CAP318 (SYSTEM SOFTWARE)

HOME WORK – II

Course Instructor: MANDEEP KAUR_____________________

Student’s Roll No. A15_____________________

Section No. : D3804_________________________
Declaration:
I declare that this assignment is my individual work. I have not copied from any other
student’s work or from any other source except where due acknowledgment is made
explicitly in the text, nor has any part been written for me by another person.
Student’s Signature :
SURENDRA
Evaluator’s comments:
_____________________________________________________________________
Marks obtained : ___________ out of ______________________
 Part A
Q 1. Discuss design specification of a assembler with diagram?
ANSWER: The following steps are commonly to develop
specification for an assembler.

1. Specify the problem.

2. Specify data structures
3. Define format of data structures
4. Specify algorithm
5. Look for modularity
6. Repeat all five modules
Synthesis phase: -
There are two data structures which are used in assemblers.
1. Symbol table
2.Mneomonics table

Analysis phase:-
The function performed by the analysis phase is the building of the symbol table.
For this purpose it must determine the addresses with which the symbolic names
use in a program are associated memory allocation

• The design of assembler can be to perform the following:

1. Scanning (tokenizing)
2. Parsing (validating the instructions)
3. Creating the symbol table
4. Resolving the forward references
5. Converting into the machine language
The place of assembler in a system .
The above diagram shows the place of assembler in a complete system.
Q 2. How a assembler converts mnemonic code in to machine understandable
form? Explain?
ANSWER: Typically a modern assembler creates object
code by translating assembly instruction mnemonics
into opcodes, and by resolving symbolic names for memory
locations and other entities. The use of symbolic references
is a key feature of assemblers, saving tedious calculations
and manual address updates after program modifications.
Most assemblers also include macro facilities for performing
textual substitution—e.g., to generate common short
sequences of instructions as inline, instead
of called subroutines, or even generate entire programs or
program suites.

The assembler

The assembler works in two passes:

pass1
input scanning, collect symbols, generate token list
pass2
generate object code from the token list

OPTAB: operation code table

SYMTAB: symbol table

LOCCTR: location counter

It consists of three web pages, the first page of which
shows how the textual program input from a key-board is
converted into ASCII-code and stored in the memory in
binary form.
The second page shows the scanning of the source
assembly code to create the address symbol table.
This is necessary to provide numerical values to the user
defined-variables. The last page shows the operation of
several table lookup procedures to convert assembly
language statement into binary machine
code.
Conversion of text strings into ASCII-format

For easy access for humans characters are coded into

positional format in a keyboard. Punching the keys humans
describe a problem to be solved in a formal language
(assembly language is used in this presentation). The
description is made up of statements, which describe the
algorithm to be executed. Statements consist of short text
strings, items to represent actions to be taken and objects to
be acted upon.

First pass of the assembler program

Structure of the assembly language: instruction set, commands,

addressing modes etc. are completely defined by the designer. The
user is tied up to these decisions. However, the user has complete
freedom to give names to the variables s/he needs when describing
the algorithm to be executed. During the first pass of the assembly
process, a variable symbol table is created to store all the user
variable names and associate a definite numerical address to be
referenced during the second pass of the process.

Second pass of the assembler program

A two pass assembler does two passes over the source

file (the second pass can be over a file generated in the
first pass). In the first pass all it does is looks for label
definitions and introduces them in the symbol table. In
the second pass, after the symbol table is complete, it
does the actual assembly by translating the operations
and so on.
Q 3. What are various types of assemblers which can be developed?

ANSWER: 1Rudimentary two-pass Assembler

 assume all opcodes and operands are one

byte
• assume all arguments are symbolic - translated to
addresses

Two-Pass Assembler - additional

considerations
❍Additional considerations
●symbolic names can be used for additional
purpose as specification of addressing modes
●symbolic addresses can be used in expressions
●storage can be reserved for multiple arguments
(as for an array). Storage can be differentiated for
byte, word, etc. Alignment must be considered.
●Immediate values
❍immediate mode vs. literal pools
❍protect from changes
●numeric constants can be written as integers,
decimals, etc. All must be converted to internal
representation specific to the computer.
 ●address counter may start at 0. Alternatively, it
may be reset multiple number of times using ORIGIN.
Increasing the counter causes space allocation in the
code
●Symbols may be scoped globally, locally in a module, or
locally within a module. Global symbols and modular
development requires extern-symbol-tables for linker.

3One-Pass Assembler
●Except for forward references, all could be done in
a single pass.
●Forward references can be handled by creating links of
references to fill: fill at end or when attributes become
known.

4Load-and-go Assembler
●it must run in a fixed location.
●it cannot be combined with other modules.
●there must be enough memory for the assembler
and the code (the code must be in main storage to
facilitate filling backward the links)

5One-pass Module Assembler

●usually, loader/linker will resolve internal forward and
external references. For that, tables must be made available
to it.

Q 4. Assembler can perform operations of search and sort? Give your

comments?
ANSWER: SORTING:-
The following kinds(common) of searching algorithm are
used in assemblers

1. Sorting algorithms:
a. Simple exchange sort
b. Classic bubble sort
c. Simple insertion sort
d. Recursive quick sort

We can implement several standard sorting algorithms in

assembler. To make things a bit easier (subscripting), the
items to sort are restricted to 1 byte numbers. In addition,
we restrict to a 1-byte length on the array. This is not a
restriction to the sorting. Much of the work is done in
subprograms. The major subprograms are

1. PRINT a list of numbers with a choice of heading

2. Standard calls to INT 21H for I/O placed in subprograms
3. COPY an array of numbers into a second array of
numbers
4. ATOI (ascii to integer) conversion for 1-byte quantities
5. ITOA (integer to ascii) conversion for 1-byte quantities

Searching
If an insulated application specifies an assembly
dependency, side-by-side first searches for the assembly
among the shared assemblies in the WinSxS folder. If the
required assembly is not found, side-by-side then searches
for a private assembly installed in a folder of the
application's directory structure.

Assemblies may be arranged in the following locations in the

application's directory structure:
 • In a language-specific subfolder in the application's
folder. The name of the subfolder is a string of DHTML
language codes indicating a language-culture or
language
• In the application's folder. Typically, this is the folder
containing the application's executable file.
• In a subfolder in the application's folder. The subfolder
must have the same name as the assembly.
• In a subfolder of a language-specific subfolder in the
application's folder. The name of the higher subfolder is
a string of DHTML language codes indicating a
language-culture or language. The deeper subfolder has
the same name as the assembly.

Part B
Q1. What is the need for relocation of the program? With an example explain
how relocation can be done.
ANSWER:

There are some reasons for relocation of the program:

1. Allocate space in memory for the programs.
2. Resolve symbolic preference between object deck.
3. Adjust all address-dependent location, such as address constants, to
correspond to the allocated space.
4. Physically place the machine instructions and data into memory.
Example-
How a program is loaded, beginning at address 0000.JSUB instruction is loaded
at address 0006. Consider that the address field of this instruction contains 01036,
which is the address of the instruction labeled RDREC. Now suppose we want to
load this program beginning at address 5000 as shown in fig 2. The address of this
instruction labeled RDREC is then 6036.
Thus the JSUB instruction must be modified as shown to contain this new
Address. Likewise, if we loaded the program beginning at address 7420
(Fig 3), the JSUB instruction would need to be changed to 4b108456 to
 Correspond to the new address of RDREC.
1. When the assembler generates the opcode for JSUB, we are considering, it will
insert the address RDREC relative to the start of the program.
2. The assembler will also produce a command for the loader, instructing it to add
the beginning address of the program to the address field in the JSUB instruction
at the load time.

(+JSUB RDREC) (+JSUB RDREC)

0000 . 5000 .
. . . .
. .
0006 4B101036 RDREC 5006 4B101036
. . . . RDREC
. . . .
1036 B410 6036 B410
. . .
. . .
.1076 . 6076

Fig (1) Fig (2)

(+JSUB RDREC)
7420 .
. .
. .
.7426 4B101036
. .
. .
8456 B410 RDREC
. .
. .
. .
8496 .

Q2. Enlist the various assembler features that are machine dependent and
machine independent. Explain any one of them from each.
ANSWER:
Machine dependent assembler features:
1) Instruction format
2) addressing modes
3) Relocation

Instruction format and addressing mode:

1. PC-relative or Base-relative addressing
Ex. op m
2. Indirect addressing
Ex. op @m
3. Immediate addressing
Ex. op #c
4. Extended format
Ex. +op m
5. Index addressing
Ex. op m, x

6. Register-to-register instructions

Machine independent assembler features:

1. Program blocks
2. Control Session
3. Linking
4. Literals

5. Symbol defining statements

6. Expressions
7.

Control Section

• A control section is a part of the program that maintains its

identity after assembly.
 • Each such control section can be loaded and relocated
independently of the others. (Main advantage)

• Different control sections are often used for subroutines or

other logical subdivisions of a program.

• The programmer can assemble, load, and manipulate each of

these control sections separately.

Program Linking

• Instructions in one control section may need to refer to

instructions or data located in another control section. (Like
external variables used in C language)

• Thus, program (actually, control section) linking is necessary.

• Because control sections are independently loaded and

relocated, the assembler is unable to know a symbol’s address at
assembly time. This job can only be delayed and performed by the
loader.

• We call the references that are between control sections

“external references”.

• The assembler generates information for each external

reference that will allow the loader to perform the required linking.

Q3. What are the basic functions of a loader? Develop an algorithm for a
bootstrap loader.
Answer:
FUNCTIONS OF LOADER: -
1. bringing an object program into memory
2. starting its execution
 3. The loader is capable of loading modules in a range of
object formats, and knowledge of these formats is built
in to the loader.
4. Knowledge of new object formats can be added to the
loader in a straightforward manner. This makes it
possible to provide OS-independent modules (for a
given CPU architecture type).
5. The loader is capable of loading modules in a range of
object formats.
a. The knowledge of these formats is built in to the
loader.
b. The knowledge of new object formats can be
added to the loader in a straightforward manner.
6. This makes it possible to provide OS-independent
modules (for a given CPU architecture type).
7. In addition to this, the loader can load modules via the
OS-provided dlopen (3) service where available. Such
modules are not platform independent, and the
semantics of dlopen () on most systems results in
significant limitations in the use of modules of this type.
Support for dlopen () modules in the loader is primarily
for experimental and development purposes.
8. Special registration functions of loader are:
a. The loader contains some functions for registering
some classes of modules. These may be moved
out of the loader at some point.
b. Void Load Extension (Extension Module *ext)
c. This registers the entry points for the extension
identified by ext.This registers the entry points for
the font rasteriser module identified by font.

ALGORITHM FOR BOOTSTRAP LOADER: -

Begin
X=0x80 (the address of the next memory location
to be loaded)
Loop
A? GETC (and convert it from the ASCII character
code to the value of the hexadecimal digit)
Save the value in the high-order 4 bits of S
A? GETC
Combine the value to form one byte A? (A+S)
Store the value (in A) to the address in register X
X? X+1
End

GETC A? Read one character

If A=0x04 then jump to 0x80
If A<48 then GETC
A? A-48 (0x30)
If A<10 then return
A? A-7
Return

Q4. What is machine dependent loader? Explain its features.

ANSWER;

Absolute Loader – Simple and efficient

Disadvantage is – programmer has to specify the starting address

One program to run – no problem – not for several

Difficult to use subroutine libraries efficiently

Program Linking
Goal - Resolve the problems with EXTREF and EXTDEF from different
control sections

Use modification records for both relocation and linking

- Address constant
- External reference