Slide 5.11: Intrinsic data types

Intrinsic Data Types

MIPS defines various intrinsic data types, each of which describes a set of values that can be assigned to variables of the given type. Some examples of data declarations are as follows:

                     .data
         str:        .asciiz    "Hello, World!"
         value1:     .word      0x100
         value2:     .byte      'A', 'B', 'C'
         finalVal:   .space     32

The MIPS intrinsic data types and their definitions are given below:

Type	Definition	Example
`.ascii`	Assembles each string from the list into successive locations.	`value1: .ascii "xyz"`
`.asciiz`	Assembles each string in the list into successive locations and adds a null.	`Value2: .asciiz "xyz"`
`.byte`	Truncates the expressions from the comma-separated list to 8-bit values, and assembles the values in successive locations.	`_value3: .byte 0x10`
`.double`	Initializes memory to 64-bit floating point numbers. This directive automatically aligns its data and any preceding labels to a double-word boundary.	`$val: .double 3.14159`
`.float`	Initializes memory to single precision 32-bit floating point numbers. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a word boundary.	`_6: .float 3.1`
`.half`	Truncates the expressions in the comma-separated list to 16-bit values and assembles the values in successive locations. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a halfword boundary.	`_$.7: .half 0`
`.space`	Advances the location counter by the value of the specified expression bytes. The assembler fills the space with zeros.	`$_: .space 64`
`.word`	Truncates the expressions in the comma-separated list to 32-bits and assembles the values in successive locations. This directive automatically aligns its data and preceding labels to a word boundary.	`_.8: .word -100, 0x80`