The LC-3 Simulator provides an interface to executing LC-3 programs on a simulated LC-3 machine. The interface allows users to observe and effect changes to LC-3 devices (such as the graphical video display, console text output, and keyboard input). It also allows users to control or limit the execution of a programming running on the simulator (for example, we might want to execute a program one instruction at a time) and observe or modify the state (memory and registers) of the machine.
The LC-3 Simulator provides both a graphical and text-based interface (the later is specified via the '-t' flag). Our expectation is that only the graphical interface will be used, so this document does not describe the text interface explicitly. Nevertheless, most of the functionality of the graphic interface is available (via the "Command Line") to the text interface.
For instructions on running the simulator, please see the LC-3 Guide.
There are only two menus available ("File" and "About"). The "Open .obj File" menu item under "File" is used to load an object file into the LC-3 machine. Note that this can also be achieved via the "Command Line" (see below). The "Open Command Output Window" menu item under "File" opens a window that mirrors the context of the "Command Line Output" panel (see Controls section, below). This is often useful because the Command Output Panel is somewhat small. Finally, the "Quit" menu item under "File" causes the simulator to terminate (after confirmation).
The "About" menu has only one item - "Simulator Version." Use this to make sure you're running the most current version of the simulator that has all the latest bug fixes, features, etc.
The Execution Buttons control the execution of a program in the LC-3 Simulator.
The "Next" button executes the instruction at the current PC and stops when the PC == (current PC + 1). If the instruction at the current PC is a subroutine call instruction (i.e., JSR, JSRR) or a trap instruction, the machine will execute instructions until the PC points to the instruction after the JSR/JSRR/TRAP at which "Next" was called. "Next" is useful for walking through a program one instruction at a time, without going into subroutines and trap handlers.
The "Step" button is similar to "Next", but it will stop execution again after one instruction has been executed. Thus, "Step" follows execution into called functions and traps.
Both "Next" and "Step" follow branch instructions.
As an example of the results of "Next" versus "Step", consider the following code snippet:
Address | Label | Instruction |
x3000 | START | AND R0,R0,#0 |
x3001 | JSR FUNCTION | |
x3002 | NOT R0,R0 | |
x3003 | BRz START | |
x3004 | HALT | |
... | ||
x4000 | FUNCTION | ADD R0,R0,#1 |
x4001 | RET |
If we set the PC to x3000 and hit "Step", we will go to the JSR instruction, as before. Hitting "Step" again will take us to the ADD instruction inside the function call. Hitting "Step" one more time takes us to the RET instruction, and we have to hit "Step" a fourth time to get to the NOT instruction, after the function call. Hitting "Step" again will follow the branch and take us to the START label, just like "Next" did.
The "Continue" button starts execution with the instruction at the current PC. The machine will continue to execute instructions until the machine halts, a breakpoint (see below) is encountered, or the "Stop" button is pressed.
The "Stop" button stops execution of the machine.
Pressing the "Next", "Step", or "Continue" buttons will cause the machine to leave the "Halted" machine state (i.e., the Machine Status Indicator will change to "Running" then "Suspended"). If "Stop" is pressed while the Machine Status Indicator is "Running", it will change to "Suspended."
The register panel is located on the left half of the screen. The LC-3 Simulator supports 8 general purpose registers, and has a few special registers (PC, MPR, PSR, CC). The value of each register is right next to its label, and the value can be modified by double-clicking on the value and typing in a new value. Values can either be in decimal, or in hexadecimal (hexadecimal numbers must be prefixed with an 'x').
The general purpose registers are freely accessible throughout the entire program. Whenever an executed instruction changes the value of a register, it will automatically be updated in the Registers display panel. It is convenient to be able to monitor the values of registers for debugging purposes.
The special registers on the other hand, cannot be directly referenced by the program and special instructions must be used to work with them. It is possible to modify their values by hand in the simulator though.
The PC, or Program Counter, indicates the address of the next instruction to be executed.
NOTE: When the LC-3 Simulator first starts up, the PC is automatically set to address x0200. This will generally be the location where the operating system begins. Generally we will give you an operating system to load into the machine, but we may also ask you to write parts of the operating system on your own. When the operating system finishes executing, it will then transfer control to the user program by jumping to location x3000. This means that all your user programs should begin execution at address x3000! More specifically, unless you are writing the operating system, make sure the first line of your program is .ORIG x3000.
The MPR is the Memory Protection Register. Each bit
in the MPR controls whether instructions in a given memory range can
be executed while in user mode (see PSR below) - 1
means that execution is allowed in a memory range in user mode, 0
means that it is only allowed in supervisor mode. Trying to execute
code in a region for which the MPR doesn't allow execution results in
an exception and will halt execution. Since the MPR is 16 bits, and
the LC-3 has 2^
MPR Bit | Memory Region |
---|---|
MPR[0] | x0000 - x0FFF |
MPR[1] | x1000 - x1FFF |
MPR[2] | x2000 - x2FFF |
... | ... |
MPR[15] | xF000 - xFFFF |
The PSR, or Process Status Register, indicates whether the LC-3 Simulator is operating in supervisor mode or user mode. If supervisor mode is enabled, PSR[15] is 1. Supervisor mode is enabled only for the operating system code, and it allows access to the different devices available to the machine (by allowing access to their memory-mapped regions - see MPR above). PSR[10:8] specify the priority level of the process being executed. PSR[2:0] contain the bits for the condition codes (CCs). PSR[2] is N, PSR[1] is Z, PSR[0] is P.
The CCs, or condition codes, are the 3 low-order bits of the PSR that give sign information of the most recently executed instruction that updated the codes, letting you determine whether the value was Negative, Zero, or Positive. These are used by the BR instruction in determining when to branch. The instructions that update the CCs are: ADD, AND, LD, LDI, LDR, LEA, and NOT.
The memory locations are on the right half of the screen. Each row represents a location in memory, and the row will tell you: if there is a breakpoint set at the location, the actual address (and any labels that might exist there), the value, and what instruction the value represents. Only the value of the memory can be changed by double clicking on the current value (similar to changing register values).
The following table summarizes how memory space is mapped in the LC-3:
Address Range | Usage |
---|---|
x0000 - x00FF | Trap Vector Table |
x0100 - x01FF | Interrupt Vector Table |
x0200 - x2FFF | Operating System |
x3000 - xBFFF | User code & stack |
xC000 - xFDFF | Video output |
xFE00 - xFFFF | Device register addresses |
A number of devices are available to the LC-3 simulator. The simulator uses memory-mapped device architecture, so accessing a device is just like accessing any other memory location. Following is a table that summarizes the device locations:
Address | Device Register | Usage |
---|---|---|
xFE00 | KBSR | Keyboard Status Register: when KBSR[15] is 1, the keyboard has received a new character. |
xFE02 | KBDR | Keyboard Data Register: when a new character is available, KBSR[7:0] contains the ASCII value of the typed character. |
xFE04 | DSR | Display Status Register: when DSR[15] is 1, the display is ready to receive a new character to display. |
xFE06 | DDR | Display Data Register: when the display is ready, the display will print the ASCII character contained in DDR[7:0]. |
xFE08 | TMR | Timer Register: TMR[15] is 1 if the timer has gone off, and 0 otherwise. |
xFE0A | TMI | Timer Interval Register: the number of milliseconds between timer ticks. Setting this to 0 disables the timer, and setting it to 1 sets the timer to generate "ticks" from "." (period) characters read from the current Text I/O Device (either user input or a file) |
xFE12 | MPR | Memory Protection Register: see Registers above. |
xFFFE | MCR | Machine Control Register: see Registers above. |
In addition to these devices, the video output is also memory-mapped from address location xC000 to xFDFF. The video display is 128 by 124 pixels (15,872 pixels total) and the coordinate system starts from (0,0) at the top left corner of the display.
Since each row is 128 pixels long, in order to find the location exactly one row below a given location, at x0080 to it. For example, if you are outputting to pixel (3, 10), whose memory location is xC18A, then one row immediately below it would be xC20A (=xC18A + x0080).
As a general rule, this is the formula to find the memory location associated with a given (row, col):
addr = xC000 + row*x0080 + col
Each video output memory location represents one pixel, which means that the value it contains must be formatted as a pixel would be (i.e. RGB format):
[15] | [14:10] | [9:5] | [4:0] |
---|---|---|---|
0 |
RED |
GREEN |
BLUE |
A value like x7FFF (or xFFFF would work - bit 15 is actually ignored) in location xC000 would output a white dot at (0,0). Here are a few common colors:
Pixel Code | Color |
---|---|
x7FFF | White |
x0000 | Black |
x7C00 | Red |
x03E0 | Green |
x001F | Blue |
x3466 | Puce |
Below are all the commands that are available on the Command Line.