Chapter 11 Interfacing C and Assembly Code

Learning Objectives

Different methods exist for interfacing C and assembly code:

Calling assembly from C. Interrupt calling assembly routine. Intrinsics.

Programming requirements when interfacing code.

Chapter 11, Slide 2

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Introduction

This chapter shows how to interface C and assembly and how to use intrinsics. As a general rule the code written in C is used for initialisation and for non-critical (in terms of speed or size) code. Critical code (in terms of speed/size) can be written in assembly or linear assembly. There are three different ways to interface C and assembly code: (1) C code call to the assembly function. (2) An interrupt can call an assembly function. (3) Call an assembly instruction using intrinsics.
Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Chapter 11, Slide 3

Calling Assembly from C

main () { y = asmFunction (a, b); }

_asmFunction b b3

The C and assembly functions share the same resources (e.g. registers). The C and assembly functions may exchange data. Therefore code interfacing requires a means of handing-off data and control info and some rules of handling shared registers.
Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Chapter 11, Slide 4

Calling Assembly from C

main_c.c
int asm_Function (short, short); short x = 0x4000, y = 0x2000; int z; void main (void) { z = asm_Function (x, y); }

Use _ underscore in assembly for all variables or functions declared in C. Labels also need to be global.
.global _asm_Function

asm_Function.c
int asm_Function (short a, short b) { int y; y = (a * b) << 1; return y;

asm_Function.asm

Chapter 11, Slide 5

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Passing Arguments between C and Assembly

A B 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

The following registers are used to pass and return variables when calling an assembly routine from C.

arg1/r_val arg3 arg5 arg7 arg9

ret addr arg2 arg4 arg6 arg8 arg10

Chapter 11, Slide 6

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Passing Arguments between C and Assembly

A B 4 5 6 7 8
0x2000

Before assembly call.

0x4000

After return from assembly call.

0x8000

4 5 6 7 8

0x2000

Chapter 11, Slide 7

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Passing Arguments between C and Assembly

Problem: The C code will use some or all of the registers. The assembly code may also require the use of some or all registers. If nothing is done then on return to the C code some of the values may have been destroyed by the assembly code.

Chapter 11, Slide 8

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Passing Arguments between C and Assembly

Solution: Both the C code and assembly code are C code responsible for automatically saves these saving some registers registers if they need to use them.
Assembly code must save these registers responsibility of the programmer
Chapter 11, Slide 9

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Interfacing C and Assembly Examples

Setup code written in C and interfaced with critical code written in assembly can be found in the following chapters:

\Code\Chapter 14 - Finite Impulse Response Filters \Code\Chapter 16 - Adaptive Filters

Setup code written in C and interfaced with critical code written in linear assembly can be found in the following chapters:

\Code\Chapter 15 - Infinite Impulse Response Filters \Code\Chapter 17 - Goertzel Algorithm

Chapter 11, Slide 10

Dr. Naim Dahnoun, Bristol University, (c) Texas Instruments 2004

Chapter 11 Interfacing C and Assembly Code - End -