DevHeads IoT Integration Server•3mo ago

Ensuring 16-bit THUMB Instruction Encoding for Code Execution from SRAM on STM32F103

I'm working on a project where I want to execute code from internal SRAM on an STM32F103 as an exercise. My goal is to write some THUMB assembly by hand, assemble it using arm-none-eabi-as, load the machine code into SRAM with OpenOCD's mwh command, set the PC to the beginning of SRAM using reg pc 0x20000000, and step through the instructions. The assembly code I wrote is a simple loop:

.thumb
.syntax unified

mov r0, #40
mov r1, #2
add r2, r0, r1
mvn r0, #0x20000000
bx r0

.thumb
.syntax unified

mov r0, #40
mov r1, #2
add r2, r0, r1
mvn r0, #0x20000000
bx r0

Here are the commands I used to assemble and disassemble the code:

$ arm-none-eabi-as -mthumb -mcpu=cortex-m3 -o main.o main.S
$ arm-none-eabi-objdump -d -m armv7 main.o

$ arm-none-eabi-as -mthumb -mcpu=cortex-m3 -o main.o main.S
$ arm-none-eabi-objdump -d -m armv7 main.o

The disassembler output is as follows:

main.o:     file format elf32-littlearm

Disassembly of section .text:

00000000 <.text>:
   0:   f04f 0028   mov.w   r0, #40 ; 0x28
   4:   f04f 0102   mov.w   r1, #2
   8:   eb00 0201   add.w   r2, r0, r1
   c:   f06f 5000   mvn.w   r0, #536870912  ; 0x20000000
  10:   4700        bx  r0

main.o:     file format elf32-littlearm

Disassembly of section .text:

00000000 <.text>:
   0:   f04f 0028   mov.w   r0, #40 ; 0x28
   4:   f04f 0102   mov.w   r1, #2
   8:   eb00 0201   add.w   r2, r0, r1
   c:   f06f 5000   mvn.w   r0, #536870912  ; 0x20000000
  10:   4700        bx  r0

My understanding is that THUMB instructions should be 16 bits long, but the disassembler is showing some instructions (like mov.w r0, #40 as f04f 0028) that are 32 bits. I was expecting 16-bit instructions since I am working with THUMB. Why are some of my instructions encoded as 32-bit THUMB-2 instructions, and how can I ensure that the machine code is 16-bit THUMB-only instructions for loading into SRAM?

2 Replies

Alien Queen•3mo ago

@Sterling You’re seeing 32-bit instructions in your THUMB assembly code disassembly for an STM32F103, even though you expect only 16-bit THUMB instructions. This discrepancy arises because your assembler defaults to using THUMB-2, which includes both 16-bit and 32-bit instructions. you can try this out if your intent on 16bit

.syntax unified
.thumb

    movs r0, #40         // 16-bit immediate move
    movs r1, #2          // 16-bit immediate move
    adds r2, r0, r1      // 16-bit add
    mvns r0, #0x28       // 16-bit mvn with 8-bit immediate
    bx r0                // Branch exchange

.syntax unified
.thumb

    movs r0, #40         // 16-bit immediate move
    movs r1, #2          // 16-bit immediate move
    adds r2, r0, r1      // 16-bit add
    mvns r0, #0x28       // 16-bit mvn with 8-bit immediate
    bx r0                // Branch exchange

arm-none-eabi-as -mthumb -mcpu=cortex-m3 -o main.o main.S

arm-none-eabi-as -mthumb -mcpu=cortex-m3 -o main.o main.S

arm-none-eabi-objdump -d -m thumb main.o

arm-none-eabi-objdump -d -m thumb main.o

Sterling•3mo ago

Alrightt, thanks for this

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Ensuring 16-bit THUMB Instruction Encoding for Code Execution from SRAM on STM32F103