Task One

Mystery Routine

At this point in the presentation we stop to try out a couple of tasks. These help us put together the information just laid out.

The original tasks used ARM Developer Suite as the environment. All of the assembler examples given in the presentation use armasm format. For now, if you’re using a different environment you will have to convert the assembler to the correct format.

#include <stdio.h>

extern int mystery(int); /* mystery assembler routine */

int main(void)
{
    static const char str[] = "Hello, World!";

    const int len = sizeof(str) / sizeof(str[0]);
    char      newstr[len];
    int       i;

    for (i = 0; i < len; i++)
        newstr[i] = mystery(str[i]);

    printf("%s\n", newstr);

    return 0;
}

    AREA    |.text|, CODE, READONLY

    EXPORT  mystery

mystery
    SUB     r1, r0, #'A'
    CMP     r1, #'Z' - 'A'
    ADDLS   r0, r0, #'a' - 'A'
    MOV     pc, r14

    END

It’s a “mystery” assembly language routine.

• What does it do?
• It should be obvious that it’s doing some sort of character processing. But what exactly?
• And how does it work?

ARM Architecture Procedure Calling Standard

The ARM Architecture Procedure Calling Standard (AAPCS) governs how procedures call each other in high-level languages such as C.

We’re going to call into an ARM assembly routine from C. AAPCS specifies that:

• The first four arguments are passed in R0-R3.
  • Any subsequent arguments are passed on the stack.
• The return value, if any, is passed back in R0-R3.
  • Typically only R0 is used.

Answers

Answers are here.