Introduction – Echelon Neuron User Manual
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Introduction
An application program for a L
ON
W
ORKS
device that runs on a Series 3100,
Series 5000, or Series 6000 Neuron Chip or Smart Transceiver uses the Neuron C
programming language. Although this language is very powerful and flexible,
there can be times when you want to optimize the application program for the
L
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W
ORKS
device, perhaps for code size or processing speed. You can use
Neuron assembly language to write functions or programs that provide such
optimizations.
Although Neuron assembly language functions can be smaller and faster than
those generated by the Neuron C compiler, they also have the following
characteristics:
•
TheIzoT NodeBuilder FX Development Tool does not provide a Code
Wizard for assembly functions
•
There are fewer automated validations and checks for Neuron assembly
code
•
Functions written in assembly language can be harder to write, read, and
maintain
•
Functions written in assembly language have a larger potential for error,
compared to higher language implementations
•
Code written in assembly language cannot be debugged with the
NodeBuilder Debugger
Nonetheless, the Neuron assembly language is a powerful tool for managing
specific tasks for a Neuron C application program.
This chapter provides an overview of the tools, files, and syntax for Neuron
assembly language functions. The rest of this book contains the following
information:
•
Chapter 2, Neuron Architecture for Neuron Assembly Programming,
provides an overview of the Neuron architecture, hardware resources,
and addressing modes.
•
Chapter 3, Writing a Neuron Assembly Utility Function, provides an
overview of stack-oriented programming and information about designing
assembly language functions. It also describes a recommended approach
to documenting changes to the stack.
•
Chapter 4, Interfacing with a Neuron C Application, describes how a
Neuron assembly language function can work with a Neuron C
application.
•
Chapter 5, Exploring an Example Function in Neuron Assembly,
describes a simple example function in Neuron assembly.
•
Chapter 6, Neuron Assembly Language Instruction Statements, describes
all of the supported Neuron assembly language instructions.
•
Chapter 7, Neuron Assembler Directives, describes the supported Neuron
Assembler directives.
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Introduction