DEC PDP-8 Subroutines

Mark Smotherman. Last updated September 2002.

Introduction

The PDP-8 was the first mass-produced minicomputer. It was a 12-bit, word-addressed, accumulator-based design, first shipped in 1965. It was influenced by the CDC 160, the MIT Lincoln Labs LINC, and the DEC PDP-5.

Instructions are one 12-bit word each.

        +-----+-+-+-------------+
        | opc |i|p|    offset   |
        +-----+-+-+-------------+
         0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b

           opc     3-bit opcode
           i       1-bit direct/indirect addressing mode
           p       1-bit global/current page for high address bits
           offset  7-bit offset

           effective address = p ? ( top 5 bits of last pc # offset )
                                 : ( 00000 # offset );
A notable feature of the PDP-8 was the lack of a load instruction. Instead, you would first clear the accumulator (cla) and then add the contents of a memory loaction to the accumulator (tad). The function of a store was done by the deposit and clear accumulator (dca) instruction. The PDP-8 did provide a fast loop-closing instruction, increment and skip if zero (isz), that did not use the accumulator. The isz instruction was also used as a general way to increment memory locations apart from its function in loops.

Subroutine instructions

The jump to subroutine (jms) instruction stores the return address in the first word of the subroutine and starts execution with the second word (subr address + 1).

        jms      jump to subroutine     memory[effective address] <- pc
                                        pc <- (effective address) + 1

Subroutine return is performed by an indirect jump using the address in the first word of the subroutine.

        jmp i    jump indirect          pc <- memory[effective address]

Parameter passing

Parameters are typically passed in-line after the jms instruction. The subroutine accesses the parameters via the stored return address, which it then increments so that it will point to the next instruction after the in-line parameters. A variable-length parameter list should start with a parameter count as the first in-line parameter.

Calling program structure

           ...
           jms   subr    ! call with fixed number of parameters (two)
        parm1,   1       ! first in-line parameter
        parm2,   2       ! second in-line parameter
           ...           ! subroutine will return here, after parms.

Subroutine structure

        subr, 0          ! first word is reserved for return address
           cla
           tad i subr    ! load indirect first word after jms inst.
           dca   local1  !    and store in local variable
           isz   subr    ! increment address in subr
           tad i subr    ! load indirect second word after jms inst.
           dca   local2  !    and store in local variable
           isz   subr    ! increment address in subr

           ... body of subroutine ...

           jmp i subr    ! return via first word

        local1,  0       ! local copy of first parameter
        local2,  0       ! local copy of second parameter

Further discussion

Other resources


[History of subroutines page] [Mark's homepage] [CPSC homepage] [Clemson Univ. homepage]

mark@cs.clemson.edu