ARM Cortex-M Assembly Analysis and Branching

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to ARM Cortex-M assembly language instructions, particularly focusing on branching operations and status register flags.

MOV

An assembly instruction that copies a value into a register.

CMP

An assembly instruction that compares two registers and sets the status flags based on the result.

BLT (Branch if Less Than)

A conditional branch instruction that transfers control if the result of the previous comparison indicates that the first operand is less than the second operand.

BGT (Branch if Greater Than)

A conditional branch instruction that transfers control if the result of the previous comparison indicates that the first operand is greater than the second operand.

Status Register (SR) Flags

Flags in the processor that indicate the result of the last arithmetic operation, including Zero (Z), Negative (N), and Overflow (V).

BLE (Branch if Less Than or Equal)

A conditional branch instruction that transfers control if the previous comparison indicates that the first operand is less than or equal to the second operand.

Z Flag

A flag in the Status Register indicating whether the result of the last operation was zero.

N Flag

A flag in the Status Register indicating whether the result of the last operation was negative.

V Flag

A flag in the Status Register indicating an overflow in signed operations.

R0, R1, R2, R3, R4, R5

Registers used to hold operands and results in ARM assembly programming.

Signed Comparison

A comparison that takes into account the sign of the operands, distinguishing between positive and negative values.

Assembly Code

Low-level code written for a specific processor architecture that translates closely to machine code.

Branch Logic

The decision-making process in a program that determines which section of code will be executed based on certain conditions.

Equivalent Assembly Code

The ARM assembly code that represents the logic of a higher-level programming statement.

Condition Code

A set of conditions defined by the result of operations, used to control branching in assembly.

Justification of Branch Choice

The reasoning behind selecting a specific branch instruction based on the outcome of a comparison.