Clone the repository reflet with the command git clone ssh://git.bobignou.red:23231/reflet

REFLET

A RISC ISA. Reflet stands for RISC Elementary FLExible Thinking machine. To see a Reflet processor in action, see my implementation of a Reflet processor in a microcontroller here: https://github.com/Arkaeriit/Reflet-microcontroller.

This repository

This repository contains a simulator for a Reflet processor, an assembler to create Reflet machine code, and a Verilog implementation of a Reflet processor.

The architecture

Reflet is a RISC ISA. Each instruction is coded on a single byte and composed of a 4 or 8-bit opcode, followed by an optional 4-bit register. This ISA can be used with a processor with words of any size superior which is 8 bits times a power of two. When the processor has a word size above 8 bits, it is little-endian.

Most operations are made between one of the 12 general-purpose registers and an implicit working register.

Registers

A Reflet processor got 16 registers.

The working register

R0 or WR is the working register. This is the most important register, most operations will either copy its value into another register modify its content. Its use is never explicitly mentioned in the instructions as it is assumed that it is used most of the time. Its reset value is 0. This is very similar to the accumulator in other ISA with the exception than any register (including the working register) can be used as operand in the same way.

General purpose registers

R1 to R12 are the 12 general-purpose registers. They are meant to store values used to interact with the working register. Their reset values are 0.

Status register

R13 or SR is the status register.

Its reset value is 0.

Program counter

R14 or PC is the program counter. It contains the address of the current address. It can also be used to jump to a specific code address when forcefully modified by the user. Its reset value is 4.

Stack pointer

R15 or SP is the stack pointer. It is updated when doing pop or push instructions and it points toward an address in RAM. Its reset value is 0 but it should be initialized if you intend to use the stack.

Instructions

Here is a list of the instruction of Reflet processor.

Mnemonic Opcode Operand Effect
read 0x0 A register Copies the value in the argument register into the working register
cpy 0x1 A register Copies the value of the working register into the argument register
set 0x2 A 4 bits number Put the number in the working register
add 0x3 A register Add the value in the working directory to the value in the argument register and put the result in the working register
and 0x4 A register Do a bit-wise and between the working register and the argument register
or 0x5 A register Do a bit-wise or between the working register and the argument register
xor 0x6 A register Do a bitwise xor between the working register and the argument register
not 0x7 A register Put in the working register the bit-wise not of the argument register
lsl 0x8 A register Shit the bits in working register to the left n times, where n is the content of the argument register
lsr 0x9 A register Shit the bits in working register to the right n times, where n is the content of the argument register
eq 0xA A register If the content of the working register is the same as the one in the argument registers, sets the comparison bit of the status register to 1. Otherwise, sets it to 0
les 0xB A register If the content of the working register is less than the one in the argument registers, sets the comparison bit of the status register to 1. Otherwise, sets it to 0
str 0xC A register with an address Store the value in the working register to the address given in the argument register
load 0xD A register with an address Put in the working register the value at the address given in the argument register
jif 0xE0 Nothing Jump to the address in the working register if the comparison register is not equal to 0, does not affect the stack
call 0xE1 Nothing Put the current address in the stack and jump to the address in the working register.
ret 0xE2 Nothing Jump to the address just after the address on top of the stack.
pop 0xE3 Nothing Put the content of the working register on the stack and updates the stack pointer.
push 0xE4 Nothing Put the value on top of the stack in the working register and updates the stack pointer.
cc2 0xE5 Nothing Put in the working register the opposite in two-complement of the working register.
cmpnot 0xE6 Nothing Flip the comparison bit of the status register.
tbm 0xE7 Nothing Toggle byte mode. Toggle the memory accesses from the size specified by the status register to 8 bit and back.
quit 0xE8 Nothing Reset the processor or stop it.
debug 0xE9 Nothing Does not modify any registers but the processor sends a signal to tell it is executing a debug instruction.
atom 0xEA Nothing Set the content of the address in the working register to 1 and set the status bit to whether or not the content of this address was 0.
retint 0xEB Nothing Return from an interruption context.
setint b111011 A two-bit number Set the routine of the interruption of the given number to the address in the working register.
getint b111100 A two-bit number Get the routine of the interruption of the given number and put it in the working register.
getintstack b111101 A two-bit number Get the address at the given place in the interrupt stack.
setintstack b111110 A two-bit number Get the address at the given place in the interrupt stack.
softint b111111 A two-bit number Triggers the interrupt of the given number.

There is no no-op instructions, but a few instructions have no effects such as read WR, cpy WR, or and WR. As read WR is encoded as 0x00, it makes for a fine no-op instruction.

Connection to memory

Word size

To be able to work, a Reflet processor needs a connection to some RAM (or RAM and ROM) where values can be stored and machine code can be read. This document describes no word size for a Reflet processor. The Reflet processor word size should be 8 bits times a power of two. The memory should have a data bus the same size as the processor word size. As the instruction size is always 8 bits regardless of the CPU's word size, Reflet machine code could work with Reflet processor of any word size.

Alignment

To ease the utilization of memory, the memory access should be aligned to the size of the word. For example, when trying to manipulate 8-bit values, any address is valid. But when trying to manipulate 32-bit values, access should be aligned on 32 bits.

The access to data smaller than the word size, a module of the CPU handles this assuming that the memory output data from an address aligned to the word size. The address outputed by the CPU should be masked before addressing the memory. For example, in the case of a 16-bit CPU.

When an invalid memory access is made (for example, trying to read 16 bits from address 0x3), it is possible to raise an interrupt signal to trap it. Be careful, when exiting this interruption, the program will jump back to the instruction that raised the interruption. You should disable traping or editing the working register in this case to prevent an infinite loop.

Starting address

Any byte is a valid Reflet instruction. To enable a minimal value of error-correcting, the 4 first bytes of a machine code file can be reserved for the "ASRM" magic word. To allow the existence of the magic word, the program starts at the 5th byte, at address 4.

Interruptions

A Reflet processor can react to external interruptions and do special routines. There are 4 different interruptions going from 0 (the highest priority) to 3, (the lowest priority).

To use interrupts, you must first tell the processor what is its interrupt routine. To do so, you must use the setint instruction with the number of the instruction as an argument while the address of the interruption routine is in the working register. Then, you must enable the interruption by setting to 1 the correct bit on the status register. The interruption is now set and enabled.

If the instruction is set, when the processor will receive an interrupt signal, the content of the program counter will be stored. The address of the interruption routine will be then put in the program counter. All the other registers will stay unchanged so they must be protected inside the interruption routine. To finish the interruption routine, use the retint instruction which will restore the program counter to its state before rentering the interruption. Be careful, in order not to loop back in the interruption, you must make sure that the peripheral responsible for the interruption stopped sending it.

As there are different interruptions with different levels of priority, it is possible to nest interruptions. For example, if you are in the context of interruption 2 and that interruption 1 is raised, you will shift to the context of interruption 1. When doing retint you will shift back to the context of interrupt 2. On the other hand, if you are in the context of interrupt 2 and interrupt 3 is raised, you will fall into the context of interrupt 3 only when you use retint from the context of interrupt 2.

Except for the program counter, the registers are not banked when entering an interrupt context. Thus some care should be given to preserve them.

The only noticeable impact of being in interrupt context is that the byte mode is ignored. The number of byte used during memory access is influenced by the reduced behavior bits of the status register but the setup made with the tbm instruction are not taken into account. Once leaving the interrupt context, the byte mode is left as it was before entering the interrupt context.

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