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Devola & Popola

This project is a Rust-based implementation of an assembly language very loosely based on the instruction set used for the MOS 6502, as well as a corresponding virtual machine/runtime (collectively, Popola). It is currently split into two crates, devola (the assembler and virtual machine) and popola (a to-be-written IDE-type application in SDL2). It takes heavy inspiration from the PICO-8 project in creating a more accessible way to write for 8-bit fantasy consoles. The names come from Devola and Popola, twin android sisters in the Nier video game franchise.

popola takes the role of a kind of PPU -- it is responsible for managing and interpreting VRAM, input, etc., while devola handles the underlying code execution.

  • Offsetting the index XY quasi-register using +N notation

Popola System Specifications

  • Memory: 64KiB (16-bit addresses), split into ~60KiB of user memory and 4KiB of VRAM
  • Registers: 1 accumulator (A), 2 general-purpose (B and C), 2 index (X and Y -- X is the high byte and Y is the low byte of an address)
  • Flags: Carry, Parity, Zero, Sign
  • Memory-mapped I/O (MMIO): 16 bytes

Code and memory are currently separated -- thus, it is not currently possible to write self-modifying code. This may change in the future.

Instruction Set

Popola assembly is case-insensitive.

Numbers

Numeric arguments to instructions are usually a single byte, except for when providing a 16-bit address for indirect operations. They can be specified as follows:

  • Decimal: no suffix; input as a regular number
  • Binary: b suffix
  • Hexadecimal: h suffix
  • Indirect (address): # prefix; supports any of the three bases

Flags

The four Popola flags can be set by the various arithmetic instructions, as well as by CMP.

  • C is set if an operation results in a carry (overflow) and unset otherwise.
  • P is set if the result of an operation is odd (that is, if the least significant bit is set) and unset otherwise.
  • S is set if the result of an operation is negative when interpreted as a signed integer (that is, if the most significant bit is set) and unset otherwise.
  • Z is set if the result of an operation is 0 and unset otherwise.

Addressing modes

The following notation is used in describing instruction arguments:

  • Ra: A target register; any of A, B, C, X, Y
  • Rb: A source register; any of A, B, C, X, Y
  • N: An immediate byte value
  • I: An 16-bit address (indirect access) -- the instruction is provided the byte located at the corresponding address in memory
  • XY: The address specified by the XY index register -- the instruction is provided the byte located at the corresponding address in memory
  • F: A flag; any of C, P, Z, S
  • label: A labeled location in code

Text in () is required, while text in [] is optional. The possible values for instruction arguments are separated by | characters.

LD(Ra) (Rb | N | I | XY): Load into a register

ST(Rb) (I | XY): Store a register into memory

INC/DEC: Increment/decrement the accumulator

Z is set if the accumulator over/underflows to 0. The other flags are set accordingly.

ADD (Rb | N | I | XY)/SUB (Rb | N | I | XY): Add to/subtract from the accumulator

Z is set if the accumulator is now 0. The other flags are set accordingly.

CMP (Rb | N | I | XY): Compare a value to the accumulator

Let n represent the argument to cmp and A the value of the accumulator.

  • C is set if A < n and unset if A >= n.
  • P is set if A % 2 == n % 2 (A and n have the same parity) and unset otherwise.
  • S is set if sgn(A) == sgn(n) (A and n have the same sign) and unset otherwise.
  • Z is set if A == n and unset otherwise.

(TO BE ADDED) ADXY (Rb | N | I | XY)/SBXY (Rb | N | I | XY): Perform 16-bit addition/subtraction

JMP (label): Unconditionally jump to a location in code

J[N](F) (label): Conditionally jump to a location in code

If N is not present, jumps to the given label if the given flag is set; otherwise, only jumps if the given flag is unset. For example, JNZ main jumps to the label main only if Z is not set.

CALL (label): Call a subroutine

Pushes the current program counter to the stack and jumps to the given label.

RET: Return from a subroutine

Pops the program counter from the stack and jumps back to the popped value.

PUSH (Rb): Push to the stack

The stack pointer is decremented and the contents of Rb are placed at the new stack pointer. (The stack grows down.)

POP (Ra): Pop from the stack

The byte located at the stack pointer is placed into Ra and the stack pointer is incremented. (The stack shrinks up.)

NOP: No-op

Does nothing. Substitutes labels in compiled code.

"Hardware" information

MMIO

The 16-byte range 0x0FF0-0x0FFF in memory is currently reserved for memory mapped I/O. They are currently mapped as follows:

  • MMIO+0x0: Most significant byte of the stack pointer
  • MMIO+0x1: Least significant byte of the stack pointer
  • MMIO+0x2-0xF: Unassigned

Subroutine convention

Convention for unary functions that return a single byte is to place both arguments and return values in the B register. For more complex functions, you can either use multiple registers or utilize a stack frame.

Example programs

More examples are available at devola/sample.

Square an integer

	lda  0      ; i = 0
	ldb 5       ; n = 5
	ldc 0       ; square = 0

loop:               ; while true
	cmp b       ; if i == n break
	jz end_loop
	push a      ; square += n
	lda c
	add b
	ldc a
	pop a
	inc         ; i++
	jmp loop
end_loop:           ; c contains 5^2

Integer square subroutine

    jmp main
; place number to square in b, square will be returned there
square:
    push a
    push c
    lda 0       ; i = 0
    ldc 0       ; square = 0
loop:           ; while true
    cmp b       ; if i == n break
    jz end_loop
    push a      ; square += n
    lda c
    add b
    ldc a
    pop a
    inc         ; i++
    jmp loop
end_loop:
    ldb c
    pop c
    pop a
    ret
main:
    ldb 13
    call square     ; b = 169
    ldb 12
    call square     ; b = 144
    ldb 3
    call square     ; b = 9

Simple stack frame

We could translate the program (example in Python)

def add_doubles(n1, n2):
    return 2*n1 + 2*n2

def main():
    add_doubles(10, 5)
    jmp main
add_doubles:
    ;; set stack frame
    push x      ;; save old index
    push y      ; stack-6
    ldx #0FF0h  ;; get current stack pointer
    ldy #0FF1h
    sbxy 2      ; two 1-byte local variables 
    stx #0FF0h  ;; update stack pointer
    sty #0FF1h
    ;; done setting stack frame
    
    lda XY+7    ; n1
    add a       ; n1+n1
    sta XY+1    ; store in first local variable
    lda XY+8    ; n2
    add a       ; n2+n2
    sta XY+2    ; store in second local variable
    
    ldb XY+1    ; access first local variable
    lda XY+2    ; access second local variable
    add b       ; 2*n1 + 2*n2
    sta b       ; place in return
    
    ;; reset stack frame
    adxy 2      ; throw away local variables
    stx #0FF0h  ;; restore stack pointer
    sty #0FF1h 
    pop y       ;; restore old index
    pop x
    ;; done resetting stack frame
    
    ret
main:
    push 5
    push 10
    call add_doubles ; b has the result