RedCode

RedCode is the assembly language used to program the MARS Virtual Machine.

We will regard here only the the details we need to look at as hardware designer. The rest is left to the dozen of good tutorials you will find on the Internet. If you don’t know where to start, Google might be your friend that time. That said, don’t expect any easy talk in there.

They are different version of the standard defining the RedCode language, ranging from ‘86, ‘88 and extended (‘94 has never been confirmed as a standard). We will try to implement most of the extended feature, while keeping compatibility with the previous standards.

Instruction Set

See RedCode Instruction Set.

Address Mode

First thing to kno. Is that memory access inside the MARS are relative to the current instruction pointer (noted IP here below). As seen from a program, all addresses are relative to the one of the currently executed instruction.

To keep a low memory footprint, RedCode has 5 address mode:

RedCode address modes
Name Relative operation Absolute operation A-Notation B-Notation
Immediate Memory Addressing 0 IP # #
Direct Memory Addressing x IP + x $ $
Indirect Memory Adressing [IP + x] IP + x + [IP + x] * @
Post Increment Indirect Memory Addressing [IP + x]++ IP + x + [IP + x]++ { <
Pre Decrement Indirect Memory Addressing –[IP + x] IP + x + –[IP + x/] } >

The last three one actually count double as we can address the first operand or the second operand on those addresses in Memory.

Out of those one, the last two one are pretty unusual, even for an experienced assembly programmer, just because of the fact that those Memory addressing modes modify the memory content instead of just pointing to it.

Examples