ARM Assembly Language, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

The Programmer’s Model

2.1 Introduction

All microprocessors have a set of features that programmers use. In most instances, a programmer will not need an understanding of how the processor is actually constructed, meaning that the wires, transistors, and/or logic boards that were used to build the machine are not typically known. From a programmer’s perspective, what is necessary is a model of the device, something that describes not only the way the processor is controlled but also the features available to you from a high level, such as where data can be stored, what happens when you give the machine an invalid instruction, where your registers are stacked during an exception, and so forth. This description is called the programmer’s ...