**Contents** [[!toc levels=3]] # Assembly? _Assembly_ is the programming language that gives direct access to the instructions and registers of the processor. A program called the _assembler_ compiles assembly language into machine code. NetBSD installs the GNU assembler "gas" into /usr/bin/as and this program assembles for the host processor architecture. A higher-level compiler like "gcc" acts as a preprocessor to the assembler, by translating code from C (or other language) to assembler. Just run cc -S yourfile.c and look at the output yourfile.s to see assembly code. A higher-level compiler can probably write better assembly code than a human programmer who knows assembly language. There remain a few reasons to use assembly language. For example: * You need direct access to processor registers (for example, to set the stack pointer). * You need direct access to processor instructions (like for vector arithmetic or for atomic operations). * You want to improve or fix the higher-level compiler, assembler, or linker. * You want to optimize code, because your higher-level compiler was not good enough. * You want to learn assembly language. # i386 _i386_ architecture takes its name from the Intel 386, the first x86 processor to have a 32-bit mode. Other names for this architecture are: * _IA-32_, which means Intel Architecture, 32 bit. * _x86_, which can mean the 32-bit mode or the ancient 16-bit mode. The i386 assembly language is either AT&T syntax or Intel syntax. Most programmers seem to prefer the Intel syntax. ## nasm NASM (the Netwide Assembler) is an x86 assembler that uses the Intel syntax. It is easily available via [devel/nasm](http://pkgsrc.se/devel/nasm#main). You can also use [devel/yasm](http://pkgsrc.se/devel/yasm#main) with [devel/nasm](http://pkgsrc.se/devel/nasm#main) syntax. ### Hello world, NetBSD/i386 ; Hello world, NetBSD/i386 4.0 section .note.netbsd.ident progbits alloc noexec nowrite dd 0x00000007 ; Name size dd 0x00000004 ; Desc size dd 0x00000001 ; value 0x01 db "NetBSD", 0x00, 0x00 ; "NetBSD\0\0" db 400000003 ; __NetBSD_Version__ (please see ) section .data msg db "Hello world!", 0x0a ; "Hello world\n" len equ $ - msg section .text global _start _start: ; write() mov eax, 0x04 ; SYS_write push len ; write(..., size_t nbytes) push msg ; write(..., const void *buf, ...) push 0x01 ; write(int fd, ...) push 0x00 int 0x80 pop ebx ; exit() mov eax, 0x01 ; SYS_exit push 0x00 ; exit(int status) push 0x00 int 0x80 ### How to compile and link To use the above code you need to compile and then link it: $ nasm -f elf hello.asm $ ld -o hello hello.o $ ./hello Hello world! ## gas _the portable GNU assembler_ It uses AT&T syntax and is designed after the 4.2BSD assembler. You can use it on many CPU architectures. Example: .section ".note.netbsd.ident", "a" .long 2f-1f .long 4f-3f .long 1 1: .asciz "NetBSD" 2: .p2align 2 3: .long 400000000 4: .p2align 2 .section .data data_items: # this is an array .long 3,39,41,21,42,34,42,23,38,37,15,37,16,17,18,25,23,12,31,2 .set DATASIZE, ( . - data_items) / 4 - 1 .section .text .globl _start _start: movl $0, %edi # zero the index register movl $DATASIZE, %ecx # set ecx to number of items movl data_items(,%ecx,4), %eax # load first item movl %eax, %ebx # its the biggest atm main_loop: decl %ecx # decrement counter movl data_items(,%ecx,4), %eax # step to next element cmpl %eax, %ebx # is it greater? cmovll %eax, %ebx # set ebx to greater if its less than cur. num. jecxz end_prog # if we are at item 0 end iterat ion jmp main_loop # again! end_prog: pushl %ebx # return largest number pushl %ebx # BSD-ism (has to push twice?) movl $1, %eax # call exit int $0x80 # kernel ret # powerpc _PowerPC_ processors appear inside multiple different hardware platforms; NetBSD has at least 11 ports, see [[Platforms#PowerPC]]. The easiest way to obtain a PowerPC machine is probably to acquire a used Macintosh, choosing from among the [supported models for NetBSD/macppc](http://www.netbsd.org/ports/macppc/models.html). PowerPC processors have 32-bit registers and pointers and use big-endian byte order. * A very few boards (not with NetBSD) run the PowerPC in little-endian mode to match the hardware. * A few PowerPC processors also have a 64-bit mode. NetBSD 5.0 will support some Apple G5 machines with these processors, but only in 32-bit mode (see [ppcg5 project](http://netbsd-soc.sourceforge.net/projects/ppcg5/)). ## gas Here is an example of a program for gas: ## factorial.s ## This program is in the public domain and has no copyright. ### ## This is an example of an assembly program for NetBSD/powerpc. ## It computes the factorial of NUMBER using unsigned 32-bit integers ## and prints the answer to standard output. .set NUMBER, 10 .section ".note.netbsd.ident", "a" # ELF note to identify me as a native NetBSD program # type = 0x01, desc = __NetBSD_Version__ from ## .int 7 # length of name .int 4 # length of desc .int 0x01 # type .ascii "NetBSD\0" # name .ascii "\0" # padding .int 500000003 # desc .section ".data" decbuffer: .fill 16 # buffer for decimal ASCII decbufend: .ascii "\n" # newline at end of ASCII .section ".text" # PowerPC instructions need an alignment of 4 bytes .balign 4 .globl _start .type _start, @function _start: # compute factorial in %r31 li %r0, NUMBER mtctr %r0 # ctr = number li %r31, 1 # %r31 = factorial li %r30, 1 # %r30 = next factor factorial_loop: mullw %r31, %r31, %r30 # multiply %r31 by next factor addi %r30, %r30, 1 # increment next factor bdnz+ factorial_loop # loop ctr times # prepare to convert factorial %r31 to ASCII. lis %r9, decbufend@ha la %r4, decbufend@l(%r9) # %r4 = decbufend lis %r8, decbuffer@ha la %r29, decbuffer@l(%r8) # %r29 = decbuffer li %r5, 1 # %r5 = length of ASCII # Each loop iteration divides %r31 by 10 and writes digit to # position %r4. Formula (suggested by gcc) to divide by 10, # 0xcccccccd # is to multiply by ----------- = 0.100000000005821 # 0x800000000 # which is to multiply by 0xcccccccd, then shift right 35. ## .set numerator, 0xcccccccd lis %r9, numerator@ha la %r28, numerator@l(%r9) # %r28 = numerator decloop: cmpw %r29, %r4 # start of buffer <=> position beq- buffer_overflow # begin %r9 = (%r31 / 10) mulhwu %r9, %r31, %r28 # %r9 = ((%r31 * %r28) >> 32) addi %r4, %r4, -1 # move %r4 to next position srwi %r9, %r9, 3 # %r9 = (%r9 >> 3) = %r31 / 10 mulli %r8, %r9, 10 # %r8 = (%r31 / 10) * 10 sub %r27, %r31, %r8 # %r27 = %r31 % 10 = digit addi %r27, %r27, '0 # convert digit to ASCII addi %r5, %r5, 1 # count this ASCII digit stb %r27, 0(%r4) # write ASCII digit to buffer mr. %r31, %r9 # %r31 /= 10, %r31 <=> 0 bne+ decloop # loop until %r31 == 0 # FALLTHROUGH buffer_overflow: # write(2) our factorial to standard output li %r0, 4 # SYS_write from li %r3, 1 # standard output ## %r4 # buffer ## %r5 # size of buffer sc # exit(2) li %r0, 1 # SYS_exit from li %r3, 0 # exit status sc .size _start, . - _start With a NetBSD/powerpc system, you can run this program using $ as -o factorial.o factorial.s $ ld -o factorial factorial.o $ ./factorial 3628800 $ ## Useful Documents To learn about PowerPC assembly language, here are two documents to start with. * IBM developerWorks. [PowerPC Assembly](http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-ppc/). This is a very good introduction to PowerPC assembly. It provides and explains the Hello World example (but using a Linux system call). * SunSoft and IBM. [System V Application Binary Interface, PowerPC Processor Supplement](http://refspecs.linux-foundation.org/elf/elfspec_ppc.pdf) (PDF file, hosted by Linux Foundation). This is the specification for 32-bit PowerPC code in ELF systems. It establishes %r1 as the stack pointer and describes the stack layout. It explains the C calling conventions, how to pass arguments to and return values from C functions, how to align data structures, and which registers to save to the stack. * NetBSD, Linux and OpenBSD (and FreeBSD?) all use ELF with PowerPC and all follow this specification, with a few deviations and extensions. ## Wiki Pages * [[ELF Executables for PowerPC]]. This introduces assembly language with a commented example.