Architectural Support for High level languages

Data Types
Number ranges: ARM deals efficiently with 32-bit quantities, so the first data type that the architecture supports is the 32-bit unsigned! integer, which has a "alue in the range: # to $ 2%$ %&' 2%()# * # to ++++++++ )&, ARM supports a 2-s complement binary notation where the "alue of the top bit is made negati"e. in a 32-bit signed integer all the bits ha"e the same "alue as they ha"e in the unsigned case apart from bit 3), which has the "alue -23) instead of/23), Now the range of numbers is: -2 )$' $03 &$0)# to /2 )$' $03 &$')# * 0#######)& to '+++++++)&
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Floating-point data types

+loating-point numbers attempt to represent real numbers with uniform accuracy, A generic way to represent a real number is in the form: R=axbn where n is chosen so that a falls within a defined range of "alues. b is usually implicit in the data type and is often equal to 2,

IEEE 754
1he most compact representation of a floating-point number defined by 2333 '($ is the 32-bit -single precision- format:

E pressions
1he basic ARM integer data processing instruction implement most of the 4 integer arithmetic, bit-wise and shift primiti"es directly, 35ceptions are di"ision and remainder which require se"eral ARM instructions, Accessing operands: A procedure will normally wor6 with operands that are presented in one of the following ways, and can be accessed as indicated: ), As an argument passed through a register, 1he "alue is already in a register, so no further wor6 is necessary,

2, As an argument passed on the stac6, 7tac6 pointer r)3! relati"e addressing with an immediate offset 6nown at compile-time allows the operand to be collected with a single 89R, 3, As a constant in the procedure-s literal pool, :4-relati"e addressing, again with an immediate offset 6nown at compile-time, gi"es access with a single 89R, $, As a local "ariable, 8ocal "ariables are allocated space on the stac6 and are accessed by a stac6 pointer relati"e 89R, (, As a global "ariable, ;lobal and static! "ariables are allocated space in the static area and are accessed by static base relati"e addressing,
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!ointer arith"etic
Arithmetic on pointers depends on the si<e of the data type that the pointers are pointing to, 2f a pointer is incremented it changes in units of the si<e of the data item in bytes, int =p. : * :/). increase the "alue of p by $ bytes,! 2f a "ariable is used as an offset it must be scaled at runtime: int i * $ . p * p / i.

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#onditional state"ents
4onditional statements are e5ecuted if the >oolean result of a test is true or false!. in 4 these include if,,,else statements and switches 4 -case- statements!, if,,,else 1he ARM architecture offers unusually efficient support for conditional e5pressions when the conditionally e5ecuted statement is small, +or e5ample, here is a 4 statement to find the ma5imum of two integers: if a?b! c*a. else c*b.

2f the "ariables a, b and c are in registers r#, r) and r2, the compiled code could be as simple as:

7witches A switch, or case, statement e5tends the two-way decision of an if,,,else statement to many ways, 1he standard 4 form of a switch statement is:

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 An alternati"e is to use a @ump table, 2n its simplest form a @ump table contains a target address for each possible "alue of the switch e5pression, 2t is not possible for the @ump table to contain an address for e"ery possible "alue of a 32-bit integer

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$oops
1he 4 language supports three forms of loop control structure: A for el.e2.e3!B,,C A while el! B,,C A do B,,C while el! Dere el, e2 and e3 are e5pressions which e"aluate to -trueor -false- and B,,C is the body of the loop which is e5ecuted a number of times determined by the control structure,

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For loops

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%hile loops

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do&&%hile loops
1he conceptual arrangement of a -do,,while- loop is similar to the impro"ed -whileE loop abo"e, but without the initial branch since the loop body is e5ecuted before the test and is therefore always e5ecuted at least once!: 8FF: ,, G,, >N3 8FF: 3H21 . loop body . e"aluate e5pression

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Functions and procedures

8arge programs are bro6en down into components that are small enough to be thoroughly tested, A large, monolithic program is too comple5 to test fully and is li6ely to ha"e -bugs- in hidden corners, :rogram hierarchy: 1he top of the hierarchy is the program called main. 1he remaining hierarchy is fairly informal. lower-le"el routines may be shared by higher-le"el routines, calls may s6ip le"els, and the depth may "ary across the hierarchy,

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 8eaf routines: At the lowest le"el of the hierarchy there are leaf routines; these are routines which do not themsel"es call any lowerle"el routines, 2n a typical program some of the bottom-le"el routines will be library or system functions. these are predefined operations which may or may not be leaf routines,

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Ter"inology
1here are se"eral terms that are used to describe components of this program structure Subroutine: a generic term for a routine that is called by a higher-le"el routine, particularly when "iewing a program at the assembly language le"el, Function: a subroutine which returns a "alue through its name, A typical in"ocation loo6s li6e: c * ma5 a, b!. Procedure: a subroutine which is called to carry out some operation on specified data item s!, A typical in"ocation loo6s li6e: printf IDello JorldHnI!.
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 4 functions: 7ome programming languages ma6e a clear distinction between functions and procedures, but 4 does not, Arguments and parameters: An argument is an e5pression passed to a function call. a "alue recei"ed by the function is a parameter. 4 uses a strict -call by "alue- semantics, so a copy is made of each argument when a function is called and, though the function may change the "alues of its parameters, since these are only copies of the arguments the arguments themsel"es are not affected,

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A'( !rocedure #all Standard )A!#S*

2n order to support fle5ible mi5ing of routines generated by different compilers and written in assembly language, ARM 8imited has defined a set of rules for procedure entry and e5it, 1he A:47 imposes a number of con"entions on the ARM architecture: 2t defines particular uses for the -general-purposeregisters, 2t defines which form of stac6 is used from the fullKempty, ascendingKdescending choices supported by the ARM instruction set, 2t defines the format of a stac6-based data structure used for bac6-tracing when debugging programs,
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 2t defines the function argument and result passing mechanism to be used by all e5ternally "isible functions and procedures, -35ternally "isible- means that the procedure interface is offered outside the current programming module,! 2t supports the ARM shared library mechanism, which means it supports a standard way for shared re-entrant! code to access static data,

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+se of "e"ory
An ARM system, li6e most computer systems, has its memory arranged as a linear set of logical addresses, A 4 program e5pects to ha"e access to a fi5ed area of program memory where the application image resides! and to memory to support two data areas that grow dynamically and where the compiler often cannot wor6 out a ma5imum si<e, 1he dynamic data areas are: 1he stac6, Jhene"er a function is called, a new acti"ation frame is created on the stac6 containing a bac6 trace record, local non-static! "ariables, and so on, Jhen a function returns its stac6 space is automatically reco"ered and will be reused for the ne5t function call,
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 1he heap, 1he heap is an area of memory used to satisfy program requests malloc !! for more memory for new data structures, A program which continues to request memory o"er a long period of time should be careful to free up all sections that are no longer needed, otherwise the heap will grow until memory runs out, 2n a typical memory managed ARM system the logical space allocated to a single application will be "ery large, in the range of ) to $ ;bytes,

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#hun,ed stac, "odel

A -chun6ed- stac6 is, where the stac6 is a series of chained chun6s within the heap, 1his causes the application to occupy a single contiguous area of memory, which grows in one direction as required, and may be more con"enient where memory is "ery tight,

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Stac, -ehaviour

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Data storage
1he "arious data types supported in 4 require differing amounts of memory to store their binary representations, 1he basic data types occupy a byte chars!, a half-word short ints!, a word ints, single precision float! or multiple words double precision floats!, 9eri"ed data types structs, arrays, unions, and so on! are defined in terms of multiple basic data types,

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Data align"ent
1he ARM 4 compiler generally aligns data items on appropriate boundaries: A >ytes are stored at any byte address, A Dalf-words are stored at e"en byte addresses, A Jords are stored on four-byte boundaries, Jhere se"eral data items of different types are declared at the same time, the compiler will introduce padding where necessary to achie"e this alignment:

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struct 72 Bchar c. int 5. short s.C e5ample).

+ig: 35ample of normal struct memory allocation

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Memory efficiency: struct S2 {char c; short s; int x;} example2;

+ig: 35ample of more efficient struct memory allocation

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:ac6ed structs ,,pac6ed struct 73 Bchar c. int 5. short s ; } e5ample3.

+ig: 35ample of pac6ed struct memory allocation

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