Chapter 6

Programming
Solving Problems using a Computer
Methodologies for creating computer programs
that perform a desired function.

Problem Solving
• How do we figure out what to tell the computer to do?
• Convert problem statement into algorithm,
using stepwise refinement.
• Convert algorithm into LC-3 machine instructions.
Debugging
• How do we figure out why it didn’t work?
• Examining registers and memory, setting breakpoints, etc.

Time spent on the first can reduce time spent on the second!
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Stepwise Refinement
Also known as systematic decomposition.

Start with problem statement:

“We wish to count the number of occurrences of a character
in a file. The character in question is to be input from
the keyboard; the result is to be displayed on the monitor.”

Decompose task into a few simpler subtasks.

Decompose each subtask into smaller subtasks,

and these into even smaller subtasks, etc....
until you get to the machine instruction level.

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Problem Statement
Because problem statements are written in English,
they are sometimes ambiguous and/or incomplete.
• Where is “file” located? How big is it, or how do I know
when I’ve reached the end?
• How should final count be printed? A decimal number?
• If the character is a letter, should I count both
upper-case and lower-case occurrences?

How do you resolve these issues?

• Ask the person who wants the problem solved, or
• Make a decision and document it.

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Three Basic Constructs
There are three basic ways to decompose a task:

Task

True Test False

Test False
condition
Subtask 1 condition

True
Subtask 1 Subtask 2
Subtask 2 Subtask

Sequential Conditional Iterative

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Sequential
Do Subtask 1 to completion,
then do Subtask 2 to completion, etc.

Get character
input from
keyboard

Count and print the Examine file and

occurrences of a count the number
character in a file of characters that
match

Print number
to the screen

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Conditional
If condition is true, do Subtask 1;
else, do Subtask 2.

True file char False

= input?

Test character.
If match, increment Count = Count + 1
counter.

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Iterative
Do Subtask over and over,
as long as the test condition is true.

more chars False

to check?
Check each element of
the file and count the
True
characters that match.

Check next char and

count if matches.

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Problem Solving Skills
Learn to convert problem statement
into step-by-step description of subtasks.

• Like a puzzle, or a “word problem” from grammar school math.

 What is the starting state of the system?
 What is the desired ending state?
 How do we move from one state to another?

• Recognize English words that correlate to three basic constructs:

 “do A then do B”  sequential
 “if G, then do H”  conditional
 “for each X, do Y”  iterative
 “do Z until W”  iterative

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LC-3 Control Instructions
How do we use LC-3 instructions to encode
the three basic constructs?

Sequential
• Instructions naturally flow from one to the next,
so no special instruction needed to go
from one sequential subtask to the next.

Conditional and Iterative

• Create code that converts condition into N, Z, or P.
Example:
Condition: “Is R0 = R1?”
Code: Subtract R1 from R0; if equal, Z bit will be set.
• Then use BR instruction to transfer control to the proper subtask.
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Code for Conditional
PC offset to
Exact bits depend address C
on condition Instruction
being tested A
Generate
True False Condition
Test
Condition B 0000 ? C

Subtask 1
Subtask 1 Subtask 2
0000 111 D
C
Subtask 2
Unconditional branch
Next to Next Subtask D
Subtask Next PC offset to
Subtask address D

Assuming all addresses are close enough that PC-relative branch can be used.
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Code for Iteration
PC offset to
Exact bits depend address C
on condition Instruction
being tested A
Generate
Test False
Condition
Condition
0000 ? C
True B
Subtask
Subtask
0000 111 A
C
Next
Subtask
Next Unconditional branch
Subtask to retest condition
PC offset to
address A

Assuming all addresses are on the same page.

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Example: Counting Characters
START

A
Initialize: Put initial values
into all locations that will be
needed to carry out this
START task.

- Input a character.
- Set up a pointer to the first
Input a character. Then location of the file that will
scan a file, counting be scanned.
occurrences of that - Get the first character from
character. Finally, display the file.
on the monitor the number - Zero the register that holds
the count.
of occurrences of the
character (up to 9).
B
Scan the file, location by
location, incrementing the
counter if the character
STOP matches.

C Display the count on the

monitor.

Initial refinement: Big task into

three sequential subtasks. STOP
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Refining B

Yes
Done?
B
Scan the file, location by No
location, incrementing the B1
counter if the character Test character. If a match,
matches. increment counter. Get next
character.

Refining B into iterative construct.

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Refining B1

B Yes
Done?

Yes No
Done?
B1
No B2 Test character. If matches,
B1
increment counter.
Test character. If a match,
increment counter. Get next
character. B3 Get next character.

Refining B1 into sequential subtasks.

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Refining B2 and B3
Yes
Done?

No
B2

Yes R1 = R0?
Done? Yes No

No
B1
R2 = R2 + 1

B2 Test character. If matches,

increment counter.
B3
B3 Get next character.
R3 = R3 + 1

R1 = M[R3]

Conditional (B2) and sequential (B3).

Use of LC-2 registers and instructions.
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The Last Step: LC-3 Instructions
Use comments to separate into modules and
to document your code.

; Look at each char in file.

Yes
Done? 0001100001111100 ; is R1 = EOT?
No 0000010xxxxxxxxx ; if so, exit loop
B2
; Check for match with R0.
1001001001111111 ; R1 = -char
R1 = R0? 0001001001100001
Yes No
0001001000000001 ; R1 = R0 – char
R2 = R2 + 1 0000101xxxxxxxxx ; no match, skip incr
0001010010100001 ; R2 = R2 + 1
; Incr file ptr and get next char
B3
0001011011100001 ; R3 = R3 + 1
R3 = R3 + 1
0110001011000000 ; R1 = M[R3]
R1 = M[R3]

Don’t know
PCoffset bits until
all the code is done
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Debugging
You’ve written your program and it doesn’t work.
Now what?

What do you do when you’re lost in a city?

Drive around randomly and hope you find it?
Return to a known point and look at a map?

In debugging, the equivalent to looking at a map

is tracing your program.
• Examine the sequence of instructions being executed.
• Keep track of results being produced.
• Compare result from each instruction to the expected result.

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Debugging Operations
Any debugging environment should provide means to:
1. Display values in memory and registers.
2. Deposit values in memory and registers.
3. Execute instruction sequence in a program.
4. Stop execution when desired.

Different programming levels offer different tools.

• High-level languages (C, Java, ...)
usually have source-code debugging tools.
• For debugging at the machine instruction level:
 simulators
 operating system “monitor” tools
 in-circuit emulators (ICE)
– plug-in hardware replacements that give
instruction-level control 6-19
LC-3 Simulator
stop execution,
set breakpoints
execute
instruction
sequences

set/display
registers
and memory

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Types of Errors
Syntax Errors
• You made a typing error that resulted in an illegal operation.
• Not usually an issue with machine language,
because almost any bit pattern corresponds to
some legal instruction.
• In high-level languages, these are often caught during the
translation from language to machine code.
Logic Errors
• Your program is legal, but wrong, so
the results don’t match the problem statement.
• Trace the program to see what’s really happening and
determine how to get the proper behavior.
Data Errors
• Input data is different than what you expected.
• Test the program with a wide variety of inputs.
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Tracing the Program
Execute the program one piece at a time,
examining register and memory to see results at each step.
Single-Stepping
• Execute one instruction at a time.
• Tedious, but useful to help you verify each step of your program.
Breakpoints
• Tell the simulator to stop executing when it reaches
a specific instruction.
• Check overall results at specific points in the program.
 Lets you quickly execute sequences to get a
high-level overview of the execution behavior.
 Quickly execute sequences that your believe are correct.
Watchpoints
• Tell the simulator to stop when a register or memory location changes
or when it equals a specific value.
• Useful when you don’t know where or when a value is changed.
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Example 1: Multiply
This program is supposed to multiply the two unsigned
integers in R4 and R5.

clear R2
x3200 0101010010100000
x3201 0001010010000100
add R4 to R2
x3202 0001101101111111
decrement R5
x3203 0000011111111101
x3204 1111000000100101

No
R5 = 0?
Set R4 = 10, R5 =3.
Yes
Run program.
HALT Result: R2 = 40, not 30.
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 Debugging the Multiply Program
Single-stepping
PC R2 R4 R5
x3200 -- 10 3
Breakpoint at branch (x3203)
PC and registers
at the beginning x3201 0 10 3
of each instruction x3202 10 10 3 PC R2 R4 R5
x3203 10 10 2 x3203 10 10 2
x3201 10 10 2 x3203 20 10 1
x3202 20 10 2 x3203 30 10 0
x3203 20 10 1 x3203 40 10 -1
x3201 20 10 1 40 10 -1
x3202 30 10 1
x3203 30 10 0 Should stop looping here!
x3201 30 10 0
x3202 40 10 0
Executing loop one time too many.
x3203 40 10 -1
Branch at x3203 should be based
x3204 40 10 -1
on Z bit only, not Z and P.
40 10 -1
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Example 2: Summing an Array of Numbers
This program is supposed to sum the numbers
stored in 10 locations beginning with x3100,
leaving the result in R1.
R1 = 0
R4 = 10
x3000 0101001001100000
R2 = x3100 x3001 0101100100100000
x3002 0001100100101010
R1 = R1 + M[R2]
R2 = R2 + 1 x3003 0010010011111100
x3004 0110011010000000
R4 = R4 - 1 x3005 0001010010100001
x3006 0001001001000011
No x3007 0001100100111111
R4 = 0?
x3008 0000001111111011
Yes x3009 1111000000100101
HALT 6-25
Debugging the Summing Program
Running the the data below yields R1 = x0024,
but the sum should be x8135. What happened?
Address Contents Start single-stepping program...
x3100 x3107
PC R1 R2 R4
x3101 x2819 x3000 -- -- --
x3102 x0110 x3001 0 -- --
x3002 0 -- 0
x3103 x0310
x3003 0 -- 10
x3104 x0110 x3004 0 x3107 10
x3105 x1110
x3106 x11B1 Should be x3100!

x3107 x0019
x3108 x0007 Loading contents of M[x3100], not address.
Change opcode of x3003
x3109 x0004 from 0010 (LD) to 1110 (LEA).
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Example 3: Looking for a 5
This program is supposed to set
x3000 0101000000100000
R0=1 if there’s a 5 in one ten x3001 0001000000100001
memory locations, starting at x3100. x3002 0101001001100000
x3003 0001001001111011
Else, it should set R0 to 0. x3004 0101011011100000
x3005 0001011011101010
R0 = 1, R1 = -5, R3 = 10
R4 = x3100, R2 = M[R4]
x3006 0010100000001001
x3007 0110010100000000
x3008 0001010010000001
Yes x3009 0000010000000101
R2 = 5? x300A 0001100100100001
x300B 0001011011111111
No x300C 0110010100000000
R4 = R4 + 1 x300D 0000001111111010
No
R3 = 0? R3 = R3-1 x300E 0101000000100000
R2 = M[R4] x300F 1111000000100101
Yes x3010 0011000100000000
R0 = 0 HALT 6-27
Debugging the Fives Program
Running the program with a 5 in location x3108
results in R0 = 0, not R0 = 1. What happened?
Address Contents
Perhaps we didn’t look at all the data?
Put a breakpoint at x300D to see
x3100 9 how many times we branch back.
x3101 7
PC R0 R2 R3 R4
x3102 32 x300D 1 7 9 x3101
x3103 0 x300D 1 32 8 x3102

x3104 -8 x300D 1 0 7 x3103

0 0 7 x3103 Didn’t branch
x3105 19 back, even
x3106 6 though R3 > 0?
x3107 13 Branch uses condition code set by
loading R2 with M[R4], not by decrementing R3.
x3108 5
Swap x300B and x300C, or remove x300C and
x3109 61 branch back to x3007.
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Example 4: Finding First 1 in a Word
This program is supposed to return (in R1) the bit position
of the first 1 in a word. The address of the word is in
location x3009 (just past the end of the program). If there
are no ones, R1 should be set to –1.
R1 = 15
R2 = data x3000 0101001001100000
x3001 0001001001101111
Yes x3002 1010010000000110
R2[15] = 1?
x3003 0000100000000100
No
x3004 0001001001111111
decrement R1
shift R2 left one bit x3005 0001010010000010
x3006 0000100000000001
R2[15] = 1?
x3007 0000111111111100
No
x3008 1111000000100101
Yes x3009 0011000100000000
HALT 6-29
Debugging the First-One Program
Program works most of the time, but if data is zero,
it never seems to HALT.
Breakpoint at backwards branch (x3007)
PC R1 PC R1
x3007 14 x3007 4
x3007 13 x3007 3 If no ones, then branch to HALT
x3007 12 x3007 2 never occurs!
x3007 11 x3007 1 This is called an “infinite loop.”
x3007 10 x3007 0 Must change algorithm to either
x3007 9 x3007 -1 (a) check for special case (R2=0), or
x3007 8 x3007 -2 (b) exit loop if R1 < 0.
x3007 7 x3007 -3
x3007 6 x3007 -4
x3007 5 x3007 -5

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Debugging: Lessons Learned
Trace program to see what’s going on.
• Breakpoints, single-stepping

When tracing, make sure to notice what’s

really happening, not what you think should happen.
• In summing program, it would be easy to not notice
that address x3107 was loaded instead of x3100.

Test your program using a variety of input data.

• In Examples 3 and 4, the program works for many data sets.
• Be sure to test extreme cases (all ones, no ones, ...).

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