IsoMax Assembler?

[bkazak]

Hi, I am a prospective new user of IsoPod (and IsoMax as well).

The project in question is a programmable controller that will help us
exercise the IC (memory chip, for example) and collect data from it,
while we will irradiate the IC with heavy ions trying to cause a
malfunction. This torture is called Single Event Effects (SEE) testing.

In course of this testing we want some sections of the program to work
at maximum speed, so these routines should be written in Assembly.
I have some experience in FORTH programming, so I know how to
create Assembly definitions and how to use them later.

However, my questions are:
1. Does the IsoMax include a 56800 assembler (prefix or postfix)
or it is necessary to hand-code in machine commands?
2. Are there any processor registers that can be used in Assembly
programs freely, or I must save/restore them all?
3. Is there any description of the IsoMax internals (well commented
Assembly source code would be the best)? Barring that, the register
assignment would be better than nothing - which is stack, which is
queue, subroutine counter, etc.

We have not yet purchased the kit, but I am 95% certain that we will.

Boris Kazak
Radiation Test Engineer
Maxwell Technologies, Inc
San Diego, CA

[RMDumse]

Originally posted by bkazak

1. Does the IsoMax include a 56800 assembler (prefix or postfix)
or it is necessary to hand-code in machine commands?
2. Are there any processor registers that can be used in Assembly
programs freely, or I must save/restore them all?
3. Is there any description of the IsoMax internals (well commented
Assembly source code would be the best)? Barring that, the register
assignment would be better than nothing - which is stack, which is
queue, subroutine counter, etc.


Well, something went wrong here, as I was reviewing communications and found your post went unanswered for months here. Folks, if this happens, call us. I hate to look back and see unanswered questions.

Let's see. Peter Gray made a Small C for us. It has an assembler. This can get you from assembly language to machine code. You can insert the machine code image into a CODE or a CODE-SUB definition.

These is more information on the IsoMax internals in the manual since you first asked your question.

[bkazak]

Thanks for the response, this assembly option will help produce
some executable machine code, but the question of register usage is still
to be solved. You understand what can happen, if I inadvertently
use a register which has a dedicated use in FORTH. The only option seems
to save and restore all registers, regardless...

I am going to visit the page with manuals, maybe post something thereafter.


Boris Kazak
Radiation Test Engineer
Maxwell Technologies, Inc
San Diego, CA

[RMDumse]

Okay, I've asked our lead programmer working on IsoMax to write up some examples. We'll see what he comes up with. Probably be early next week, as he's out this week.