CS255 - Home/Project Assignment

CS 255 - Computer Organization and Assembler Programming
Project 5

Due date: See Class Webpage

Observe the Emory Honor Code when doing this (and all other) homework.

0. Preparations

To do this project, you must obtain a copy of the prepared files using one of two methods:

Method 1:

Click on File Browser (top menu bar in EGTAPI)
In the File Browser side bar, click on the Prepare tab.
In the Egtapi Prepare pop up window, select: Section Number = 1 and enter pj5 in the Project Code field.
Then clcik the Prepare button (and close the Prepare window when done)
The verify that it was successful, click Refresh in the EGTAPI File Browser window - you should see the pj5 folder.

Method 2:
Open the Terminal in EGTAPI and enter these commands into the terminal (at the bottom of EGTAPI):

1. Purpose

Accessing data structures: retrieve values from arrays and linked lists
Arithmetic operations (+, - and * operations)

In depth understanding about (1) how a computer accesses variables (especially structured varaibles) in memory and (2) using registers in computations forms the basis of assembler programming.

To get you going with programming in ARM, I have provided the skeletal program pj5.s and its Egtapi debug information file egt.pj5.arm. In the preparation step, you have made a copy of these files into your CS255 project directory.

The skeletal program pj5.s has 10 sections, labeled as Q1, Q2, ..., Q10 corresponding to questions 1 through 10 (see below).

Write the assembler instructions the each answer in the corresponding section of the pj5.s file.

The variables definition section of the skeletal program pj5.s contains the following:

************************************** * Variables used to display output ************************************** ans_b: .skip 1 * In Java: byte ans_b; ans_w: .skip 2 * In Java: short ans_b; ans_l: .skip 4 * In Java: int ans_b; **************************************** * Indices used to select array elements **************************************** i: .byte 2 * In Java: byte i = 2; j: .2byte 3 * In Java: short w = 3; k: .4byte 4 * In Java: int k = 4; **************************************** * 3 arrays of 10 elements **************************************** A: .byte 11, -22, 33, -44, 55, -66, 77, -88, 99, -123 B: .2byte 111, -222, 333, -444, 555, -666, 777, -888, 999, -5432 C: .4byte 1111, -2222, 3333, -4444, 5555, -6666, 7777, -8888, 9999, -9876 Comment: A is an array of 10 bytes, Comment: B is an array of 10 shorts and Comment: C is an array of 10 integers. ******************************************************** * One linked list starting at head * * head ->[1234,89,-11]->[2345,78,66]->[-3456,67,44] * ->[4567,56,77]->[5678,45,44] ******************************************************** head .4byte list1 Comment: head points to the first element of a linked list. The linked list has been set up already. Each linked list element has the following structure: class list { int value1; // 4 bytes short value2 // 2 bytes short value3 // 2 bytes list next; // points to the next list element }

The homework assignment questions will ask you to:

Retrieve the value from elements in one of the arrays or in the linked list
Then store the retrieved value into one of the variables ans_b, ans_w or ans_l

Be very careful and use the correct operand size.

2. Questions

Q1: ans_b = A[3]; (ans_b: -44) Q2: ans_i = B[8]; (ans_i: 999) Q3: ans_s = C[k]; (ans_s: 5555) Q4: ans_s = A[i + j]; (ans_s: -66) Q5: ans_s = C[j + k]; (ans_s: -8888) Q6: ans_i = A[i] + B[k]; (ans_i: 33 + 555 = 588) Q7: ans_i = B[A[k] - 50]; (ans_i: B[55 - 50] = B[5] = -666) Q8: ans_s = B[14]; (ans_s: 3333, figure out for yourself what happened !!) Q9: ans_i = head.value3; (ans_i: -11) Q10: ans_s = head.next.next.value1; (ans_s: -3456)

3. Hint on Debugging

EGTAPI

assembler program

The following is a general guideline for debugging assembler programs:

First you must run EGTAPI and get to the part of the program containing a bug
To accomplish this:
When you have reached the place just before before the program spot with a bug, you must use the Single Step button to execute one instruction at a time !!!
Check the outcome of the execution:
(This of course assumes that you know what the correct asnwer should be....)

(More information on debug: read the Egtapi documentation)

A concrete Example:

Suppose see (in the variable display window of Egtapi) that your answer for question Q6 is wrong....
Start EGTAPI and (re)-load your program if you have not already done so...
Press Run on EGTAPI until you have reach the start of your solution for Q6.
When you have reached the first instruction for your assembler code for Q6, you must use

Egtapi will display the outcome of the execution of each instruction

You can now find the bug (= the instruction(s) that did something wrong) by:

verifying the result of the instruction against the expected result that you want the instruction(s) to do
If the result is NOT what you expected, you must have used the wrong instruction. Try to figure out what went wrong and use the correct instruction or instructions to achieve the correct result.

(Like I said before, you would need to know what you want the instruction to achieve first before you can find your bugs.... So, an essential part of "debugging" requires that you know what you want to achieve...).

4. Turn in

pj5

EGTAPI

(In EGTAPI, select: File Browser, Turnin, click on the file you want to turn in, use the turn in code: pj5)

You can also use the turnin command (executed while you're in your cs255 directory)

Open the Terminal in EGTAPI and type in these command:

/home/cs255001/turnin pj5.s pj5 // If you're in section 1 or /home/cs255002/turnin pj5.s pj5 // If you're in section 2

I want the source (so I can read it). DO NOT turn in the executable or the object code !