Assembly language consists of instructions and operands like registers, immediate values, memory addresses, and labels.
Modern ARM CPUs like the Apple M1 feature numerous 64-bit registers and a multi-level cache system to mitigate slow main memory access.
A practical example demonstrates basic ARM instructions like MOV, ADD, SUB, CMP, and B.NE for arithmetic and control flow.
The compiler often generates more efficient code than a direct translation, such as converting an incrementing for-loop into a decrementing counter.
The stack provides fast, temporary memory for local variables, managed by the stack pointer (SP) and accessed with store (STR) and load (LDR) instructions.
Function calls use the Branch and Link (BL) instruction, which saves the return address in the link register (X30) and transfers control.
The Application Binary Interface (ABI) defines strict rules for register usage, including which registers pass arguments, return values, and must be saved by the caller or callee.
ARM uses a two-step process with ADRP and ADD instructions to load a full 64-bit address by first getting the memory page and then the offset within it.
19:39Andrew Waafa
27:27Stefan Schöberl
33:29Sebastian Leuer
24:13Jonathan Müller
57:45Rainer Stropek
45:27Andreas Fertig
28:52Shai Almog
31:50Aleksandra Sikora
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.
Vesterling Consulting GmbH
Vesterling Consulting GmbH
Apple Firmenprofil
ASM Assembly Systems GmbH & Co. KG