
+----------------------------+
DIRECTIVE
.BLKW
.END
.ENDM
.ENTRY
.GLOBL
.MACRO
.NOSHOW
.PSECT
.SHOW
.TITLE
.WORD

REFERENCES...
15 (1) 16 (1) 30 (1) 31 (1)
32 (1)
10 (1) 28 (1)
6 (1)
28 (1)
7 (1)
25 (1)
14 (1) 17 (1) 2 (1) 29 (1) 5 (1)
23 (1)
1 (1)
3 (1) 4 (1)
+------------------------+
! Performance indicators !
+------------------------+

Phase
Initialization
Command processing
Pass 1
Symbol table sort
Pass 2
Symbol table output
Psect synopsis output
Cross-reference output
Assembler run totals

Page faults
CPU Time
27
00:00:00.04
459
00:00:00.07
214
00:00:00.13
0
00:00:00.00
72
00:00:00.05
1
00:00:00.01
2
00:00:00.00
4
00:00:00.02
785
00:00:00.32

Elapsed Time
00:00:00.48
00:00:00.70
00:00:01.06
00:00:00.00
00:00:00.29
00:00:00.01
00:00:00.02
00:00:00.02
00:00:02.68

The working set limit was 1150 pages.

898 bytes (2 pages) of virtual memory were used
to buffer the intermediate code.
There were 10 pages of symbol table space allocated to hold
11 non-local and 0 local symbols.
32 source lines were read in Pass 1,
producing 0 object records in Pass 2.
2 pages of virtual memory were used to define 2 macros.

168 The Listing File

Ch. 5

+--------------------------+
! Macro library statistics !
+--------------------------+
Macro library name

Macros defined

SYS$COMMON:[SYSLIB]STARLET.MLB;2

5 GETS were required to define 1 macros.

There were 1 error, 0 warnings and 0 info.

messages, on lines:

22 (1)

Several things are worth noting about this example:

The VAX instructions have several dierent sizes, and this is apparent in the
listing. The instructions on lines 11, 12, 18 & 21 are long; the one on lines 19 is
much shorter.
The macro denition on lines 710 only lists the source. No object code is listed.
The expansion, on line 24, is listed, because of the .show me directive on line 23.

Exercise 5.2 What directive nullies the eect of .show me?

The error message below line 22 means that the output command was not recognized by the assembler. This command is a system macro that should have been
loaded (by a special option on the command line) from the macro library. It was
intentionally not loaded, in order to illustrate this common error.
There are 3 sections. The cons section occupies lines 34. The code section, lines
613 & 1828. The data section, lines 1516 & 3031. The Psect synopsis (part
of the extended cross-reference) shows the length and attributes of each section.
The symbol table is listed, as part of the cross-reference. All symbols are of type
R (relative), except FIB, which is relative global, and SYS$EXIT, which is global
external (note that its value is unknown).
The symbol cross-reference, as well as the macros-, opcodes-, and directives crossreference, are all generated when the extended cross-reference information is required by the user. They all contain the same type of information.
The Performance indicators table shows the time spent on each phase of the
assembly. Note that pass 1 took 0.13 sec., and was thus slower than pass 2, which
only required 0.05 sec.

Sec. 5.3

A MASM Example

169

5.3 A MASM Example

The next example is a typical, short listing produced by MASM, the Microsoft
Macro Assembler for the IBM PC (actually, for the 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors).
This assembler is described in Ch. 8. The source le that produced this example
was called a:prog.ASM, and is listed below. Note the two directives if1 & if2.
They were planted in order to confuse the assembler and cause a phase error. The
if1 denes label begin at the mov al,xyz instruction, whereas the if2 denes the
same label right after that instruction. The assembler discovers the contradiction
in pass 2, and issues a phase error. Phase errors are described in Ch. 1.

Exercise 5.3 What exactly does the assembler discover in pass 2?

cgr
mydat
array
array
abc
mydat
mycod

title example
group mycod, mydat
assume cs:cgr, ds:cgr
segment public
if var lt 10
db var
else
db 10
endif
df 2
ends
segment public
if1

begin:
endif
mov al,xyz
if2
begin:

mycod
mydat
xyz
mydat

endif
mov ax,2 eq 4
add ax,dx
ends
segment public
db 3
ends
end begin

The command masm /Dvar=4 /d a:prog species le a:prog.asm as the

source le, and invokes the two options \D & \d. The rst option assigns the value
4 to symbol var. The second one requests a pass-1 listing. All MASM options are
listed in Ch. 8.
The command results in two sets of listings. The rst set is the pass-1 listing,
in which the future symbol xyz is agged as undened:

170 The Listing File

Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler Version 5.10

title example
cgr
group mycod, mydat
assume cs:cgr, ds:cgr
0000 mydat segment public
if
var lt 10
0000
04 array db
var
endif
0001
020000000000 abc
df 2
0007 mydat ends
0000 mycod segment public
if1
0000 begin:
endif
0000
A0 0000 U
mov al,xyz
a:prog.ASM(17): error A2009: Symbol not defined:
0003
B8 0000
mov ax,2 eq 4
0006
03 C2
add ax,dx
0008 mycod ends
0007 mydat segment public
0007
03 xyz
db
3
0008 mydat ends
end begin

Ch. 5

11/5/91 17:32:46

XYZ

The second set is the nal, pass-2, listing, containing the phase error. Note how
array becomes a single byte loaded with the constant 4, and how the df directive
reserves 6 bytes. The data segment mydat is thus 7 bytes long, stretching from
address 0 to address 6. The next part of mydat denes xyz as the byte at address
7.

Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler Version 5.10

example
title example
cgr
group mycod, mydat
assume cs:cgr, ds:cgr
0000 mydat segment public
if
var lt 10
0000
04 array db
var
endif
0001
020000000000 abc
df 2
0007 mydat ends
0000 mycod segment public
0000
A0 0007 R
mov al,xyz

11/5/91 17:32:46
Page 1-1

Sec. 5.3

A MASM Example

171

if2
begin:
a:prog.ASM(19): error A2006: Phase error between passes
endif
0000
B8 0000
mov ax,2 eq 4
0003
03 C2
add ax,dx
0005 mycod ends
0007 mydat segment public
0007
03 xyz
db
3
0008 mydat ends
end begin

Next come the segment table, symbol table, and general analysis:

Microsoft (R) Macro Assembler Version 5.10

example

11/5/91 17:32:46
Symbols-1

Segments and Groups:

N a m e

Length

Align Combine Class

CGR . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
MYCOD . . . . . . . . . . . .
MYDAT . . . . . . . . . . . .

GROUP
0005 PARA PUBLIC
0008 PARA PUBLIC

Symbols:
N a m e

Type

Value

Attr

ABC . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
ARRAY . . . . . . . . . . . . .

L FWORD 0001 MYDAT

L BYTE 0000 MYDAT

BEGIN

L NEAR 0000 MYCOD

. .

VAR

. .

TEXT

XYZ

. .

L BYTE 0007 MYDAT

@CPU . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
@FILENAME . . . . . . . . . . .
@VERSION . . . . . . . . . . . .

TEXT 0101h
TEXT a prog
TEXT 510

27 Source Lines
27 Total
Lines
13 Symbols
47906 + 395737 Bytes symbol space free
0 Warning Errors
1 Severe Errors

The cross reference below was generated by the special cref utility.

172 The Listing File

Ch. 5

Microsoft Cross-Reference Version 5.10

example
Symbol Cross-Reference
@CPU . . . . . . .
@VERSION . . . . . .
ABC. . . . . . . .
ARRAY. . . . . . .
BEGIN. . . . . . .
CGR. . . . . . . .
MYCOD. . . . . . .
MYDAT. . . . . . .
VAR. . . . . . . .
XYZ. . . . . . . .
10 Symbols

Tue Nov 05 17:33:37 1991

(# definition, + modification) Cref-1

. . . . . . .
1#
. . . . . .
1#
. . . . . . .
11#
. . . . . . .
7#
. . . . . . .
19# 27
. . . . . . .
3 4 4
. . . . . . .
3 13# 23
. . . . . . .
3 5# 12 24# 26
. . . . . . .
6
. . . . . . .
17 25#

5.4 An MPW Example

The last example is taken from the MPW assembler for the Macintosh computer
(see Ch. 8 for details about this assembler). The rst few lines of the source le are
listed below:

TITLE MPW Example

MAIN
PRINT OFF
INCLUDE QuickEqu.a
INCLUDE ToolEqu.a
INCLUDE SysEqu.a
INCLUDE Traps.a
PRINT ON
DATitle
DC.B Free Mem (#Bytes) ; DA Name (& Window Title)
ALIGN 2 ; Word align
theWindow DC.W 322,10,338,500 ; window top,left,bottom,right
...
...
Note the PRINT OFF, PRINT ON directives. They suppress the listing of the
four INCLUDEd les. The main points worth noting in the listing itself are the
dierent instruction sizes, and the absence of tables and statistics at the end. This
listing, in fact, resembles the one genereted by the old IBM 360 assembler.

Sec. 5.4

An MPW Example

eighttt
MC680xx Assembler - Ver 3.10 MPW Example

173

06-Nov-91 Page

1
Copyright Apple Computer, Inc. 1984-1989
Loc

F Object Code

Addr M Source Statement

TITLE MPW Example

00000
MAIN
00000
PRINT ON
00000
DATitle
00000 1146726565204D
DC.B Free Mem (#Bytes) ;Name & Window
Title
00012 0000 0012
ALIGN 2 ; Word align
00012 0142 000A 0152 theWindow DC.W 322,10,338,500 ;windo top,lft,bot,rt
0001A
DAOpen
0001A 48E7 0078
MOVEM.L A1-A4,-(SP) ; preserve A1-A4
0001E G 2849
MOVE.L A1,A4 ; MOVE DCE pointer to a reg
00020
00020 598F
SUBQ.L #4,SP ; FUNCTION = GrafPtr
00022 2F0F
MOVE.L SP,-(SP) ; push a pointer to it
00024 A874
GetPort ; push it on top of stack
00026 4AAC 001E
TST.L DCtlWindow(A4) ; do we have a window?
0002A 662E
0005A BNE.S StdReturn ; If so, return, Else...
0002C 42A7
CLR.L -(SP) ; FUNCTION = windowPtr
0002E 42A7
CLR.L -(SP) ; allocate on the heap
00030 487A FFE0
00012 PEA theWindow ; boundsRect
00034 487A FFCA
00000 PEA DATitle ; title
00038 4267
CLR.W -(SP) ; visible ag FALSE
0003A 3F3C 0004
MOVE.W #noGrowDocProc,-(SP) ; window
proc
0003E 2F3C FFFF FFFF
MOVE.L #-1,-(SP) ; window in front
00044 3F3C 0100
MOVE.W #$0100,-(SP) ; goAway box TRUE
00048 42A7
CLR.L -(SP) ; refCon is 0
0004A A913
NewWindow
0004C
0004C G 205F
MOVE.L (SP)+,A0
0004E 2948 001E
MOVE.L A0,DCtlWindow(A4) ; save windowPtr
00052 316C 0018 006C
MOVE.W DCtlRefNum(A4),WindowKind(A0)
00058
00058 A11D
MaxMem
0005A
0005A
StdReturn

174 The Listing File

0005A A873
0005C 4CDF 1E00
00060

Ch. 5

SetPort ; old port on stack

MOVEM.L (SP)+,A1-A4 ; restore regs
END ; of Sample

Elapsed time: 4.93 seconds.

Assembly complete - no errors found. 2768 lines.

Sec. 5.5

Review Questions and Projects

175

5.5 Review Questions and Projects

1. From among the directives covered in chapter 3, point out several that accept
expressions as their operands. When such directives are listed, the object code eld
should contain the value of the expression.
2. The intermediate le must now include new quantities, lines that are on the le
on their way to the listing le. They should be identied as such, so that pass 2
does not try to process them. What is a good way of identifying such records?
5.5.1 Project 51
Extend project 41 by adding listing control directives EJECT, LIST, TITLE,
XREF. The main modication is to the symbol table to support cross-reference listing
as explained above.

The programmer may require a human-readable listing of both source and

object code, preferably side by side

P. Calingaert Program Translation Fundamentals (1988)

6. Special
Assembler Types

6.1 High-Level Assemblers

As the name implies, these are assemblers for high-level assembler languages.
Such languages are rare, there is no general agreement on how to dene them, on
what their main features should be, and on whether they are useful and should
be developed at all. Existing high-level assemblers dier in many respects and, on
looking at several of them, two possible denitions emerge:
A high-level assembler language (HLA) is a programming language where each instruction is translated
into a few machine instructions. The translator is
somewhat more complex than an assembler, but much
simpler than a compiler. Such a language should not
have features like the if, for, and case control structures, complex arithmetic, logical expressions, and
multi-dimensional arrays. It should consist of simple
instructions, closely resembling traditional assembler
instructions, and of a few simple data types.

178 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

A high-level assembler language (HLA) is a language

that combines most of the features of higher-level
languages (easy to use control structures, variables,
scope, data types, block structure) with one important feature of assembler languages namely, machine
dependence.
One may argue that the second denition denes a machine dependent higher-level
language rather than a high-level assembler language, the main reason being the
denition of assembler language, given in the introduction. The basis of this denition is the one-to-one correspondence between assembler- and machine instructions.
The languages discussed here do not have such a one-to-one correspondence and, in
this respect, resemble more a higher-level language than an assembler language.
The best known examples of HLAs are the NEAT/3 for the NCR Century
computers [85,86], Wirths PL360 [61], a language designed specically for the IBM
360 computers, Bell and Wichmanns PL516 [63], an Algol-like assembler language
for the Honeywell DDP516 computer, and BABBAGE [87] a language specically
designed as a HLA for the GE 4000 family of minicomputers. NEAT/3 and BABBAGE are HLAs according to the rst denition above, while PL360 and PL516
have been designed in the spirit of the second denition. Following is a short description of the main features of those languages.

Exercise 6.1 The second denition above denes an HLA as a higher-level, machine dependent language. Is it also possible to design the logical contrast namely, a
lower-level (assembler), machine-independent language? What would be a possible
use for such a language?

6.1.1 NEAT/3
This is an HLA implemented on the NCR Century computers, a family of
computers designed primarily for data processing. NEAT/3 was designed, in 1966
68, with two goals in mind:
1. To make it easy to write short to medium size programs, without having to go
through a COBOL compiler (a slow and complex process at that time).
2. To make it easy to write an ecient COBOL compiler for the Century computers.
The NCR literature does not mention the name high-level assembler, nor
does it mention the term higher-level language. It simply refers to NEAT/3 as a
programming language, and to the translator, as the NEAT/3 compiler. However,
on examining the language, it is easy to see that it does not have the type of
powerful statements and control structures one expects to nd in a higher-level
language. The statements are simple, and resemble typical assembler instructions.
This is why they are easy to translate, and this is why the NEAT/3 translator was
easier to write than a COBOL compiler. Most of the time, a NEAT/3 statement

Sec. 6.1

High-Level Assemblers

179

is translated into one machine instruction. Only when conversion between data
types is necessary, the translator (we will call it a translator, not a compiler or an
assembler) generates more machine instructions.
The main feature that makes NEAT/3 look like a higher-level language is the
data denitions. The way data items and les are declared in NEAT/3 closely
resembles COBOL. Concepts such as working storage area, constants area, data
records divided into elds, and data types, are all borrowed from COBOL, which
makes it easy to write a COBOL compiler in NEAT/3. Even editing masks (for
data to be printed) are supported and use the same characters 9,Z,$,+, ,.
as in COBOL.
The data types are: Characters (coded in USASI, not ASCII), signed & unsigned decimal, signed & unsigned packed decimal, binary, and hex.
The following is an example of a record declared in NEAT/3:
Name
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D
D

Code

SALESRED
STORECODE
MANAGER
DATE
DAY
MONTH
YEAR
GROCERY
PRODUCE
MEAT
DAIRY
MISC
DAILYTOTAL

R
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F
F

Location
50
0
3
11
11
13
15
17
23
28
34
39
44

Length Type Picture

3
8
6
2
2
2
6
5
6
5
5
6

X
X
X
X
X
X
U
U
U
U
U
U

Note the following:

1. The code eld can have values of: R for a record, F for a eld, and A, for an
area.
2. Field DAY is located at the same position as DATE. Thus DAY is a subeld of
DATE (and, as a result, also MONTH, YEAR) which is how a record becomes a tree
structure, same as in COBOL.
3. The D at the beginning of each line stands for data declaration.
4. No picture is shown in this example, but pictures are heavily used in NEAT/3
and are virtually identical to the COBOL picture clause.
5. The possible types are:

180 Special Assembler Types

Code

Ch. 6

Data Type

X or blank Character
S
Generated spaces
Z
Generated zeros
U
Unsigned decimal
D
Signed decimal
B
Binary
H
Hex
P
Signed packed decimal
K
Unsigned packed decimal
E
Editing mask
Next we examine some of the NEAT/3 instructions (or, as the NCR literature
calls them, statements). This is the area were one can really justify the name highlevel assembler. Most of the instructions are simple, resemble typical assembler
instructions, and are easy to translate. The main dierence in translation is the
automatic conversion between data types, which NEAT/3 supports, but a typical
assembler does not.

Exercise 6.2 What are typical valid and invalid type conversions in languages
such as COBOL and NEAT/3?

1. Comparisons. The instruction COMP A,B compares its two operands and
sets status ags like any typical comparison in machine language. The only
dierence is that the operands can be of dierent types, and the translator
takes care of type conversion.
2. Conditional Branches. The BRE CALCTAX instruction is executed by testing
the status ags and branching to CALCTAX on equal. There are several such
branches, each translated into one machine instruction. They are the only way
to make decisions in NEAT/3, except for the simple IF described below.
3. Test and branch. The if alphabetic (IFAL) instruction tests its rst operand
and branches to the second operand (a label) if the rst operand is alphabetic
(of type character).
4. Moves. Those instructions work the same as in COBOL. In the simplest case,
a move is translated into one machine instruction but, if it also involves type
conversion and editing, it is translated into several instructions.
5. End of execution (FINISH). This instruction is translated into machine instructions that close all open les and perform a software interrupt to the
operating system.
In summary, NEAT/3 justies the name high-level assembler language, but
also the name low-level programming language. Its translator may be called a highlevel assembler but also a compiler. It seems to lie somewhere in between assembler
language and COBOL.

Sec. 6.1

High-Level Assemblers

181

6.1.2 PL360
The main justication for this language, to use the developers own words [61],
is:
. . . PL360 was designed to improve the readability of
programs which must take into account specic characteristics and limitations of a particular computer.
It represents an attempt to further the state of the
art of programming by encouraging and even forcing
the programmer to improve his style . . . Because of
its inherent simplicity, the language is particulaly well
suited for tutorial purposes . . . a tool that encourages
the programmer to write programs in a disciplined, lucid and readable style while still maintaining control
over the optimal use of specic machine characteristics . . . .
The main low-level feature of the language is its heavy dependence on the
IBM360 architecture, allowing the programmer to use specic registers and machine
instructions. Its main high-level features are block structure, procedures, typed
variables, and the use of statements rather than instructions. There is also a goto
statement, which is rarely used.
Specically, the following 9 points summarize the most important design features of the language. The rst 6 are low level features, and the rest, high level
ones.
1. Variables can be declared and their types are the types available on the machine
itself. For instance, an integer can be declared as a byte, a short integer, an
integer, or a long integer. Those types correspond to a byte, halfword, fullword,
and doubleword in the machine. This makes it easy to assemble (compile?
translate?) declarations, as each is directly translated into a DS directive.
2. Only one-dimensional arrays can be declared, again making it easy to translate
an array declaration into a DS directive. Also making it easy to generate an
index to an array. Accessing a multi-dimensional array like B[i,j] requires
the compiler to generate an index of the form i*n+j (or something similar).
This, however, is against the design philosophy of PL360, requiring simple
translation.

Exercise 6.3 What if a multi-dimensional array is necessary?

3. The names R0..R15, F0, F2, F4, F6 are reserved to indicate the general purpose
and the oating-point registers of the 360 computer. Also names such as F45
are reserved to indicate pairs of registers (see example below). Also, the syn
construct (synonym) allows the programmer to use a meaningful name instead
of Ri, and to make the two names equivalent.

182 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

4. Expressions are simple, they use no parentheses, and are executed strictly from
left to right, with equal precedence for all operands (see example with R9 below). This also implies that no temporary storage is automatically used by the
translator when an expression is evaluated; more in the spirit of an assembler
than a compiler.
5. Machine instructions can easily be used, each is declared as a function in PL360.
6. Functions and procedures can be declared, and can have parameters. A good
programming practice, however, is to pass parameters through registers, avoiding the complexities of call by name, value, or address.
7. The language does not allow the use of absolute addresses, and a program
cannot modify itself.
8. High-level control structures such as if-then-else, case, for, or while, can be
used.
9. Compound statements (sandwiched between a begin end pair) and blocks can
be used. A PL360 variable thus has scope (it can be local or global).
A program written in PL360 supercially resembles an Algol 60 program. It
consists of statements, not instructions. It has the same control structures and block
structure. Even variable declarations are very similar. However, on a closer look,
one can easily see the common use of machine registers and of machine instructions.
Some simple examples are shown in Fig. 6.1 below:
A short integer is 16 bits (halfword)
Two arrays, 100 f-p values each.

begin short integer z;

array 1000 real quant,price;
integer n;
array 132 byte line;

A 32-bit variable (fullword).

An array of 132 bytes.

integer B syn line(R1);

B is another name for the element

of array line pointed to by R1

long real x,y,h;

F0=quant(R1)*price(R1);
R9:=R8 and R7 shll 8 or R6;
F23:=F67++h;

64-bit (doubleword) f.p. variables.

R1 is used as an index.
Left to right execution (see below).
F23, F67 are pairs of f.p. registers,
for operations on long reals.

if R0<10 then R1:=1 else SET(flags(2)); The SET function is identical

to the SET machine instruction.
while R1<0 do
begin R0:=R0+1; F01:=F01*F01 end;
for R2:=R1 step 4 until R0 do
begin
F23:=quant(R2)*price(R2);
F01:=F01+F23;
end;
end;

Figure 6.1

Sec. 6.1

High-Level Assemblers

183

Assignments are executed from left to right without parentheses and with no
operator precedence. The example involving R9 above is executed as:
R9:=R8; R9:=R9 and R7; R9:= R8 shll 8; R9:=R9 or R6;
The shll keyword means shift left logical. The ++ notation means either a
logical (unsigned) integer addition or an unnormalized f.p. addition.
6.1.3 PL516
This language was designed and implemented [63] in 19691970, at the National Physical Laboratory in England, as a high-level assembler language for a
small, 16-bit machine, the Honeywell DDP516. It was inuenced by PL360 and
was an attempt to create a language that would be similar to Algol 60 and, at the
same time, would be machine dependent and would allow the direct use of machine
instructions. To quote from the introduction:
. . . It must be emphasized that the language is no substitute for Fortran or Algol 60, but rather a more convenient and exible system for writing long, machine-code
programs. The main advantage over DAP, the assembler
for the DDP-516, is that program texts are largely selfdocumenting due to their Algol-like structure . . .
The main features of PL516 are: variables (but no real variables), with scope;
type checking; expressions (but no temporary working storage); procedures (but
not more than one parameter per procedure and no call by name); compound statements; conditional statements; simple for loops; arrays (only one-dimensional); no
dynamic memory allocation; direct control of the machine registers; machine instructions can be included in the code.
The following two short examples, taken from the users manual, give the avor
of the language:
1.
for xsymbol176 do
if mcode[xsymbol]=ident then goto found
else codesymbol IRS,0;
This is a loop, searching array mcode. IRS is a machine instruction (IncRement
in Store, by 1) and, in our example, it increments memory location 0, which also
happens to be the X (index) register.
2.
accumulator conditional procedure bsis;
begin
xsymbolaccumulator;
more: when cleft optable[xsymbol]=bs then
begin
codesymbol STX,addbs;

184 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

exittrue
end;
when accumulator nonzero then
begin
xinc icleft optable[xsymbol]+x;
goto more;
end
end;
This is a procedure bsis that searches an array optable to nd the type of a
basic symbol (basic symbols are tokens read by the compiler from the source le,
on paper tape). On nding a match in the array, variable addbs is set to the array
index by the machine instruction STX (store X register). The keyword accumulator
stands for the accumulator (the A register).
6.1.4 BABBAGE
This is a HLA designed specically for the GEC4000 family of minicomputers
made in England. It is the only assembler available for the 4000, which makes it
especially interesting. The most important feature of the language is the syntax of
the logical and arithmetic expressions, which makes it easy to assemble, not just the
expressions, but most of the statements in the language. BABBAGE expressions
supercially look like those of a higher-level language but are very dierent because
they use no operator precedence and no parentheses. This makes it easy to parse
and translate such an exprsssion. Examples:
1. a+RX & 7*b=>c. where RX stands for registerX and & is the logical and
operator. The expression is translated into:
LOD
ADD
AND
MULT
STA

a
X
#7
b
c

(into the accumulator)

(index register)

(store acc in operand c)

2. +p=>q*n. The expression starts with an operator +, so the translation

starts with an operation (ADD).
ADD
p
STA
q
MULT n
It is now easy to understand the meaning of the expression. Operand p is
added to the previous contents of the accumulator. The result is stored in operand
q, and then the accumulator is multiplied by n, preparing it for the next operation.
There are If-Then-Else, While, & Repeat constructs but, because of the
use of simple expressions, they are greatly simplied. Examples:

Sec. 6.1

High-Level Assemblers

185

IF a EQ b OR c EQ d THEN 0=>g. This is translated into:

L1
L2

LOD a
CMP b
BZ L1
LOD c
CMP d
BNZ L2
LOD #0
STA g
--

2. IF a EQ b THEN << 0=>a 1=>b >>. The symbols << , >> act as a beginend pair to delimit compound statements. In our case, the compound statement
is the two simple expressions setting operands a, b to 0,1 respectively. This is
translated into:

L1

LOD
CMP
BNZ
LOD
STA
LOD
STA
--

a
b
L1
#0
a
#1
b

One-dimensional arrays can be declared, used in expressions, and easily translated. Examples:
VECTOR[0,3] OF BYTE dv=ABCD
VECTOR[1,4] OF HALFWORD v=(8,11,32,0)
dv[i+2]*3=>v[i]. This exprssion, involving arrays dv & v, is translated into:
LODX i
ADDX #2
LOD RX,dv
MULT #3
LDX i
STA RX,v

load the index reg.

use index mode

Records can be declared and used in a way very similar to Pascal records.
Pointers can be set to combine records into large data structures.
The above description is incomplete but it shows the main characteristics of
the language namely, it combines higher-level language features with simple syntax
and heavy machine dependence. BABBAGE is therefore a HLA in the sense of both
denitions given in this section.

186 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

6.2 Summary
In the 1970s, while the 360/370 computers were in wide use, PL360 had generated interest among programmers, and had enjoyed a certain amount of use. Today
(in the 1990s), however, that interest has virtually disappeared. However, there
seem to be language designers who believe in the concept of a high-level assembler
language. As a result, we may perhaps see more interest in this approach in the
future. More future programming languages may be combinations of the higherlevel and assembler languages of today, providing the benets of both types. If this
proves true, we may see the demise of conventional assembler languages in favor of
such hybrids.

6.3 Meta Assemblers

A Meta-Assembler (MA), sometimes also called a universal assembler, is an
assembler that can assemble code for a number of dierent computers. A conventional assembler can only handle source and object ocde for one computer; it is
dedicated to that computer. In contrast, a MA running on computer K may be
able to assemble code for computers K,L,M and others. A MA is therefore also an
example of a cross assembler.
There are two types of MAs, restricted and general; and there are two ways to
design a MA, it can be generative or adaptive. A restricted MA can only assemble
code for a limited number of computers, normally the members of a computer
family. Information about the instruction sets is built into the MA so it only has
to be given the name of a computer, followed by the source le. A general MA can,
in principle, handle code for any computer. It does not have any instruction set
built-in, and has to be handed over, with each source le, a complete description of
the source & object instructions.
A generative MA (which can be either restricted or general) is given either the
name of a computer or a description of an instruction set, and generates a dedicated
assembler. That assembler is then run in the usual way, translating source les into
object les.
An adaptive MA (again, restricted or general) is given either the name of a
computer or a description of an instruction set, followed by a source le. It then
assembles the source and generates an object le.
It follows that a generative restricted MA has several assemblers built into it.
Its only job is to decide what assembler is currently needed, and to generate a copy
of it. A general adaptive assembler, on the other hand, is a general program, able
to adapt its output to many dierent situations, and is potentially very useful. The
main problem in using such a MA is to design the input. The input should include
a description of the instruction set of the target computer, but should not be too
long or complex.
An interesting feature of MAs, really a restriction, is that they can assemble
programs for several computers, but the source les must conform to the syntax of
the MA. In other words, one cannot simply take a program written for an existing

Sec. 6.3

Meta Assemblers

187

assembler and assemble it on a MA without changes. Suppose that a MA Y can

assemble programs for computer X (and other computers). A source le that runs
on X may not be valid for Y, since Y may require the source to be in a certain
format and to contain special commands.
The history of MAs starts with UNIVAC, a maker of early computers. The rst
MA worthy of its name was the UTMOST, introduced in 1962. It was a restricted,
adaptive MA that ran on the UNIVAC III and could generate code for a few of
the early UNIVAC models. It supported most of the features described below, such
as formats and procedures. It was followed by SLEUTH that ran on the UNIVAC
1107 and could produce code for the UNIVAC 11xx family of computers. SLEUTH
was the rst MA to use functions.
Many computer manufacturers and research institutes have followed and implemented many (perhaps around 50) MAs. Ferguson [24] is the rst full discussion
of MAs, including bits of history. Skordalakis [48] is a comparative list of about
30 MAs. Reference [49] is a well documented restricted MA for three CDC early
families of computers. The Compass assembler [14,30] for the CDC Cyber is a MA
since it assembles code for the central processor and for the peripheral processors.
The ASM-86 [3335] is a MA since it can handle code for 80x86 microprocessors.
An interesting example of a large, modern MA is MOPI(Macro Oriented Program Interpreter) [7,95]. It is a general adaptive MA that has been developed by
VOCS of Minneapolis, MN for any 8-, 16- or 32-bit microprocessors. It is a tabledriven, two-pass relocatable MA, with an integrated linking loader and an external
linker. To assemble a program, the user has rst to prepare tables describing both
the source and machine instructions.
References [50-55,95] are a few examples of modern MAs. Their main features
are:
the FORMAT command.
The use of procedures and functions to describe machine instructions.
Library procedures and functions provided at assembly time.
The FORMAT command: Before writing the source, the user must specify to the
MA the format of all instructions on the target computer. This is done by means
of the FORMAT commmand, which is a template, describing the format of a certain
instruction type and assigning it a name. Suppose that the machine language to be
generated by the MA has two types of instructions: Type SR (storage-register) with
elds: OpCode(8), R(4), Address(12), and type RR (register-register) with elds
OpCode(8), R(4), R(4). The commands:RR FORMAT 8,4,4 SR FORMAT 8,4,12
dene the two instruction formats with their respective elds, and with names RR
and SR respectively. Later, the source le may contain lines such as:
RR AR,R4,R6
RR SR,R4,RSYM+1
SR LD,R4,ABC

188 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

The rst instruction is easy to assemble. The MA only needs an OpCode table.
The second and third instructions require the value of symbols that should be in
the symbol table. SYM should be an absolute symbol, and ABC, a relative one. The
MA should rst evaluate the expression SYM+1, and then assemble the instructions
in the usual way.

Exercise 6.4 What does the following line mean, if anything: RR XR R4,R6?

Procedures and Functions: A procedure can be dened, which describes an

instruction, or even more than one instruction, in terms of a parameter or several
parameters. The SR instruction LD, mentioned earlier, may be described by the
procedure:
PROC LD,Q
SR $A8,Q(1),Q(2)
ENDP
This is similar to a macro. The procedure name is LD, it has one (compound)
parameter Q. It generates a type SR instruction with the OpCode A816, followed
by the two components of the parameter Q. A typical call could be LD,(R4,ABC),
which is very similar to the way the LD instruction is normally written.
In a similar way, a function may be dened, to calculate and return a certain
result. The INC function below assigns a value to a symbol, a value that depends
on the LC.

FUNC INC,Q,P
EQU LC+P
ENDF Q

The ENDF species that the result of the function is Q. When such a function is used,
as, for example, in: . . . INC S,68 . . ., it generates S EQU LC+68 and returns the
value of S, which can be used on the same line.
Library Routines: A good assembler should have accesss to a library of routines,
and should be able to search the library and add routines to the program being
assembled. With a MA, the problem is that there may be several libraries, each
with a dierent format. A good MA can therefore accept a special command with
the name of a specic library and information on how to search it and read routines
from it.
Directives: Most directives are independent of the specic source language
used, making it easy to execute them by a MA. The most important exceptions are
the data generating directives. They are machine dependent since computers use
dierent types of data. The size of numbers, the character codes, the method used to
represent signed numbers, all those depend on the architecture of the computer, and
may be very dierent for dierent computers. However, computers use a relatively
small number of data types, which simplies the task of executing those directives.

Sec. 6.3

Meta Assemblers

189

Once the MA receives specications such as: word size, 2s complement or 1s

complement, how many bits in the fraction and exponent parts of a oating point
number, ASCII or EBCDIC, it can execute the data generating directives.

6.4 Disassemblers
Practically speaking, a disassembler is the opposite of an assembler. It translates in the opposite direction, from machine code to assembler language. Because
of the nature of assembler language, a disassembler is a relatively simple program.
Since each assembler instruction generates one machine instruction, the opposite
translation can be done with relative ease.
The disassembler goes through the following steps:
It reads the next machine instruction from the source le.
It identies the OpCode. If the OpCode has xed length, this is very easy. Otherwise, the disassembler has to perform several tests starting with the rst few bits
of the machine instruction.
Once the OpCode has been identied, an OpCode table, similar to the one used
by the assembler, is searched. The table provides the mnemonic, the number of
operands, and other information.
Once the number of operands is known, the disassembler scans each operand in
the machine instruction to determine the addressing modes, registers, and addresses
used by each.
After obtaining all this information, the original assembler instruction is known
and can be printed or written on a le.
The simple steps described above are not sucient to disassemble machine
code. To end up with a correct, readable, assembler program, the disassembler has
to handle the following problems
The symbol names used in the original program cannot be gured out by the
disassembler. Thus an instruction such as JMP ABC may be disassembled to read
JMP A0001. When the disassembler nds an instruction with an address operand,
it assumes that the original instruction has used a symbol, not an absolute address,
and it generates a unique symbol name such as Adddd where dddd are digits. The
resulting disassembled program is technically identical to the original one, but may
be harder to read since meaningful symbol names are important.
A similar problem exists with regard to macros. Some instructions in the object
code come from the expansion of macros while others come from the original program. When the object code is disassembled, it is impossible to tell whether the
original program has used macros and, if yes, which ones. The disassembled source
can therefore have no macros.
The same thing is true for any feature that is completely handled by the assembler. EQU symbols, for instance, are transparent to the disassembler and cannot be
reected in the listing generated by it. Thus when something like:

190 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

REG

EQU 5
CMP REG,. . .

is assembled and then disassembled, the following is generated

CMP 5,. . .
A program in machine language is a set of numbers, some of which are machine
instructions and others, data items. When the disassembler looks at a number, it
has no way to tell whether the number is a machine instruction or a piece of data.
As a result, the disassembler tries to interpret each number in the object code in
two ways, as an instruction and as (character) data. Both interpretations should
be output, side by side.
Most computers have variable-length instructions. If the disassembler disassembles object code in memory, it should be given the right start address. Otherwise,
it may start in the middle of an instruction. The following two examples illustrate
this point:
Example: A piece of code for the 6502 microprocessor is given.
Address

Contents

F944
F945
F948
F94A
F94C

.
.
8A
4C
A2
A9
20
.
.

DA FD
03
A0
ED FD

Label Operation

TXA
JMP
LDX
LDA
JSR

Operand

SUB1
#$3
#$A0
SUB2

If a disassembler is given F948 as a start address, it will disassemble the code

properly, starting at the LDX instruction. If, however, it is given F947 as a start
address, it will consider that address the rst address of an instruction and will
come up with:
Address Contents
F947
F94A

FD A2 03
A9 A0
.
.

Label Operation

Operand

SBC
LDA

$03A2,X
#$A0

Since the contents of locations F947F949 happens to be the OpCode of the SBC
instruction. The same disassembler, given address F949 as a start address will
produce -

Sec. 6.4

Disassemblers

Address

Contents

F949
F94A

03
A9 A0
.
.

Label Operation
???
LDA

191

Operand
#$A0

Since the contents of address F949 is not the OpCode of any 6502 instruction.
Example: PC DOS, the operating system of the IBM PC, has a simple debugger, called DEBUG, that can disassemble 80x86 machine code. The three examples
below show the results of disassembling code starting from address 0 of a certain
memory segment (the segment number is irrelevant and has been omitted).
0000
0002
0003
0004
0008
000B
000F
0013
0017
0019
001B
001D
001F

CD20
C0
9F
009AEEFE
1DF0F4
02BA102F
03BA10BC
02BA10FC
0C01
0301
0002
FFFF
FFFF

INT 20
DB C0
LAHF
ADD [BP+SI+FEEE],BL
SBB AX,F4F0
ADD BH,[BP+SI+2F10]
ADD DI,[BP+SI+BC10]
ADD BH,[BP+SI+FC10]
OR AL,01
ADD AX,[BX+DI]
ADD [BP+SI],AL
??? DI
??? DI

When DEBUG is directed to start disassembling from address 1, the bytes 20 C0,
that were interpreted as parts of two instructions, now constitute an ADD AL,AL
instruction. The rst few lines are dierent, but the rest is the same
0001 20C0

AND AL,AL

0003 9F

LAHF

0004 009AEEFE

ADD [BP+SI+FEEE],BL

0008 1DF0F4

SBB AX,F4F0

000B .....
A similar result is obtained when disassembling from address 2. The rst byte
is C0 and, since no instruction can start with this value, the disassembler considers
it to be data. It generates a DB C0 directive, and assumes that the next byte (9F)
starts the next instruction.
0002 C0

DB C0

0003 9F

LAHF

192 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

0004 009AEEFE

ADD [BP+SI+FEEE],BL

0008 1DF0F4

SBB AX,F4F0

000B .....
As a result, it is important to start the disassembler properly. The user must
specify the location, in the source le, of the rst executable instruction. The
disassembler starts at this point and tries to interpret the contents as an OpCode.
If it is the OpCode of an instruction, the instructions size is determined, the entire
instruction is read from the source, and it is then disassembled. In the examples
above, instructions were 1, 2, or 3 bytes long. If the rst address does not contain
the OpCode of any instruction, the disassembler considers it data and generates
a directive (perhaps accompanied by a ???). It then starts afresh at the next
address. In addition, each byte read by the disassembler should also be interpreted
as a character (in ASCII or whatever code is used by the computer) and printed.
This way the user may decide whether certain disassembled items are instructions
or data.
Example:
Address

Contents

F952
F953
F954
F957
F959
F95C

A8
C8
AD
A9
B9
BD
.
.

B1 B2
AA
AF D8
BB B5

Label

Operation Operand

ASCII

TAY
INY
LDA
LDA
LDA
LDA

(
H
-12
)*
9/X
=4;

$B2B1
#$AA
$D8AF,Y
$B5BB,X

Disassembling addresses F952-F95C produces valid instructions, but the same

memory locations can also be interpreted as containing the character string (H12)*9/X=4; and only the user can decide how to interpret the results.
Such a simple approach to disassembly is easy to implement, results in a fast
disassembler, and produces output that is usually easy to read and interpret. A
simple disassembler was built into the Apple II computer and is briey described
in reference [40] (p. 59).
Examples of modern disassemblers are:
Sourcer, a disassembler for the 80x86 microprocessors (reference [96]). It can
also disassemble 8087 & 80287 commands.
CodeView, part of the Microsoft development system for the 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors, is a sophisticated debugger that can also disassemble code.

Sec. 6.5

Cross Assemblers

193

6.5 Cross Assemblers

A cross assembler (CA) is an assembler that runs on computer A, assembling
programs for computer B. A is called the source computer and B, the target computer. As a result, any meta assembler is also a CA. There is nothing special about
a CA that deserves detailed discussion. In fact, the most interesting thing about
CAs is the reasons for their existence. Here are the main ones:
The early minicomputers (made in the early to mid 1960s) were slow and had
even slower I/O devices (mostly punched paper tape and teletype terminals). It
made sense to assemble a program on a mainframe, where both the editor and the
CA could use fast magnetic tapes or disks, and then to transfer the object le, on
paper tape, to the minicomputer for execution.
Some of those early minicomputers were designed for small application programs.
They had small memories or limited instruction sets that made it impractical to
run an assembler. For such computers, a CA was a practical solution.
The same reasons applied to the early microprocessors of the mid to late 1970s.
When a new computer is developed, a CA is normally used to implement the rst
assembler (and perhaps, other software).
The main problems in the implementation of a CA are:
If the CA is to be one-pass, it cannot load the object program directly in the
memory of the target computer. It has to load it in the memory of the source
computer, resolve all forward references, and generate an absolute object le. The
object le is eventually downloaded to the target computer.
A dierence in word size between the source and target computers presents a
problem since the CA has to generate instructions and constants for the target
computer, but it can only use facilities available on the source computer. The
result may be an extensive use of bit-manipulating instructions to operate on parts
of words.
Lamb [89] has a short list of CAs available for some minicomputers.

194 Special Assembler Types

Ch. 6

6.6 Review Questions and Projects

1. Review your knowledge of a COBOL record. The data structure called record
in COBOL is a tree, even though COBOL texts never mention the word. Use a
COBOL text to nd out how a record is declared and why it is a tree.
2. In the 6502 disassembler example given in the text, disassemble the code starting
at address F955.
3. Go over the two denitions of HLA given in the text to convince yourself that,
of the four examples of HLAs given, BABBAGE is the one that satises parts of
both denitions.
4. Why is it easy to assemble data declarations in PL360?
5. Use an Algol 60 text to make sure you understand the dierences between a
compound statement and a program block.
6. Write a 2 2 table where the rows are labeled restricted and general and
the columns are labeled generative and adaptive. Each of the 4 table entries
corresponds to a type of MA. Summarize the properties of those four types in the
table.
7. When a word in memory is disassembled, its contents is interpreted by the
disassembler as both an instruction and a character string. However, it can also be
a numeric constant. Why doesnt the disassembler try to interpret each word in
three ways?
6.6.1 Project 61
Write a disassembler for the assembler described in project 11.

Clean Up Windows
Empty Trash
Erase Disk
Restart
Shut Down

Items of SPECIAL menu Macintosh computer, 1990.

7. Loaders

To better understand loaders, some material from previous chapters should be

reviewed. The following topics are particularly recommended before starting this
chapter:
The principles of operation of one pass and two pass assemblers (Ch. 1).
The concepts of absolute and relocatable object les (Ch. 1).
The EXTRN & ENTRY directives (Ch. 3).
These topics discuss three of the four main tasks of a loader namely, loading,
relocation, and linking. The fourth task is memory allocation (nding room in
memory for the program). A loader therefore does more than its name implies. A
loader performing all four tasks is called a linking loader. (however, some authors
call it a relocating loader. Perhaps the best name would be a general loader.)
A loader that does everything except loading is called a linker (in the UNIVAC
literature, it is called a collector, Burroughs calls it a binder and IBM, a linkage
editor ). An absolute loader is one that supports neither relocation nor linking.
As a result, loaders come in many varieties, from very simple to very complex,
and range in size from very small (a few tens of instructions for a bootstrap loader)
to large (thousands of instructions). A few good references for loaders are [1, 3, 46,
64, 82].
Neither assemblers nor loaders are user programs. They are a part of the
operating system (OS). However, the loader can be intimately tied up with the rest

196 Loaders

Ch. 7

of the operating system (because of its memory allocation task), while the assembler
is more a stand-alone program, having little to do with the rest of the OS.
Most of this chapter is devoted to linking loaders, but it starts with two short
sections describing assemble-go loaders and absolute loaders. It ends with a number
of sections devoted to special features of loaders and to special types of loaders.
Before we start, here is a comment on the word relocate. Loaders do not
relocate a program in the sense that they do not move it in memory from one
area to another. The loader may reload the same program in dierent memory
areas but, once loaded, the program normally is not relocated. There are some
exceptions where a program is relocated, at run time, to another memory area but,
in general, the term relocate is a misnomer.

Exercise 7.1 If it is a misnomer, why do we use it?

7.1 Assemble-Go Loaders

Such a loader is just a part of the one-pass assembler; it is not an independent
program. The one pass assembler loads each object instruction in memory as it is
being generated. At the end of the single pass, the entire program is loaded and, in
the absence of any assembler errors, the assembler starts execution of the program.
This is done by jumping, or branching, to the rst instruction of the program. The
user can specify a dierent start address by means of the END directive (Ch. 3), and,
in such a case, the assembler will branch to that address.
This method of loading is fast and simple but has several important limitations:
The assembler has to reside in memory with the object program. This may not
constitute a problem in todays computers with large memories, but is was a severe
limitation in the past, and may still be on a small, personal computer.
The assembler has to determine where to locate the program in memory. Most
one pass assemblers are used on small computers, where there is only one program
in memory at any time (a single-user computer) and all programs always start at
the same address. Typically the user program is loaded in lower memory locations,
the assembler itself is loaded high in memory (gure 71a), and the area occupied
by the assembler can be used by the program for data storage at run time (gure
71b). Figure 71c depicts a typical memory layout using a COMMON block high in
memory. The COMMON feature is discussed in chapters 1 and 3.
A one pass assembler used in a large, multi-user computer, has to ask the OS
for an available area in memory, suciently large for the program. It has to have
an idea of the programs size before it starts, and an estimate is normally supplied
by the user.

Exercise 7.2 How can the user estimate the size of a new program?

The following two points show that a one pass assembly-load operation in a
large computer has serious disadvantages. As a result, it is used in practice only in
single-user computers.

Sec. 7.1

Assemble-Go Loaders

COMMON
unused

unused

data
area

197

Assembler

data
area

user program

user program

user program

Figure 71. Three memory congurations involving assemblers.

Each time the program is to be executed, it has to be reassembled and reloaded.
This is only practical in situations where a program does not have to be executed on
a regular basis. For a production program, that is run on a regular basis, perhaps
many times every day, such a way of operation is wasteful and impractical.
There is no way to link programs that are separately assembled. Separate assembly is very common in two situations: when large programs are being developed,
and when parts of a program are written in dierent languages. Large programs are
often divided into control sections, each to be developed by a dierent programmer
or a team of programmers.
A one-pass assembler is therefore restricted to relatively small programs, that
can be written and assembled as one unit (but see the discussion below on the use
of library routines).
The use of library routines is very common. A one pass assembler can use library
routines, but only in a limited way. Each library routine must be absolute, i.e., it
will run only if loaded at a certain, xed, address. A program may invoke a library
routine, say SQRT, by an instruction such as CALL SQRT. If label SQRT is not dened
in the program, the assembler will search the library. On nding the SQRT routine,
it will be loaded in its xed area and the area will be marked as occupied. The
one-pass assembler will attempt to load the program in the memory area preceding
the routine and, if this is impossible, will issue a load-time error message. It will
not attempt to skip that area and continue loading past it (gure 72b). Such an
operation will require placing a JMP instruction to skip over the routines area at
run-time (gure 72c), but assemblers, designed for a one-to-one translation, do not
automatically place instructions in the program.
Three exceptions to the rule above are worth mentioning:
The forcing upper conceptmentioned in chapter 1where the assembler automatically inserts NOP instructions into the unused part of a word.

198 Loaders

Ch. 7

Instructions in the relative mode. In order to assemble such an instruction, the

assembler has to generate a displacement whose size depends on the distance between the instruction and its operand. If the operand follows the instruction, the
distance is unknown in pass 1, and the assembler has to guess it and reserve room
for the displacement in pass 1. If the assembler has reserved too much room for
the displacement, it pads it later, in pass 2, with NOP instructions. This feature is
discussed in Ch. 8, in connection with the MASM assembler.
The ALIGN directive on the TASM assembler increments the LC to the specied
power of 2. Thus ALIGN 8 will increment the LC to the nearest multiple of 8, and
will insert as many NOP instructions as necessary to pad up the empty bytes created.

unused

unused

user program

user program

SQRT routine

SQRT routine

unused

SQRT routine
unused
user program

JMP
user program

user program

Figure 72.
a. Program and SQRT routine loaded in memory.
b. Larger user program loaded in two parts.
c. First part of program JMPs to the second part, over the SQRT routine.

The discussion above illustrates the limitations of this type of loader. They are
the reasons why most loaders are of the relocating type. Only a few are absolute
loaders (see below) or are part of the assembler.

7.2 Absolute Loaders

An absolute loader is the next step in the hierarchy of loaders. It can load
an absolute object le generated by a one-pass assembler. (Note that some linkage
editors also generate an absolute object le.) This partly solves some of the problems
mentioned above. Still, such a loader is limited in what it can do.
An absolute object le consists of three parts:
The start address of the program. This is where the loader should start loading
the program.

Sec. 7.2

Absolute Loaders

199

The object instructions.

The address of the rst executable instruction. This is placed in the object le
by the assembler in response to the END directive. It is either the address specied
by the END or, in the absence of such an address, is identical to the rst address of
the program.
The loader reads the rst item and loads the rest of the object le into successive
memory locations. Its last step is to read item 3 (the address of the rst executable
instruction) from the object le, and to branch to that address, in order to start
execution of the program.
Library routines are handled by an absolute loader in the same way as by an
assemble-go system.
It turns out that even a one-pass assembler can, under certain conditions,
generate code that will run when loaded in any memory area. This code is called
position independent and is generated when certain addressing modes are used, or
when the hardware uses base registers.
Addressing modes are described in appendix A. Modes such as direct, immediate, relative, stack, and a few others, generate code that is position independent. A
program using only such modes can be loaded and executed starting at any address
in memory, and no relocation is necessary.
The use of base registers is not that common but, since they are one of the
few ways for generating position independent code, they are also described in appendix A.

7.3 Linking Loaders

These are full-feature, general loaders that support the four tasks mentioned
earlier. Such a loader can load several object les, relocating each, and linking them
into one executable program. The loader, of course, has access neither to the source
le nor to the symbol table. This is why the individual object les must contain all
the information needed by the loader.
A word on terminology. In IBM terminology a load module is an absolute object
le (or something very similar to it), and an object module is a relocatable object
le. Those terms are discussed in detail in point 7 below.
The following is a summary of the main steps performed by such a loader:
1. It reads, from the standard input device, the names of all the object les to
be loaded. Some may be library routines.
2. It locates all the object les, opens each and reads the rst record. This
record (see gure 73b) is a loader directive containing the size of the program
written in that le. The loader then adds the individual sizes to compute the total
size of the program. With the OS help, the loader then locates an available memory
area large enough to acommodate the program.

200 Loaders

Ch. 7

Exercise 7.3 What if such an area cannot be found?

3. The next step is to read the next couple of items from the rst object le.
These are loader directives, each corresponding to a special symbol (EXTRN or
ENTRY). This information is loaded in memory in a special symbol table (SST) to
be used later for linking.
4. Step 3 is repeated for all remaining object les. After reading all the special
symbol information from all the object les, the loader scans the SST, merging
items as described below. This process converts the SST into a global external
symbol table (GEST). If no errors are discovered during this process, the GEST is
ready and the loader uses it later to perform linking.
5. The loader then reads the rest of the rst object le and loads it, relocating
instructions when necessary. All loader directives found in the le are executed.
Any item requiring special relocation is handled as soon as it is read o the le,
using information in the GEST. Some of those items may require loading routines
o libraries (see later in this chapter).
6. Step 5 is repeated for all remaining object les. They are read and loaded
in the order in which their names were read in step 1.
7. The loader generates three outputs. The main output is the loaded program.
It is loaded in memory as one executable module where one cannot tell if instructions
came from dierent object les. In a computer where virtual memory is used, the
program is physically divided into pages (or logically divided into segments) which
are loaded in dierent areas of memory. In such a case, the program does not occupy
a contiguous memory area. Nevertheless, it is considered a single module and it gets
executed as one unit. Pages and segments are described in any Operating Systems
or Systems Programming text.
The second (optional) output of the loader is a listing le with error messages,
if any, and a memory map. The memory map contains, for each program, its name,
start address, and size. The name is specied by the user in a special directive
(IDENT or TITLE) or, in the absence of such a directive, it is the name of the object
le.
The third loader output is also optional and is a single object le for the entire
program. This le includes all the individual programs after linking, so it does not
include any linking information, but includes relocation bits. It is called a load
module. Such a le can later be loaded by a relocating loader without having to
do any linking, which speeds up the loading. Note that a load module is the main
output of a linkage editor (see below).
The reason for this output is that, in a production environmentwhere programs are loaded and executed frequently, but rarely need to be reassembled (or
recompiled)fast load becomes important. In such an environment it makes sense
to use two types of loaders. The rst is a linker or a linkage editor, which performs
just linking and produces a load module. The second is a simple relocating loader
that reads and loads a load module, performing just the three tasks of memory

Sec. 7.3

Linking Loaders

201

allocation, loading, and relocation. By eliminating linking, the relocating loader

works fast.
On the other hand, when programs are being developed and tested, they have
to be reassembled or recompiled very often. In such a case it makes more sense to
use a full-feature loader, which performs all four tasks. Using two loaders would
be slower since most runs would involve a new version of the program and would
necessitate executing both loaders.
Linking can be done at a number of dierent stages. (reference [3] lists seven
possibilities). It turns out that late linking allows for more exibility. The latest
possible moment to do the linking is at run time. This is the dynamic linking feature discussed later in this chapter. Consider an instruction that requires linking,
something like a CALL LB instruction, which calls a library routine LB. This instruction is loaded but is not always executed. (Recall that, each time a program
is run, dierent instructions are executed.) Doing the linking at run time has the
advantage that, if the CALL LB instruction is not executed, the library routine does
not have to be loaded.
Of course there is a tradeo. Run time linking requires some of the loader
routines to reside in memory with the program.
Figure 73a is an overall view of the dierent les that are involved with a
typical loader. Figure 73b is a schematic layout of a typical relocatable object le.
The two processes of relocation and linking have already been mentioned
relocation in chapter 1 and linking, in chapter 3 (see the EXTRN, ENTRY directives). In the present chapter, those processes will be described in detail, together
with their special problems and limitations.
The following program will serve to illustrate the operations of a general loader.
It is written in a simple, hypothetical, assembler language, and has no meaning other
than to illustrate relocation, linking, and loader directives. It consists of two object
les, the rst is a main program called NOM and the second, a program called SUB
containing a procedure LB and some data.

LC

op
Source code

2nd
3rd
object
byte byte record

rst loader directive

0

IDENT NOM

special symbols
start here

11111001
00100011
01001110
01001111
01001101
10100011
00000001
01001100
01000010
10100010
00000010

id
bits
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11

size=25
N
O
M
Extrn length=3
index=1
L
B
Extrn length=2
index=2

202 Loaders

Ch. 7

lib.
file

commands &
names of all
object files

obj.
file

initial input

obj.
file

third output

loader

main
output

obj.
file

secondary
output
memory map &
error messages

a single executable
module in memory

program-size directive
special symbol information

object
instructions

id
bits

Figure 73.
a. The Files Associated with a Loader
b. Layout of a Relocatable Object File.

0
EXTRN LB,Y
0
ENTRY CD
0 Z
DS
5
5 ST LOD
R5,15

CD

COMP

R5 2

00

15

01011001
10000010
01000011
01000100

11
11
11
11

01000101
00001101
00000000
00001111
00010101

11
00
00
00
00

Y
Entry. length=2
C
D

Sec. 7.3

Linking Loaders

LSHFT R5,4

04

11

CALL

LB

01

13

BEQ

R4,X

17

15

CALL

LB 4

01

LOD

R5,Y

HLT
DC

6
1,$,X,LB

17

20
21

25

END

00

ST

00000100
00100000
00100000
00000001
00101100
00010001
00100000
00000001
02
00001101
00000000
00000010
00110000
00000001
00100100
00010001
00000001
11000101
eof on object le

00
00
00
10
01
00
00
10
00
00
10
00
00
00
01
10
11

203

ASCII code of $

Start exec. @5

The second object le (SUB) contains procedure LB.

LC
0

0
0

op
code

Source

2nd
3rd
object
byte byte record
11101000
00100011
01010011
01010101
01000010
10000011
00000000
01001100
01000010
10000010
00000111
01011001

11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11
11

00111001
00000101
7
1
05
00111001
00000101
8
0
01000000
01000010
01100010
no loader directive generated
eof

00
01
00
00
00
11
11

IDENT SUB

LB

ENTRY LB,Y
ADD
R1,X

ADD

R1,5

4
5 X
7 Y
8

RET
DS
DC
END

2
2

Note the following:

id
bits

05

size=8
Ident, length=3
S
U
B
Entry. length=3
Value=0 (rel.)
L
B
Entry. length=2
Value=7 (rel.)
Y

204 Loaders

Ch. 7

1. The nal value of the LC in each program (the value printed to the left of
the END directive) is the size of the program. It becomes known at the end of pass
1, and is the rst item to go on the object le, at the start of pass 2. The loader
reads it and uses it to determine the memory area (and thus the start address) of
the program.
2. Symbol CD is declared as ENTRY in one program but is never declared as an
EXTRN in any other program. This is an unusual situation created either by an error
(the programmer has forgot to declare CD as an EXTRN in another program) or by
a change in the original design of the program (CD was supposed to be an EXTRN
in another program, plans were changed, CD has become just a regular symbol, but
the prgrammer forgot to delete the declaration ENTRY CD).
The loader should detect this and indicate a warning (unmatched entry CD).
This is not necessarily an error but may provide a hint to the programmer that
something in the program needs to be corrected.
The opposite casethat of an unmatched EXTRNis dierent. If a symbol
is declared EXTRN (and is also used by the declaring program) then it should be
declared as an ENTRY in another program. A failure to do so is an error, since the
loader would not be able to link the two programs. However, such a case may mean
that the symbol is the name of a library routine and is declared as an ENTRY in
the library. This is discussed in point 8 below and also in the section on library
routines.
3. Each line in the example object les is 8 bits long plus 2 identication
bits. They identify the line as either an absolute item (00), a relocatable item (01),
something that requires special relocation (10), or as a loader directive (11). Each
line thus becomes 8 + 2 = 10 bits long, of which only 8 bits actually get loaded in
memory. In certain computers, the operating system makes it hard, or inecient,
to output lines with sizes which are not multiples of 8. In such a case the assembler
may write all the id bits, packed four pairs to a byte, at the end of the object le.
The loader would have to read this information rst, reopen the object le, and
start loading. This is the reason why many loaders perform two passes over each
object le.
4. In this example, we limit ourselves to two id bits and thus can have only
four types of records on the object le. Specically, we can have just one type of
special relocation (identied by 10). Ideally, it would be desirable to have two types
of special relocation, absolute and relative. In such a case one could write:
ENTRY
.
AB EQU

AB
7

in one program and:

EXTRN
.
CALL

AB
AB

Sec. 7.3

Linking Loaders

205

in another. This would be an example of a special symbol AB that is also absolute.

The CALL instruction would have to go on the object le with a type of absolute
special relocation. In such a case we would end up with ve dierent types on the
object le, requiring three id bits. In practice, however, absolute special relocation
is not important and is never used. The CALL AB in the example above really
means CALL 7 and should preferably be written as such.
5. The two programs, NOM, SUB are assembled separately and, therefore, the
two X labels are dierent. Each is local to its program, is put in the symbol table in
pass 1 and, at the end of pass 2, disappears together with all other local symbols.
Only special symbols (types ext and ent) are preserved and are written on the object
le as loader directives.
6. The two instructions ADD R1,X, ADD R1,5 are assembled into identical
object instructions. The only dierence between them is the id bits that identify
the rst as relative (since X has a value of 5 relative to the start of program SUB)
and the second, as absolute (it uses location 5 even though that location may be
outside the programs area). In computers where memory is protected by hardware,
execution of the second instruction may cause a run-time error message.
The two instructions LOD R5,15, LSHFT R5,4 (left shift 4 positions) are
absolute but use dierent absolute quantities. The 15 in the rst instruction is
used as an address, and may cause a run-time error if the address is outside the
programs area. The 4 in the second one is used as the amount of the shift.
7. The loader directives are usualy short (one byte) but some, like IDENT,
EXTRN, ENTRY, have variable size. The size is indicated in the rst byte of the
directive.
The example uses ve types of loader directives (but see a sixth type modify
below):
a. Program size. 111xxxxx where xxxxx is the program size. This limits the
maximum size to 31 but this is a simple example. In a real loader, the directives
are dierent and allow for much larger parameters.
b. Start execution at. 110xxxxx. Directs the loader to start execution at
address xxxxx.
c. EXTRN. 10100xxx. The following xxx bytes contain the index of the external
symbol and its name, one character per byte.
d. ENTRY. 10000xxx. The next byte is the value of the entry point. The
remaining bytes contain the name.
e. IDENT. 00100xxx. The following xxx bytes contain the name of the program.
8. The two END directives are treated by the assembler dierently. The rst
has a symbol (ST) in the operand eld, indicating the point where execution should
start. It results in a loader directive (code 110 above). The second has nothing in
the operand eld and does not generate any loader directive. It signals the end of

206 Loaders

Ch. 7

assembly and the assembler, in response, completes pass 2 by writing the special
symbols from the symbol table on the object le (as loader directives, codes 101,
100, of variable size), followed by an end of le (eof). It is the programmers
responsibility to make sure that only one source le in the entire program has a
start address in the operand eld of the END directive. The loader expects only one
such address and issues an error messages on reading the second (and subsequent)
ones.

Exercise 7.4 What if the loader does not nd any code 110 directives?

Using the example, it is easy to see how the loader works. It reads the names
of the object les either from the command line (the keyboard command used to
invoke the loader) or from a special command le. It opens the two object les,
reads the rst directive from each, adds the two program sizes (27 + 8 = 35) and
locates an available memory area of size 35. If that area starts, say, at address 64,
then 64 becomes the rst relocation term. The loader reads the object les in the
order in which their names are specied. Assuming that it starts with le SUB, the
other relocation terms can now also be calculated. In our case, there is one more
such term, namely 64 + 8 = 72. In general, each relocation term equals the sum of
its predecessor and the length of the previous program.
At this point, the loader can print the memory map which, in our case, is:
Program Start Length
SUB
NOM

64
72

8
27

Exercise 7.5 What other information can the loader include in the memory map?

Next the loader reads the directives for the ENTRY symbols from the rst le.
It stores the special symbol information in the SST after relocating their values
(point 4 above shows that special symbols are always relative). Thus LB gets a
value of 0 + 64 = 64 and Y, a value of 7 + 64 = 71.
The loader repeats this for the next object le. It reads the special symbol
directives from that le into the SST.
The second le contains three special symbols LB, Y, CD. They are entered
into the symbol table with CDan ENTRYrelocated by 72. Its value becomes
8 + 72 = 80. Symbols LB, Y are of type EXTRN and their values are still unknown.
They are entered, each with its index, instead of a value. The SST now contains:
prog name

value

SUB
"
NOM
"
"

64
71
80

LB
Y
LB
Y
CD

index type

1
2

ent
ent
ext
ext
ent

Sec. 7.3

Linking Loaders

207

Note that the program name goes in the SST with each symbol. It is later used to
perform the linking.
After reading all the special symbol information from all the object les, the
loader proceeds to merge symbols in the SST. It scans the SST looking for symbols
of type ext. For each such symbol, the loader searches the SST for the corresponding
ent symbol. On nding it, the value of the ent symbol is stored in the entry for the
ext symbol, and the entry for the ent symbol is deleted.
This process results in the following table
prog name

value

index type

NOM
"
"

64
71
80

1
2

LB
Y
CD

ext
ext
ent

which is now called a GEST.

Notice that, ideally, a GEST should only have ext type symbols. In our example
one ent symbol remained in the GEST because the declaration EXTRN CD did not
appear in any program. This case has already been dealt with earlier in this chapter
and it results in a loader warning.
There could also be the case where, for a certain ext entry, the loader cannot
nd the corresponding ent entry. This may mean one of two things: either the
programmer has forgot to declare an entry point, or the missing entry is the name
of a library routine.
When a library routine is needed in a program, the prgrammer can simply write
CALL xx and declare EXTRN xx (where xx stands for the name of the routine).
The loader, in such a case, searches the library for such an entry. If it nds one,
it loads the routine into memory and it becomes part of the program. If not, the
loader considers this case a fatal error. It issues an error message and will not
execute the program. Library routines are discussed later in this chapter.

Exercise 7.6 What if there are two ent symbols in the SST, with the same name
but from dierent programs, both matching the same ext symbol ?

If the user has asked to see the GEST, this is the time for the loader to print
it. This is also the reason why the symbol names are retained in the table. We will
see that they are not used in the actual linking.
In the absence of errors, the loader is now ready to load the object les. It starts
with the rst object le, SUB, reads instructions, and loads them into consecutive
locations starting from location 64. Since there are 8 bytes in that le, the last one
will be loaded in location 71. Each byte with id bits 01 will get relocated by adding
the rst relocation term, 64, to it. The result in memory will be:

208 Loaders

Ch. 7

64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71

00111001
01000101
00111001
00000101
01000000
reserved for
array X
00000010

There are no linking problems in this program since it does not use any EXTRN
symbols. Notice that none of the records on the object le has id = 10.
On reading the eof, the loader switches to the next object le (NOM) and starts
using the next relocation term (72). This le is loaded in the same way as the
previous one, and ends up occupying locations 7296. The only problem in loading
the second le are the items with id bits of 10. Each of them contains an index
rather than the value of a symbol.
To nd the value of such a symbol, the loader searches the GEST for the name
of the program (NOM) and the specic index. On nding the entry, the value becomes
available. The rst such line in our example is CALL LB. It is read from the object
le with id = 10 which means that the corresponding byte (=00000001) is an index,
not a value. The loader searches the GEST for an entry with program=NOM and
index=1. On nding it, the loader uses the value eld, which has already been
relocated, to complete the instruction. It is loaded, in locations 8384 as the two
bytes 00100000 01000000. The rst being the OpCode (=4) and the second, the
value (=64) of symbol LB.

Exercise 7.7 What if such a search in the GEST fails?

The result of loading the second object le is:

72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83

reserved
for
array Z
00001101
00000000
00001111
00010101
00000100
00100000
00100000

LOD
15
COMP
LSHFT
CALL

84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96

01000000
00101100
01011001
00100000
01000000
00001101
00000000
01000111
00110000
00000001
00100100
01011001
01000000

LB
BEQ
X=17+72=89
CALL
LB
LOD
Y
HLT
constants
$
X
LB

The Modify Loader Directive

Sec. 7.4

209

7.4 The Modify Loader Directive

In our simple version of special relocation the value of the external symbol
is eventually stored in the instruction, replacing the index. Sometimes, however,
it is necessary to do more than a replacement. It may be necessary to add the
value of the symbol to the instruction, to subtract it, or to logically OR it with the
instruction or with part of it. All this can easily be achieved by introducing a new
loader directive, the modify directive, whose format is:

size in bits:

directive
code

index

skip

eld modic. address

code
4

=3 bytes long

The directive code in our example will be 011. The index is as before, and the
modication code can take the four values: replace (00), add (01), subtract (10),
logical OR (11). The address eld species the byte in the current object le to
be modied, and the skip & eld elds specify the exact eld in the byte to be
modied. The case skip=4, eld=3 species eld yyy in byte xxxxyyyz. In the
example above, the special relocation of the bytes at addresses 12 & 19 can now be
achieved by the two modify directives:
011 00001 0000 1000 00 001100

011 00010 0000 1000 00 010011

Note that the instruction itself does not need to contain the index of the external symbol any more. Also the id bits can simply be 00, and there is no need
for the special relocation id of 10. The loader loads the instruction in memory
without any modication and, when it nds the modify directive later, it modies
the instruction in memory. The modify directive only needs to appear in the same
object le and should not precede the instruction to be modied.
This loader directive adds power to the assembler language. It is now possible
to write something like DC Y-LB and the assembler would produce a constant
of all zeros and two modify directives, one to replace Y (or to add it) and the
other, to subtract LB. An address expression such as Y-LB involves two relative
quantities (that can be external) and, as explained in chapter 1, is itself absolute.
However, to make it meaningful, we always require that all external symbols used
in the expression be declared (as entry) in one program. If they are declared in two
dierent programs, then the dierence between them, even though still absolute, is
totally unpredictable and therefore useless.
The modify can be used for both linking and relocation. Normally it is a waste
to use it for relocation, since relocation only requires a bit or two per instruction.
However, on a computer where the relative mode is heavily used, relatively few
instructions need relocation, and the modify may be used instead of relocation
bits.

210 Loaders

Ch. 7

Exercise 7.8 Given the following code.

LC

12

25

62

X
Y

EXTRN M,N
JMP SUB EQU
A-B+M-N
DC
A-B+M-N

How does the assembler execute the directives EQU, DC?

The modify can be designed to t a particular instruction set. On the Signetics
2650 microprocessor [13], addresses may only appear in instructions in one of four
places, as shown in Fig. 74.

8
Figure 74. The modify Directive.

As a result, a modify needs to specify only the address of the rst byte of
the instruction and a number in the range 03 (the case eld below). A possible
format is:
directive
code

index

case

modic.
code

address

12

=3 bytes

Sec. 7.5

Linkage Editors

211

7.5 Linkage Editors

The relocating loader discussed above performs all the 4 loader tasks and, in
the simple case described here, does it in a single pass. This kind of operation,
however, is not the only one possible, nor is it always the best approach. Another
option is a linkage editor, that has briey been mentioned before, and that can be
used either instead of, or in addition to, the relocating loader. A linkage editor
reads the object les, performs all the linking and some relocation, and writes the
result on another le, called a load module or an executable image. To load the load
module, all that is required is a simple relocating loader, performing very simple
relocation and no linking. This adds one step to the assemble-load-run sequence,
but has the advantage that the load module is easy to load. A production program,
loaded and executed many times each day, could benet from a linkage editor. On
the other hand, testing and debugging a program typically requires to reassemble it
after almost every execution. In such a case, it is convenient to have as few steps as
possible between assembling and execution, so a linkage editor should not be used.
Figure 75 is a block diagram of the les and steps involved with a linkage editor.
lib.
file

commands &
names of all
object files

obj.
file

obj.
file

load
module

Reloc.
Loader

initial input

loader
main output

secondary
output
memory map &
error messages

a single
executable
module
in memory

Figure 75. A Linkage Editor.

The linkage editor performs linking and also relocates all the programs (or all
the control sections) relative to the start of the rst program. The load module
therefore contains one stream of instructions and is easy to load. To load it, the
relocating loader only needs to add the start address to all the relocatable instructions. It has no linking to do, and thus no GEST to maintain. It treats the program
as one unit and thus does not have to update the relocation term.
If the start address of the program is known in advance, the linking editor
can relocate all the object les relative to that start address, and produce a load
module that can only be loaded starting at that address. Such a load module is, of
course, an absolute object le, and can easily be loaded later, by an absolute loader,
without any relocation. This is commonly done on modern personal computers and
workstations.

212 Loaders

Ch. 7

7.6 Dymanic Linking

In an absolute object le, linking is done at a very early stage, when the
program is written. A linkage editor performs linking when the load module is
prepared. A relocating loader performs the linking at load time. Dynamic linking
postpones the linking to the last possible moment, when the instruction requiring
linking is executed. This clearly requires overhead and is slow. However, it has the
advantage that unnecessary routines do not get loaded and thus dont occupy space
in memory. In fact, the program may not even know the names of the routines
necessary for any specic run. The names themselves may be supplied by the
user, at run time. Binding is the process of assigning a value to a parameter or
to a variable, and dynamic linking is an example of late binding. In general, late
binding is more exible but slower. The concepts of binding and binding time are
discussed in [83].
Another example that can benet from dynamic linking is a program that has
many procedures but, in any given execution, uses only a few of them. Data, input
at run time, determines what procedures should be called. A traditional loader,
loading all the procedures with the main program, may end up requiring more
memory than is available.
A common way of implementing dynamic linking is to have a loader routine,
called the dynamic loader (DL), resident in memory at run time. Whenever a new
procedure (which we will call P), should be called, the DL is called to locate P, load
and execute it. The DL is part of the operating system and thus cannot be called
by the user program. To communicate with the OS, the program has to generate an
interrupt (a software interrupt). Thus, instead of a call to P, the program generates
an interrupt to activate the DL. It also sends the name P as a parameter. The
DL searches its tables to see if procedure P has already been loaded. If not, the
DL locates and loads it. In any case, the DL calls and invokes P. Procedure P
gets executed and returns to the DL. The DL then restarts the user program. It is
important that P return to the DL and not directly to the user program because the
DL needs to know which routine is executing. The DL may later decide to release
the memory used by P, and use it for some other routine. The entire process is
summarized in gure 76.
Since the assembler exists to help the programmer as much as possible, it should
make the entire process invisible to the programmer. The programmer therefore
writes:
EXTRN P
...
CALL
P
and the assembler assembles the CALL instruction into a software interrupt instruction (called SVC, BREAK or some other name). Dynamic loading is therefore not just
a loader feature; the assembler is also involved.

Sec. 7.7

unused

user

Loader Control

unused

user

soft.
inter.

unused

unused

unused

user

user

user

soft.
inter.

OS

OS

DL

DL

soft.
inter.

OS
DL

soft.
inter.

OS
DL

213

soft.
inter.

OS
DL

Figure 76. Dynamic Linking.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.

Initially.
A software interrupt instruction invokes the DL in the OS area.
The DL loads and calls procedure P.
Procedure P executes and returns to the DL.
The DL restarts the program at the point following the software interrupt.

7.7 Loader Control

It is important to allow the user/operator to control the loader at load time.
It should be possible to include user-generated loader directives in the object le,
to override and modify other loader features and conventions, and even to update
the list of object les during load time. As a result, loaders accept directives and
commands (options) in addition to those in the object les. The options are normally included in the command line types at the keyboard. They may also be read
from a special command le, input by the loader when it starts. Alternatively,
the commands may be written in the source program, read by the assembler and
converted into loader directives.
We will consider the commands to be assembler directives, translated by the
assembler into loader directives. However, they can be sent to the loader by any of
the methods described above.
The ORG directive has already been discussed in chapter 3. It is converted by
the assembler into a loader directive and serves to specify a start address for the
program, overriding any normal loader selection of the start address.

214 Loaders

Ch. 7

Normally, when the loader detects errors, it does not start execution. It is
possible to override this and instruct the loader to execute the program in the
presence of certain errors. This may make sense if certain external symbols remain
unresolved, but the programmer knows that this particular run will not use their
values.
To change the list of object les to be loaded, the loader accepts INCLUDE and
DELETE commands. The INCLUDE command has the general form
INCLUDE le name,device name
It species an object le, perhaps a library routine, to be included in the load. The
DELETE command tells the loader that a certain object le should be deleted from
the list of object les to be loaded.
The CHANGE old name,new name command instructs the loader to change, in
the GEST, the name of an external symbol. This command is used when the user
decides to change a certain routine after the program has been assembled. Imagine
a program with a CALL COS instruction, calling a routine COS in object le (or
library le) MATH. The user has decided to use another routine COS1, located in le
NEW. The following loader commands may be necessary:
DELETE MATH
INCLUDE NEW
CHANGE COS,COS1
Other loader commands are mentioned in the following sections, in connection
with library search, overlays, and other loader features.

7.8 Library Routines

The use of library routines is very common. Many assemblers and compilers
come with large sets of routines, mostly mathematical and statistical, that can
easily be used by mentioning their names in a program. With an assembler, it is
not enough to write CALL SIN even if the programmer knows that SIN is a library
routine. SIN must also be declared as external. This feature is easy for the loader to
handle. Every time an instruction needs special relocation, the loader searches the
GEST. If the symbol is found but has no value, the loader does not issue an error
but assumes that the symbol is the name of a library routine. The loader searches
the library and, on nding the routine, it is loaded as any other object le. This, of
course, implies that library routines must exist in the library in the form of object
les.

Exercise 7.9 Library routines are in the form of object les. Can such a routine
be an absolute object le?

When such a routine is loaded, it may call other routines, which means more
library searches but no special complications for the loader. If a library search fails,
the loader issues an error message and will not execute the program.

Sec. 7.8

Library Routines

215

Exercise 7.10 What kind of message?

Since this feature is used a lot, a quick library search is important. The library
is typically a disk where each le constitues one routine, and a library search means
searching the directory of the disk, a common OS operation. Many OSs even keep
library directories permanently in memory, thereby speeding up the search. If there
is more than one library, they should all be available at load time, ready to be
accessed by the loader. Otherwise, the loader has to stop and ask for a library to
be mounted.
The command LIBRARY name instructs the loader to load all the routines in
a certain library. It is similar to the INCLUDE command mentioned above but it
explicitly tells the loader that the le to be included is a library and should only be
searched when an undened external symbols is found.
Many libraries are stored on single les. A single le includes all the routines of
a certain library and, on nding the name of a routine in this le, the loader loads
the entire le. This, of course, has the disadvantage that memory space is taken for
routines that may never be used. However, if the program eventually needs several
routines from that le, the entire load is speeded up.
Another advantage of this feature is that a programmer can override a library
routine. If the programmer decides to use a special version of SIN, he only needs
to code that version and supply it to the loader on a separate object le, with its
name declared as an entry point. This would result in a GEST where the external
symbol is dened, and the loader would not search the library.
Since a library search is initiated by an undened external symbol, one can
easily use libraries of data, not just routines. Even directives such as Z DC Y,
where Y is declared external, would cause the loading of a library routine which,
in this case, would probably be a block of data.
If a certain test run is not going to call routine ABC, the user can speed up
the loading by issuing the command NOCALL ABC. This loader command tells
the loader not to search any library for routine ABC even if ABC is an unresolved
external symbol. The NOCALL ALL command means no automatic library search
at all. This command should be used carefully since it means that any unresolved
external references would lead to a loader error.

7.9 Overlays
Many modern computers use virtual memories that make it possible to run
programs larger than the physical memory. Either one program or several programs
can be executed even if the total size is greater than the entire memory available.
When a computer does not use virtual memory, running a large program becomes a
problem. One solution is overlays (or chaining), which will be discussed here since
its implementation involves the loader.
Overlays are based on the fact that many programs can be broken into logical
parts such that only one part is needed in memory at any time. The program is

216 Loaders

Ch. 7

divided, by the programmer, into a main part (the overlay root), that resides in
memory during the entire execution, and several overlays (links or segments) that
can be called, one at a time, by the root, loaded and executed. All the links share
the same memory area whose size should be the maximum size of the links. A link
may contain one program or several programs, linked in the usual way. At any
given time, only the root and one link are active (but see the discussion of sublinks
and tree structure below). Two features are needed to implement overlays:
A directive declaring the start of each overlay. Those directives are recognized by
the assembler which, in turn, prepares a separate object le for each overlay.
A special CALL OVERLAY instruction to load an overlay (a link) at run time.
Such an instruction calls a special loader routine, the overlay manager, resident in
memory with the main program, which loads the specic overlay from the object le
into the shared memory area. The last executable instruction in the overlay must
be a return. It should return to the calling program, which is typically the main
part, but could also be another overlay. Such a return works either by popping the
return address fron the stack, or by generating a software interrupt, that transfers
control to the overlay manager in the OS.
A typical directive declaring an overlay is OVERLAY n (or LINK n) where n is
the overlay number. Each such directive directs the assembler to nish the previous
assembly, write an object le for the current overlay, and start a new assembly for
the next overlay. The END directive terminates the last link. The result is a number
of object les, the rst of which is a regular one, containing the main program. All
the rest are special, each containing a loader directive declaring it to be an overlay
and specifying the number of the overlay.
The loader receives the names of all the object les, it loads the rst one but,
upon opening the other ones, nds that they are overlays. As a result, the other
object les are not loaded but are left open, accessible to the loader. The loader
uses the maximum size of those les as the size of the shared memory area and
loads, following the main program, a routine that can locate and load an overlay.
At run time, each CALL OVERLAY[n] (or CALL LINK) instruction, invokes that
routine which loads the overlay, on top of the previous one, into the shared area.
As far as relocating the dierent overlays, there are two possibilities: The rst one
is to relocate each overlay while it is loaded. The other possibility is to prepare
a pre-relocated (absolute) version of each overlay and load the absolute versions.
This requires more load time work but speeds up loading the overlays at run time.
Generally, an overlay is a large part of the program and is not loaded many times.
In such a case, the rst alternative, of relocating the overlay each time it is loaded,
seems a better choice.
In general, each overlay may be very large, and sub-overlays can be declared.
The result is a program organized as a tree where each branch corresponds to an
overlay, each smaller branch, to a sub-overlay, etc. Figure 77 is an example of such
a tree.
The table below assumes certain sizes for the dierent links and a start address

Sec. 7.9

Overlays

217

J
Figure 77. An Overlay Tree.
of 0 for the root A. It then shows the start addresses of each link and the total size
of the program when that link is loaded.

name
A
B
E
F
G
C
D
H
J
I

size

start

total
size

1000
500
350
700
100
200
250
100
200
250

0
1000
1500
1500
1500
1000
1000
1250
1350
1250

1000
1500
1850
2200
1600
1200
1250
1350
1550
1500

Links B, C, D all start at the same address. Also E, F, G start at address 1500
and , similarly, H, I start at 1250. The combined size of all the links is 3350, but the
maximum amount of memory needed is only 2200 locations (when link D is loaded).
In keeping with tradition, we say that the root is the lowest level in the tree.
The main rule concerning the layout of links in memory is: if link X is loaded in
memory, all other links lower than X, that connect X to the root, must also be loaded
at the same time. This rule implies that, when X calls a lower link, that link should
be active. If it is not, the loader should issue an error. When X calls a link on the
same level as itself, it is always an error. When X calls a link higher than itself, it
must be exactly one level higher, and it must be a son of X in the tree.
To implement such a tree overlay structure the programmer should dene the
structure in advance, to make it possible for the loader to check and verify every
call to a link and every return. To dene the tree, the programmer must start each
overlay with an OVERLAY command specifying the name of the overlay and the name

218 Loaders

Ch. 7

of its parent. The general format is OVERLAY name, parent. In the above example
the loader sees the following commands
id pair
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY
OVERLAY

A,-B,A
E,B
F,B
G,B
C,A
D,A
H,D
J,H
I,D

(0,0)
(1,0)
(2,0)
(2,1)
(2,2)
(1,1)
(1,2)
(2,3)
(3,0)
(2,4)

The root is always (0,0)

The parent is A, so Bs level is 1
The serial numbers start at 0
Level 2 has 5 overlays, numbered
0 thru 4

Level 3 has only one overlay

that identify the tree structure. Note that this identication is not unique. Switching the declarations for overlays E, F would make no dierence for the loader although, in principle, it would declare a dierent tree. The loader assigns id numbers
to the overlays based on their place in the tree. Each id is a pair (level,serial ) where
level is one greater than the level of the parent, and the serial number is unique in
the level. The id pairs are shown in the list above. To control overlay loading, the
loader maintains one table, the overlay table (OT), containing the name, id pair,
and status of each overlay. The OT is used to decide whether an overlay call is valid
and where to load the next overlay. The OT starts with just the root active:
A 0,0 a
C 1,1 -

B 1,0 D 1,2 -

E 2,0 H 2,3 -

F 2,1 J 3,0 -

G 2,2 I 2,4 -

A status of a means active and a status of - means not loaded. Suppose that a
while later overlays D, H are loaded. The OT should be updated to:
A 0,0 a
C 1,1 -

B 1,0 D 1,2 a

E 2,0 H 2,3 a

F 2,1 J 3,0 -

G 2,2 I 2,4 -

To see how the OT is used to manage overlay loading and deleting, consider the
case where overlays A, D, H are active. From gure 77 it is obvious that the only
overlay that can be loaded at this point is J. The rule in such a case is: Only the
highest-level active overlay can issue an overlay-call instruction.
Similarly, the only overlay that can be deleted, by a RET instruction, is H,
implying that only the highest-level active overlay can issue a RET. The main step
in deleting an overlay is to change its status in the OT from a to -.
One more rule is needed, to determine what overlays can be called at any time.
To understand this rule, lets examine the case where overlays A, D are active. Again,
gure 77 shows that either H or I can be called, which suggests the rule: When
overlay X, with level xl, calls Y then:
1. the level of Y must be xl+1.
2. When scanning the OT, from left to right, starting with X, Y must be found
before reaching an entry with a level xl (or before reaching the end of the table).

Sec. 7.9

Overlays

219

Exercise 7.11 The serial numbers of the overlays in the OT do not seem to be
necessary. What are they used for?

7.10 Multiple Location Counters

This feature has been mentioned in chapter 1 since it also involves the assembler. This section describes how the loader supports this feature. The main
concept involved is multiple passes. The loader has to read the object le once for
each location counter. In order to execute the USE directive, the assembler switches
to a dierent location counter (in pass 1) and also generates a use loader directive
(in pass 2) and writes it on the object le. The example from chapter 1 will be used
to illustrate the way the loader handles multiple location counters.
section
size
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
USE
.
.
.
END

use loader
directive
main 0

(1)

80
DATA 0

DATA
(2)

24
main 80

*
(3)

30
BETA 0

BETA
(4)

45
DATA 24

DATA
(5)

75
main 110

blank
(6)

15
GAMMA 0

GAMMA
(7)

10

We have already seen that, at load time, the dierent sections are loaded in
the order MAIN, DATA, BETA, GAMMA or 1,3,6,2,5,4,7. When the loader sees the rst
use loader directive, at the beginning of the object le, it loads the rst section

220 Loaders

Ch. 7

and reads the rest of the le, looking for more uses of the same section. It nds two
more (3 & 6) and loads them. In the second pass, it starts with section DATA (2)
and reads the rest of the le to nd and load the remaining part of that section (5).
Pass 3 loads the single BETA section (4) and pass 4, the single GAMMA section (7).
This is a simple process involving one simple data structure, a list of the use
directives. In the rst pass, while loading all the sections of the rst location
counter, the loader reads all the use directives and stores them in a list. Before
each pass, the loader nds the rst remaining item on that list and thus knows what
LC to load in that pass. Each time a section is found in the object le and loaded,
the loader deletes the corresponding item from the list. When the list is empty, the
loader is nished.
The use loader directive contains the name and current value of the LC to be
used in the following section. The loader compares that information to the current
load address, which constitutes a good check of the integrity of the object le (see
review question 77).

7.11 Bootstrap Loaders

They answer the obvious question: how to start the computer for the rst
time. Imagine a brand new computer, delivered with a blank memory. A loader
is needed to load the rst program but, since the loader is itself a program, how
does one load the loader? The problem pops up each time the computers memory
becomes blank. There are two solutions, both based on the concept of a bootstrap
loader.
The rst solution is to have switches on the computer console where the operator
can manually enter a small loader. The loader constitutes just a few machine
instructions that are assembled by hand and entered, through the switches, into
memory. This small loader then loads the main loader which, in turn, loads the OS
and user programs. This is the bootstrap process. This approach was very popular in
the past, when core memories were used. Core memory is non-volatile, which means
that once the bootstrap loader was loaded from the console, it stayed in memory
for a long time. It could only be erased if a user program needed all the available
memory, or if such a program overowed and there was no memory protection.
The second solution is to have a bootstrap loader in ROM. This has been the
common approach since the mid 1970s, when semiconductor memories came into
wide use. Those memories are typically volatile but ROM isnt. A bootstrap loader
in ROM can never be erased and is always available. Such a loader is the basis
for any turnkey computer system, where the user only has to switch the computer
on, and the OS is automatically loaded, followed by a user program. The only
restriction is that the memory locations occupied by ROM can never be used by
user programs. Since the bootstrap loader is small, this restriction is a small price
to pay for such a convenience.

Exercise 7.12 How can one remove the restriction above?

Sec. 7.11

Bootstrap Loaders

221

Typically, the bootstrap ROM contains a very small loader that reads a xedsize record from an I/O device (the device can be specied by the operator) into
a predetermined memory area, then jumps to the start of that area. The record
should contain a small loader (the second one in the bootstrap process) which, in
turn, can load the main loader (the third one so far). The main loader is then used
to load the rest of the OS. The advantagethe xed length record can easily be
modied if the OS is updated.

7.12 An N+1 address Assembler-Loader

Several rst-generation computers had most (or even all) of their storage on a
magnetic drum. In such a computer, loading a program meant writing the object
code on the drum, ready for execution. The best way to position instructions on the
drum is to consider the execution time of each instruction. If a certain instruction is
fetched from address x on the drum, and if it takes time y to execute the instruction,
than one can easily calculate the drum address that would be under the read/write
head when the instruction is completed. That drum address is, of course, the ideal
position for loading the next instruction. Loading it anywhere else on the drum
would cause a delay in fetching it, since the control unit would have to wait for
the slow drum to bring that instruction under the r/w head. Such computers are
called n+1 address machines, since each instruction should contain, in addition to
its n operands, also the drum address of its successor. If the instructions contain
addresses of operands, each opearnd also has an ideal drum address, depending on
the time interval between the moment the instruction is fetched and the moment
each operand is needed.
Today, with inexpensive random-accesss memories, instructions are loaded sequentially and the concept of n+1 addresses has only historic value. Examples
of such computers are the Bendix G15, the ACE computer, designed and built in
1946 at the National Physical Laboratory in England, and the IBM 650. Those
computers were 1+1 address machines.
The 650 [88, 98] was a decimal computer. It had a drum with a total capacity
of 2000 locations, each a word with a capacity of 10 decimal digits. The words were
recorded on the drum on 40 bands, each a circular track with 50 words. Addresses
ranged from 0000 through 1999 where each band had 50 consecutive addresses.
The drum had a separate read/write head for each band but the processor could
use only one head at any time. As a result if, at a certain point in time, the r/w
head was above location 0003, the processor could read either that location or any
of locations 0053, 0103, 0153, ...0653,..., 1953 at that time.
The computer had no random accesss memory, but it had additional hardware
that could be accessed by the machine instructions, using special, 800x addresses.
Ten Console switches could be read as address 8000, a temporary register called the
distributor had address 8001, and a 20-digit accumulator had addresses 8002 (for
the lower 10 digits) and 8003 (for the upper 10 digits). Each instruction was 10
digits long, with the format:

222 Loaders

Ch. 7

OpCode Operand Next Instr.

2

Example: An AU (Add Upper) instruction. Ideally, the operand of this instruction should be 3 locations away from it. The next instruction should be 4 locations
away from the operand. As a result, if the AU happened to be loaded at drum
address 0036, it could be assembled into 10 0039 0043 or, in general, into 10 xx39
yy43.
The SOAP assembler, mentioned in the introduction, for the 650 computer,
had a table (stored, of course, on the drum) containing the execution times of all
the instructions, and the ideal separation between each instruction and its operand.
It would read the source lines from punched cards, eight instructions per 80-column
card, assemble each and load it on the drum with the address of its successor. It
had a 2000-digit table, maintained on 200 drum locations, specifying those drum
addresses that have already been loaded with instructions and data. If the next
instruction had to go into, say, address 0020, and the table indicated that 20 is
already occupied, the assembler would try locations 21, 22, . . . until it found an
available location on the drum. Thus SOAP was a combined assembler-loader for
the 650, a 1+1 address computer. Below is an example of a SOAP program (actually,
a section of a larger program).

Source
Label

SY001

SY002

Mnem

operand

RAU
SRT
MPY
00
STL
SRT
MPY
00
AL0
SL0
SRT
AUP
STU

LSD
0004

Note the following:

0000
TY005
0008
0000
TY005
8002
0008
8001
RSLT

Object
Next
instr.

SY001
0240

SY002
0012

Loc.

0001
0007
0017
0022
0023
0033
0043
0048
0049
0034
0044
0054
0064

Op opercode and
60
30
19
00
20
30
19
00
15
16
30
10
21

0002
0004
0022
0000
0028
0008
0048
0000
0028
8002
0008
8001
0003

Next
instr.
0007
0017
0023
0240
0033
0043
0049
0012
0034
0044
0054
0064
0008

Sec. 7.12

An N+1 address Assembler-Loader

223

The rst MPY instruction multiplies (the acc) by 240 . The constant itself is stored,
as part of a NOP instruction, in the word that follows the MPY (drum location 0022).
The same thing is true of the second MPY, which uses the constant 12.
Symbol TY005 has a value of 0028 and is dened outside this section of the program. Addresses 8001, 8002 have been explained earlier.

224 Loaders

Ch. 7

7.13 Review Questions and Projects

1. Below there is a simple program and four address expressions. Identify the type
of each of the seven labels A-G in the program, explain how to evaluate each of the
expressions, and indicate the type of the result.

D
B
E
A
F

ENTRY A,B
EXTRN C,G
EQU
1
.
-.
--.
-.
END

address expressions
a. E-F+D
b. C-E
c. A-B
d. D+G-C

2. Compare and contrast overlays and dynamic linking.

3. An undened external symbols is normally interpreted as the name of a library
routine, causing the loader to search the library. What are the advantages and
disadvantages of this interpretation?
4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of writing a loader in a higher-level
language?
5. A user program cannot invoke an operating system routine by calling it. It
has to articially generate an interrupt to invoke the system routine. Why? Most
operating systems texts provide a clear answer. Find it!
6. There are many types of loaders and many have more than one name. Several of
the names mentioned here are: Relocating Loader, Linking Loader, Linkage Editor,
Linker, Binder, Absolute Loader, Bootstrap Loader, Assemble-Go Loaders. Using
the references mentioned earlier in this chapter, make a list of all dierent loader
types, each with all its names.
7. The USE loader directive has the name and current value of the next LC to be
used. How does the loader use both items to check the integrity of the object le?
8. Refer to gure 77
a. Add two more overlays, K, L, as children of F.
b. Update the OT to include K, L.
c. Assuming that A, B, F are active and F calls G (an error). Show how the OT is
scanned according to the rules in this chapter, and the error discovered.
9. Redesign the MODIFY loader directive to t the instruction set of a computer
of your choice.

Sec. 7.13

Review Questions and Projects

225

7.13.1 Project 71
Write a simple assembler-loader to support a 1+1 address binary architecture
similar to that of the IBM 650. Our hypothetical computer has a 16-bit accumulator
and a drum with 4 bands, each a circular track with 16 locations numbered 015.
An instruction or a number can be loaded into each location. This, of course, is a
very small drum, much smaller than the one on the 650. However, the important
dierence between the drums is not the size but the fact that the 650 was a decimal
computer, and so its drum size (2000) was an round decimal number. Ours is a
binary computer and thus our drum size (64) is an integer power of 2.
Any location on the drum has an address of the form (b,l) and the LC should
also have two parts, a band and a location, which are 2 and 4 bits long, respectively.
You should simulate the drum in a 4 16 array of 16-bit integers. The instructions
are, of course, very simple and all have the same format and size. The format is:

size:

OpCode
4

Operand
2+4

next instr.
2+4
=16 bits

The number 16 is a good choice both for a decimal and for a binary computer.
Binary computers use 16-bit words because they equal two bytes. A decimal computer uses 4-bit digits. Therefore, each drum location on such a computer is a few
digits long, 16 bits implying 4 digits.
We start with just a few instructions but, since there is room for an instruction
set of up to 16 instructions, you might want to add more instructions of your own
design.
Mnemonic Operand Next
fetch
Instr. Note
ADD
LOD
STO
COM
BPL
HLT

4
2
2
4
3
-

5
1
1
3
3
-

1
2

Notes:
1. it does not matter what COM does. It could be compare, complement, or
anything else.
2. If the acc is 0 then go to the next instruction, else go to to the instruction
whose address is in the operand fetch eld.
The operand-fetch column indicates the distance, on the drum, between an
instruction and its operand. The next intruction column indicates the distance between the operand and the next instruction. There should also be the directives END,
DC, DS. Each instruction may have, in addition to its operand, a symbol indicating

226 Loaders

Ch. 7

its successor, thus a JMP instruction is not necessary. Example:

LOD A,X
.
.
ADD B

The LOD instruction is assembled with the address of the ADD as its successor.
Before implementing the assembler-loader, it is necessary to understand the
way our drum operates. We will consider three cases, each to be implemented
separately.
Case 1. The drum has just one head which starts at band 0, location 0 and
advances to the next address in each clock cycle. The address following (0,15) is
(1,0) which means that, when the head reaches the end of a band, it automatically
moves to the start of the next band. In such a case, when an instruction is loaded
at address (x,13) and its execution time is 4, the ideal location for its successor
is (x+1,1). If this location is occupied, the assembler should advance and test
successive locations until it nds an empty one. We will assume, for the sake of
simplicity, that our test programs are short and can never overow the drum.

Exercise 7.13 How do you know if a drum location is occupied?

Case 2. As before, the only dierence being that address (x,15) is followed by
(x,0). We assume that the head does not automatically move from band to band
and, as a result, the program has to specify a head move. This is done simply by
specifying another band as the address of the operand or of the next instruction.
Assume that an instruction at address (x,13) takes 4 units to execute. The ideal
address of the next instruction is therefore (x,1) but, if this address is occupied,
it is better to load the next instruction in address (y,1) than in address (x,2). We
assume here that it is faster for the head to move to any band y than to wait in the
same band until the drum rotates to the next location.
Case 3. Similar to the 650 computer. Our drum now has 4 heads, one for
each band, positioned such that when one is above address (0,5) the other ones
are above addresses (1,5), (2,5), (3,5). Only one head can be read at any time.
If something should be placed in location (0,5) and that location is occupied, the
assembler should try locations (1,5), (2,5), (3,5), then (0,6), etc.
Your task is to write an assembler-loader to assemble and load several test
programs into such a drum. It is interesting to note that such an assembler has no
problem with future symbols and thus does not need two passes. The assembler has
a symbol table (located, of course, on the drum) where each label is stored with its
value (a drum address). A situation such as

LOD A,X
.
.
ADD B

Sec. 7.13

Review Questions and Projects

227

can be easily handled even though X is a future symbol. On reading the rst line
from the source, the assembler searches the symbol table and, if it does not nd
X, assumes that X is a future symbol. Since this is an unconditional jump, the ADD
instruction is the successor of the LOD and thus the assembler determines its address
(x,y)which is also the value of Xfrom the third column of the OpCode table.
The address of the ADD is known, even though it has not been read from the source
yet. The assembler then stores X in the symbol table, which amounts to reserving
address (x,y). Later, when the ADD is read from the source, the assembler nds X in
the symbol table. This also means that, before storing any instruction in address
(x,y), the assembler should verify that the address is not reserved for any future
instruction.
A conditional branch poses another problem. In a case like

BPL
SUB
.
ADD

the assembler uses the OpCode table to nd out where to place the SUB and ADD
instructions. The relevant entry is BPL 3 5, which means that the SUB instruction
should be placed 3 locations from the BPL, and the ADD, 5 locations from the SUB.
There is no need, of course, to actually simulate the execution of the test
programs. Rather, you should gather information on the way the program is loaded.
The most important items to be evaluated are:
The number of preoccupied drum locations encountered while assembling and
loading instructions.
The total execution time lost because of instructions placed in less than ideal
drum addresses.
The same thing for operands. Note that the DC, DS directives specify constants
and arrays as part of the test program. Those should, of course, be placed on the
drum, but where? In a case such as

LOD A
.
ADD A
.
DC
5

the assembler places A on the drum when it encounters the rst usage of A (the LOD
instruction). This means that the ADD instruction will have its operand placed unfavorably and, as a result, would execute slowly. When a DS directive is encountered,
the assembler should place the array wherever it nds room on the drum. This
implies that any instruction using the array as its operand would execute slowly.

228 Loaders

Ch. 7

I should not dare to be so sad

So many years again
A load is rst impossible
when we have put it down

Emily Dickinson, I should not dare to be so sad, (1871)

I had to load up very carefully.

Alan Harrington The white Rainbow, 1981

8. A Survey of Some
Modern Assemblers

Four modern assemblers are reviewed in this chapter, and their main features
described. They are all two-pass, sophisticated macro assemblers, and each is part
of a complete development system including a debugger, loader and compilers. They
are:
The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) for the Intel 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors.
The Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM) for the same processors.
The VAX Macro assembler.
The MPW assembler for the Macintosh computer.
They all support many directives and advanced features. In principle they work
just like the older assemblers, but in practice they dier in a number of points, the
most notable of which are:
The way expressions are evaluated. Older assemblers normally calculate an expression such as 3 + 2 4 strictly from left to right, and will end up with 20. The
assemblers described here use the normal operator precedence, and will produce 11
as the value of this expression.

230 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

The structure of the MDT. Older assemblers typically require macros to be

uniquely dened. Some allow multiple denitions of the same macro, and then
search the MDT backwards, so they always nd the most recent denition. The
assemblers described here behave dierently in this respect. Thay actually make
it possible to delete a macro from the MDT, thereby freeing up space for new
denitions.
Deleting a macro is done by changing its denition to the null string. This is
fast since there is no need to change any pointers. When a macro is redened, its
old denition is eectively deleted by changing it to the null string. This opens up
space in the MDT, space that can be used for another macro, of the same size or
smaller. After many denitions and deletions, the MDT can become fragmented;
there may be a lot of free space available in it, but only in small chunks. A really
sophisticated assembler may be able to compact the MDT at such a point. This
requires moving macro denitions around and changing pointers. In these days of
large memories, such a thing hardly seems worth the eort.

8.1 The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)

This assembler (Ref. 102) is the standard by which all other assemblers for the
IBM PC are measured. It has gone through several versions, adding features and
shedding bugs in the process. It is part of a sophisticated development system that
consists of an editor, a cross-reference generator, a librarian, a linker, a debugger
(CodeView), and several compilers.
8.1.1 The 80x86 & 80x88 microprocessors
MASM is actually an assembler for the Intel 80x86 and 80x88 family of microprocessors, including the 80x87 coprocessors. Before delving into the details of
MASM, a few words about this important family are in order.
The 8086 was developed by Intel as a 16-bit microprocessor. It was very successful and led to the development of other, 16- and 32-bit microprocessors. Because
of the huge investment in software development, all those microprocessors were developed as a family, which means that they had to be upward compatible with the
8086. The 8086 can address a megabyte of memory, and was designed for a singleuser environment (we say that it runs in real mode only). No memory protection
exists.
The 8088 diers from the 8086 in that it has an 8-bit data bus. It moves a
16-bit word in two halves, and is therefore somewhat slower than the 8086.
The 80186 has a few additional instructions and runs faster than the 8086.
There is also an 80188.
The 80286 is faster than the 80186, can address 16 megabytes (224 ), and was
designed for a multi-user environment. It is possible to load several user programs
in memory, and switch the processor between them. The 80286 supports memory
protection and privileged instructions, and can run in either real mode or protected
mode (multi-user). The older IBM PC, XT & AT computers can only run in real

Sec. 8.1

The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)

231

mode. The newer PS/2 computers can run in protected mode. There are no 80288
or 80388 processors.
The 80386 has 32-bit registers, and can be used as either a 16-bit or a 32-bit
processor. It can address up to 4 gigabyte (232 ) of memory. It supports virtual
memory, multiple processes, and additional instructions to handle its new features.
It is also faster than the 80286.
The 8087, 80287 & 80387 coprocessors can all operate on oating-point, decimal, and large integers. They can perform arithmetic operations, and compute
several common functions, such as sine & logarithm. The main dierence between
them is that the 80287 can also function in the protected mode, and the 80387, in
addition, supports several new operations.
One important feature of all members of the family is the way they address
memory. They create 16-bit addresses (except the 80386, which creates 32-bit ones),
so they can directly address only 64Kbytes of memory. A larger memory has to be
divided into several 64Kbyte segments. In such a memory, a physical address has
the form segment:oset, where the segment part comes from one of the segment
registers and the oset part comes from the instruction. Addresses now have to be
mapped, i.e., the nal (physical) address has to be computed from the two parts.
The mapping details are important to the assembly language programmer, and any
assembler for this family should support directives to handle segments. It should
be noted that segments have a lot of overlap, and are thus a source of confusion.
Ref. 57 is a good source of information on 80x86 memory segmentation.
Now back to MASM. An important MASM feature is the ability to maintain
a library of pre-assembled programs. These can easily be located by the librarian,
and loaded and linked with any new program.
8.1.2 MASM options
MASM is invoked by the MASM command, which species the names of all les
involved (source, object, listing, and cross reference) and can select many options.
Following is a list of some interesting or unusual options.
Many options are available for the command line, so the /H option helps the user
by displaying them all on the screen. The result of the command masm /h ... is:
Usage:

masm /options source(.asm),[out(.obj)],[list(.lst)],[cref(.crf)][;]

/a Alphabetize segments
/c Generate cross-reference
/d Generate pass 1 listing
/D<sym>[=<val>] Define symbol
/e Emulate floating point instructions and IEEE format
/I<path> Search directory for include files
/l[a] Generate listing, a-list all
/M{ lxu}Preserve case of labels: l-All, x-Globals, u-Uppercase Globals
/n Suppress symbol tables in listing
/p Check for pure code

232 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

/s Order segments sequentially

/t Suppress messages for successful assembly
/v Display extra source statistics
/w{ 012}Set warning level: 0-None, 1-Serious, 2-Advisory
/X List false conditionals
/z Display source line for each error message
/Zi Generate symbolic information for CodeView
/Zd Generate line-number information

A pass-1 listing can be created by the /d option. Since pass 1 does not handle
future symbols, the listing will ag those symbols as undened, in addition to other
pass 1 errors. Chapter 5 features a sample MASM listing with the pass-1 errors
shown.

Exercise 8.1 What exactly does the /d option mean?

A pass 1-listing can be useful for locating phase errors. Those are errors stemming from pass 1 assumptions that turn out to be wrong in pass 2. They are
discussed in Ch. 1.
The same letter, /D (upper case), is another option, used to dene symbols and
assign them values. The symbol may then aect the results of the assembly. A typical example is the command MASM /Dwidth /Dopt=5. . . . It creates the symbols
width (with a null value) and opt (with a value of 5). The source code may include
conditional assembly directives to test the values of those symbols, and assemble
the program dierently. The rst of the two tests below:

optv
optv

ifdef
page
endif
..
..
if
db
else
db
endif

width
60,130

opt LT 10
opt
10

will check symbol width and, since it is dened (on the command line), will execute
the page 60,130 directive, limiting the height of a listing page to 60 lines and its
width, to 130 characters. The second if will execute the optv db opt directive
and skip the optv db 10. This is an typical example of late binding.
The /MU option tells MASM to convert all names read from the source le to
upper case. The /ML option means MASM is to be case sensitive (names such as
segment & Segment should be considered dierent). The /MX option directs MASM
to make only public and external names case sensitive.

Sec. 8.1

The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)

233

The /V (for verbose) and /T (for terse) options control the amount of listing
produced.
The /W option restricts the assembler to report only the more serious warnings.
Warnings are issued for ambiguous, inecient, or unclear instructions that are not
illegal and can be assembled.
8.1.3 MASM listing
The listing produced by MASM contains the source and object codes, the LC
values, and the source le line numbers. The line numbers are used by the debugger
to direct the user to oending lines. In addition, certain tables can optionally be
listed, giving information about the macros, the structures and records, and the
groups and segments used in the program. In addition to that, things such as the
symbol table, pass-1 listing, and assembly statistics, can also be listed. A special
utility, CREF, can be used to generate the cross reference information. Chapter 5
contains examples of MASMs pass 1 & pass 2 listings, and a cross-reference.
8.1.4 MASM source line format
The only thing unusual about the source line format in MASM is that only
labels of instructions need to terminate with a :. Labels of directives dont require
a :. Lines are written in free format and may start in column 1 even if there is no
label.
8.1.5 MASM directives
MASM supports more than 50 directives. Some directive names must start
with a period, but there does not seem to be any consistency. A few of the more
interesting or unusual ones are described here.
The DF (Dene Far) directive allocates 6 bytes in memory. It is normally used on
the 80386 to store a pointer.
A question mark ? is used to indicate a zero-value, and the notation (?)
indicates undened value. Thus x db ?,?,? allocates 3 bytes with zeros, while
y db 3 dup(?) allocates 3 undened bytes.
The public directive declares symbols to be entry points. In most assemblers
this directive is called entry. The comm directive declares symbols to be communal
(both an external and an entry point). Such a thing is normally done when a
variable should be shared by several modules. The variable is declared communal
(typically with other such variables) in a module which then becomes an include
le. The le is included in all the other modules. An alternative is to declare such
a variable public in one source module and external in all the other ones.
The two directives if1 and if2, evaluate to true in pass 1 and pass 2, respectively
(see example in Ch. 5).
The ifdef directive evaluates to true if its operand is a dened name (if it appears
in the symbol table). A future symbol is undened in pass 1, but there are no future

234 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

symbols in pass 2. Any undened symbol in pass 2 is really undened (an error).
A similar directive, .errndef, performs the same test and also generates an error
if the symbol is undened.
The equal sign = is used for redenable symbols (many assemblers use SET for
the same purpose). Thus x=0 can be followed by x=x+1. The equ directive is
used, as usual, for symbols that should be uniquely dened. Note that on MASM,
such symbols can have character strings as well as numeric, values.
The words short, near & far are directives but, since they are used dierently
from other directives, they are called operators. An instruction using the relative
mode has an oset eld for the relative address. On the 80x86 microprocessors,
such an instruction has three versionswith osets of 1-, 2-, and 4 bytescalled
short, near and far, respectively. When such an instruction refers to a future
symbol, the assembler does not know which of the 3 versions to use, and how much
room to reserve for the instruction in pass 1. The user may help the assembler by
using one of the operators above. Thus if dest is a future symbol, the instruction
jmp near dest would be assembled with a 2-byte oset. A short means an 1-byte
oset, and a fara 4-byte one.
When no operator is specied, the assembler reserves room (in pass 1) for a
near oset. If this turns out to be too much (only 1 byte is needed), the extra byte
is padded with a nop instruction. If, on the other hand, 2 bytes turn out not to
be enough (the destination is far), a phase error is generated by pass 2, and the
program has to be reassembled.
8.1.6 MASM expressions
MASM can handle expressions with many operators. Operands must be absolute, except that the binary + operator can operate on one absolute and one
relative operand, and the binary - operator can, in addition to that, be used to
subtract two relative operands (but only if they are located in the same segment).
Indexing is denoted by square brackets, and there can be several of them in
the same expression. Thus mov ah,array[bx][di] is valid.
Expressions can be shifted by the shl & shr operators. They are not the
80x86 shift instructions (even though they have the same name), and are executed
at assembly time. A typical example is mov ax,01010001b shl 3 which moves
the binary number 01010001000 into register ax.
The not, and, or & xor logical operators can be used in expressions, and are
thus executed at assembly time. Again, they should not be confused with the 80x86
instructions (which happen to have the same names).
Relational operators are allowed. The instruction mov ax,2 eq 4 moves the
value zero (false) to ax (a value of 1 corresponds to true).
A $ is used for the LC value. Thus the following is very common:

Sec. 8.1

The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM)

labelA
labelB

db
db
equ

235

"a long string whose size "

" needs to be known."
$-labelA

and equates the value of labelB with the length of the string.
The normal is operator precedence is used, and parentheses can be employed
to modify it. There is also strong typing for operands. The seemingly innocent
instruction mov ax,sors[1] can cause a warning if symbol sors is dend as a
byte (sors db 123). This is because ax is a register, and thus of type word.
The instruction will be assembled and will move the two bytes starting at sors to
register ax. This may or may not be what the user wants, and it is an example of
a confusing instruction.
8.1.7 MASM macros
As can be expected, MASM supports an extensive macro facility. Macros can
have many parameters (as many as will t on one line), both macro expansions
and macro denitions can be nested, and an extensive set of conditional assembly
directives permits recursive macros. Macros can be redened and even deleted
(with the purge directive) from the MDT, to make room for new denitions. An
interesting point is that a macro can purge itself, but the purge command must be
the last line of the macro.
In addition to macros, powerful directives such as irp can be used to create
copies of blocks of code (repeat blocks) that depend on parameters. A common
example is:
FiveInts

label
irp
db
endm

byte
p,<0,1,2,3,4>
5 dup(p)

which also demonstrates the use of the label directive.

8.2 The Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)

The Borland Turbo Assembler (referred to as TASM) is an example of a fast,
sophisticated, multi-pass assembler for the Intel 80x86, 80x88 family of 16-bit microprocessors. It is described in reference [99]. Perhaps its most interesting feature
is that it is multi-pass, but can be limited by the user to a certain, maximum,
number of passes. It is shown below that certain forward references require three
passes to generate optimum code. If TASM is limited to just one- or two-passes, it
works faster but may generate less than optimal results.
Other important features of TASM are: high speed (close to 50000 lines per
minute is claimed by Borland literature on fast IBM PS/2 models); support of memory segmentation; support of structures, records, and unions; local labels; support
for Turbo debugger, and a full macro facility.

236 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

TASM is invoked with the TASM command where the user can specify certain
options. Among them is the maximum number of passes. Thus the command
TASM \m1 test invokes the assembler, limits the number of passes to 1, and supplies the name of the input le test.asm. This makes sense if fast assembly is
important, and the user knows that there will be no complex forward references.
8.2.1 Special TASM features
Below is a summary of some of the special or unusual features of TASM.
Source le format: Source lines have a free format, a backslash \ indicates that
there will be a continuation line, and a ; precedes a comment. An interesting
aspect of the source line format is the labels. A label appearing on a line by itself
must terminate with a :. The same is true for a label that labels an instruction.
However, when a directive is labeled, no : is needed. Thus the following lines are
all valid:
StartLongLoop:
add ax,dx
l: jmp done
Token

dw

This makes it somewhat easier to write the program, but makes it harder for the
assembler to recognize labels.
No special syntax is used on the source lines for the immediate mode. The int
instruction (which causes an articial interrupt) does not use the immediate mode,
so int 21h causes an interrupt to address 2116 . The mov instruction, on the other
hand, uses the immediate mode, so mov cx,100 moves the decimal constant 100
to register cx. Because of the way memory is organized into segments, there is no
absolute mode on the 80x86 microprocessors. It is possible to reach any absolute
address by selecting the segment where the address is located.
Expressions. TASM supports expressions with nested parentheses, and logical and
relational operators. There is operator precedence, and there are many operators.
Extended call. TASM has been written by Borland International, a company
known for its Turbo compilers. As a result, the TASM call instruction has been
extended to allow easy interface with Turbo Pascal and Turbo C. A call instruction
can specify any of these languages, and arguments will be passed in a consistent
manner.
Extended push and pop. These instructions have been extended to allow for more
than one operand. Thus things such as push cx dx, pop dx cx will each handle
two registers.
Predened variables. The following names can be used to get useful information about the current assembly run. ??date, ??time, ??filename, ??version.
They are self explainable.

Sec. 8.2

The Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)

237

8.2.2 TASM local labels

The concept of a local label has been discussed in Ch. 1. In TASM, a local
label should start with @@ and its scope is limited by any regular label. Thus in the
code section:
a: add ax,dx
@@dest inc bx
..
add ax,dx
jz
@@dest
and al,dl
l: jmp done
..
@@dest adc dx,bx
the jz will jump to the inc instruction and not to the adc. There is a nolocals
directive to disable local labels. Also, when TASM is used in MASM mode, local
labels are disabled (since MASM does not support them) and can be explicitly
enabled by the locals directive.
8.2.3 Automatic jump-sizing
The conditional jump instructions on the 8086 microprocessor have a 1-byte
relative jump address. As a result, such an instruction is very short (only two bytes
long), but can jump only within the range of 256 bytes centered on itself. Thus
when a jz dest is necessary, and dest is out of range, the programmer has to
replace it with:
dest: ..
..
..
jnz tmp
jmp dest
tmp:
..
..
(The opposite of jz, followed by a jmp.) The jmp instruction is 3-bytes long and can
jump anywhere. The problem is that the programmer cannot always tell beforehand
what the exact jump distance is and whether such a construct is necessary. The
alternatives in such a case are:
1. Write the conditional jump as above, perhaps wasting 3 bytes and the time
required to execute the jmp.
2. Write just the conditional jump and wait for an error message from the
assembler. This has the disadvantage that, after adding some instructions to a
working program, the distance between the conditional jump instruction and its
destination may suddenly become too large, causing an unexpected error message
(relative jump out of range).
3. Use the jumps directive. When this directive is in force (its eect can be
nullied by the nojumps directive), TASM will check each conditional jump and,

238 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

if it is out of range, will automatically replace it by its opposite conditional jump,

followed by a jmp.
This is an attractive alternative and an example of a powerful directive. It is
called automatic jump-sizing. It works perfectly for conditional jumps backward,
but cannot always work for forward jumps. The reason is that TASM is sometimes
limited, by the user, to just one pass. Obviously, a one-pass assembler cannot tell
the jump distance for a forward jump. In the case of a forward jump, the best that
TASM can do is to reserve 5 bytes and wait until it reaches the destination of the
jump. At that point it either creates the construct above (if the range is too large)
or it creates the necessary conditional jump, followed by three nop instructions.
Even a two-pass assembler cannot handle such a case. Recall that the rst pass
has to do all the memory allocation and assign LC values to all instructions. When
the rst pass gets to a forward jump instruction, the jump distance is unknown.
Therefore, the best that a two-pass assembler can do is to allocate 5 bytes, increment
the LC by 5, and continue.
It requires at least three passes to always handle automatic jump-sizing without
creating unnecessary nop instructions. The rst pass assigns tentative LC values,
just to determine all the jump distances. The second pass knows the jump distances,
so it knows whether to allocate 2- or 5 bytes to each conditional jump. The second
pass thus assigns the nal LC values. The third pass does the actual assembly. (If
two or more jump ranges overlap, more than three passes may be necessary, and
the entire process may become very complicated.)
The result is that, while a program is being debugged, it makes sense to limit
TASM to one or two passes, for fast assembly. When a program is considered ready
for production runs, it should be assembled once, allowing several passes, to end up
with optimized code.
As an alternative, jumps, nojumps pairs may be used to enable automatic
jump-sizing in certain parts of the program and disable it in other, more critical,
parts.
8.2.4 Forward references to code and data
The forward referencing problem in TASM is general and not limited to conditional jumps. The unconditional jmp instruction, e.g., has several varieties. The
jmp short with a 1-byte opcode and a 1-byte oset; the jmp near with a 1-byte
opcode and a 2-byte address, and the jmp far with a 1-byte opcode and a 4-byte
oset, If TASM is limited to one- or two passes, then it reserves three bytes for each
jmp. Eventually these bytes are either lled with a jmp near or with a jmp short
followed by a nop. If it turns out that a jmp far is needed, an error results and
reassembly is necessary.
The user can help TASM create better code if he can estimate the distances
involved. The user can always write jmp short x or jmp far y, which will
create the specied version of jmp.

Sec. 8.2

The Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)

239

A similar problem exists with other instructions. The mov instruction, e.g.,
has a 4-byte version that can hold a full address, and a 2-byte version that can
hold a small constant. When TASM reads a source line such as mov bl,abc, and
nds that abc hasnt been dened yet, it assembles the mov as a 4-byte instruction,
assuming that abc will turn out to be a normal label. If abc turns out to be a
constant (e.g., abc equ 5), then the short version of mov is created, followed by
two nop instructions.
8.2.5 Conclusions:
The programmer should develop a style that minimizes forward references. Arrays and other variables should be declared at the start of the program. Also,
subprograms should precede the main program.
While the program is in the debugging stages, the programmer should allow for
one- or two passes, and be prepared for less than optimum code generated. When
the program is deemed clean of bugs, it should be assembled one more time, allowing
for more passes. The resulting code should be optimum.
8.2.6 TASM macros
TASM supports a sophisticated macro facility, including:
Conditional assembly (there are if, else, endif and exit directives, as well as
a few more, just for this purpose).
Local labels (a label dened as local in a certain macro will be assigned a local
name of the form ??0001, ??0002, etc.).
Nested macro expansions and denitions.
8.2.7 The Ideal mode
TASM was designed as a competitor to the MASM assembler. It has a very
high degree of compatibility and can assemble almost all MASM programs without
any changes. However, to successfully compete with MASM, TASM has powerful
features that are grouped under the name ideal mode. A program can use either
the MASM mode or the ideal mode and can even switch between the two by means
of the ideal and masm directives. Here are a few examples of ideal mode features:
A cleaner syntax. An example is the MASM instruction mov ax,[bx][si]
which uses bx+si as an index. In the ideal mode, the same instruction is written
mov ax,[bx+si].
Powerful operators. The high operator is usually used to select the high-order
byte of a word or a constant. In the ideal mode, it can also select the high part of
an index. Thus saying mov al,high abc moves the high-order byte of the word
at address abc to register al, whereas mov al,[high abc] moves the high-order
part of the address abc to the same register.
Simpler directive names. The MASM directive .radix, e.g., is named radix in
the ideal mode.

240 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

8.2.8 TASM directives

Most directives are not explicitly identied as such to TASM, but some have to
start with a period. Here are some interesting and unusual directives and notation
supported by TASM:
The union directive allows two variables to share the same memory area. It is
similar to the union statement in the C programming language. The rst step is
to dene a data type such as debit by:
debit
small
large
debit

union
db
dw
ends

?
?

The next step is to declare an actual variable of type debit by, e.g.:
joe@debt debit <?,?>. When this is done, joe@debt becomes a word in memory shared by the two variables [email protected] (a byte) and [email protected]
(a word).
The ? symbol indicates an uninitialized memory location. Thus abc dw 10
preloads the word at address abc with the constant 10, while xyz dw ? just reserves one word at xyz. An example is the directive ghk dw 20 dup (?) which
duplicates dw (?) 20 times, and results in an array ghk of 20 uninitialized words.
The align directive increments the LC to the specied power of 2. Thus align 8
will increment the LC to the nearest multiple of 8, and will insert as many nop
instructions as necessary to pad up the empty bytes created.

8.3 The VAX Macro Assembler

This is a powerful, two-pass, macro assembler (Ref. 100) for the VAX assembler
language (also called Macro language). The name Macro now becomes ambiguous; it leads to statements such as: . . . and I got two errors in my ABC macro in my
Macro program just assembled by VAX Macro assembler. To reduce ambiguity,
the notation Macro is used here for the assembler (and the language).
8.3.1 Special Macro features
The command line options: The assembler is invoked by the macro command.
Many options may be specied on the line, the most interesting (not necessarily
important) of which are:
addrsize size. This sets the addresses displayed in the listing le to size digits
(typically 4 or 5).
check. No object le is generated. The assembler does a syntax check only.
font fontname, fontsize. Sets the font used in the listing le to the one specied.
print noobj. Creates a short listing (which does not include the object code).

Sec. 8.3

The VAX Macro Assembler

241

w. Suppress warning messages. The wb option suppresses branch warning messages only.
The source line format: Labels end with a :. Labels dened by Digital Equipment Corp. (the manufacturer of the VAX computers) start with a $. A label
can also end with a ::, which declares it external. There is also an .extrn directive that serves the same purpose. Comments start with a ;. A hyphen typed
as the last non-space character before the comment indicates that there will be a
continuation line.
Special characters used by Macro are:
An equal sign = is the equate operator (EQU on most assemblers). The notation
abc==12 assigns the value 12 to abc and also declares abc an external symbol.
The at-sign @ indicates a deferred (indirect) mode; square brackets [] indicate
the index mode.
The logical AND, OR and exclusive OR operations are indicated by a & !, and
\, respectively.
The circumex ^ indicates a unary operator, and is also used as a macro delimiter
argument.
The angle brackets <> indicate argument or expression grouping.
The percent sign % indicates a macro string operator.
Examples are:
1. The expression #^M<R1,R3,R6> means an immediate operand which is a
register mask (the unary operator M) for registers 1, 3 and 6.
2. ^C^XFF. This indicates the complement of the hexadecimal value FF (or,
more precisely, the 32-bit hex value 000000FF). The result is the 32-bit hex value
FFFFFF00.
8.3.2 Data types
This is an important concept on the VAX, and has to be constantly kept
in mind when writing an assembler program. The VAX hardware supports data
types of dierent sizes. Bytes, words (2 bytes), longwords (4 bytes), quadwords (8
bytes), and octawords (16 bytes). There are also 4 dierent formats of oating point
numbers. Most instructions have special versions to handle these types (or some
of them), and the programmer has to be careful to specify the right data type in
instructions. There are, e.g., the following instructions to move data: movb, movw,
movl, movq and movo.

242 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

8.3.3 Local labels

They are supported and have the format nn$ where nn is a 16-bit number.
Local labels are only valid in their block, and the block can be terminated by:
A user-dened label.
The .psect directive. This directive is used to divide the program up into blocks
with dierent accesss codes that may be loaded into separate memory areas.
The .enable .disable directives. They are used, among other things, to dene
local blocks overriding user-dened labels and .psect directives.
8.3.4 Macro directives
All directives start with a period. Macro supports more than 80 directives!
They are classied into 19 categories, eight of which are directives for handling
macros. Some interesting or unusual directives are:
.debugAny symbols declared with this directive are made known to the VAX
debugger. In an interactive session, the user can refer to those symbols by name,
in order to get their current values from the debugger.
.defaultThe directive .default displacement,word means that any instruction using the relative or relative deferred modes and a future symbol, will
be allocated a word for the displacement. This is a general problem and is not specic to the VAX. Without this directive, pass 1 of the assembler does not know how
large the relative distance (the displacement) is going to be, so it has to allocate
the largest size.
.enableThis directive can enable certain options. An example is:
.enable local block,global. This starts a block of local labels, and also species that all undened symbols should be considered external. (If such a symbol
turns out to be undened, the linker will complain.)
.mdeleteDeletes a macro denition from the MDT, freeing memory for new
denitions.

Sec. 8.3

The VAX Macro Assembler

243

8.3.5 Macros
The VAX Macro assembler supports an extensive macro facility. Macros can
have local labels, and can use both positional and keyword arguments. There are
extensive string-manipulation functions that can handle string arguments. Nested
macros are allowed, and the following short example is a useful application of nested
macro denition:
.macro
movl

for reg,from,to,?lab
#from,rreg

.macro
incl
cmpl
blss
.endm
.endm

endfor
rreg
rreg,#to
lab
endfor
for

lab:

It can be used to implement the high-level construct for in asembler. Macro for
generates a mov instruction, declares label lab, and them denes macro endfor.
That macro incremenst the loop counter, compares it to the nal value and, if
necessary, branches back to the same label. Note the notation ?lab which means
that lab is a local label.
8.3.6 Addressing modes
The VAX computer has 24 addressing modes, and Macro uses a special notation to select them. Table 81 is a summary of all the VAX addressing modes.
Of special interest is the assembler syntax used. It ranges from simple (the register mode and relative mode have the simplest syntax) to complex (the longword
displacement deferred mode, with the syntax @L^dis(Rn) is perhaps the most complex).

8.4 The Macintosh MPW Assembler

The Macintosh Programmers Workshop (MPW) is a powerful development
environment for the Macintosh computer. It consists of an editor, assembler, linker,
debugger, several compilers, a resource editor and compiler, and various utilities.
The MPW assembler [103] is a powerful, 2-pass, modern assembler, supporting
many directives. It can assemble code for the 680x0 microprocessors and for the
68881 oating-point coprocessor, and the 68851 paged memory management unit
(PMMU). Its main features are:
Powerful macros (closely resembling the macro facility of the IBM 360, 370 assemblers). Both positional and keyword parameters are supported. Also supported
are nested macros, conditional assembly and SET symbols (whose values can be numeric, characters, strings, or arrays). Macros are dened and expanded in pass 1.
There is no separate pass 0.

244 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Mode Syntax

Name

Ch. 8

Eective Address

Index
base?

General register addressing

03
4
5
6
7
8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F

S^#N
b[Rn]
Rn
(Rn)
-(Rn)
(Rn)+
@(Rn)+
B^D(Rn)
@B^D(Rn)
W^D(Rn)
@W^D(Rn)
L^D(Rn)
@L^D(Rn)

Short literal
Index
Register
Register deferred
Autodecrement
Autoincrement
Autoincrement deferred
Byte displacement
Byte displacement deferred
Word displacement
Word displacement deferred
Longword displacement
Longword displacement deferred

None. Operand is N
c(b+sRn)
None. Operand is in Rn
c(Rn)
RnRn-s, EA=c(Rn)
EA=c(Rn), RnRn+s
EA=c(c(Rn)), RnRn+4
c(Rn+D)
c(c(Rn+D))
c(Rn+D)
c(c(Rn+D))
c(Rn+D)
c(c(Rn+D))

N
N
N
Y
?
?
?
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

Program counter addressing

8
9
A
B
C
D
E
F

I^#N
@#A
B^A
@B^A
W^A
@W^A
L^A
@L^A

Immediate
Absolute
Byte relative
Byte relative deferred
Word relative
Word relative deferred
Longword relative
Longword relative deferred

None. Operand is N
A
A=c(PC+D)
c(A)=c(c(PC+D))
A=c(PC+D)
c(A)=c(c(PC+D))
A=c(PC+D)
c(A)=c(c(PC+D))

Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y

Notes:
The operand is the contents of the EA, except where there is no EA
N
Absolute (literal number)
c(...)
contents of mem loc. ...
b
Index mode base address
s
operand size, dependent on operation context:
s=1,2,4,8,16 according as the operation is a byte, word,. . . octaword
?
Yes, provided that Rn is not the index register
D
Displacement. If byte or word, sign is extended to a longword
A
Memory address
Table 81. Summary of the VAX Addressing Modes
Either one or several object les can be created.
Code & data modules are generated.
Templates can be dened, that are similar to Pascal records.

Sec. 8.4

The Macintosh MPW Assembler

245

Local labels, both inside and outside macros, can be used.

Optimized instruction selection (an option).
Easy interface to the Macintosh toolbox routines.
Three types of strings are supported: Pascal-formatted, C-formatted, and xedlength.
8.4.1 Modules
Pass 1 creates three symbol tables: A global onefor symbols dened outside
any code or data modules; a macro symbol tablefor macro symbols and macro
denitions (this is the MDT); and a local symbol tablefor symbols dened inside
code or data modules.
The program is divided into modules that are assembled separately and appended to the object le. Each module is a contiguous piece of instructions or data
and, ideally, should be small enough to t entirely in memory. Labels declared in
the module can either be local (to the module) or global. They can also be exported
to other object les (meaning they can be external) or imported from other object
les. The words IMPORT, EXPORT are directives.
Pass 1 translates a module, as it is being read, into postx notation, and stores
this in memory, with its local symbol table. (If the postx module is too big, part
of it is written on a disk, but this increases the assembly time considerably.) Pass 2
assembles the postx from memory and appends the results to the object le. The
local symbol table is then erased.
The linker can read several object les, each with several modules. It groups all
the data modules together and all the code modules together. They end up being
loaded in memory as two separate units.
A module must start with one of the directives PROC, FUNC, MAIN or RECORD. It
must end with one of ENDP, ENDF, ENDM or ENDR.
Local labels are called @-labels. They must start with an @.
8.4.2 Listing le
A listing le can be created and, if the user selects this option, the assembler
uses a temporary le, the scratch le, to help create the listing.
During assembly, warnings and error messages appear in an active window,
called the diagnostic output window. Optionally, a progress report can also be
displayed. The diagnostic output window can later be saved to a le if necessary.
Source les have a sux of .a, object les, a sux of .o, and listing les, a
sux of .lst.

246 A Survey of Some Modern Assemblers

Ch. 8

8.4.3 Segments
There is also the concept of segments. They are dierent from segments on the
80x86 microprocessors. A 680x0 program can be divided into segments that share
the same memory area. This way a large program, exceeding the entire memory
available, can run one segment at a time. The SEG directive is used to dene
segments.
Source line format. A label must either start at position 1, or be terminated
with a :. A statement without a label must start at position 2 or later. Comments
are preceded by a ;. Fields are separated by a space or tab. Many mnemonics
must specify the data type of the operands. Valid types are:
Specier Type
Size
B
W
L
S
D
S
D
X
P

Byte
Word
Long word
Short
Double long word
Single precision
Double precision
Extended
Packed BCD

8 bits
16 bits
32 bits
8-bit signed offset (in the range of 128 . . . + 127)
64 bits. For use with 68851 only
32-bit IEEE floating-point format. For 68881 only
64-bit as above
96-bit as above
96-bit packed characters for f.p. strings.
For 68881 only

Table 82. 680x0 Data Types

8.4.4 Expressions & literals
Expressions are permitted and may be absolute or relative. Many operators
are valid and operator precedence is used. Parentheses may be nested to a depth
of 20.
Literals. Two important 680x0 instructions, PEA and LEA do not operate in
the immediate mode. Since these instructions are used for passing parameters to
procedures, it is desirable to use them in this mode. For this reason the MPW
assembler allows literals to be used with these instruction. The user simply says
PEA #5.W and the assembler prepares the literal 5 (as a word) in a literal pool,
and assembles the instruction with the address of the 5 as the operand. Literals are
described in Ch. 1.
8.4.5 Directives
As usual, we mention a few interesting directives.
The EXPORT directive declares a label as global (external) in all the object les
loaded. The IMPORT directive declares a label as an entry point to all object les in
a load. The ENTRY directive is more limited. It declares a label as an entry point
to all the modules of the same object le.

Sec. 8.4

The Macintosh MPW Assembler

247

The MACHINE directive must come with one of the following operands: MC68000,
MC68010, MC68020, MC68030. It identies the specic 680x0 microprocessor used to
the assembler.
The STRING directive should have one of the operands ASIS, PASCAL, C. It tells
the assembler how to prepare character strings.
The BRANCH & FORWARD directives tell the assembler what size to reserve for the
displacements of certain instructions if they refer to a future symbol. The BRANCH
directive relates to branch instructions. Its operand can be one of S, B, W, L. The
FORWARD directive relates to instructions in modes 6 and 7. Its operand can be one
of W,L.
There is an OPT directive to tell the assembler what level of optimization is desired. The operand is one of ALL, NONE, NOCLR. An example of optimization is
the SUBA An,An instruction. It clears register An, but a MOV #0,An instruction is
faster. The assembler substitutes it if optimization is required. On certain models
of 680x0, the CLR An is even better but, on other models, it does not produce
identical results. The NOCLR parameter means to optimize but not to substitute
CLR ... for MOV #0,...

Then he surveyed us in a lordly way. . .

Alan Harrington The Revelations of Dr. Modesto, 1955

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Loader, ibid pp. 572581.

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23(1959).
61. Wirth, N., PL360, A Programming Language for the 360 Computers, J. ACM
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62. Barnett, M., Macro Directive Approach to High-Speed Computing, Solid State
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1963.
67. Wagner, R., Assembly Lines, N. Hollywood, CA.: Softalk Publ., 1982.
68. Kane, G., 68000 Microprocessor Handbook, Berkeley, CA.: Osborne/McGrawHill, 1981.
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72. How to use the Nova Computers, Southboro, Mass.: Data General Corp. 1970.
73. Eckhouse, R. H., Minicomputer Systems: Organization and Programming (PDP11), Englewood clis, Prentice-Hall, 1975.
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79. A Pocket Guide to the HP2100 Computer, Cupertino, CA.: Hewlett-Packard,
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93. Organick, E. I., and J. A. Hinds, Interpreting Machines: Architecture and Programming of the B1700/1800 Series, Elsevier, North-Holland, 1978.
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Reference number in brackets, each reference in a separate set of
brackets. Number of reference in boldface type.

Ellen Swanson, Mathematics into Type (1979)

A. Addressing Modes

A.1 Introduction
One of the main tasks in designing a new computer is to design its instruction
set. Machine language is often called low level which means, among other things,
that every hardware feature should have a machine instruction to control or to use
it. The instruction set of a computer thus reects its architecture. This fact has long
been recognized and even serves as the basis for dening the concept of computer
architecture [29]. Designing the instruction set of a new computer is, therefore, an
important task involving many considerations. One important design criterion is
that instructions should be short. This is important because instructions have to
be fetched from memory before they can be executed. A long instruction may have
to be stored in two or even three words in memory, and thus takes two or three
times longer to fetch than a short instruction.
The size of an instruction is determined by the size of the individual elds that
make up the instruction. Of those elds, the operand eld is by far the largest. To
get an idea of the sizes involved, lets look at typical elds in a simple machine instruction. The OpCode is typically 78 bits long, allowing for 128256 instructions.
In modern computers, the OpCode has variable size, averaging 68 bits. A register
eld is typically 36 bits long, reecting the fact that most computers have between
8 and 64 registers. (Some computers have more registers, but an instruction on
such a computer can only access a register from a certain group.) In contrast to

Sec. A.1

Introduction

255

those short elds, the operand eld should contain an address and thus could be
quite long.
Exercise A.1 How can one minimize the size of the OpCode eld?
Up until the mid 1970s, memories were expensive, and computers supported
small memories. A typical size memory in a second generation computer was 16k
32k words, and in an early third generation one, 32k64k words. Today, however,
with much lower hardware prices, modern computers can access much larger memories. Most of the early microprocessors could address 64k words and most of todays
microprocessors can address between 1M and 32M words (normally 8- or 16-bit
words). As a result, those computers must handle long addresses. Since 1M (1
mega) is dened as 1024k = 1024 210 = 220 , an address in a 1M memory is 20 bits
long. In a 32M memory, an address is 25 bits long, since 32M = 25 220 = 225 .
The 68000 microprocessor [68] generates 24-bit addresses. The 80386 microprocessor [69] generates 32-bit addresses, and can thus physically address 4 giga bytes (its
virtual address space is 64 tera bytes, = 246 ). Computers that are on the drawing
boards right now could require much longer addresses.
Lets therefore assume a range of 2024 bits for a typical address size, which
results in the following representative instruction formats:
OpCode
6-8

Reg Operand
3-6
20-24

OpCode
6-8

Reg1
3-6

Reg2 Operand
3-6
20-24

The operand eld takes up about 6070% of the total instruction size, and is thus
the main contributor to long instructions. A good instruction design should result
in much shorter operands, and this is achieved by the use of addressing modes.
An addressing mode is a function, or a rule of calculation, used to calculate the
address. In an instruction set that uses addressing modes, an instruction normally
does not contain the full address (which we will call the eective address or EA),
but rather a short number, called a displacement or an oset, and the mode. The
mode eld is 34 bits long, and the result is the following typical format:
OpCode
6-8

Reg
3-6

Mode
3-4

Displacement
8-10

The operand (the mode and displacement elds) is now 1114 bits long. It is still
the largest eld in the instruction, making up 5055% of the instruction size, but
is considerably shorter. Many instructions do not need an address operand and,
therefore, do not use a mode either. Adding a mode eld, therefore, does not
increase the size of those instructions.
There is, of course, a trade o. If an instruction uses a mode, the EA has
to be calculated before the instruction can be executed, which takes time. This
calculation is done by the hardware, though, so it is fast.
Since the mode is a function, it is possible to write: EA = fm (displacement, . . .)
which implies that the EA is calculated by applying a function f to the displacement

256 Addressing Modes

Append. A

(and to other arguments), and that the function itself depends on the mode m. So
for dierent modes we have dierent functions, dierent ways of calculating the
EA. We will see that those functions depend on things like the PC, index registers,
and the contents of memory locations. The notation EA = fm (displacement, . . .)
therefore illustrates the nature of addressing modes.
Before looking at specic modes, it is important to mention the second property
of addressing modes. They serve to make the machine instructions more powerful.
We will see examples where a single instruction, using a powerful mode, can do the
work of several instructions.

A.2 Examples of Modes

We will start by describing the main addressing modes, and follow by a brief
discussion of less important ones.
The ve main addressing modes, found on all modern computers and many old
ones, are: direct, relative, immediate, index, and indirect.
A.2.1 The Direct mode
When an instruction uses a small address, an address that ts in the displacement eld, there is no need for any calculations and the EA is simply the displacement. This is the direct mode. It is a simple mode and, in the form described here,
used only by absolute assemblers. A typical example is:
LC
0
19

xx

Obj. Code

.
.
..
.
.
MUL A

Opc m dis
xxx 0 19

Since the value of A is a small number, the assembler uses the direct mode
for the MUL instruction. It should again be emphasized that the assembler does not
need to know what the MUL instruction is, how it works, or even the precise meaning
of the direct mode. It follows a simple rule that says: if the value of the symbol is <
the maximum value of the displacement eld, put the symbol in the displacement
eld and set the mode eld to 0 (or whatever the code for direct mode is). This,
however, implies that the instruction cannot be relocated by the loader. Assuming
that the loader decides to load the program starting at address 1000, it would want
to relocate the displacement eld to 1019, which may be too large. This mode is
thus not useful in a relocatable assembler but, as we will see later, certain versions
of it are.
Exercise A.2 What if A is a future symbol. Does that generate a problem for the
assembler?

Sec. A.2

Examples of Modes

257

A.2.2 The Relative mode

Here, the displacement eld is called oset, and is set to the distance between
the instruction and its operand. This is a useful mode that is sometimes automatically selected by the assembler, and not explicitly specied by the programmer. It
also results in an instruction that does not need relocation.
Using the concept of a function mentioned earlier, we can write the denition
of this mode as EA=oset+PC. This means that, at run time, before the instruction can be executed, the hardware has to add the oset and the PC to obtain the
eective address. The hardware can easily do that, but how does the assembler
gure out the oset in the rst place? The expression above can be written as
disp=EA-PC and, since the PC always points to the next instruction,
disp=EA-(LC+size of current instr.)=EA-LC-size of current instr.
In the second pass, the LC contains the address of the current instruction, so
LC+size equals the address of the next one. Since the EA is simply the value
of the symbol used by the instruction, the assembler can calculate the oset and, if
it ts in the displacement eld, store it there and use the relative mode. Example:
LC
0
19

57

Obj. Code
.
.
-.
.
Opc m dis
JMP A xxx 1 -39 =19-57-1

Note that the oset is negative. A little thinking shows that this is always the case
if the operand precedes the instruction. Thus, in this mode, the oset is a signed
number. Since the sign uses one of the oset bits, the maximum value of a signed
oset is only half that of an unsigned one. An unsigned 8-bit oset, for instance,
has the range 0 . . . 255, and a signed one, the range 128 . . . + 127. The ranges are
the same size, but the maximum values arent.
The example above also shows the absolute aspect of this mode. The oset is
essentially the distance between the operand and the instruction, and this distance
does not depend on the start address of the program. We say that this mode
generates position independent code, and an instruction using it should always have
a relocation bit of 0.
A.2.3 The Immediate mode
This mode is used when the instruction needs the value of a constant, not
the contents of a memory location. An ADD instruction is sometimes written as
ADD R3,XY and adds the contents of location XY to register 3. If, however, the
programmer wants to add 67 to register 3, the same instruction can be used in the
immediate mode by saying ADD R3,#67. The number sign # is normally used
to indicate the immediate mode. Assuming that the code of this mode is 2, the

258 Addressing Modes

Append. A

instruction above would be assembled something like this:

Opc
xxx

reg
3

m
2

disp
67

The immediate quantity (the number to be used by the instruction) should be small
enough to t in the displacement eld. This mode always generates an absolute
instruction and is dierent from all the other modes because it does not use any
EA. We say that, in this mode, the operand is in the instruction.
It has been mentioned in chapter 1 that this mode is rarely found in old computers. Assemblers on those computers had to compensate for the lack of this mode
by supporting literals. Today, however, literals are less useful since all new computers support the immediate mode. In fact, some modern computers (notably
the VAX[DEC!VAX] and 68000) have several versions of this mode, for dierent
maximum sizes of the immediate operand.
A.2.4 The Index mode

This mode has been developed to simplify loops. It uses the concept of an index
register which, on some computers, is a special register, but normally can be any
general purpose register. The EA function in this mode is: EA=disp+Index. The
source instruction has to specify this mode explicitly, for example: LOD R1,0(R5).
The displacement is 0 and R5 is used as the index register. Before the loop starts,
R5 should be set to some value, most likely the beginning address of the array.
Each time through the loop, R5 should be incremented, to point to the next array
element. The entire loop may look similar to:
LOD R5,M
Load the start address of the array
LUP LOD R1,0(R5) Load the next array element into R1
.
.
INC R5
Update the index register
CMP R5,#LEN
Compare with the array size (LEN is an absolute symbol)
BLT LUP
Branch on Less Than
.
.
LEN EQU 25
LEN is the array size
ARY DS
LEN
ARY is the array itself
M
DC
ARY
Location M contains the value of symbol ARY
Exercise A.3 What instruction can be used instead of LOD R5,M above, to load
the value of ARY.
This mode can also be used a little dierently, as in LOD R1,ARY(R5) where
ARY is the start address of the array and R5 is initialized to 0. In this case, the index
register really contains the index of the current array element used. This form can
be used if the value of ARY ts in the displacement eld.
On the Intel 8086, certain instructions can use two index registers. Thus
mov ah,ary[bx][di] is valid.

Sec. A.2

Examples of Modes

259

A.2.5 The Indirect mode

This is a more complex mode, requiring the hardware to work harder in order
to calculate the EA. The rule of calculation is: EA=Mem(disp.) meaning, the
hardware should fetch the contents of the memory location whose address is disp.,
and that contents is the EA. Obviously this mode is slower than the former ones
since it involves a memory read. The EA has to be read from memory before
execution can start. A simple example is:
LC
24

124

.
JMP @TO
.
.
TO DC 11387
.

Obj. Code
Opc m disp
xxx 3 124

The EA is 11387 and could, in principle, be any address. Notice that the DC
directive itself generates the constant 11387 on the object le with a relocation bit
of 0. However, A directive of the form TO: DC AB would generate the value of AB
on the object le as a relocatable quantity (assuming, of course, that AB is a relative
symbol). The value of TO is called the indirect address and, in the simplest version
of the indirect mode, it has to be small enough to t in the displacement eld. This
is one reason why several versions of this mode exist (see below).
What is this mode good for? As this is a discussion of assemblers, and not of
assembly language programming, a complete answer cannot be given here. We will
just show a typical use of this mode namely, a return from a procedure. When a
procedure is called, the return address has to be saved. Most computers save the
return address in either the stack, in one of the registers, or in the rst word of the
procedure (in which case the rst executable instruction of the procedure should
be stored in the second word). If the latter method is used, a return from the
procedure is a jump to the memory location whose address is contained in the rst
word of the proceudre. This is therefore a classical, simple example of the use of
the indirect mode. If the procedure name is P, then an instruction such as JMP @P
(where @ species the indirect mode) can easily accomplish the job.
Incidentally, if the return address is saved in the stack, a special instruction,
such as RET, is necessary to return from the procedure. Such an instruction should
jump to the memory location whose address is contained in the top of the stack, and
also remove that address from the stack. Thus a RET instruction uses a combination
of the indirect and stack modes.
Other common extensions of the indirect mode combine it with either the
relative or the index modes. The JMP instruction above could be assembled as
xxx 3 99 since the value of TO relative to the JMP instruction is 124 24 1 = 99.
This discussion assumes that the size of the JMP instruction is one word and that
mode 3 is the combination indirect-relative. A combination indirect-index can also

260 Addressing Modes

Append. A

be used and, in fact, the 6502 microprocessor uses two such combinations, a preindexed indirect (that can only be used with index register X), and a post-indexed
one (that can only be used with index register Y). Their denitions are:
Pre-indexed indirect: EA=Mem(disp+X)
Post-indexed indirect: EA=Mem(disp)+Y
In the former version, the indexing (disp+X) is done rst and the indirect
operation (the memory read), later. In the latter version, the indirect is done rst
and the indexing (...+Y), later. Leventhal [70] illustrates the use of those modes.
The two instructions LDA ($80,X) & LDA ($80),Y are typical examples. The
$ stands for hexadecimal and the parentheses () imply the indirect mode. It is
interesting to note that, in order to keep the instructions short, there is no separate
mode eld in the 6502, and the mode is implied in the OpCode. Thus an instruction
may have several OpCodes, one for each valid mode. The two instructions above
have OpCodes of A1, B1 respectively.
A.2.6 Multilevel or cascaded indirect

This is a rare version of the basic indirect mode. It is suitable for a computer
with, e.g., 16-bit words and 15-bit addresses (or N -bit words and N 1-bit addresses). The extra bit in such a word serves as a ag. If it is 1, another level of
indirect is required. The original instruction contains an indirect address, and the
hardware examines the contents of that address. If the ag is 1, the hardware uses
the contents as another indirect address. This process continues until the hardware
gets to a memory location where the ag is zero. The contents of that location is
the EA. The HP1000 and 2100 minicomputers [79] are good examples.
Exercise A.4 How can the programmer generate both an address and a ag in a
memory word?
A.2.7 Other addressing modes
Computers use many other modes, some simpler and others, more powerful
than the basic modes described so far. We will mention a few other modes, not
trying to provide a complete list but merely to show the possibilities.
A.2.8 Zero Page mode
This is a dierent name for the direct mode described earlier. If the displacement eld is N bits long, the (unsigned) displacement can have 2N values. Memory
may be divided into pages, each 2N words long, and page zerothe rst memory
pageis special in the sense that any instruction accessing it may be assembled in
the direct mode. Hence the name zero page mode. Good examples are the 6502
microprocessor [70] and the PDP-8 minicomputer [71].

Sec. A.2

Examples of Modes

261

A.2.9 Current Page Direct mode

The PDP-8 was a 12-bit minicomputer. It also has 12-bit addresses and thus
a 4k word memory. The memory is divided into pages, each 128 words long. The
rst memory page, addresses 0127, is called base page. Many instructions have
the format:
OpCode m disp
4
1
7
=12 bit long.
If m=0, the direct mode is used and EA=displacement. This is zero page adressing.
However, if m=1, the EA becomes the logical OR of the 5 most signicant bits of
the PC and the 7 bits of the displacement, pppppddddddd. The displacement is thus
the address in the current page, and the mode is called current page direct mode.
A.2.10 Implicit or Implied mode
This is the simple case where the instruction has no operands, and is not
using any mode. Instructions such as HLT or TAY (transfer A to Y) are good examples. Those instructions do not use any modes but many times the manufacturers
literature refers to them as using the implicit or implied mode.
A.2.11 Accumulator mode
Similar to the previous case. In a computer with a single working register,
the accumulator, many instructions implicitly use the accumulator. They dont
have a mode eld and should perhaps be considered as having no mode. However
some textbooks and manufacturers manuals refer to them as using the accumulator
mode.
A.2.12 Stack mode
In a computer with a stack, some instructions use the stack and should update
the stack pointer. Such instructions are said to use the stack mode, even though
they need not have a separate mode eld. The use of the stack is implied in the
OpCode. Examples are POP & PUSH. The rst pops a data item from the stack
and then updates the stack pointer (say, by incrementing it); the second updates
the stack pointer (by decrementing it) and then pushes the new data item into the
stack.
A.2.13 Stack Relative mode

A combination of the relative and stack modes. In this mode, EA=disp.+SP

where SP is the stack pointer, a register that always points to the top of the stack.
This mode allows access to any stack element, not just the one at the top.
Exercise A.5 A stack is a LIFO data structure, which implies using the top element. What could be a reason for accessing a stack element other than the top?

262 Addressing Modes

Append. A

A.2.14 Register mode

The instruction species a register that contains the operand. This mode does
not use an EA and there is no memory accesss.
A.2.15 Register Indirect mode
The register contains the EA. It is thus a pointer to the operand in memory.
A.2.16 Auto Increment/Decrement mode
This is a powerful version of the index mode. In addition to calculating the EA
by using the index register, the hardware increments or decrements the register.
This is an example of another property of addressing modes, their power. The
PDP-11 instruction CLR (R5)+ means: use R5 as an index (it contains the EA,
which means it points to the operand in memory), execute the instruction (clear
the operand, a memory word) and, nally, increment the index register so that it
points to the next word in memory. This is clearly a powerful mode since, without
it, another instruction would be needed, to increment the register. Similarly, the
instruction INC -(R5) starts by rst decrementing the index register, then using
it as an index, pointing to the memory word that is to be INCremented.
On the PDP-11, memory is physically divided into bytes and a memory word
is two consecutive bytes. The instructions above operate on a word and, therefore,
the index is updated by 2, not by 1, so it points to the next (previous) word. In an
instruction such as CLRB (clear a byte) the register would be updated by 1. On the
VAX computer there are also longwords, quadwords, and octawords, complicating
this mode even more.
On the Nova [39,72] memory locations 1631 are special. Locations 1623 are
auto increment and locations 2431, auto decrement. When any of those locations
is specied by an indirect instruction, the computer rst increments (decrements)
that location, then uses it to calculate the eective address.
Figure A1 is a graphic represenatation of 11 of the modes discussed here.

A.3 Base Registers

This is an important concept in addressing. It implements a mode that can
be called Base Relative Mode. A computer that supports this feature has a base
register and special hardware to calculate the EA. The base register can be a special
register or it can be any general purpose register. The IBM360, the most common
example of the use of base addressing, uses the latter scheme (except that register
R0 cannot be used as a base).
The base register is set to point to the start address of the program. Any
instruction addressing memory should thus contain a displacement which is the
address of the operand relative to the start of the program. The example given

Sec. A.3

Base Registers

263

Instruction
disp

Instruction
disp

Operand

PC

Operand
memory

memory

Relative

Direct
Instruction
indirect
address

disp

instruction
Operand

Operand

memory

memory

Immediate

Indirect

Instruction
disp
+

Operand
memory

registers

Indexed
Figure A1. Common Addressing Modes (part 1).
above for the relative mode will be used to illustrate base registers.
LC
0
19
57

Obj. Code
.
.
A ..
.
JMP A

Opc dis
xxx 19

The JMP instruction is assembled with a displacement of 19, which is the value of
symbol A relative to the start of the program. The loader loads the program starting

264 Addressing Modes

Append. A

Instruction

Instruction

indirect
address

disp
+

indirect
address

disp

+
Operand

Operand

memory

memory

registers

registers

Indirect Post-Indexed

Indirect Pre-Indexed
Instruction

Instruction

reg

reg
operand
registers

Register

address
registers

Operand
memory

Register Indirect
base
top

Instruction

disp
disp
SP

Operand

Operand

Instruction
memory

stack

Stack Relative

start of
program

Base Relative

Figure A1. Common Addressing Modes (part 2).

at, say, address 1000. No relocation is necessary, and the JMP instruction is loaded
in memory as xxx19. The instruction labeled A is loaded into location 1019. At run
time, the base register should contain 1000 and, every time an address is generated
by the program, the hardware calculates the EA by adding disp.+base. In our case,
EA=19+1000=1019.
There is one problem associated with this feature, it is the case where the value
of a symbol is too large to t in the displacement eld . A simple example is shown
in the table below.
A general solution is to switch to another base register, one containing an
address closer to the value of symbol A. The user can select, say, register 4, load it

Sec. A.3

Base Registers

LC
0

.
.
57
JMP A
.
1234 A --

265

Obj. Code
Opc dis
xxx 1234 too large!

with address 1200 and tell the assembler to assemble the JMP instruction using R4
as the base register. The assembler would then generate a displacement of 34. A
directive is necessary for this purpose and, in the case of the IBM360, the directive
is called USING. Thus USING 1200,4 would do the job. Notice that the directive
cannot load the value 1200 in register 4.
Exercise A.6 Why not?
The USING directive is just a promise. Its like promising the assembler at run
time, register 4 will contain 1200. The actual loading of R4 must be done by an
instruction executed at run time. The user has, of course, to write that instruction
in the program. Struble [78] is a good reference for 360 programming and for base
registers.

A.4 General Remarks

The simple picture presented earlier in this chapter, of an instruction with a
short displacement eld, is not always correct. It is a good vehicle for illustrating
addressing modes but it has one drawback, an instruction with a displacement eld
cannot be relocated. Relocating means adding the start address of the program, and
that address may be any address in memory. This means that, after the relocation,
the instruction should be able to hold any memory address, and this is impossible
to do with a short displacement eld.
As a result, computer designers always look for new, exible ways to design
instruction sets where instructions are as short as possible and, at the same time,
can be relocated. The base registers described above are one solution. They result
in short instructions that do not require relocation. Both the assembler and the
loader are simpliedsince they dont have to handle relocation bitsbut the price
is slower execution, since each address generated at run time has to be relocated by
the hardware.
Another common solution is to have the instruction size depend on the mode,
such that the same instruction can be short, if it is used in an absolute mode or
long, if it is used in a relative mode, where it should be relocated. This is the case
in the PDP-11 computer [73] where an instruction is normally one word (16 bits)
long but has a second word added if an operand uses one of the relative modes, and
even a third word, if both operands use such a mode.
Yet another solution is to use pages and/or segments. Those methods are
described in any text on operating systems [41] or systems programming [80].

266 Addressing Modes

Append. A

It is interesting to follow the historical development of addressing modes. The

IBM7090 [65,66] had 4 modes. The IBM360 [26,78], 5 years later, had the same
number. The CDC6600 [14,30], a powerful, third generation computer, had just 5
modes.
However, starting with the 8-bit microprocessors around 1975, we see an explosion of addressing modes, brought about because of the drop in hardware prices.
The Intel 8080 microprocessor [74] has 8 modes. The Motorola 6800 microprocessor
[75], 7 modes. The MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor [70], 11 modes. The Zilog
Z-80 microprocessor [76], 10 modes. The Motorola 68000 microprocessor [68], 14
modes, and the VAX-11 [77], 24 modes.
This shows that computer designers recognize the power behind addressing
modes and, given the chance, use them more and more in computers of all types
and sizes.

Sec. A.5

Review Questions

267

A.5 Review Questions

1. Study the addressing modes of the PDP-11 and the VAX computers. This is an
excellent review of all the important modes.
2. What modes require the displacement to be signed?
3. If register 3 has been declared a base register (by USING 3) how can the
programmer declare it later as a regular register?
4. Many computers support two unconditional jump instructions, a JMP and a
BRAnch. What could be the dierence between them? (Hint: It has to do with
addressing modes.)
5. The SKP (skip) instruction has no operands and therefore uses the implicit mode
mentioned above. What kind of an instruction is it? where does it skip to?
6. Review your knowledge of signed binary numbers and the twos complement
method. Specically, why can an 8-bit twos complement number have a value of
128 but not of +128?
7. Regarding stacks, if the stack pointer points to the top of the stack, and it
should be updated to point to the next available location in the stack, should it
be incremented or decremented? Also, is it possible to use a stack where the stack
pointer points to the next available location, instead of to the top?

Every mode of life has its conveniences.

Samuel Johnson, The Idler (1758)

B. Hexadecimal
Numbers

Computers use binary numbers, not hexadecimal ones. Hexadecimal numbers

are used by authors for one reason; they are shorter than binary. Binary numbers
use just zeros and ones, and thus tend to be long. It turns out that hexadecimal
numbers are exactly one-fourth the size of binary numbers, and are therefore more
manageable and easier to read.
Hexadecimal numbers are based on the number 16. This means that, in the
number dcba, the digit b has a value of 16b, c has a value of 162 c & d has a value
of 163 d=4096d. Hexadecimal numbers require 16 dierent digits (much as decimal
numbers require ten digits, and binary numbers, two). The 16 hexadecimal digits
are 0-9,A,B,C,D,E,F, where A(hex) = 10(dec) and F16 = 1510 . Other examples of
hex numbers are:
1016 = 16 1 + 0 = 1610 ; 10016 = 162 1 + 0 + 0 = 25610 ; FF16 = 16 15 + 15 =
25510 .
Since the hexadecimal digits have values between 0 and 15, each is equivalent
to exactly four bits. A four bit number can have values that range from 0000 = 0
to 1111 = 15. This makes conversion between binary and hexadecimal numbers
particularly easy. To convert the binary number 0011111 to hex, one should:

Sec. B

Hexadecimal Numbers

269

Divide the bits into groups of four, going from right to left. For our example we
get 001 1111 (the leftmost group may be shorter than 4).
Convert each group into one hex digit. Our example becomes 1F.

Note that a few zeros may have to be added to the leftmost group. Conversion
in the opposite direction is as easy.
Exercise B.1 Convert 70F16 to binary.
The hex numbering system is popular because of the easy conversion and because most computers have a word length divisible by eight, implying that the
contents of a word can be written as an even number of hex digits.

270 Hexadecimal Numbers

Append. B

B.1 Review Questions

1. Conversion between hex and binary is easy because each hex digit is equivalent
to exactly 4 bits. Conversion between decimal and binary is not that easy, because a
decimal digit is not exactly equivalent to 4 bits. Some 4-bit values are greater than
9 and thus do not correspond to a decimal digit. Study and implement decimal
binary conversion.
2. The numbers 2, 10, 16 are the bases for the binary, decimal and hex numbering
systems. Can the number 3 be the base for a numbering system (ternary numbers)?
What numbers can serve as a base for a numbering system?

<hex digit>:==<digit> |A|B| . . . |F.

BNF denition of hex digit

C. Answers to Exercises

I.1: Suppressing the listing le makes sense if a listing exists from a previous assembly. Also, if a printer is not immediately available, the user may want to save
the listing le and to print it later.
1.1: In many higher-level languages a semicolon is used to indicate the end of a
statement, so it seems a good choice to indicate the end of an instruction. Also, we
will see that many other characters already have special meaning to the assembler.
1.2: The F indicates a oating-point operation, so this is a oating-point add.
1.3: The number of registers should be of the form 2k . This implies that a register
number is k bits long, and ts in a k-bit eld in the instruction. A choice of
20 registers would mean a 5-bit register numberand thus a 5-bit eld in many
instructionsbut that eld would not be fully utilized since with 5 bits it is possible
to indicate 32 registers.
1.4: To indicate an index register and a base register. Appendix A contains more
information on indexing and base addressing.
1.5: An addressing mode should be used to assemble the instruction. Addressing
modes are discussed in appendix A.
1.6: The symbol is simply undened, an error situation discussed, among other
errors, at the end of chapter 1.

272 Answers to Exercises

Append. C

1.7: Certain characters, such as , allow for a natural division of the name
into easy-to-read components. Other characters, such as $,= make labels more
descriptive. Examples: NO OF FONTS is more readable than NoOfFonts. REG=DATA
is more descriptive than RegEqData.
1.8:
a.
type
address=0..4096; an address in a 4k memory
node=record
info: address;
next: ^node
end;
list=^node; the type list is a pointer to the beginning of such a list
b.
const
lim=500; max =1000; some suitable constants
type
list=o..lim; type list is the index of the rst list element in array house
var
house: array[1..lim] of 0..max; lists of pointers are housed here
house2: array[1..lim] of 0..lim; pointers pointing to
the next element inside each list, are housed here.
1.9: Using logical operations and, perhaps, shifts to mask the rest of the instruction.
1.10: Using either the POS or the DS 0 directives. Both are described in chapter
3.
1.11: A branch instruction. Any instruction following a branch must be forced into
position 0 of the next word, even if it is not labeled. The reason is that the only
way to execute such an instruction is to branch to it, and to make it possible to
branch to it, it must be located in position 0.
1.12: Yes, it is valid, its value is 11 and its type, absolute. It simply represents
a negative distance.
1.13: External symbols are described in chapter 3, and the way they are handled,
by the loader, in chapter 7. In the above example, the assembler calculates as much
of the expression as it can (A-B) and generates two modify loader directives (see
chapter 7), one to add the value of K and the other, to subtract L, both executed at
load time.
1.14: Address 24, because of the phrasing above . . .with the name 1 and a value
17 . . .
1.15: JMP * means jump to the current instruction. Such an instruction jumps
to itself and thus causes an innite loop. In the early microprocessors, this was a

Append. C

Answers to Exercises

273

common way to end the program, since many of those microprocessors did not have
a HLT instruction.
JMP *-* means jump to location 0. However, since the LC symbol * is relative,
the expression *-* is rel rel and is therefore absolute. The instruction would
jump to location 0 absolute, not to the rst location in the program.
Note. Knuth [84] mentions another reason for those instructions. See exercise 2
in his section 1.3.2.
1.16: Because the USE is supposed to have the name, not the value, of a LC, in its
operand eld.
1.17: Yes. The only problem is that the loader needs to be told where to start
the execution of the entire program. This, however, is specied in the END directive
(see chapter 3) and is a standard feature, used even where no multiple LCs are
supported.
1.18: It is identical to :

JMP TMP
.
.
TMP DC *

The computer will branch to the location labeled TMP but that location contains an
address, not an instruction. The likely result will be an interrupt (invalid OpCode).
1.19:
LC
0
1
3
4
6
8
10
11
13
15
17
19

Label

X
Y

Source
INP
STO 50
INP
STO 51
BZE X
ADD 50
OUT
BRA Y
LOD 50
ADD 50
STO 52
HLT

Object Code
OpCode
Op
00000111
00000010 00110010
00000111
00000010 00110011
00000100 00001101
00000011 00110010
00001000
00000110 00010001
00000001 00110010
00000011 00110010
00000010 00110100
00000000

1.20: Add either addressing modes or more registers. With 4 unused bits we can
have 2 bits specify one of 4 addressing modes, and the other 2 bits, one of 4 generalpurpose registers. Alternatively, we can use 3 bits to specify 8 modes, and the fourth
bit (if one is available) to select one of two index registers. These are special purpose
registers, used to hold an address, not an operand. The arithmetic operations would
still be performed in the Acc.

274 Answers to Exercises

Append. C

1.21: Invalid mnemonic, invalid label (not a single letter), multiply-dened label, and invalid operand (syntactically wrong, such as STO :, undened symbol,
operand greater than maximum address).
1.22: It makes it easier for the assembler to distinguish a symbol from a constant
in the operand eld. In an instruction such as ADD R1,1A, the assembler has to
scan the entire name of the symbol 1A to verify that it is a symbol. The restriction
to a letter allows the assembler to scan an instruction such as ADD R1,A1 and,
immediately after scanning the rst character of the symbol name, decide that the
instruction uses a symbol. This simplies the lexical analysis phase of the assembler.
1.23: There is no point in writing 5000 unnecessary records on the object le. The
assembler places a special code (a loader directiveloader directives) in the object
le, instructing the loader to reserve as many locations as necessary.
1.24: In the relative mode, the Op eld is essentially the distance between the
instruction and its operand. If that distance does not t in six bits, the relative
mode cannot be used. In other words, this mode can only be used if the instruction
is not too far away from its operand. See appendix A for more details.
2.1: It depends on the characters allowed. The ASCII codes of the characters <,
=, >, ?, @ immediately precede the code of A. Similarly, the codes of [, \,
] immediately follow Z in the ASCII sequence. If those codes are used, then it is
still easy to use buckets. Given the rst character of a symbol name, we only need
to subtract from it the ASCII code of the rst of the allowed characters, say <, to
get the bucket number. If other characters are allowed, then buckets may not be a
good data structure for the symbol table.
3.1: It adds more work to the programmer and doesnt speed up the identication
by much. Even if the assembler identies a source line as a directive by the period, it
still needs to search some table to nd the start address of the routine that executes
it.
3.2: The relations e b, c > e, 0 < b, e, c 80 should hold.
3.3: To generate a backup le of the source on punched cards.
3.4: See chapter 7.
3.5: In both passes. It is executed by selecting one of four built-in conversion
routines. That routine is used until the next BASE is found.
3.6: a. Place a JMP or SKIP instruction to skip over the data.
b. Use another LC to eventually relocate the data block elsewhere.
c. Fill up the data area with instructions at run time.
3.7: a. To make BSS and BES really dierent. Compare this dierence to the
dierence between the auto-increment and the auto-decrement modes discussed in
appendix A.

Append. C

Answers to Exercises

275

b. The BES directive was useful on old computers with subtractive index registers
where most loops went backwards.
3.8: To produce a forcing upper of the next source line. This is common on computers with a large word size, such as the CDC Cyber and the Cray computers.
The concept of forcing upper is discussed in chapter 1. Also, the IBM 360 uses
halfwords, fullwords, and doublewords in memory. The directive DS 0D (reserve 0
double words) on those computers is used to force the LC to the start of the next
doubleword.
3.9: The most common use for ORG is to specify a start address for the program
in a computer without an operating system. On such a machine, the user may
select a start address and may want to load dierent programs starting at dierent
addresses. In such a case, the rst source line is an ORG and is the only ORG in the
program.
3.10: The reason is that instructions are assembled in pass 2, where all the symbols
are already in the symbol table; certain directives, however, are executed in pass 1,
where future symbols have not been found yet. Thus pass 1 directives cannot use
future symbols.
3.11: The simplest way is to add another pass. The directive A EQU B+1 can be
handled in three passes. In the rst pass, label A cannot be dened, since label B
is not yet in the symbol table. However, later in the same pass, B is found and is
stored in the symbol table. In the second pass label A can be dened and, in the
third pass, the program can be assembled. This, of course, is not a general solution,
since it is possible to nest future symbols very deep. Imagine something like:
A
B
C

EQU B
EQU C
EQU D
-

Such a program requires four passes just to collect all the symbol denitions, followed by another pass to assemble instructions. Generally one could design a percolative assembler that would perform as many passes as necessary, until no more
future symbols remain. This may be a nice theoretical concept but its practical
value is nil. Cases such as A EQU B, where B is a future symbol, are not important
and can be considered invalid.
3.12: It is executed in pass 1 since it aects the symbol table. It is executed by
evaluating and comparing the expressions in the operand eld. This is another
example of a powerful directive.

276 Answers to Exercises

Append. C

3.13: The modify loader directive, discussed in chapter 7, can be generated by the
assembler to instruct the loader to modify any item loaded, in any way, instead of
just storing in it the value of an external symbol.
3.14: Because the BSSZ generates Data. The BSS (or DS) directive only reserves
storage, so it is one of the Block Control directives.
4.1: Either make the label a parameter, use local labels (see chapter 1), or use
automatic label generation (see Ch. 4).
4.2: Generally not. In the above example it makes no sense for the assembler to
substitute X for B since it does not know if this is what the programmer wants. However, there are two cases where double substitution (or even multiple substitution)
makes sense. The rst is where an argument is the name of a macro. The second
is the case of an assembler where parameters are identied syntactically, with an
& or some other character. The rst case is called nested macro expansion and is
discussed later in this chapter. The second case occurs in the IBM360 where parameters must start with an & and are therefore easy to identify. The 360 assembler
performs multiple substitution until no & are left in the source line.
4.3: It depends on the MDT organization and on the size of the data structures
used for binding. Typically, the maximum number of parameters ranges between a
few tens and a few hundreds.
4.4: If the last argument is null, it should be preceded by a comma. A missing last
comma indicates a missing argument.
4.5: Add another pass (pass 1?) to collect all macro denitions and store them
in the MDT. Pass 0 would now be concerned only with macro expansions.
4.6: Nested macro denition. In such a case, each expansion of certain macros
causes another macro denition to be stored in the MDT, and space in the MDT
may be exhausted very rapidly.
4.7: All three parameters are bound to the same argument and are therefore substituted by the same string.
4.8: To retain the last binding and use default values. Thus P2 is rst bound to
MAN and then to DAN. Since P3 is not bound to any argument, it should get a default
value.
4.9: The macro processor would continue scanning the source, reading and assigning more and more text to the second argument, until one of the following happens:
1. It nds a period-space combination somewhere in the source. This would terminate the scan and would bound the second parameter to a (long) argument.
2. It gets to the end of the source and realizes that something went wrong.
3. It nds a character (rather, a token) in a context thats invalid inside a macro
argument. In the case of TEX, such a token could be the start of a new paragraph.

Append. C

Answers to Exercises

277

In cases 2, 3 the macro processor would issue a run away argument error message,
and either terminate the macro expansion or give the user a chance to correct the
source le interactively.
4.10: The dierence is in scope. Attributes of macro arguments exist only while
the macro is expanded. Attributes of a symbol exist while the symbol is stored in
the symbol table.
4.11: The programmer probably meant a default value of null for parameter M2.
However, depending on the syntax rules of the assembler, this may also be considered an error.
4.12: It should be, since it alerts the reader to the fact that some of the listing is
suppressed.
4.13: Because it allows the implementation of recursive macros.
4.14: Yes, many assemblers support simple expressions in the AIF directive.
4.15: A constant, a SET symbol, or a macro argument.
4.16: No, one ENDM X is enough. It signals to the assembler the end of macro X
and all its inner denitions.
4.17: The string A[AY](AYX).
5.1: Nothing, since the assembler does not process the macro lines at denition
time.
5.2: .show me. Note that me stands for Macro Expansion. Therefore, there are
no directives such as .show you or .noshow you. (Both .show and .noshow are
described in Ch. 4.)
5.3: It nds the new denition of begin, and discovers that it is dierent from
the one already in the symbol table.
6.1: Yes. See Coulouris, Ref. [91].
6.2: Refer to the codes in the table; some valid conversions are BD, KB, DP, DK, KD.
Invalid ones are XD, HE, EB.
Also see any COBOL text, e.g. [90], for a complete list of COBOL type conversions.
6.3: If something like A[5,3] is needed, the programmer may either declare three
arrays A1[5], A2[5], A3[5], or one large array A[15]. The operation A[3,2]:=0;
can then be written either as A2[3]:=0; or A[i]:=0; where i:=3+5*(2-1);.
6.4: X is a parameter that should be in the symbol table. Its value should be a
string, such as A or S. The parameter is then replaced by its value and the result

278 Answers to Exercises

Append. C

is a string such as AR or SR, that can be assembled. This is similar to substituting

parameters in a macro.
7.1: Tradition and/or laziness.
7.2: If the original estimate is too low, the program wont be loaded. If it is too
high, the user may pay too much for memory use. So the user uses either experience
or bitter experience.
7.3: The loader issues an error message, advising the user to try again later or, if
the program is bigger than the entire memory, to reduce the program size. There
are several methods to let a large program execute in a smaller memory. One is
the use of overlays. Overlays are an assembler-loader feature and are discussed
elsewhere in this chapter. Another method is the use of virtual memory, with pages
and/or segments. The topic of virtual memories is outside the scope of this book
and is discussed in OS texts.
7.4: It starts execution at the rst load address (the rst address of the rst object
le) and issues a suitable comment.
7.5: The type of the program (such as procedure, data block, library routine) if
this is available.
7.6: This is certainly an error. The loader cannot match the ext symbol to any of
the two.
7.7: Lets assume that the loader has found an item in object le NOM with id = 10
and index=3, this item is not in the GEST and the loader will fail to nd it. Such a
case should not happen since, after all, the object les are prepared by the assembler,
and the assembler will not prepare an item with index=3 unless it has at least three
EXTRN symbols in the program. Such symbols would be assigned indexes 1, 2, 3,
and would be written, on the object le, as loader directives. If such a case does
happen, it means either a bug in the assembler or the loader, or that the object le
has been corrupted. Perhaps it has been modied or damaged before loading. This
is another possible loader error message.
7.8: The A-B part equals absolute 13, and can be calculated in pass 1 since neither
A nor B is a future symbol. The values of M, N, however, are unknown in pass 1 (in
fact, unknown even in pass 2). The EQU has to assign a value to label X in pass 1. It
therefore cannot be executed. The assembler would issue an error message Invalid
operand in EQU. The DC, however, simply assigns to label Y, in pass 1, the value
of the LC (=62) and, in pass 2, does not have to fully calculate the value of the
constant. It generates the constant 25 12 = 13 = 000011012 and writes it on the
object le with an id of 00. Then it generates two modify loader directives, one
to add the value of M and the other, to subtract N.
011 00001 0000 1000 01 111110 we assume an index of 1 for M
011 00010 0000 1000 10 111110 and index 2 for N
7.9: Yes, but then it can be used only by an absolute loader.

Append. C

Answers to Exercises

279

7.10: Undened External Symbol. The loader cannot tell if a library routine is
really missing or if the name is that of a bad external symbol.
7.11: It is possible to generalize the concept of overlay load and delete, such that
any overlay can call any other one, and there is no RETurn. Lets assume that A and
D are active and D calls B. In such a case, D and all its active descendants are deleted
automatically and B is loaded. Even more, if D calls E, then D and its descendants
are deleted as before, and both overlays B and E are loaded.
7.12: There are two ways.
1. The bootstrap ROM is a separate memory, and is copied into main memory as
the rst step in a bootstrap.
2. The boostrap ROM can be switched in and out of the address space. Lets
assume that the bootstrap ROM occupies addresses xxx-yyy in the address space.
It is possible, although probably not worth it, to have a small RAM with the same
address range, and a multiplexor that can switch either the RAM or the ROM into
the address space. When the computer is reset, the multiplexor should switch in
the ROM, ready for the next bootstrap. When the bootstrap loader is executed,
its last instruction should be to switch back the RAM, so address range xxx-yyy
could be used by application programs.
7.13: As explained in chapter 7, the assembler should maintain a table (perhaps a
packed array) with 64 boolean values, each for a drum location, identifying its state
as either free or occupied.
8.1: It directs MASM to create a pass-1 listing in addition to, not instead of, the
usual, pass-2, listing.
A.1: By designing variable-length OpCodes. Most texts on computer organization
explain the method, which is based on assigning short OpCodes to long instructions,
and long OpCodes, to short instructions. Another, intriguing, possibility is to assign
the short OpCodes to commonly used instructions. Such a method is used on the
B1700 computers and is discussed by Organick [93]. An interesting theoretical
possibility is to use the Human method [94] to determine the shortest possible
OpCodes based on the frequency of use of each instruction.
A.2: Yes. The instruction is only assembled in pass 2 and, at that time, the values
of all symbols are in the symbol table. However, in pass 1 the assembler has to
determine the size of each instruction, and that size may depend on the mode. If
the mode cannot be determined because of a future symbol, the assembler selects
the mode with the largest size.
A.3: A good choice is LOD R5,#ARY. This instruction uses the immediate mode.
A.4: A computer using cascaded indirect should have a special directive for this
purpose.
A.5: Many stack operations use the one or two elements on top of the stack as
their operands. Such an operation removes the operands from the stack and pushes

280 Answers to Exercises

Append. C

the result into the stack. If the programmer wants to use the same operands in
the future, they should be left in the stack. An easy way to accomplish this is to
generate their copies before excecuting a stack instruction. Example:

1.
2.
3.

LOD 1
PUSH
LOD 1
PUSH
ADD

loads the element right below the top.

it becomes the new top.
loads the element right below the new top (the old top).
it becomes the new top.
adds the two elements on the top and removes them.

The reader should try to gure out the successive states of the stack at the 3 labeled
instructions above.
A.6: Because it is a directive, executed at assembly time. Assembler directives
cannot load registers at run time.
B.1: 70F16 = 0111 0000 11112 .

If you cant solve a problem,

you can always look up the answer.
But please, try rst to solve it by yourself;
then youll learn more and youll learn faster.

Donald E. Knuth The METAFONTbook (1986)

Index

Page numbers in boldface indicate the most denitive source of information about an item.

* directive, 84
= directive, 81
2650 microprocessor, 15, 210
6502 microprocessor, 190, 260, 266
disassembler for, 194
6800 microprocessor, 160, 266
68000 microprocessor, 44, 81, 255, 266
680x0 microprocessors, xii, 243, 258
68851 paged memory management unit,
243
68881 oating-point coprocessor, 243
80386 microprocessor, 255
8080 microprocessor, 266
8086 microprocessor, 237
80x86 microprocessors, xii, 2, 47, 48, 76,
85, 98, 169, 187, 191, 229, 230, 235,
246, 258
absolute mode, 236
disassembler for, 192
memory addressing, 42, 231
80x87 coprocessors, 230, 231

80x88 microprocessors, 85, 169, 229, 230,

235
disassembler for, 192
ABS directive, 77
absolute assembly, 73
absolute instructions, 54
absolute loader, 12, 195, 196, 198, 199,
211, 224
absolute object le, 12, 30, 77, 198, 199,
211, 212, 214
absolute special relocation, 205
absolute symbol, 36, 53, 135, 138
accumulator, 261
accumulator mode, 261
ACE computer, 221
actual arguments stack, 146
address expressions, 35
address symbols, 138
addressing modes, 189, 199, 254262, 265,
266, 267; see also mode, 267
current page direct, 261

282
accumulator, 261
autodecrement, 262
autoincrement, 262
base relative, 262
cascaded indirect, 260, 279
current page direct, 261
direct, 256, 260, 261
immediate, 256, 257
implicit, 261, 267
implied, 261
index, 256, 258, 259
indirect, 256, 259, 260
indirect index, 259
indirect relative, 259
multilevel indirect, 260
post-index indirect, 260
pre-index indirect, 260
register, 262
register indirect, 262
relative, 256, 257, 259, 261
stack, 259, 261
stack relative, 261
zero page, 260, 261
AGO directive, 138
Aho, A., 65
AIF directive, 137, 277
Algol 60, 182, 183, 194
anonymous software designer at NCR, 10
ANOP directive, 138
APL, 4
Apple II computer, 87, 192
architecture of computers, 2, 254
ASCII, 78, 94, 179, 189, 192
ASCII directive, 93
ASCIIZ directive, 94
ASM 86 assembler, 95, 97
ASM 86 meta assembler, 187
assemble-go, 2, 3, 199, 224
assemble-go loaders, 196
assembler
denition of, 1
comment, 160
cooperation with loader, 29
cross, 11, 186, 193
directives, 3, 69
errors, 46, 159
fatal, 22, 46
general, 47
label, 46
operand, 46

Index
operation, 46
phase errors, 47
warnings, 46
expressions, 35
absolute, 35
operator precedence, 35
relative, 35
high-level, xiii, 177, 178, 180, 183186
high-level language, 177, 180
IBM360, 137
inputs & outputs of, 2
instruction format, 49
its size, 5
language, denition of, 1, 178
meta, xiii, 8, 11, 186, 189, 193
mode, 121
macro denition, 113, 121, 141143,
148, 149
macro expansion, 113, 121, 130, 142,
143
MPW, 137
one and a half passes, 30, 32
one pass, xii, 3, 11, 13, 19, 23, 24, 30,
31, 36, 38, 59, 195199
linked lists, 25
listing incomplete instructions, 25
operation of, 26
origin of name, 2
pass 0 & 1 combined, 111
percolative, 275
primitive, xi
procedures in, 40
punched card based, 74, 79
reason for studying, 2
resident, 11
source le
blank lines, 14
source instructions, 13
source line
comments, 13
elds, 13
format, 52
long, 75
special types, 177
two passes, xii, 4, 11, 13, 19, 20, 22, 23,
30, 36, 59, 195
limitations of, 238
types of, 31, 36
universal, 186

Index
assembler errors, 46, 237, 238
fatal, 22, 46
general, 47
label, 46
operand, 46
operation, 46
pass 1 errors, 232
phase errors, 47, 48, 232
undened symbol, 234
warnings, 46, 233
assembler expressions
operator precedence in, 229
assembler language, 4
assembling instructions, 18
associating macro parameters with arguments, 124
ASSUME directive, 85
attributes of macro arguments, 125
Autocoder, see IBM702705 assembler
autodecrement memory locations, 262
autodecrement mode, 262
autoincrement memory locations, 262
autoincrement mode, 45, 262
automatic jump-sizing in TASM, 237, 238
automatic label generation, 127
BABBAGE language, xiii, 178, 184, 185,
194
arrays, 185
expressions, 184
records, 185
backward search of MDT, 143, 156
bad symbols, 21
BASE directive, 77
base register, 89, 199, 262, 264, 265, 267
base relative mode, 262
BASIC, 4
BEGIN directive, 79
Bendix
G15, 221
binary numbers, 268
binary search, 60, 66
binary tree in an array, 66
binder (linker loader), 195, 224
binding, 156, 212
binding time, 212
bit operations, 31
block structure, 156, 178, 181
block structured language, 144
BNF denition, 270

283
bootstrap loader, xiii, 12, 195, 220, 224
bootstrap process, 220
bootstrap ROM, 279
Borland International, 236
Borland turbo assembler, see TASM
Bostonians (anagram), 158
BRANCH directive, 247
BSSZ directive, 94
Burroughs, 195
B1700, 279
BYTE directive, 80
C programming language, 240
Calingaert, P., 175
Cambridge University, 7
cascaded indirect mode, 96, 260, 279
CDC
6000, 76
6600, 266
7600, 76
Cyber, 15, 33, 76, 187, 275
display code, 78
early computers, 187
chained MDT, 122
chaining overlays, 215
CHANGE loader command, 214
COBOL, 178180, 277
records in, 194
CODE directive, 78
CodeView debugger, 230
COL directive, 78
Coleridge, S. T., 67
collector (linker loader), 195
COM les on the IBM PC, 32
COMM directive, 79, 108
comment, in an instruction, 14
COMMON directive, 196
Compass assembler, 187
complete binary tree, 66
compound macro arguments, 116
computer architecture, 2, 254
CON directive, 94
conditional assembly, xii, 8, 69, 121, 126,
133, 134, 137, 140, 155, 243
constant types, 94
continuation lines, 75
control section, 138, 197
Conway, M. E., 8, 37
cooperation between assembler and loader,
29
core memories, 220

284
Coulouris, G. F., 277
Coward, N., 158
CP/M, xii
Cray, 275
computers, 33
CREF, 160
cross assembler, 11, 186, 193
forward references, 193
object le, 193
source computer, 193
target computer, 193
cross reference information, 159
cross reference table, 159
CSECT directive, 91
current page direct mode, 261
DATA (or DC) directive, 94
data structures for OpCode table, 49
data types, 177, 178
DB directive, 191
DC directive, 94, 157, 160, 227, 259
DEBUG, (IBM PC debugger), 191
DEC, 241
PDP-11, 39, 81, 262, 265, 267
PDP-8, 260, 261
VAX, 2, 44, 91, 125, 126, 128, 164, 168,
241, 262, 266, 267
addressing modes, 243, 244
literal mode, 44
DEC directive, 96
decimal computer, 221
DECMIC directive, 99
DEF directive, 95
denition level counter, 141
DELETE loader command, 214
delimited string, 100
delimiting macro parameters, 125
Dellert, G. T., 109
DF directive on MASM, 233
DG Nova minicomputer, 262
direct mode, 256, 260, 261
directives, xii, 3, 8, 69, 72
(?), 233
*, 84
=, 81, 234
?, 233, 240
ABS, 77
AGO, 138
AIF, 99, 135, 137, 277
ALIGN, 198, 240

Index
ANOP, 138
ASCII, 93
ASCIIZ, 94
ASSUME, 85
BASE, 77
BCD, 95
BEGIN, 79
BES, 80
BRANCH, 247
BSS, 80
BSSZ, 94
BYTE, 80
CODE, 78
COL, 78
COMM, 79, 108
COMM (on MASM), 233
COMMENT, 14
COMMON, 196
CON, 94
CSECT, 42, 91
DATA (or DC), 94
DB, 95, 191
DC, 43, 45, 53, 94, 157, 160, 227, 259
DD, 95
DEBUG, 242
DEC, 95, 96
DECMIC, 99
DEF, 95
DEFAULT, 242
DF (on MASM), 233
DIS, 95
DISABLE, 92, 242
DQ, 95
DROP, 89, 90
DS, 37, 39, 45, 53, 80, 160, 227, 272
DT, 95
DUP, 99, 104, 108
DW, 95
ECHO, 104
EJECT, 101
ENABLE, 242
END, 74, 91, 113, 196, 199, 204, 205, 216,
273
ENDbold, 74
ENDC, 137
ENDD, 105, 108
ENDF, 245
ENDM, 110, 112, 113, 157, 245
ENDP, 245
ENDR, 245

Index
ENDS, 85
ENTRY, 32, 42, 73, 90, 93, 108, 195,
200, 201, 204, 205, 233, 246
EQU, 36, 82, 86, 134, 135, 155, 157, 160,
189, 234
ERR, 100
ERRNDEF, 234
ERRxx, 101
EVEN, 81
EXIT, 137
EXPORT, 245, 246
EXTRN, 32, 42, 73, 90, 92, 108, 195,
200, 201, 204, 205
FORWARD, 247
FUNC, 245
GROUP, 86
HEAD, 108
HERE, 103
ICTL, 74
IDENT, 73, 200, 205
IF-ELSE-ENDIF, 127, 137
IF1, 137, 169
IF2, 137, 169
IFDEF, 233
IFF, 137
IFT, 137
IIF, 129, 136
IMPORT, 245, 246
INCLUDE, 75
IRP, 108, 128, 235
LABEL, 235
LCC, 77, 108
LIMIT, 81
LIST, 102, 108, 129
listing le, 3
LIT, 96
LITORG, 43, 44, 96, 97
loader, 32, 54, 73, 77, 83, 86
modify, 95, 272, 276
LONG, 80
MACHINE, 76, 247
MACRO, 109, 110, 112, 113, 147, 157
MAIN, 245
MAX, 88
MAX and MIN, 88
MDELETE, 242
MEND, 147, 148
MICCNT, 88, 134
MICRO, 100
MIN, 88

285
NARG, 126
NCHR, 127
NOLIST, 102, 129
NOSHOW, 129, 277
OCT, 95
OCTMIC, 100
ODD, 81
OPDEF, 105, 108
OPSYN, 106108
OPT, 247
ORG, 81, 160, 213
%OUT, 103
OVERLAY, 83
p286, 76
PACKED, 97
pass 0, 113, 121, 123, 131, 134, 135, 156
pass 1, 275
PDC, 102, 160
POS, 83, 272
PPU, 76
PRINT, 129
PRINT ON/OFF, 172
PROC, 245
PSECT, 42, 91, 242
PUBLIC (on MASM), 233
PUNCH, 75
PURGDEF, 106, 108
PURGE, 235
QUAL, 78
RECORD, 97, 245
REMOVE, 123
REPRO, 75
RMT, 103
SBTTL, 102, 108
SEG, 246
SEGMENT, 85
SET, 89, 99, 134, 234
SHOW, 129, 168, 277
SPACE, 102
STOPDUP, 99, 105, 108
STRING, 247
STRUC, 98, 108
SUBTTL, 164
TITLE, 73, 102, 108, 200
UNION, 240
USE, 3941, 84, 219
USING, 89, 265
VFD, 99
WORD, 80
XREF, 103

286
directives in Macro, 242
directives in a meta assembler, 188
DIS directive, 95
DISABLE directive, 92
disassembled object code, 189
disassembled source code, 189
disassembler, xiii, 11, 189, 190, 192, 194
6502, 194
disks, 193
displacement, 255, 260262, 265
Dlevel counter, 144, 146
double substitution, 115
double-operand instruction, 13
DROP directive, 89, 90
drum memory, 7, 221
DS directive, 39, 80, 160, 227
DUP directive, 104, 108
dynamic linking, 201, 212, 224
dynamic loader (DL), 212
dynamic loading, xiii, 212
dynamic OpCode table, 108
EA, 255260, 262
EBCDIC, 78, 189
Ecclesiastes, 6
ECHO directive, 104
editing a macro, 118
EDSAC, 7
assembler, 7
memory, 7
eective address, see EA
EJECT directive, 101
Elevel counter, 146
Ellizey, R. S., 108
END directive, 74, 91, 113, 196, 199, 204,
205, 216
END loader directive, 205
end of le, 206
ENDC directive, 137
ENDD directive, 105, 108
ENDF directive, 245
ENDM directive, 110, 112, 113, 157, 245
ENDP directive, 245
ENDR directive, 245
ENTRY directive, 42, 90, 93, 108, 195,
200, 201, 204, 205, 246
ENTRY loader directive, 205
entry point, 42
forgotten declaration of, 207

Index
EQU directive, 86, 134, 135, 155, 157, 160,
189
EQU symbol, 137
ERR directive, 100
ERRxx directive, 101
EVEN directive, 81
EXE les on the IBM PC, 32
executable image, 211
executable module, 91, 200
EXIT directive, 137
EXPORT directive, 245, 246
external linker, 187
external symbols, 36, 42, 209, 215, 224,
278, 279
EXTRN directive, 42, 90, 91, 92, 108, 195,
200, 201, 204, 205
EXTRN loader directive, 205
factorial, 136
Ferguson, D. E., 8, 187
rst executable instruction, 74, 199
rst source line, 74
rst-generation computers, 221
oating point hardware, 8
oating point numbers, 241
forcing upper, 33, 83, 197, 275
Ford, H., 57
formal parameters stack, 146
format of an assembler instruction, 49
Fortran, xi, 79, 80
COMMON statement, 41, 79, 139
FORWARD directive, 247
FUNC directive, 245
function in a meta assembler, 188
future symbol problem, 18, 19
future symbols, 18, 19, 24, 31, 36, 38, 43,
45, 159, 226, 234, 275, 278, 279
GAS, see IBM7090 assembler
GEC 4000 computer, xiii, 178, 184
general loader, 195
GEST, 200, 207, 208, 211, 214, 215, 278
giga (230 ), 255
global external symbol table, see GEST
global macro parameters, 144
Goldnger, R., 8
Grishman, R., xiii
GROUP directive, 86
Harrington, A., 228, 247
hash function
properties of, 63

Index
hash table, 106
closed, 63
inserting, 63
collisions, 64
solutions, 64
hashing, 63
open, 63, 65
buckets, 65
principle of, 65
overow, 65
rehashing, 65
searching, 63
hashing algorithms, 67
HEAD directive, 108
HERE directive, 103
hexadecimal numbers, 268
high-level assembler, xiii, 12, 177
high-level assembler language, 177, 180
denition, 177
higher-level languages, xi, xii, 4, 156, 178,
271
historical development of assem. and loaders, 10
Honeywell
DDP516, 178, 183
Hopgood, F. R. A., 65
HP
1000, 95, 260
2100, 95, 260
Human method, 279
IBM, 195, 199
650 assembler (SOAP), 7, 222
7000 assembler (SCAT), 8
702705 assembler (Autocoder), 8
702705 computers, 8
704 assembler (UASAP-1), 8
704-709-7090, 8
7040 assembler (IBMAP), 14
7090 assembler (GAS), 8
7090 assembler (IBMAP), 48
7090/7094, 31, 32
360, 16, 42, 89, 91, 96, 172, 178, 181, 186,
262, 265, 266, 275, 276
assembler, 112, 125, 137, 243
macros, 140
370, 89
650, 221, 225, 226
7040, xi
7090, 266

287
AT, 230
PC, 32, 137, 169, 191, 230
PS/2, 231, 235
users organization, 8
XT, 230
IBMAP, see IBM7040 assembler
ICTL directive, 74
id bits on the object le, see identication
bits
ideal mode of TASM, 239
IDENT directive, 73, 200, 205
IDENT loader directive, 205
identication bits, 73, 87, 91, 204
IF-ELSE-ENDIF directive, 127, 137
IF1 directive, 137, 169
IF2 directive, 137, 169
IFF directive, 137
IFT directive, 137
IIF directive, 129, 136
immediate mode, 4345, 246, 256, 257
implicit mode, 261, 267
implied mode, 261
IMPORT directive, 245, 246
INCLUDE directive, 75
INCLUDE loader command, 214, 215
including a source le, 75
index deferred mode (on the PDP-11), 20
index mode, 256, 258, 259, 262
on the PDP-11, 20
index register, 8, 258, 262
indexing, 260
indirect address, 259, 260
indirect addressing, 96
indirect mode, 256, 259, 260
indirect-index mode, 259
indirect-relative mode, 259
Initial Orders, see EDSAC assembler
instruction
absolute, 29, 54
padding with NOP, 33
redene, 105
relative, 54
relocatable, 29, 32
relocating, 31
type, 30
variable size, 51, 53
instruction set
design of, 33, 254
Intel, 47, 85, 95, 229, 230, 235, 258, 266
intermediate le, 20, 96, 97, 116, 160, 175

288
interpreter, 4
interpretive languages, 4
interrupt, 224
invalid OpCode, 83
invalid labels, 21
invalid OpCode interrupt, 83
IRP directive, 108, 128
Johnson, S., 267
Joyce, J., 158
Knuth, D. E., 109, 273, 280
label, 13, 46
invalid, 21
local, 36, 37, 38, 237
name convention, 52
Lamb, V. S., 193
language
higher-level, see higher-level languages
machine, 1
machine-independent, 2
machine-oriented, 1
late binding, 212, 232
LC, 3, 17, 18, 20, 24, 25, 32, 33, 38, 39,
41, 4345, 49, 50, 53, 116, 121, 136,
159, 198, 204, 220, 224, 225, 233, 234,
238, 240, 257, 273
//, 41, 84
directives aecting it, 71
multiple, 3943, 49, 84, 85
name, 79
updating in pass 1, 20
LCC directive, 77, 108
Leventhal, L., 260
lexicographic order, 61
LIBRARY loader command, 215
library routine, 199201, 204, 207, 214,
215, 224, 278, 279
in a meta assembler, 188
library search, 214, 215
LIFO, 132, 261
LIMIT directive, 81
linear array, 61
linkage editor, 12, 195, 198, 200, 211, 212,
224
linked list, 61, 65, 159
linker, 195, 200, 224
external, 187

Index
linking, 4, 201, 212
dynamic, 201, 212, 224
run time, 201
linking editor, 211
linking loader, 12, 187, 195, 199, 224
links in overlays, 216
LIST directive, 102, 108, 129
listing le, xiii, 3, 21, 69, 159, 160, 175,
245
cross reference, 3
directives, 3
listing of macros, 116
listing of pass-1, 101, 232, 279
LIT directive, 96
literal table, 43, 44, 96, 97
literals, 43, 44, 97, 258
LITORG directive, 96, 97
load module, 199, 200, 211, 212
loader, xii, xiii, 29, 31, 195, 256
absolute, 12, 195, 196, 198, 199, 224
assemble-go, 196
bootstrap, xiii, 12, 195, 220, 224
command le, 213
commands, 213
control, 213
cooperation with assembler, 29
dynamic, 212
error messages, 200, 278, 279
errors, 214
general, 195
linker, 195
linking, 12, 187, 195, 199, 224
listing le, 200
outputs, 200
passes of, 31, 40, 204
relocating, 12, 195, 200, 211, 224
tasks, 195
loader commands
CHANGE, 214
DELETE, 214
INCLUDE, 214, 215
LIBRARY, 215
NOCALL, 215

Index
loader directives, 3, 30, 32, 54, 73, 77, 79,
82, 83, 86, 200, 201, 213, 274
END, 205
ENTRY, 205
EXTRN, 205
IDENT, 205
identifying, 204
MODIFY, 95, 205, 209, 210, 224
overlay, 216
program size, 199, 205
size of, 205
special symbols, 205, 206
start execution at, 205
types, 205
USE, 219, 220, 224
loading, 4
dynamic, 212
local labels, xii, 8, 36, 37, 38, 52, 127, 239,
245
in Macro, 242
in TASM, 237
location counter, see LC
LONG directive, 80
MACHINE directive, 76, 247
machine instruction, 3, 22, 26, 30, 36
displacement eld, 26
mode eld, 26
machine language, 1, 190, 254
machine-independent languages, 2
machine-oriented language, 1
Macintosh computer, 43, 127, 128, 137,
172, 194, 229
toolbox routines, 245
Macintosh Programmers Workshop, see
MPW
macro, xii, 69, 109, 189
actual arguments, 114
arguments
count attribute, 126
integer attribute, 126
length attribute, 126
number attribute, 126
scaling attribute, 126
type attribute, 126
associating parameters with arguments,
124
attributes of arguments, 125
binding arguments, 114
compound arguments, 116

289
denition, 109, 110, 111, 116, 155, 160
nested, 122, 130, 141, 143, 144, 146,
154, 155, 276
runaway, 113
editing, 118
expansion, 110, 111, 113, 115, 121, 155
listing, 160
nested, 130, 132, 146, 276
recursive, 134
factorial, 136
global parameters, 144
in TASM, 239
listing, 116, 160
local labels, 127
multiply-dened, 122
nested, 121, 130, 243
on IBM 360, 140
on MPW assembler, 243
parameters, 114
delimiting, 125
double substitution, 115
keyword, 243
multiple substitution, 276
positional, 243
recursive, 133, 134
removing from MDT, 123
serial number replacing parameters, 144
system, 122, 123
tokens, 118
macro assembler, 11
macro denition mode, 113, 121, 141143,
148, 149
macro denition stack, see MDS
macro denition table, see MDT
macro denition time, 147
MACRO directive, 110, 112, 113, 147, 157
macro expansion mode, 113, 121, 142, 143
macro expansion stack, see MES
macro name table, see MNT
Macro (VAX assembler), 2, 42, 81, 92,
125, 126, 128, 129, 164, 229, 240
addressing modes of, 243
data types in, 241
directives, 242
local labels in, 242
macros in, 243
source line format in, 241
special characters in, 241
Macroeconomics, 109
Macrograph, 109

290
Macronesia, 109
magnetic drum, 221
magnetic tapes, 193
MAIN directive, 245
MakeIndex, xiii
MASM, 2, 3, 48, 101, 137, 160, 169, 198,
229, 230, 231, 232, 234, 237, 239, 279
assembler options, 231
directives, 233
expressions, 234
listing, 233
macros, 235
source line format, 233
MAX and MIN directive, 88
MAX directive, 88
McIlroy, M. D., 8
MDS, 144
MDT, 5, 113, 114, 116, 118, 119, 121, 122,
123, 130132, 138, 142147, 149, 150,
153, 155, 156, 235, 276
backward search, 122, 143, 156, 230
chained, 122
compacting it, 230
deleting from, 230, 242
ecient search, 122
mega (220 ), 255
memory allocation, 195
memory map, 73, 200, 206
memory page, 261
memory protection, 205
MEND directive, 147, 148
MES, 132, 133, 138, 146, 150, 151
meta assembler, xiii, 8, 11, 186, 189, 193
adaptive, 186
ASM-86, 187
directives in, 188
function in, 188
general, 186
general adaptive, 186
generative, 186
generative restricted, 186
library routines, 188
MOPI, 187
procedure in, 188
restricted, 186
SLEUTH, 187
UTMOST, 187
MICCNT directive, 88, 134
micro, 88, 100
micro assembler, 12

Index
MICRO directive, 100
micro substitution, 100
microinstructions, 12
Microsoft, 48, 101
Microsoft macro assembler, see MASM
MIN directive, 88
mnemonic, 13, 20, 46, 189
MNT, 122, 123, 156
mode
autoincrement, 45
immediate, 4345
indirect, 96
cascaded, 96
register, 44
relative, 48
short immediate, 44
MODIFY loader directive, 205, 209, 210,
224
modules in MPW assembler, 245
MOPI meta assembler, 187
Morley, C., xiii
Morris, R., 64
MPW, 243
MPW assembler, 43, 128, 137, 172, 229,
243
diagnostic output window, 245
directives, 246
expressions, 246
listing le, 245
literals, 246
local labels, 127, 245
macros, 243
modules, 245
postx notation, 245
strings, 245
multilevel indirect mode, 260
multiple location counters, xii, 39, 4043,
49, 84, 85, 219
multiple substitution, 276
multiplexor, 279
multiply-dened labels, 21
multiply-dened macro, 122
n+1 address computers, 221
NARG directive, 126
National Physical Laboratory, xiii, 183,
221
NCHR directive, 127
NCR, 178
century, 178

Index
NEAT/3, 10, 178180
compiler, 178
constants area, 179
data records, 179
data types, 179
editing masks, 179
instructions, 180
working storage area, 179
nested expansion pointers stack, 146
nested macro denition, 122, 130, 141,
143, 144, 146, 154, 155, 276
nested macro expansion, 130, 132, 146,
276
nested macros, 121, 130
new source le, 121, 131, 136, 138, 151,
153, 154, 160
NOCALL loader command, 215
NOLIST directive, 102, 129
NOSHOW directive, 129, 277
null string, 123
Nutt, Roy, 8
Oak Ridge National Labs, xiii
object code, 30, 69
disassembled, 189
listing, 164
object le, 3, 17, 21, 30, 43, 54, 200, 220,
245
absolute, 19, 23, 26, 28, 30, 77, 195, 198,
199, 211, 212, 214
id bits, 73, 87
integrity of, 220, 224
relocatable, 19, 23, 28, 2932, 73, 195,
199, 201
object module, 199
OCTMIC directive, 100
ODD directive, 81
oset, 48, 85, 255, 257
one pass assembler, see assembler, one pass
one pass assembly-load, 196
one pass linking loader, xiii
one-and-a-half pass assembler, 8, 30, 32
OpCode, 16
variable size, 279
OpCode table, 16, 20, 69, 106108, 123,
189, 227
data structures for, 49
dynamic, 108
OPDEF directive, 105, 108
operating system, 122, 195, 204

291
operator precedence, 235
OPSYN directive, 106108
OPT directive, 247
ORG directive, 81, 160, 213
Organick, E., 279
OT, 218, 224
%OUT directive, 103
overlay, xiii, 215, 216, 218, 224, 278, 279
call instruction, 218
chaining, 215
links, 216
root, 216
sublinks, 216
tree, 217
OVERLAY directive, 83
overlay loader directive, 216
overlay table, see OT
p286 directive, 76
PACKED directive, 97
page zero, 260
pages, 200, 265, 278
parameters in macros, 114
parameters in subroutines, 114
Pascal, 98, 185, 244
record, 108
pass -1, 276
pass 0, 35, 110, 115, 116, 121, 122, 123,
127, 130, 132, 134136, 138, 144, 155,
160, 243, 276
directives, 113, 121, 123, 131, 132, 134,
135, 156
summary of, 154
pass 1, 20, 36, 47, 115, 116, 121, 134, 136,
138, 154, 155, 160, 168, 204, 205, 219,
234, 243, 245, 275, 278, 279
directives, 275
errors, 232
instruction size, 20
listing, 3, 101, 232, 279
local labels in, 37
operation of, 20
pass 2, 20, 36, 47, 116, 134, 138, 159, 160,
168, 169, 175, 204206, 219, 278, 279
PC, 45, 256, 257, 261
PC DOS, 191
PDC directive, 102, 160
percolative assembler, 275
peripheral processor (PPU), 76
phase errors, 47, 48, 169, 170, 232

292
PL360, 178, 181, 183, 186, 194
compound statements, 182
expressions, 182
functions and procedures, 182
goto statement, 181
machine instructions, 182
programs, 182
scope of variables, 182
variables, 182
PL516, xiii, 178, 183
POS directive, 83
position counter, 33, 83
position independent code, 199, 257
post-index indirect mode, 260
postx notation in MPW assembler, 245
PPU directive, 76
pre-index indirect mode, 260
PRINT directive, 129
PRINT ON/OFF directive, 172
problem-oriented languages, 2
PROC directive, 245
procedure, 109, 157, 181, 259
external, 4
in a meta assembler, 188
in assembler language, 40
program name, 200, 207
PSECT directive, 42, 91
pseudo instructions, see directives
PUNCH directive, 75
punched card, 74, 79, 222
punched paper tape, 193
PURGDEF directive, 106, 108
QUAL directive, 78
reason for studying assemblers, 2
RECORD directive, 97, 245
record in COBOL, 194
recursive macro, 133, 134, 136, 277
redene machine instructions, 105
register indirect mode, 262
register mode, 44, 262
relationals, 137
relative mode, 48, 209, 256, 257, 259, 261
displacement size in Macro, 242
relative symbol, 36
relocatable constants, 54
relocatable instructions, 54, 211
relocatable object le, 8, 12, 29, 30, 73,
199, 201

Index
relocatable symbol, 53
relocating instructions, 30
relocating loader, 12, 195, 200, 201, 211,
212, 224
relocation, 4, 201, 265
relocation bit, 30, 36, 53, 73, 87, 92, 200,
257, 259
used as id, 32
relocation term, 206, 208, 211
REMOVE directive, 123
removing a macro from the MDT, 123,
230, 235, 242
Renwick, W., 7
repeat-duplicate (IRP), 128
REPRO directive, 75
reprogramming, 109
resident assembler, 11
return address, 259
Revesz, G., 144, 146
RMT directive, 103
routine library, 2
run away argument, 277
run away denition, 113
run time linking, 201
SBTTL directive, 102, 108
SCAT, see IBM7000 assembler
scope of parameters, 156
scope of variables, 178
sections of a program, 40
SEG directive, 246
segment, 85
address, 85
grouping, 86
registers, 86
SEGMENT directive, 85
segments, 200, 216, 265, 278
on the 80x86, 47
semiconductor memories, 220
separate assembly, 74, 90, 197
sequence symbols, 121, 137, 138, 156
serial number replacing macro parameters,
144
SET directive, 89, 134
SET symbol, 121, 134, 135, 137, 138, 156,
243
SHARE, the IBM users organization, 8
short immediate mode, 44
SHOW directive, 129, 168, 277
Signetics, 15, 210
size of an instruction, 20

Index
Skordalakis, E., 187
SLEUTH meta assembler, 187
SOAP, see IBM650 assembler
software interrupt, 212, 216
source code, disassembled, 189
source le, 3, 13, 75, 111, 142, 199
backup, 274
source line, 3, 13
format of, 52
SPACE directive, 102
special entries, 92
special relocation, 32, 54, 73, 200, 204
special symbol information, 206, 207
special symbol table, see SST
special symbols, 205
SST, 92, 93, 200, 206, 207
stack, 259
stack mode, 259, 261
stack operations, 279
stack pointer, 261, 267
stack relative mode, 261
start address in END directive, 205
STOPDUP directive, 105, 108
STRING directive, 247
strings, 99
Struble, G. W., 265
STRUC directive, 98, 108
students, of the author, xii
sub-overlays, 216
sub-title in listing le, 160
sublinks in overlays, 216
subroutine, 109
call, 110
parameters, 114
substring, 100
subtitle in listing le, 164
subtractive index registers, 275
SUBTTL directive, 164
Swanson, E., 253
symbol
absolute, 36, 53, 138
attributes, 45, 159
EQU, 137
external, 36, 42, 91, 209, 215, 224, 278,
279
future, 18, 24, 31, 36, 38, 43, 45, 226,
234, 278
in an instruction, 13
length attribute, 45
relative, 36, 53

293
sequence, 137
SET, 121, 134, 135, 137, 138, 156, 243
special, 205
type, 87
value of, 159
symbol denition, 18
symbol table, xii, 2, 5, 17, 18, 21, 24, 25,
32, 38, 43, 45, 59, 69, 93, 113, 116, 121,
136, 137, 159, 199, 205, 226, 227, 275,
277
binary search tree, 59, 62
inserting, 62
global, 245
hash table, 59, 63
linear array, 59, 60
inserting, 60
searching, 60
linked lists, 59, 61
inserting, 61
searching, 61
local, 245
macro, 245
organization of, 59
sorted, 59, 60
special entries, 92
temporary, 121, 134, 136
system macros, 122, 123
TASM, 198, 229, 235, 236, 237, 239
automatic jump-sizing in, 237
compatibility with MASM, 239
directives, 240
expressions in, 236
extended push and pop, 236
extended subroutine call in, 236
forward references in, 238
ideal mode of, 239
local labels in, 237
macros in, 239
predened variables of, 236
source lines format, 236
unusual features of, 236
teletype terminals, 193
template, 97
temporary symbol table, 134, 136
tera (240 ), 255
ternary numbers, 270
TEX, 125
nested macro denitions, 154
TITLE directive, 73, 102, 108, 200
title in listing le, 160

294 Index
tokens (in macros), 118
Tolliver, J., xiii
tree data structure, 194
tree overlay, 217
tree structure, 216, 218
turbo assembler, see TASM
turbo C, 236
turbo debugger, 235
turbo Pascal, 236
two pass assembler, see assembler, two
passes
twos complement, 267
type of a symbol, 87
typed variables, 181
UASAP-1, see IBM704 assembler
unconditional jump, 267
UNISAP, see UNIVAC assembler
United Aircraft Corp., 8
UNIVAC, 187, 195
1107, 187
I & II assembler (UNISAP), 8, 32, 37
UNIVAC III, 187
universal assembler, 186
unresolved references, 13, 18, 49, 57
USASI, 179
USE directive, 84, 219

USE loader directive, 219, 220, 224

USING directive, 89, 265
UTMOST meta assembler, 187
variable length instructions, 51, 53
variable-length OpCodes, 279
variables
scope of, 178
VAX assembler, see Macro
VAX computer, see DEC
VFD directive, 99
virtual memory, 200, 215, 278
VOCS, 187
von Neumann, John, 32
Warnock, J., 10
Webster (dictionary), 109
Wichmann, B. A., xiii
Wilkes, Maurice, 7
Wirth, Niklaus, 8, 178
WORD directive, 80
XREF directive, 103
Z-80 microprocessor, 266
Z-80, assemblers for, xii
zero page mode, 260, 261
zero-operand instructions, 49

Indexing requires decision making of a far higher order than computers

are yet capable of.

The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th ed. (1982)