Load and Store Word or Byte:
Base Register
* The memory location to be accessed is held in a base register
• STR r0, [r1] ; Store contents of r0 to location pointed to
; by contents of r1.
• LDR r2, [r1] ; Load r2 with contents of memory location
; pointed to by contents of r1.
r0 Memory
Source
Register 0x5
for STR
r1 r2
Base Destination
Register 0x200 0x200 0x5 0x5 Register
for LDR
The ARM Addressing Mode - 1 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Interpreting Address
1. Little Endian 7 0
(PDP-11,Intel 80x86)
2. Big Endian 0 7
(IBM360/370,Motorola)
Alignment
Byte Address : A
Object size : s
Byte address oriented memory will align if Mod[A,s] = 0
Addressing Mode
Effective Address
PC – Relative addressing: Mainly used for control transfer
The ARM Addressing Mode - 2 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Memory Addressing
Addressing Modes
Register
Immediate
Displacement
Register Indirect
Indexed
Direct or Absolute
Memory Indirect
Autoincreament
Auto decrement
Scaled
The ARM Addressing Mode - 3 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Addressing Modes
* Register
• Value is in a register
– Add R4, R3
– Regs[R4] Regs[R4] + Regs[R3]
* Immediate
• Constant value is in the instruction
– Add R4, #3
– Regs[R4] Regs[R4] + 3
* Displacement
• Relative addressing for access to local variables
– Add R4, 100(R1)
– Regs[R4] Regs[R4] + Mem[100+Regs[R1]]
The ARM Addressing Mode - 4 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Addressing Modes
* Indirect or Register deferred
• Address of the operand is in a register
– Add R4, (R1)
– Regs[R4] Regs[R4] + Mem[Regs[R1]]
* Indexed
• Base + index addressing; useful in array addressing
– Add R3, (R1+R2)
– Regs[R3] Regs[R3] + Mem[Regs[R1]+Regs[R2]]
* Direct or Absolute
• Static addressing for access to local variables
– Add R1, (1001)
– Regs[R1] Regs[R1] + Mem[1001]
The ARM Addressing Mode - 5 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Addressing Modes
* Memory indirect
• The address of the address of the operand is in a register
– Add R1, @(R3)
– Regs[R1] Regs[R1] + Mem[Mem[Regs[R3]]]
* Auto-increment or Auto-decrement
• Useful for stepping through arrays or accessing stack elements
– Add R1, (R2)+
• Regs[R1] Regs[R1] + Mem[Regs[R2]]
• Regs[R2] Regs[R2] + d
– Add R1, -(R2)
• Regs[R2] Regs[R2] - d
• Regs[R1] Regs[R1] + Mem[Regs[R2]]
The ARM Addressing Mode - 6 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Address Modes
1. Register Add R4,R3 Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Reg[R3]
2. Immediate Add R4,#3 Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + 3
3. Displacement Add R4, 100(R1) Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[100 + Reg[R1]]
4. Register Indirect Add R4, (R1) Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[Reg[R1]]
5. Indexed Add R4, (R1+R2) Reg[R4] Reg[R4] +
Mem[Reg[R1]+Reg[R2]]
6. Absolute Add R4,(1000) Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[1000]
7. Memory Indexed Add R4,@(R3) Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[Mem[Reg[R3]]]
8. Auto Increment Add R4,(R2)+ Reg[R4] Reg[R4] +
Mem[Reg[R2]] Reg[R2] Reg[R2] + d
9. Auto decrement Add R4,-(R2) Reg[R2] Reg[R2] – d
Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[Reg[R2]]
10. Scaled Add R4,100(R2)[R3] Reg[R4] Reg[R4] + Mem[100 + Reg[R2] +
Reg[R3]*d
The ARM Addressing Mode - 7 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Load and Store Word or Byte:
Offsets from the Base Register
* As well as accessing the actual location contained in the base register,
these instructions can access a location offset from the base register
pointer.
* This offset can be
• An unsigned 12bit immediate value (ie 0 - 4095 bytes).
• A register, optionally shifted by an immediate value
* This can be either added or subtracted from the base register:
• Prefix the offset value or register with ‘+’ (default) or ‘-’.
* This offset can be applied:
• before the transfer is made: Pre-indexed addressing
– optionally auto-incrementing the base register, by postfixing the
instruction with an ‘!’.
• after the transfer is made: Post-indexed addressing
– causing the base register to be auto-incremented.
The ARM Addressing Mode - 8 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Load and Store Word or Byte:
Pre-indexed Addressing
* Example: STR r0, [r1,#12]
r0
Memory Source
0x5 Register
for STR
Offset
12 0x20c 0x5
r1
Base
Register 0x200 0x200
* To store to location 0x1f4 instead use: STR r0, [r1,#-12]
* To auto-increment base pointer to 0x20c use: STR r0, [r1, #12]!
* If r2 contains 3, access 0x20c by multiplying this by 4:
• STR r0, [r1, r2, LSL #2]
The ARM Addressing Mode - 9 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Load and Store Word or Byte:
Post-indexed Addressing
* Example: STR r0, [r1], #12
Memory
r1 Offset r0
Updated Source
Base 0x20c 12 0x20c
0x5 Register
Register for STR
0x200 0x5
r1
Original
Base 0x200
Register
* To auto-increment the base register to location 0x1f4 instead use:
• STR r0, [r1], #-12
* If r2 contains 3, auto-incremenet base register to 0x20c by multiplying this by
4:
* STR r0, [r1], r2, LSL #2
The ARM Addressing Mode - 10 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Load and Stores with User Mode Privilege
* When using post-indexed addressing, there is a further form of Load/Store
Word/Byte:
• <LDR|STR>{<cond>}{B}T Rd, <post_indexed_address>
* When used in a privileged mode, this does the load/store with user mode
privilege.
• Normally used by an exception handler that is emulating a memory access
instruction that would normally execute in user mode.
The ARM Addressing Mode - 11 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Example Usage of
Addressing Modes
* Imagine an array, the first element of which is pointed to by the contents of
r0.
Memory
* If we want to access a particular element, element Offset
then we can use pre-indexed addressing:
• r1 is element we want.
• LDR r2, [r0, r1, LSL #2] 3 12
Pointer to 2 8
start of array
* If we want to step through every 1 4
element of the array, for instance r0 0 0
to produce sum of elements in the
array, then we can use post-indexed addressing within a loop:
• r1 is address of current element (initially equal to r0).
• LDR r2, [r1], #4
Use a further register to store the address of final element,
so that the loop can be correctly terminated.
The ARM Addressing Mode - 12 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
Offsets for Halfword and Signed Halfword / Byte
Access
* The Load and Store Halfword and Load Signed Byte or Halfword
instructions can make use of pre- and post-indexed addressing in much the
same way as the basic load and store instructions.
* However the actual offset formats are more constrained:
• The immediate value is limited to 8 bits (rather than 12 bits) giving an offset
of 0-255 bytes.
• The register form cannot have a shift applied to it.
The ARM Addressing Mode - 13 Embedded Systems Lab./Honam University
