Reliable programming in ARM assembly language

Greg Davis, Green Hills Software
EETimes (11/4/2010 11:31 AM EDT)

Sometimes it's necessary to use both assembly and high-level programming languages when working in the ARM architecture. This paper from ARM TechCon explains why and how.

The ARM architecture, like most 32-bit architectures, is well-suited to a using a C or C++ compiler. The majority of control code is written using high-level programming languages like C and C++ instead of assembly language. There are good reasons for this. High-level programming languages are inherently safer and less error prone than programming in assembly. Code written in high-level programming languages can also be written to be portable across different architectures.

Some people use assembly language for writing device drivers, but this is usually unnecessary. Most device driver code can be written by mapping a C structure or a C++ class onto the hardware device. However, it is sometimes necessary to use a little bit of assembly code. This paper will describe how to best do this.

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