SDSU Assembler Generator

The idea for an assembler generator was based on the author\u27s experience with various microprocessors. Reference [2] gave this author some valuable information on the functioning of an assembler. The software presented here, however, is a completely original design. The design of the software is based on the considerations given above. Reference [3] describes an assembler that was patterned after the high-level language Pascal. The author of this thesis, however, decided to pattern the syntax of the input after that of an assembler. It is hoped that the user of this software would be able to utilize this format more readily. Reference [4] gives a standard for microprocessor assembly languages. The format for the assembler generator, however, was chosen so that almost any symbol of up to eight characters could be used to represent a microprocessor\u27s instruction. The user of this software should have a working knowledge of the microprocessor and the microprocessors assembly language being used. This person may already be familiar with a certain set of symbols. The assembler generator, therefore, was designed to put as few restrictions on the user as possible. References [5] through [7] give more information on the Zilog Z80 and the Motorola 6800 microprocessors. Complete assemblers for the Z80 and the 6800 were generated by the author. These are shown in the appendix. The remaining chapters in this thesis present the instructions for using this software. The assemblers that may be produced by this software may not be able to duplicate the format of the assemblers supplied by the manufacturers of those microprocessors, but the same end result should be obtained. Certain features found on some assemblers were not implemented on this assembler. The features not implemented include conditional assembly and macros. This thesis represents one half of a complete software package. The other half is an emulator which would allow the assembly language program to be debugged by emulating the hardware of a microprocessor-based system. This next phase of the software development could be the topic of another thesis project