Systems Programming

• Systems programming refers to the

practice of developing software that
interacts closely with the underlying
hardware and operating system of a
computer system.
• It involves writing programs that control
and manage the computer's resources,
such as memory, processors, devices, and
network connections, in order to create
efficient and reliable software systems.
 INTRODUCTION
• A computer system consists of Hardware and
Software.
• The hardware are the physical (tangible) electronic
components and the electro mechanical devices

• Software: Instructions and data that the computer

manipulates to perform the various tasks.

• Three types of software exist:

 Systems Software
 Development Software
 Application Software
The system software
Programs that control the operation
of the machine and carry out the
most basic functions the computer
performs.
 input data
 produce output
 manages and stores data
 carries out or execute instructions of other
programs etc.
Examples of systems programs

Language processors
Accept people like languages and translate them into
machine language
e.g. compilers, interpreters and assemblers

Loaders
They put the machine language program in memory
and prepare it for execution

Macro processors
Allow programmers to use abbreviations

Operating systems and file systems

Allow flexible inputting, outputting, storing and retrieval
of information.
Application Software
Programs written by the user for purposes of solving
particular problems using a computer as a tool e.g.
application packages (word, Excel, powerpoint etc).

Development Software
Programs used to create, update and maintain other
programs e.g. programming languages.

Systems software supports the operation and

use of the computer itself rather than any
particular application. They are therefore related
to the structure of the machine on which they
are to run.
MICRO COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
A typical Computer has 4 main functional
parts:
(i) The Microprocessor (CPU)
(ii) Memory System
(iii) Systems Interconnection
 System Bus
 Interfaces (Ports)
(iv) I/O Sub System
 I/O Devices
 Mass Storage Devices
MICRO COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
The microprocessor (CPU)
 Decodes instructions and use them to
control all the activities within the system
 It also performs the
Arithmetic (+ , -, /, *) and
Logical (>,>=,<,<=,=,=!) computations.

Memory
Stores both data and instructions that are
currently being used.
System Interconnection
Consists of :
(i) System Bus:
A set of conductors that connects the
CPU to its memory and I/O devices.

(ii) Interfaces
Circuitry needed to connect the bus
to a device.
The I/O Sub System
Consists of:
(i) I/O devices
For communicating with the external world.
e.g keyboards, light pens etc for input and CRT
monitors, printers, and plotters for output.

(ii) Mass storage units

For storing large quantities of information
permanently.
magnetic tapes, disk units, magnetic bubble memory
etc
 THE Microprocessor (CPU)
It is made up of three main parts
namely:
 The control unit
 Working registers
 The Arithmetic and Logic Unit
THE CPU
 THE CPU (Cont.)
The control Unit
It consists of the following
registers:
 The Program Counter (PC)
 Instruction Register (IR)
 Processor Status Word (PSW)
 Stack Pointer (SP)
 THE CPU (Cont.)
The Program Counter (PC)
It holds the address of the main
memory location from which the next
instruction is to be fetched.

Instruction Register (IR)

Receives the instruction when it is
brought from memory and holds it
while it gets decoded and executed.
 THE CPU (Cont.)
Processor Status Word (PSW)
contains condition flags which indicate
the current status of the CPU and the
important characteristics of the result
of the previous instruction.

Stack Pointer (SP):

It hold the address on top of the stack.
Working Registers
 Arithmetic Registers (Accumulators)
Temporarily hold the operands and the
result of the arithmetic operations.

 Address Registers
For addressing data and instructions in
main memory.
If a register can be used for both arithmetic
operations and addressing it is then called a
general purpose register.
Arithmetic/Logic Unit
 It performs arithmetic and logical
operations on the contents of the working
registers, the PC, memory locations etc.

 It also sets and clears the appropriate

flags.
THE INTEL 8085 CPU
 THE INTEL 8085 CPU (Cont.)
 It is an 8 bit processor i.e. has 8 data lines
(1 byte of data can be transmitted at a time.)

 Has 6 general purpose registers namely

B, C, D, E, H, L with 8 bits each and
associated in pairs. (BC, DE, HL)
 1 8 bit accumulator.
 1 16 bit stack pointer
 1 16 bit program counter
 THE INTEL 8085 CPU (Cont.)
 16 address and data lines
(address space is 0 – 216 -1)

 The addresses and data share the same bus

lines and they take turns to use them. (They
are time multiplexed). The address must be
sent first and then data is sent or received.

 20 control lines
i.e. it has 20 control signals.
 THE INTEL 8085 CPU (Cont.)
1 PSW with 5 flags.
 Zero (Z): set when the result of the operation is
zero.
 Sign (S): set when sign of the result is negative.
 Parity (P): When the parity of the bits in the
result is even.
 Carry (C): Addition resulted into a carry or
subtraction or comparison resulted into a
borrow.
 Auxiliary Carry (AC) Carry in BCD arithmetic.
 MACHINE LANGUAGE INSTRUCTIONS
 At the time of execution all instructions are
made up of a sequence of zeros and ones
which are understood by the computer. The
language which is understood by the
machine is therefore called machine
language instruction.

 All other forms of programs (assembler, high

level etc) must be reduced to their machine
level form.
 INSTRUCTION FORMATS
 Operation Code (Opcode).
The portion of the instruction that
specifies what the instruction does.

 Operand
Any address or piece of data that is
required by the instruction to complete
its execution
 INTEL 8085 EXAMPLES
Register to Register Transfer

0 1 D D D S S S

Opcode Destination Source

 Register Codes

Register Address Register pair

B 000 BC 00
C 001
D 010 DE 01
E 011
H 100 HL 10
L 101
A 111

Both registers in the pair have the same higher 2 bits

in their registers.
 EXAMPLES
Register to Register Transfer

0 1 0 0 0 1 1 1

Opcode Destination Source

( Register B) ( Register A )

The instruction copies contents of register A (111) to

register B (000); register A remains with its contents.
 EXAMPLES
Add Contents of Register SSS to the Accumulator

1 0 0 0 0 S S S

Opcode Source Register

The instruction adds what is in a register

described by the three bits SSS to contents of
the accumulator; the answer stays in the
accumulator.
 Example
Subtract contents of register SSS from the
accumulator

1 0 0 1 0 S S S

The instruction subtracts contents of the register

whose address are the three bits SSS from the
accumulator. The answer stays in the
accumulator.
 Example
Transfer of Immediate Data to a Register
Opcode Destination Register

0 0 D D D 0 1 0
The immediate data

The instruction puts immediate data into the

destination register DDD
 Example
Transfer of Immediate Data to a Register
Opcode Destination Register

0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0
0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 The data

The instruction puts an integer 12 into register

A (111)
 Example
Add Immediate data to Register A

1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0
Immediate Data

The instruction adds the number in the second

byte (data) to what is in the accumulator. The
answer remains in the accumulator.
 Example
Subtract Immediate data from Register A

1 1 0 1 0 1 1 0
Immediate Data

The instruction subtracts the number in the

second byte (data) from what is in the
accumulator. The answer remains in the
accumulator.
 Example
Load Accumulator from memory
Opcode
0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0
Operand
Lower part of the address
(Address)
Upper part of the address

The instruction moves contents of a memory

location whose address is specified in the two
bytes to the accumulator.
 More Examples
Store contents of the accumulator to memory
Opcode
0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0
Operand
Lower part of the address
(Address)
Upper part of the address

The instruction stores contents of the

accumulator to a memory location whose
address is specified in the given address.
 Example
Conditional Branches
Opcode Condition Code
(if zero)

1 1 C C C 0 1 0
Lower part of the address
Higher part of the address

The instruction makes the program to branch

to the given address if the given condition (C C
C) is satisfied.
 Condition Codes
Conditions CCC
NZ Not Zero (z = 0) 000
Z Zero (z = 1) 001
NC No Carry (c = 0) 010
C Carry (c = 1) 011
PO Parity Odd (p =0) 100
PE Parity even (p =1) 101
P Plus (s = 0) 110
M Minus (s=1) 111
 Example
Branch if Zero
Opcode Condition Code
(if zero)

1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0
Lower part of the address
Higher part of the address

The instruction makes the program to branch

to the given address if the given condition
(001, if zero) is satisfied.
 ADDRESSING MODES

They are the methods used to locate and fetch an

operand from an internal CPU register or from a
memory location. Each processor has its own
addressing modes.

Immediate Addressing
Information is part of the instruction. They are
usually 2 byte instructions where the operand is the
second byte.

Direct addressing
The address is part of the instruction.
 ADDRESSING MODES

Register addressing: The operand is in the

register and the register’s address is part of the
instruction.

Indirect Addressing: The address is in the

location whose address is specified as part of
the instruction. This location may be a register
(register indirect addressing) or it may be a
memory location.
 ADDRESSING MODES

Base addressing:
The required address is calculated by adding the
contents of a memory location or register called a
base to a number called a displacement which is part
of the instruction.

Index Addressing
It is a process of incrementing or decrementing an
address as the computer sequences through a set of
consecutive or evenly spaced addresses. This is done
by successively changing an address that is stored in
a register called an index register that can be
incremented or decremented.
ASSEMBLER LANGUAGE
It is a type of language that is closer to
machine language instructions.

There is an assembler language instruction

for each machine language instruction.

An assembler converts Assembler

Language into machine instructions.
There are 2 types of statements in assembler:

(i) Instructions:
These are translated into machine code by the
assembler.

(ii) Directive:
Gives directions to the assembler during the assembly
process but they are not translated into machine code.

Acronyms called mnemonics indicate the type of

instruction.

Character strings called symbols or identifiers represent

addresses and perhaps numbers.
 EXAMPLE
ANS: = X + Y
using the Intel 8085 microprocessor.
LDA X
MOV B, A
LDA Y
ADD B
STA ANS
 Assembler Instruction Format

Label: Mnemonic Operand, Operand, ; remarks

Label: It is a symbol assigned to the address of the first byte

of the instruction in which it appears. Its presence is optional.

All instruction must contain a mnemonic.

The presence of operands depends on the instruction. If

there is more than one operand they are separated by a
comma.

Remarks are for documenting the program; they are

optional.
 EXAMPLES OF INTEL 8085
INSTRUCTIONS
BRADDR: MOV A, M

Label mnemonic destination Source

Operand Operand

Register – Register Transfer

e.g. NOW: MOV B, D

Label mnemonic destination Source

Operand Operand
 LDA NUM

Mnemonic address of operand to be loaded into

memory

Transfer of immediate operand to a register

e.g. MVI E, 6

Mnemonic Destination register Immediate Data

Conditional branch on non-zero branch

e.g. JNZ HERE

Mnemonic Branch Condition address

 DIRECTIVES
They direct the assembler during the
assembly process.

They have the format

Label: Mnemonic operand, Operand

The label is optional

 INTEL 8085 DIRECTIVES
DS (Define Storage)
It reserves memory and assigns a label to the
first byte of the reserved area.

e.g. ARRAY: DS 20

Reserves 20 bytes and assigns the label

ARRAY to the byte with the lowest address.
 INTEL 8085 DIRECTIVES
DB (Define Byte)
Used to put values into or pre-assign values to
memory locations as well as reserve space and
assign labels.

e.g. NUM: DB 14H, ‘ABC’,01101000B

reserves 5 bytes associated with a label NUM with
the first byte.

14 41 42 43 68

Num
 INTEL 8085 DIRECTIVES
DW (Define Word)
It reserves words instead of bytes. The lower order
byte of the word is stored in the lower byte address
and the high order byte in the higher byte address e.g.

E.g. TABLE:DW TASK1, TASK2, 092AH

Assuming that TASK1 and TASK2 have been
assigned memory locations 2010 and 108C
respectively

10 20 8C 10 2A 09
Table