SLAA534A June   2013  – June 2020

 

  1. 1 Introduction
    1. 1.1  ABIs for the MSP430
    2. 1.2  Scope
    3. 1.3  ABI Variants
    4. 1.4  Toolchains and Interoperability
    5. 1.5  Libraries
    6. 1.6  Types of Object Files
    7. 1.7  Segments
    8. 1.8  MSP430 Architecture Overview
    9. 1.9  MSP430 Memory Models
    10. 1.10 Reference Documents
    11. 1.11 Code Fragment Notation
  2. 2 Data Representation
    1. 2.1 Basic Types
    2. 2.2 Data in Registers
    3. 2.3 Data in Memory
    4. 2.4 Pointer Types
    5. 2.5 Complex Types
    6. 2.6 Structures and Unions
    7. 2.7 Arrays
    8. 2.8 Bit Fields
      1. 2.8.1 Volatile Bit Fields
    9. 2.9 Enumeration Types
  3. 3 Calling Conventions
    1. 3.1 Call and Return
      1. 3.1.1 Call Instructions
        1. 3.1.1.1 Indirect Calls
        2. 3.1.1.2 Direct Calls
      2. 3.1.2 Return Instruction
      3. 3.1.3 Pipeline Conventions
      4. 3.1.4 Weak Functions
    2. 3.2 Register Conventions
      1. 3.2.1 Argument Registers
      2. 3.2.2 Callee-Saved Registers
    3. 3.3 Argument Passing
      1. 3.3.1 Register Singles
      2. 3.3.2 Register Pairs
      3. 3.3.3 Split Pairs
      4. 3.3.4 Quads (Four-Register Arguments)
      5. 3.3.5 Special Convention for Compiler Helper Functions
      6. 3.3.6 C++ Argument Passing
      7. 3.3.7 Passing Structs and Unions
      8. 3.3.8 Stack Layout of Arguments Not Passed in Registers
      9. 3.3.9 Frame Pointer
    4. 3.4 Return Values
    5. 3.5 Structures and Unions Passed and Returned by Reference
    6. 3.6 Conventions for Compiler Helper Functions
    7. 3.7 Scratch Registers for Functions Already Seen
    8. 3.8 _ _mspabi_func_epilog Helper Functions
    9. 3.9 Interrupt Functions
  4. 4 Data Allocation and Addressing
    1. 4.1 Data Sections and Segments
    2. 4.2 Addressing Modes
    3. 4.3 Allocation and Addressing of Static Data
      1. 4.3.1 Addressing Methods for Static Data
        1. 4.3.1.1 Absolute Addressing
        2. 4.3.1.2 Symbolic Addressing
        3. 4.3.1.3 Immediate Addressing
      2. 4.3.2 Placement Conventions for Static Data
        1. 4.3.2.1 Abstract Conventions for Placement
        2. 4.3.2.2 Abstract Conventions for Addressing
      3. 4.3.3 Initialization of Static Data
    4. 4.4 Automatic Variables
    5. 4.5 Frame Layout
      1. 4.5.1 Stack Alignment
      2. 4.5.2 Register Save Order
    6. 4.6 Heap-Allocated Objects
  5. 5 Code Allocation and Addressing
    1. 5.1 Computing the Address of a Code Label
      1. 5.1.1 Absolute Addressing for Code
      2. 5.1.2 Symbolic Addressing
      3. 5.1.3 Immediate Addressing
    2. 5.2 Branching
    3. 5.3 Calls
      1. 5.3.1 Direct Call
      2. 5.3.2 Far Call Trampoline
      3. 5.3.3 Indirect Calls
  6. 6 Helper Function API
    1. 6.1 Floating-Point Behavior
    2. 6.2 C Helper Function API
    3. 6.3 Special Register Conventions for Helper Functions
    4. 6.4 Floating-Point Helper Functions for C99
  7. 7 Standard C Library API
    1. 7.1  Reserved Symbols
    2. 7.2  <assert.h> Implementation
    3. 7.3  <complex.h> Implementation
    4. 7.4  <ctype.h> Implementation
    5. 7.5  <errno.h> Implementation
    6. 7.6  <float.h> Implementation
    7. 7.7  <inttypes.h> Implementation
    8. 7.8  <iso646.h> Implementation
    9. 7.9  <limits.h> Implementation
    10. 7.10 <locale.h> Implementation
    11. 7.11 <math.h> Implementation
    12. 7.12 <setjmp.h> Implementation
    13. 7.13 <signal.h> Implementation
    14. 7.14 <stdarg.h> Implementation
    15. 7.15 <stdbool.h> Implementation
    16. 7.16 <stddef.h> Implementation
    17. 7.17 <stdint.h> Implementation
    18. 7.18 <stdio.h> Implementation
    19. 7.19 <stdlib.h> Implementation
    20. 7.20 <string.h> Implementation
    21. 7.21 <tgmath.h> Implementation
    22. 7.22 <time.h> Implementation
    23. 7.23 <wchar.h> Implementation
    24. 7.24 <wctype.h> Implementation
  8. 8 C++ ABI
    1. 8.1  Limits (GC++ABI 1.2)
    2. 8.2  Export Template (GC++ABI 1.4.2)
    3. 8.3  Data Layout (GC++ABI Chapter 2)
    4. 8.4  Initialization Guard Variables (GC++ABI 2.8)
    5. 8.5  Constructor Return Value (GC++ABI 3.1.5)
    6. 8.6  One-Time Construction API (GC++ABI 3.3.2)
    7. 8.7  Controlling Object Construction Order (GC++ ABI 3.3.4)
    8. 8.8  Demangler API (GC++ABI 3.4)
    9. 8.9  Static Data (GC++ ABI 5.2.2)
    10. 8.10 Virtual Tables and the Key function (GC++ABI 5.2.3)
    11. 8.11 Unwind Table Location (GC++ABI 5.3)
  9. 9 Exception Handling
    1. 9.1  Overview
    2. 9.2  PREL31 Encoding
    3. 9.3  The Exception Index Table (EXIDX)
      1. 9.3.1 Pointer to Out-of-Line EXTAB Entry
      2. 9.3.2 EXIDX_CANTUNWIND
      3. 9.3.3 Inlined EXTAB Entry
    4. 9.4  The Exception Handling Instruction Table (EXTAB)
      1. 9.4.1 EXTAB Generic Model
      2. 9.4.2 EXTAB Compact Model
      3. 9.4.3 Personality Routines
    5. 9.5  Unwinding Instructions
      1. 9.5.1 Common Sequence
      2. 9.5.2 Byte-Encoded Unwinding Instructions
    6. 9.6  Descriptors
      1. 9.6.1 Encoding of Type Identifiers
      2. 9.6.2 Scope
      3. 9.6.3 Cleanup Descriptor
      4. 9.6.4 Catch Descriptor
      5. 9.6.5 Function Exception Specification (FESPEC) Descriptor
    7. 9.7  Special Sections
    8. 9.8  Interaction With Non-C++ Code
      1. 9.8.1 Automatic EXIDX Entry Generation
      2. 9.8.2 Hand-Coded Assembly Functions
    9. 9.9  Interaction With System Features
      1. 9.9.1 Shared Libraries
      2. 9.9.2 Overlays
      3. 9.9.3 Interrupts
    10. 9.10 Assembly Language Operators in the TI Toolchain
  10. 10DWARF
    1. 10.1 DWARF Register Names
    2. 10.2 Call Frame Information
    3. 10.3 Vendor Names
    4. 10.4 Vendor Extensions
  11. 11ELF Object Files (Processor Supplement)
    1. 11.1 Registered Vendor Names
    2. 11.2 ELF Header
    3. 11.3 Sections
      1. 11.3.1 Section Indexes
      2. 11.3.2 Section Types
      3. 11.3.3 Extended Section Header Attributes
      4. 11.3.4 Subsections
      5. 11.3.5 Special Sections
      6. 11.3.6 Section Alignment
    4. 11.4 Symbol Table
      1. 11.4.1 Symbol Types
      2. 11.4.2 Common Block Symbols
      3. 11.4.3 Symbol Names
      4. 11.4.4 Reserved Symbol Names
      5. 11.4.5 Mapping Symbols
    5. 11.5 Relocation
      1. 11.5.1 Relocation Types
        1. 11.5.1.1 Absolute Relocations
        2. 11.5.1.2 PC-Relative Relocations
        3. 11.5.1.3 Relocations in Data Sections
        4. 11.5.1.4 Relocations for MSP430 Instructions
        5. 11.5.1.5 Relocations for MSP430X Instructions
        6. 11.5.1.6 Other Relocation Types
      2. 11.5.2 Relocation Operations
      3. 11.5.3 Relocation of Unresolved Weak References
  12. 12ELF Program Loading and Linking (Processor Supplement)
    1. 12.1 Program Header
      1. 12.1.1 Base Address
      2. 12.1.2 Segment Contents
      3. 12.1.3 Thread-Local Storage
    2. 12.2 Program Loading
  13. 13Build Attributes
    1. 13.1 MSP430 ABI Build Attribute Subsection
    2. 13.2 MSP430 Build Attribute Tags
  14. 14Copy Tables and Variable Initialization
    1. 14.1 Copy Table Format
    2. 14.2 Compressed Data Formats
      1. 14.2.1 RLE
      2. 14.2.2 LZSS Format
    3. 14.3 Variable Initialization
  15. 15Revision History

10.4 Vendor Extensions

The DWARF standard allows toolchain vendors to define additional tags and attributes for representing information that is specific to an architecture or toolchain. TI has defined some of each. This section serves to document the ones that apply generally to the MSP430 architecture.

Unfortunately, the set of allowable values is shared among all vendors, so the ABI cannot mandate standard values to be used across vendors. The best we can do is ask producers to define their own vendor-specific tags and attributes with the same semantics (using the same values if possible), and ask consumers to use the DW_AT_producer attribute in order to interpret vendor-specific values that differ from toolchain to toolchain.

Table 10-2 defines TI vendor-specific DIE tags for the MSP430. Table 10-2 defines TI vendor-specific attributes.

Table 10-2 TI Vendor-Specific Tags
NameValueDescription
DW_TAG_TI_branch0x4088Identifies calls and returns

DW_TAG_TI_branch

This tag identifies branches that are used as calls and returns. It is generated as a child of a DW_TAG_subprogram DIE. It has a DW_AT_lowpc attribute corresponding to the location of the branch instruction.

If the branch is a function call, it has a DW_AT_TI_call attribute with non-zero value. It may also have a DW_AT_name attribute that indicates the name of the called function, or a DW_AT_TI_indirect attribute if the callee is not known (as with a call through a pointer).

If the branch is a return, it has a DW_AT_TI_return attribute with non-zero value.

Table 10-3 TI Vendor-Specific Attributes
NameValueClassDescription
DW_AT_TI_symbol_name0x2001stringObject file name (mangled)
DW_AT_TI_return0x2009flagBranch is a return
DW_AT_TI_call0x200AflagBranch is a call
DW_AT_TI_asm0x200CflagFunction is assembly language
DW_AT_TI_indirect0x200DflagBranch is an indirect call
DW_AT_TI_max_frame_size0x2014constantActivation record size

DW_AT_TI_call, DW_AT_TI_return, DW_AT_TI_indirect: These attributes apply to DW_TAG_TI_branch DIEs, as described previously.

DW_AT_TI_symbol_name: This attribute can appear in any DIE that has a DW_symbol_name. It provides the object-file-level name associated with the variable or function; that is, with any mangling or other alteration applied by the toolchain to the source-level name.

DW_AT_TI_max_frame_size: This attribute may appear in a DW_TAG_subprogram DIE. It indicates the amount of stack space required for an activation of the function, in bytes. Its intended use is for downstream tools that perform static stack depth analysis.