The University of Texas at Arlington

Lecture 3
PIC Assembly

CSE 3442/5442
Embedded Systems I
Based heavily on slides by Dr. Gergely Záruba and Dr. Roger Walker
 RISC: Reduced Instruction
Set Computer
1. Fixed instruction size (2 and 4 bytes in PIC ;
ADD, GOTO)
2. Many registers (no need for large stack)
3. Small instruction set – longer code
4. Small clock cycle/instruction
5. Usually Harvard architecture
6. No microcoding; instructions are internally
hardwired – can result in 50% reduction in the
number of transistors
7. No cross operations between GFR registers
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PIC uses Harvard Architecture

3
PIC18F452 Pin Diagram

4
Example - Powering Up
PIC18F458

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Example - Powering Up
PIC18F458

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Example - Powering Up
PIC18F458

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 Programs in ROM

• When PIC is powered up (VCC applied to

Reset Pin), the micro-controller begins
executing instruction at location 00000h
(Reset Vector)
• Use ORG statement for this instruction in
your code (if programming in assembly)
– C compiler takes care of creating assembly
code having this

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Recap

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 Recap

• Register
– A place inside the PIC that can be written to,
read from, or both (8-bit numbers)

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Dec, Hex, Bin

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 Assembler/Compiler
Data Formats
• Data Byte Representation
– hex, decimal, binary, ASCII

Format .ASM .C

Decimal D’127’ or .127 127

Hex 07F or H’07F’ or 07FH or 0x7F 0x7F

Binary b‘01111111’ 0b01111111

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 Assembler/Compiler
Directives
• Instructions (MOVLW, ADDLW, etc.) tell CPU what to do
• Directives give directions to the Assembler/Compiler
– “pseudo-instructions”

• Assembler directives:
– EQU (defining constants), (SET is similar but can be reset)
– ORG (origin - explicit address offset operand must be hex)
– END (tells assembler that this is end of code)
– LIST (indicates specific controller, e.g., LIST P=18F452)
– #include (to include libraries associated)
– _config directives – tell assembler what the configuration (stored at
300000H) bits of the target PIC should be
– radix (e.g., radix dec will change to decimal notation; default is hex)
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Configuration Registers

Table 19-1 from Data Sheet

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 Assembly Language
Structure
[label] mnemonic [operand1, operand2] [;comment]

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 Assembly Language
Structure
[label] mnemonic [operand1, operand2] [;comment]

optional
• Label: Can now refer to a line of code by name
• Mnemonic (instruction): ADDLW, BNZ, etc.
• Operand(s): Literal, file register location, variable
that is manipulated, used, or acted upon
• Comment: starts with ; and is ignored by assembler

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Instruction Format

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Instruction Format

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Instruction Set Info.

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Opcode

20
Status Flags

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 Assembly Programming
Sample
SUM EQU 0F7H

ORG 0H

HERE MOVLW 0
MOVWF SUM
MOVLW 25H ;25H  WREG
ADDLW 0x34 ;+ 34H
ADDLW 11H ;+ 11H
ADDLW 0C1H ;+ C1H
ADDLW 25 ;+25H
ADDLW D'18' ;+ 18 decimal
ADDLW B'00000110‘ ;+6 dec
MOVWF SUM

MOVLW SUM
GOTO HERE

END 22
Assembly Code Assembled an
Linked

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 Program Counter (PC)

ORG 0
…
MOVLW 5
ADDLW 4
…
END

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PIC18 Program Counter

2 MB

21-bit  000000 to 1FFFFF addresses

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PIC18 On-Chip Program ROM
Address Range

4k

16 k
32 k

(452)

Figure 2-10
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 PIC18 Program
ROM Space

21-bit  000000 to 1FFFFF addresses

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 Assembly Programming
sample
SUM EQU 0F7H

ORG 0H

0x00 HERE MOVLW 0

0x02 MOVWF SUM
0x04 MOVLW 25H ;25H  WREG
0x06 ADDLW 0x34 ;+ 34H
0x08 ADDLW 11H ;+ 11H
0x0A ADDLW 0C1H ;+ C1H
0x0C ADDLW 25 ;+25H
… ADDLW D'18' ;+ 18 decimal
ADDLW B'00000110‘ ;+6 dec
MOVWF SUM

MOVLW SUM
GOTO HERE

END 28
PIC18 Program ROM Width

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 ROM Contents

Opcode
0x00 MOVLW 25H 0x0E

0x02 ADDLW 34H

0x04 ADDLW 11H

0x06

0x08 Opcode
… 0x0F

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 ROM Contents

25H MOVLW
0x00 MOVLW 25H
34H ADDLW
0x02 ADDLW 34H 11H ADDLW

0x04 ADDLW 11H

0x06

0x08
…
25H 0EH
34H 0FH
11H 0FH
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ROM Contents

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 GOTO and the PC

• GOTO, 4 byte instruction:

0E 07
0F EF
10 00
11 F0
little endian!

PCU PCH PCL

0 0 0 k19 k15 k14 k7 k6 k0 0

21 bit PC 33
 Assembly Programming
sample
SUM EQU 0F7H

0x00 ORG 0H

0x00 HERE MOVLW 0

0x02 MOVWF SUM
0x04 MOVLW 25H ;25H  WREG
0x06 ADDLW 0x34 ;+ 34H
0x08 ADDLW 11H ;+ 11H
0x0A ADDLW 0C1H ;+ C1H
0x0C ADDLW 25 ;+25H
… ADDLW D'18' ;+ 18 decimal
ADDLW B'00000110‘ ;+6 dec
MOVWF SUM

MOVLW SUM
GOTO HERE ;GOTO 0x00

END 34
 Note

• Chapter 2 for more details of Assembly

and Architecture
• Start reading Chapter 3
– Branching

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