Chapter 9TRAP Routines andSubroutines.ppt

Chapter 9TRAP Routines andSubroutines System Calls Certain operations require specialized knowledgeand protection: specific knowledge of I/O device registersand the sequence of operations needed to use them I/O resources shared among multiple users/programs;a mistake could affect lots of other users! Not every programmer knows (or wants to know)this level of detail Provide service routines or system calls(part of operating system) to safely and convenientlyperform low-level, privileged operations System Call 1. User program invokes system call. 2. Operating system code performs operation. 3. Returns control to user program. LC-3 TRAP Mechanism 1. A set of service routines. part of operating system -- routines start at arbitrary addresses(convention is that system code is below x3000) up to 256 routines 2. Table of starting addresses. stored at x0000 through x00FF in memory called System Control Block in some architectures 3. TRAP instruction. used by program to transfer control to operating system 8-bit trap vector names one of the 256 service routines 4. A linkage back to the user program. want execution to resume immediately after the TRAP instruction TRAP Instruction Trap vector identifies which system call to invoke 8-bit index into table of service routine addresses in LC-3, this table is stored in memory at 0x0000 – 0x00FF 8-bit trap vector is zero-extended into 16-bit memory address Where to go lookup starting address from table; place in PC How to get back save address of next instruction (current PC) in R7 TRAP RET (JMP R7) How do we transfer control back toinstruction following the TRAP? We saved old PC in R7. JMP R7 gets us back to the user program at the right spot. LC-3 assembly language lets us use RET (return)in place of “JMP R7”. Must make sure that service routine does not change R7, or we won’t know where to return. TRAP Mechanism Operation Example: Using the TRAP Instruction .ORIG x3000 LD R2, TERM ; Load negative ASCII ‘7’