Conditional Execution

• An important and distinguished feature of ARM

• Instruction is executed only if specified condition is true.
• In general, all data processing instruction are expected to
affect conditional flags.
• But in ARM, we must suffix the instruction with ‘S’ for this to
happen.
• ‘S’ suffix in data processing instruction causes the flags in
CPSR to be updated.
Example
• MOV R3, R5, LSL #3
• No affect on carry flat and N flag in CPSR

• MOVS R3,R5, LSL #3

• The MOV instruction is made conditional by suffixing it with S.
• C and N flags are now set.
• This flag setting can be used to make an instruction following
it to be conditional.
Recap: Carry Flag
• The carry (C) flag is set when an operation results in a carry, or when a subtraction
results in no borrow.
• In ARM, C is set in one of the following ways:

• For an addition, C is set to 1 if the addition produced a carry (that is, an unsigned
overflow), and to 0 otherwise.
• For a subtraction, including the comparison instruction CMP, C is set to 0 if the
subtraction produced a borrow (that is, an unsigned underflow), and to 1
otherwise.
• For non-additions/subtractions that incorporate a shift operation, C is set to the
last bit shifted out of the value by the shifter.
• For other non-additions/subtractions, C is normally left unchanged.
Detailed Format :
Detailed Format :
Question :
• What will be the result :
• ADD R1, R2, R2, LSL #3
• RSB R3, R3, R3, LSL #3
• RSB R3, R2, R2, LSL #4
• SUB R0, R0, R0, LSL #2
• RSB R2, R1, #0
Solution :
• What will be the result :
• ADD R1, R2, R2, LSL #3 R1 = R2 + 8 R2
• RSB R3, R3, R3, LSL #3 R3 = 8R3 – R3
• RSB R3, R2, R2, LSL #4 R3 = 16R2 – R2
• SUB R0, R0, R0, LSL #2 R0 = R0 – 4R0
• RSB R2, R1, #0 R2 = 0 – R1
Q. Write a small assembly program for ARM, required that 2 numbers stored in
R1 and R2 registers, the bigger num is to be placed in R10, if 2 num are equal
Put it in R9.
Q. Write a small assembly program for ARM, required that 2 numbers stored in
R1 and R2 registers, the bigger num is to be placed in R10, if 2 num are equal
Put it in R9.

SUBS R3, R1, R2 ;R3 = R1 – R2

MOVEQ R9, R1 ;IF R1=R2 / Z=1 . . . R1 -> R9
MOVHI R10, R1 ;IF R1 > R2 / C=1 . . . R1 -> R10

;MOV R10, R2

;MOVLS R10,R2 ;if R1<=R2 , C=0|Z=1 ,

move R2 to R10
Flag setting after compare Instruction

If C Z

R3>R4 1 0

R3<R4 0 0

R3=R4 1 1
TST Instruction
• TST is similar to compare, but it does ANDing and then sets
conditional flags.
• If the result of ANDing is zero, then zero flag is set.
• It can be used to verify at least one of the bits of a data word
is set or not.
• Write instruction to verify the LSB of a word in register R1 is
set or not.

• TST R1, #01

TEQ Instruction
• TEQ does exclusive ORing which tests for equality.

• If both operands are equal then only zero flag is set.

• TEQ R1,#45