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Manual Page of vam

NAME

vam.pl - Virtual Assembler Machine: an interpreter for a simple processor's instruction set

SYNOPSIS

vam.pl [--help] [--manual | -M] [--verbose ] [--Version] [--input infile] [--output outfile] [--registers count] [--memory size] [--dump | -D] [--statistics] [srcfile...]

OPTIONS

--input infile

Read the input of the interpreted program, from infile.

Default: stdin.

--output outfile

Write the output of the interpreted program, to outfile.

Default: stdout.

--memory size

Size of the avaliable memory. size is a positive number followed by k (kilo) or M (mega), which specifies the size in kilo or mega memory cells respectively.

Default: 32M

--registers count

Number of the available registers: R0, R1, ... Rcount-1.

Default: 32

--help

Show this help and terminate.

--manual -M

Show the entire manual and terminate.

--verbose

Verbose.

--Version

Show program version.

--dump
-D

After parsing the source file, dump the instruction list.

--statistics

Emit some statistical information about the program.

Option names may abbreviated as long as the are unique. Instead of --XX -XX may be used.

DESCRIPTION

vam.pl is an interpreter of a simple processor's (designed by me and called VAM, Virtual Assembler Processor) instruction set. It has the "usual" machine instructions available on "real" processors.

vam.pl may be used e.g. in a compiler construction course to have a "play ground" when generating machine code.

vam.pl read the instructions to be interpreted either from stdin or the file(s) srcfile given on the command line. The BIOS (Basic Input / Output System) of the processor allows to read and write a file during runtime (see --input and --output).

FORMAT OF THE SOURCE FILE

The source file srcfile contains the assembler instructions to be interpreted.

A line is either empty, contains a comment or one instruction or one (string or data) declaration.

The # character starts a comment up to the end of the line.

The instruction and registers names are case insensitive. Labels and string literals are case sensitive.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE PROCESSOR VAM

The VAM processor has a usual von-Neumann architecture with registers, memory, an ALU (arithmetic logical unit) etc.

The processor knows two data types: (signed) integers and floating point numbers. Memory addresses are positive integer values.

The number of registers may be specified by the --registers command line option and are denoted by R0, R1, ... A register may hold one value of a given data type at a time.

The memory is partitioned into memory cells, which may hold one value of a given data type at a time.

Special Registers

The registers R0, R1 und R2 are reserved and should not be used for other purposes (even it is legal to modify them). All other registers may be used without any restrictions.

R0

The register R0 is used as instruction counter and set to 1 before the program starts.

With the exception of the control flow and non-executable statements, after performing the operation specified by an instruction, the instruction counter R0 will be incremented by 1.

R1

The register R1 is used as stack pointer pointing to the top of the stack maintained by some instructions (see below). At program start R1 is initialized to the value of high-memory.

R2

The register R2 holds the pointer to the first unused memory cell. The the free memory may be used manage dynamically allocated memory similar to the sbrk(2) call of the C-library.

Layout of the Memory

    Address        | Description
   ----------------+-------------------------------------------------
       0           | Undefined address
   ----------------+-------------------------------------------------
       1           | The instruction to be executed at program start
      ...          | More instructions.
     <code-end>    | The textual last instruction
   ----------------+-------------------------------------------------
    <data-start>   | Global data
     ...           | ........
    <data-end>     | ........
   ----------------+-------------------------------------------------
    <malloc-start> | Start of free memory.
     ...           | ....
    <high-memory>-1| Last memory cell, initial top of stack
   ----------------+-------------------------------------------------

The free memory "grows" towards larger address, while the stack grows towards small addresses.

VAM Runtime Errors

The VAM emits under the following conditions an error message and terminates:

* VAM emits an error if the memory at address 0 or an address >= high-memory is accessed.

* VAM emits an error, if a memory cell not containing an instruction should be read as instruction and executed.

* Division by 0 causes an error.

VAM does not emit an error if the two memory areas overlap.

MACHINE INSTRUCTIONS

In the sequel the instruction are declared, which the processor is able to process. In the description below r, r1, r2, r3 specify any processor register R0, R1, ..., Rmax_registers-1, even the reserved ones. If for an instruction several registers may be specified, the same register may be used several times.

The notion M[address] specifies the access of the memory cell at the given address.

Labels

There are three kinds of named entities, named by so called label:

  1. Data declaration:

    label : DATA <count>

  2. String declaration

    label : "character string"

  3. Instruction

    label : one-instruction

A label consists of a letter followed by letters, digits or an underscore character. The labels of each entity class (data, string, instruction) reside in a separate namespace and must be unique in that namespace.

The string and data declarations are non-executable instructions, therefore the instruction counter is not modified. They may occur everywhere in the source file.

Memory cells holding global data must be reserved and a label must be given be given. This declaration reserves count memory cells. The address of the first memory cell may be accessed using the name label.

A string declaration declares a name for a character string used in the write_s instruction. The two characters "\n" represent a newline. The two characters "\t" represent a tabulator.

A control flow statement may use an instruction label to specify the next statement to be executed.

Some instructions have a suffix in their name. The suffix _f indicates floating point and _i integer operation. The suffix _c indicates that the instruction takes a literal integer argument, _r a register is used and _l a label.

A prefix i indicates some kind of indirection.

Control Flow Instructions

nop

No Operation, do nothing and continue execution with the next instruction. If a label declaration is not followed by an instruction, a nop is assumed.

end

Stop the processor and terminate the interpretation.

goto label
igoto r

Continue execution with the instruction named by label, or at the address stored in register r.

call r1 , label
icall r1 , r2

Continue execution with the instruction named by label (or the address stored in register r2) and push the address of the statement following the call onto the stack pointed to by r2.

r1 = r1 - 1; Memory[r1] = R0 + 1; R0 = label

r1 = r1 - 1; Memory[r1] = R0 + 1; R0 = r2

return r

Get address from the top of the stack r, pop it and continue execution at the instruction specified by that address.

R0 = Memory[r]; r = r + 1;

Conditional Control Flow Instructions

If register r holds the shown condition, then continue execution with the instruction specified by label, else continue with the textual next instruction.

The registers should contain an integer value.

See also cmp_i and cmp_f.

iflt r , label

less then: r < 0

ifle r , label

less equal: r <= 0

ifeq r , label

equal: r = 0

ifne r , label

not equal: r != 0

ifgt r , label

greater then: r > 0

ifge r , label

greater equal: r >= 0

iftrue r , label

true-value: r != 0

iffalse r , label

false-value: r == 0

Arithmetic instructions

Except when noted, all registers used by an instruction must hold values of the same datatype, which must match the type of the instruction. Otherwise the result may be undefined.

The processing of an instructions read the source registers performs the operation and store the result in the destination register.

There is no test over underflow or overflow of the result. A division by 0 causes an error.

add_i r1 , r2 , r3
add_f r1 , r2 , r3

Addition: r1 = r2 + r3

sub_i r1 , r2 , r3
sub_f r1 , r2 , r3

Subtraction: r1 = r2 - r3

mult_i r1 , r2 , r3
mult_f r1 , r2 , r3

Multiplication: r1 = r2 * r3

div_i r1 , r2 , r3
div_f r1 , r2 , r3

Division: r1 = r2 / r3

If r3 == 0 an error message is emitted and the program is terminated.

mod_i r1 , r2 , r3

Modulo: r1 = r2 % r3

If r3 == 0 an error message is emitted and the program is terminated.

Note: there is no floating point mod operation!

cmp_i r1 , r2 , r3
cmp_f r1 , r2 , r3

comparison: r1 = r2 compare r3

r1 holds an integer -1, 0, or 1 according to:

-1 if r2 < r3
 0 if r2 == r3
 1 if r2 > r3
add_c r1 , r2 , value
sub_c r1 , r2 , value
mult_c r1 , r2 , value
div_c r1 , r2 , value
mod_c r1 , r2 , value
cmp_c r1 , r2 , value

Integer arithmetic / comparison with an (signed) integer constant:

r1 = r2 <operand> value

f2i r1 , r2

Type cast: r1 = (int) r2 (in C speak)

i2f r1 , r2

Type cast: r1 = (float) r2 (in C speak)

lshift r1 , r2 , r3
rshift r1 , r2 , r3

Left shift: r1 = r2 << r3 (in C speak)

Right shift: r1 = r2 >> r3 (in C speak)

All registers must hold integer values.

Transport Instructions

Transport instructions move values from one place to another.

If a register specifies an address, it must hold an positive integer value. Everything else is undefined.

copy r1 , r2

Copies the content of registers: r1 = r2

cload_i r , value
cload_f r , value

Loads the (signed) integer or floating point value into the register r.

load r1 , r2
load_l r1 , label
load_c r1 , r2 , value

Load the content a memory cell to a register. label is a data label and value is a signed integer.

r1 = Memory[r2]

r1 = Memory[label]

r1 = Memory[r2 + value]

iload r1 , r2 , r3

Indirect load with register offset: r1 = Memory[Memory[r2] + r3]

iload_c r1 , r2 , value

Indirect load with constant offset: r1 = Memory[Memory[r2] + value]

value is an (signed) integer number.

store r1 , r2
store_l label , r2
store_c r1 , r2 , value

Store the content a register in a memory cell. label is a data label and value is a signed integer.

Memory[r1] = r2

Memory[label] = r2

Memory[r1 + value] = r2

istore r1 , r2 , r3

Indirect store with register offset: Memory[Memory[r1] + r2] = r3

istore_c r1 , r2 , value

Indirect store with constant offset: Memory[Memory[r1] + value] = r2

value is an (signed) integer number.

Stack Related Instructions

Stack grows from higher to lower addresses.

push r1 , r2

Push the value of r2 to the stack pointed by r1.

r1 = r1 - 1; Memory[r1] = r2

r1 should contain an address, while r2 may hold any value.

pop r1 , value
pop_r r1 , r2

Pop values / r2 many values from the stack.

r1 = r1 + r2

r1 = r1 + value

r1 should contain an address, while r2 / value is an integer.

Input/Output Instructions

The VAM has a build in BIOS (basic I/O system) which allows to write character strings and numbers to a file (see --output). Only numbers may be read from a file (see --input).

###############################################################################

Input

The following instruction read some values from the input file.

read_i r1 , r2
read_f r1, r2

Read a (signed) integer / floating point number and store it in register r1 and store an error code in r2. If the read value is an integer or floating point constant, then r2 holds the value 1 (true), else 0 (false)

If r1 and r2 denote the same register, no error code is stored. In case of an error the value 0 is stored in the register.

The read number must be terminated by RETURN (newline).

eof r

Test if End Of File (EOF) has been reached: r = EOF? 1 : 0 (in C speak)

Output

The following instruction write some values to the output file.

write_s label

Write the character string denoted by label.

write_i R

Write the integer value stored in register R.

write_f R

Write the floating point value stored in register R.

EXAMPLES

The following program prints the square numbers 1 ... n^2:

 #############################################################
 # Description:  A VAM program computing square numbers
 #               Input:   read a number
 #               Output:  write square numbers 1 .... n^2
 s_in:  "Please input an integer: "
 s_out: "^2 = "
 NL:    "\n"
 start:
       write_s s_in
       read_i  R4, R4             # R4: n (ignore errors)
       write_s NL
       cload_i R5, 1              # R5: i = 1
 loop:
       cmp_i   R6, R5, R4         # if (i > n) goto end
       ifgt    R6, end
       mult_i  R6, R5, R5         # i * i
       write_i R5                 # printf ("%d^2 = %d\n", i, i*i);
       write_s s_out
       write_i R6
       write_s NL
       add_c   R5, R5, 1          # i = i + 1
       goto loop                  # and loop
 end:
       end
 #############################################################

More examples will be found in the example files shipped together with this program.

REQUIREMENTS

perl(1)

AUTHOR

Dr. Jürgen Vollmer <Juergen.Vollmer@informatik-vollmer.de>

Copyright (C) 2005 Dr. Jürgen Vollmer, Karlsruhe.

Homepage of VAM: http://www.informatik-vollmer.de/software/vam.html

If have written "large programs" doing some interesting job, it would be nice to send me your VAM source.

If you find this software useful, I would be glad to receive a postcard from you, showing the place where you're living:

Dr. Jürgen Vollmer, Viktoriastrasse 15, D-76133 Karlsruhe, Germany.

LICENSE

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html

VERSION

Version 1.0 of 2005/02/24

CHANGELOG

  $Log: vam.pl,v $
  Revision 1.10  2009/04/06 19:51:33  vollmer
  fixed for newer Perl versions
  Revision 1.9  2009/04/06 19:49:46  vollmer
  fixed typoos
  Revision 1.6  2005/06/19 10:41:10  vollmer
  fixed focu
  Revision 1.5  2005/03/11 22:58:51  vollmer
  fixed name of vam_ifne
  Revision 1.4  2005/03/11 22:51:40  vollmer
  sub cm: if a memory cell undefined during an access, assign 0 to it
  Revision 1.3  2005/03/11 22:48:05  vollmer
  fixed sub_f
  Revision 1.2  2005/03/11 14:11:45  vollmer
  fixed docu
  Revision 1.1  2005/02/24 16:55:52  vollmer
  Initial revision
Dr. Jürgen Vollmer (www.informatik-vollmer.de)
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