Organization of TIM
 

•     Definition phase.  This phase processes source program statements which define microinstruction formats.  Formats are specified as sequences of fields of specified widths.  Where a field has a constant value for a particular format, the value is specified.  Where a field is variable, a default value can be specified.  Unused (don’t care) fields can also be specified for a format.  Symbolic names can be assigned to constants that can be substituted into microinstruction fields.  MACROs can be defined.  The definition phase produces a definition file which is used by the next program phase.

•     Assembly phase.  This phase implements the conventional assembler task of converting symbolic code into machine language code and assigning a memory address to each machine language instruction word.  The source program for this phase makes use of the format and constant definitions contained in the referenced definition file.  The intent is to allow each microinstruction to be specified by substituting constants specified during the definition phase into the fields of instruction formats specified during the definition phase or by calling MACROs defined during the definition phase.  However, to allow additional flexibility, the assembler phase source program is allowed to define additional constants and MACROs and to include free-form microinstructions; that is, microinstructions which are completely defined without reference to the previously-defined instruction formats.  The assembler phase produces either an absolute or a relocatable object module.  An absolute object code module is ready to be downloaded to the assigned memory addresses in the target machine.  A relocatable object code module is ready to be linked to other relocatable modules by the linker phase.  Optionally, when an object code module is being produced, a separate entry point map module can also be produced.

•     Linker phase.  (Not yet implemented in WinTim32) This phase links a specified group of relocatable modules to each other and assigns absolute memory addresses to machine instruction words so as to produce an absolute object module ready to be downloaded to the assigned memory addresses in the target machine.  This linker output module is identical to the object module that would have been produced by the assembler phase had the entire program been contained in a single assembler phase source program.  Optionally, a separate entry point map module can also be produced.

•     PROM Formatter phase.  (Not yet implemented in WinTim32) This phase reformats absolute object modules generated by the assembly or linker phase to provide files suitable for downloading to PROM programmers or development systems.  For downloading to PROM programmers, object files can be converted to either DATA I/O format or INTEL Intellec format.  For downloading to development systems, object files can be converted to the HILEVEL, STEP, or AMDASM format.