Meeting Assembly — Hello World Arduino Blinking Code
Simulating in Atmel Studio 7 #arduSerie — 27
On this page, I’ll tell you how an Arduino’s blink program works in assembly,
how to create a project on Atmel Studio 7 and some details about the AVR.
Now it’s time to have a look at what we want to do and how it can be done.
1 — Tutorial Objectives :
After completing this AVR microcontroller tutorial readers should be able to:
. Write assembly code to initialize an AVR ATmega 328P and run code on it
. Understand how it works line by line
. Trying this in the simulator of Atmel Studio 7
. Upload the code to Arduino Uno directly from Atmel Studio 7 IDE
2 — Ten (10) Asm Instructions used:
Instruction : Cycle : Descriptions
ldi : 1 : Load Immediate Into; Loads an 8-bit constant directly to regs.16 to 31.
cbi : 1 : Clear Bit In I/O Register — Clears a specified bit in an I/O register.
sbi : 1 : Set Bit in I/O Register — Sets a specified bit in an I/O Register.
out : 1 : Store Register to I/O Location — Stores data from register Rr in the Register File to I/O Space (Ports, Timers, Configuration Registers, etc.).
dec : 1 : Decrement — Subtracts one from the contents of register Rd and places the result in the destination register Rd.
adiw : 2 : Add Immediate to Word — Adds an immediate value (0–63) to a register pair and places the result in the register pair.
brne : 2 : Branch if Not Equal — Conditional relative branch. Tests the Zero Flag (Z) and branches relatively to PC if Z is cleared.
rcall : 1 : Relative Call to Subroutine — Relative call to an address within PC
ret : 1 : Return from Subroutine — Returns from the subroutine.
rjmp : 1 : Relative Jump — Relative jump to an address.
3 — Solution Index:
Point 00 — MOTIVATION
Point 01 — Open Datasheet — Prepare a solution
Point 02 — Open a Simulation Project
Point 03 — Open a Target Project
Point 04 — Init your code
Point 05 — Do the Math
Point 06 — Run a Simulation on Atmega 238P
Point 07 — Run On Real Board — Arduino UNO
Point 08 — Take your Simulation project as Template
Point 09 — Take your Target project as Template
Point 10 — Prepare The next Project
Point 00 — MOTIVATION
The simulator is very important because it allows us to step through a program and software code line by line and analyze and understand what your code is doing before you actually upload it to your board and running it.
Though the hardware is as important as the software it only tells you if your code is running or not.
I would like to see Arduino Internals (under the hood) and Atmel Studio 7 made it as open source. Thanks to Atmel team!
This video is like a recollection for me, so that sometime later I can keep the most important information avoiding forgetting it all.
And sharing comes from the passion I treat the DIY community. So here we go! Let’s get started!
Point 01 — Open Datasheet — Prepare a solution
in order that any project goes further one must read the (ATmega328P) datasheet. Let’s open the document and make the first Close Encounters of the Third Kind :-)
If you click on this flag (top right) and head up to Register Summary you’ll find all the records and objects of our studies. Here you find the three main registers of Atmel AVR i/o ports:
PORTx, DDRx and PINx.
Here’s a drawing of their basic functionality: as you can see, there’s an internal pull-up for every pin (on PIC, 18-K’s Families forward). It can be activated by setting the DDR bit of the pin to 0 and the Port bit to 1. A cleared DDR bit means that the pin is an input pin. So the pin is disconnected from the Port register (see the driver in the drawing?) and the pin is floating. In this case, the Port bit controls the pull-up.
We highlight the configuration we will take in our project: we put the DDRx to 1 and we will switch PORTx between the high and low states to blink the LED.
Back to datasheet from the Instruction Set Summary, we will use in our code only 10 out of 131 (yep! just one hundred thirty-one! ugh…) Powerful Instructions that are cbi, ldi, out, dec, adwi, brne, rcall, ret, rjmp and sbi (details above).
Now, open Atmel Studio 7:
File > New > Project/SolutionDismiss the start page, choose Atmel Studio Solution > Blank Solution from the installed tab. Name it as you wish…I’ll give you it the name Solution_AVR1, configure the directory of your project so you know where you place it.
Now on Solution Explorer, right-click and choose Add > New Project, choose Assembler > AVR Assembler Project, and on Device Selection, type 328p and choose ATmega328P and name it as you wish. As soon as you open the project you should put the Block Comment Header (BCH) so that anyone knows what the code is for (as good programming practices). see links for an awesome BCH website with examples in this :D
;
; _27_arduserie_Simulae_328P.asm
; ***here goes the BCH****
;We will follow an academic standard of opening two projects. One for simulation and another to be loaded into the hardware.
Point 02 — Open a Simulation Project
_27_arduserie_Simulae_328P for simulation purposes. Cool!
Point 03 — Open a Target Project
_27_arduserie_Target_328P for aim at the target which is the hardware code, Arduino Uno, of course…
Point 04 — Init your code
Let’s have look at probably the easiest program possible:
.ORG 0x000 ; the next instruction has to be written to add 0x0000 ; infinite loop
START: ; this is a label “START”
rjmp START ; Relative JuMP to START
When the instruction is executed, the CPU (ALU — Arithmetic Logic Unit) will jump to START. The jump will be repeated over and over, resulting in an infinite loop. Alright, that’s not a big deal…
Point 05 — Do the Math
Let’s continue the code development.
Assuming that our Arduino AVR is running at 16 MHz (16 Million clock cycles per second), how long does all this take?
T = 1/ F then T = 1 / 16E6
T = 0,0000000625 seconds, not precisely 0,06 usThat’s pretty fast! We can not see at this frequency the blinking of the LED. So coming to the answer it has been observed experimentally that the human eye can’t make out a difference in the picture frame if it appears for less than 16ms to 13ms (0,016-0,013s). Hence purely based on this we can say sampling frequency is 60Hz to 80Hz (about 0,06 & 0,08 MHz).
So we will need to know how many times we will loop to in terms of a cycle of say half a second off and half a second on so that the LED flashes every half a second at a frequency of 16 MHz we need x cycles. Here’s how:
if 1 cycle takes -----------0,0000000625 seconds
x cycles will take -----------0,5 seconds
this makes 0,5 / 0,0000000625 s = 8 000 0000 cyclesHow to achieve all these cycles if I can count only up to 255 (remember, we have an 8-bit chip)… magic? Magic wand?
Relax, with the technique that I will present everything will become easy.
For this, we will have to implement two loops: inner and outloop. See how:
Calculations - The inner loop is treated like one BIG instruction needing 262145 clock cycles. See: Inner loop first - as you know registers can be used in pairs, allowing to work with values from 0 to 65 535. That’s a word.
The following piece of code clears registers 24 and 25 and increments them in a loop until they overflow to zero again.
When that condition occurs, the loop doesn’t go around again. Let’s go ahead!
clr r24 ; clr needs 1 cycle
clr r25 ; clr needs 1 cycleDELAY_05: ; we need .5s delay
adiw r24, 1 ; adiw needs 2 cycles and
brne DELAY_05 ; brne needs 2 cycles if the branch is done
; and 1 otherwise
Every time the registers don’t overflow the loop takes adiw(2) + brne(2) = 4 cycles.
This is done 0xFFFF (65 535) times before the overflow occurs. The next time the loop only needs 3 cycles, because no branch is done.
This adds up to 4 * 65 535(looping) + 3(overflow) + 2(clr) = 262 145 cycles. This is still not enough: 8 000 000/262 145 ~ 30.51.
The “outer” loop will be down-counting from 31 to zero using R16.
ldi r16, 31OUTER_LOOP: ; outer loop label
ldi r24, 0 ; clear register 24
ldi r25, 0 ; clear register 25DELAY_05: ; the loop label
adiw r24, 1 ; “add immediate to word”: r24:r25 are
; incremented
brne DELAY_05
dec r16 ; decrement r16
brne OUTER_LOOP ; load r16 with 8
The overall loop needs: 262 145 (inner loop) + 1 (dec) + 2 (brne) = 262 148 * 31 = 8 126 588 cycles.
This is more like what we want, but 126 588 cycles too long.
This is where the fine-tuning comes in — we need to change the initial value of r24:r25.
The outer loop is executed 31 times and includes the “big-inner-loop-instruction”.
We have to subtract some cycles from the inner loop: 126 588 / 31 = 4 083 cycles per inner loop.
This is what the inner loop has to be shorter. Every iteration of the inner loop takes 4 cycles (the last one takes 3 but that’s not so important), so let’s divide those 4 083 by 4.
That’s 1 020.8 or 1 021 fewer iterations.
This is our new initialization value for r24:r25!
Now, if you want, do all those calculations again: The result is 8 000 000 clock cycles!
Now just put this into a separate routine and call it from the main LED flashing loop. Here is a complete program:
.ORG 0x0000 ; the next instruction has to be written to ; address 0x0000rjmp START ; the reset vector: jump to "main"START:ldi r16, low(RAMEND) ; set up the stackout SPL, r16ldi r16, high(RAMEND)out SPH, r16ldi r16, 0xFF ; load register 16 with 0xFF (all bits 1)out DDRB, r16 ; write the value in r16 (0xFF) to Data ; Direction Register BLOOP: sbi PortB, 5 ; switch off the LED rcall delay_05 ; wait for half a second cbi PortB, 5 ; switch it on rcall delay_05 ; wait for half a secon rjmp LOOP ; jump to loop
DELAY_05: ; the subroutine: ldi r16, 31 ; load r16 with 31OUTER_LOOP: ; outer loop label ldi r24, low(1021) ; load registers r24:r25 with 1021, our new ; init value ldi r25, high(1021) ; the loop labelDELAY_LOOP: ; "add immediate to word": r24:r25 are ; incremented adiw r24, 1 ; if no overflow ("branch if not equal"), go ; back to "delay_loop" brne DELAY_LOOP dec r16 ; decrement r16 brne OUTER_LOOP ; and loop if outer loop not finished ret ; return from subroutine
Point 06 — Run a Simulation on Atmega 238P
So let’s go ahead and start a debugging session or simulate.
You just need to click Build > Build Solution and proceed on by clicking on the Start Debugging and Break (Alt + F5) button of the Debug menu.
Let’s just do that and see what happens…
Oops: error? Please select connected tools and interface and try it again… that’s for the purpose, click on Continue and in Tool > Selected debugger/programmer choose Simulator.
Take advantage and go to Toolchain and under General disable Generate HEX file. This is a security feature. As we are simulating here we do not want to put this file on the chip, right?
Ctrl + S, and dismiss the Properties window and Alt + F5 again.
So the debugger has started and break means to pause in the first line (or whatever you wish to…). Select in I/O window PORTB.
Notice a yellow arrow stops right at the address zero. It points to the instruction that will be executed next (pressing Reset brings here to), but has not been yet executed.
If you want to step through the code line by line there are basically two key commands you must be aware of: Step Over (F10) and Step Into (F11).
Let see how this works.
If I hit F11 it jumps to the next instruction. The counter program starts counting. A machine cycle is passed.
In the Arduino frequency rate it takes a mere 0.06 microseconds.
In the next step, we will notice that the R16 register will change its value. It will be 0xFF the value of the first nibble out of Stack pointer.
To understand, it better go to this link.
These operations allow us to use 16 bits (one word) to do the counting required.
Note:
The AVR 8-bits microcontroller stack pointer can either consist of a single I/O register SPL (Stack Pointer Low) or two (2) I/O registers SPL and SPH (Stack Pointer High). The size of the stack pointer depends on the amount of data memory a microntroller contains. If the entire data memory can be addressed using 8-bits then the stack pointer is 8-bits wide i.e. SPL only, otherwise the stack pointer is consist of SPL and SPH.
Alright. Now we need to configure our DDRB. With 0xFF all bits are 1, as output.
Now it’s only necessary to set the PORTB up and down alternately using sbi to set bit and cbi to clears it.
Now we are using rcall to jump to loop delay_05 that waits for half a second. For this hit now F10 — Step Over.
After a brief second, the clock will stop in the cycle of number 8 million according to our calculations above.
Now if we calculate the StopWatch will be scoring exactly half a second. Look:
500000000 us = 0,5 seconds Awesome!!!
When you’re done stop debugging by click on Stop debugging button (Ctrl+Shift+F5).
We finally got to turn assembly language into Hello world!!!.
Point 07 — Run On Real Board — Arduino UNO
Copy and paste this code to the target project.
With our previous video, we already have the necessary tools to load this code for the Arduino directly from Atmel Studio 7 IDE. Just go to the Tools menu, hit:
Send To ArduinoUNO and there you go! Here is the video for this setup.
Point 08 — Take your Simulation project as Template
Now let’s turn the entire project into a template. For this use the code of the simulation.
We’ll use this as block Comment header (copy n paste to your simulation main.asm file):
/*==================================================================
| Project: ASSIGNMENT NUMBER AND TITLE
|
| Author: STUDENT’S NAME HERE
| Language: NAME OF LANGUAGE IN WHICH THE PROGRAM IS WRITTEN AND
| THE NAME OF THE COMPILER USED TO COMPILE IT WHEN IT
| WAS TESTED
| Solution: YOUR SOLUTION ATMEL STUDIO 7 NAME
|
| Projects: _##_####_Simulation_ATMEGA328P &
| _##_####_Target_ATMEGA328P
|
| To Compile: EXPLAIN HOW TO COMPILE THIS PROGRAM
|
| Software: NAME AND TITLE OF THE CLASS FOR WHICH THIS PROGRAM WAS
| WRITTEN
| OS Version: YOUR COMPUTER PROGRAM VERSION NUMBER
|
| Platform: YOUR COMPUTER PROGRAM
|
| Instructor: NAME OF YOUR COURSE’S INSTRUCTOR
|
| Due Date: DATE AND TIME THAT THIS PROGRAM IS/WAS DUE TO BE
| SUBMITTED
|
+ -----------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Description: DESCRIBE THE PROBLEM THAT THIS PROGRAM WAS WRITTEN
| TO SOLVE.
|
| Input: DESCRIBE THE INPUT THAT THE PROGRAM REQUIRES.
|
| Output: DESCRIBE THE OUTPUT THAT THE PROGRAM PRODUCES.
|
| Algorithm: OUTLINE THE APPROACH USED BY THE PROGRAM TO SOLVE THE
| PROBLEM.
|
| Required Features Not Included: DESCRIBE HERE ANY REQUIREMENTS OF
| THE ASSIGNMENT THAT THE PROGRAM DOES NOT ATTEMPT TO SOLVE.
|
| Known Bugs: IF THE PROGRAM DOES NOT FUNCTION CORRECTLY IN SOME
| SITUATIONS, DESCRIBE THE SITUATIONS AND PROBLEMS HERE.
|
*================================================================*/.INCLUDE "m328pdef.inc" ; this are automatically included
.ORG 0x0000 ; initial instruction
rjmp START ; the reset vector: jump to “main” ;***place your data here***
START:
;***your code goes her***
LOOP:
;***loop routine***
rjmp LOOP ;***your procedure here***
.EXIT ; tells assembler it's over here!
Crtl+s. Now hit File > Export Template…
Choose Template Type, hit Project Template.
Hit Next.
Choose Template name (simulae_template_328P), Template description, type a little text to remind you later (simulation/target project template for Arduino Uno) and Output location (new directory). Leave everything in the default setting.
You will end up with a dot zip file, in my case, C:\Users\giljr\Documents\Visual Studio 2015\My Exported Templates.
Repeat the same procedure to the target project. Name it as target_template_328P.
Cool!!! reboot Atmel Studio 7 IDE and navigate File> New > Project n boom!!! There you go!!!
Point 09— Take your Target project as Template
Repeat the same procedure for the target project.
Point 10 — Prepare The next Project
File > Import > Project Template and select your .zip file of the project of interest.
Save as ‘Solution_AVR2’ and ‘_28_arduserie_Simulation_ATMEGA328P’ and ‘_28_arduserie_Target_ATMEGA328P’
For the next project lets work with ‘Timers and Counters’.
Let’s go deeper and deeper inside the Arduino board!!!
But this is issues for the next video…thanks for your time!!! bye!!!
BTW — Some Important Concepts:
What is assembly?
Assembler is a low-level language. An assembly (or assembler) language, often abbreviated asm, is a low-level programming language for a computer, or another programmable device, in which there is a very strong (generally one-to-one) correspondence between the language and the architecture’s machine code instructions. Assembly language is converted into executable machine code by a utility program referred to as an assembler (Wikipedia).
What is a stack?
A stack is a consecutive block of data memory allocated by the programmer.
This block of memory can be used both by the microcontroller internal control as well as the programmer to store data temporarily. The stack operates with a Last In First Out (LIFO) mechanism, i.e the last thing stored on the stack is the first thing to be retrieved from the stack.
What is the Stack Pointer?
The stack pointer is basically a register or registers that hold either “the memory address of the last location on that stack where data was stored” or “the memory address of the next available location on the stack to store data.” The definition of the stack pointer depends on the design of the microcontroller. In AVR microcontrollers, such as the ATMega8515, ATMega16, ATTiny13, etc., the stack pointer holds the address on the next available location on the stack available to store data.
The AVR 8-bits microcontroller stack pointer can either consist of a single I/O register SPL (Stack Pointer Low) or two (2) I/O registers SPL and SPH (Stack Pointer High). The size of the stack pointer depends on the amount of data memory a microcontroller contains. If the entire data memory can be addressed using 8-bits then the stack pointer is 8-bits wide i.e. SPL only, otherwise, the stack pointer is consists of SPL and SPH.
What the hell means RAMEND?
RAM END is a label that represents the address of the last memory location in SRAM. To use this label you MUST ensure that you include the definition header file for the specific microcontroller. The functions low() and high() are used by the assembler to return the low byte and high byte respectively of a 16-bit word. Remember we are dealing with an 8-bit microcontroller that can only handle only 8-bits at a time. RAMEND is a 16-bit word and so we use the functions to split it.
References:
Lecture 1: Using, Setting Up and Simulating w/ Atmel Studio 7 (Thanks to Mr. Santos for awesome lesson!!! —I wish I could watch your classes live!!!)
AVR Microcontroller Stack and Stack Pointer
An asm Introduction And The Embedded “Hello World”!!!!
Block Comment Templates with Examples
Mikrochip’s Section 8. Interrupts
[Edited @ nov 2019 using Grammarly powered corrections]
