Skip to content

jared-hughes/nuova

Folders and files

NameName
Last commit message
Last commit date

Latest commit

 

History

61 Commits
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Repository files navigation

Nuova

My solutions to the second esolang reverse engineering contest (Nuova).

Introduction

The event was based on the language Nuova, defined by its implementation (in this repository as raw-nuova.c). The tasks were as follows:

  1. Create a program that prints "Hi" without a linefeed.
  2. Create a program that prints "Hello, World!" with a linefeed.
  3. Make a cat program that does not terminate.
  4. Make a cat program that terminates on EOF.
  5. Make a fizzbuzz program that displays a specified amount of sequence items (as a decimal number, 0-10000).
  6. Prove that the language is Turing-complete (either by creating an interpreter for a TC language in it or compiling a TC language into it). Assume that the registers and memory are unbounded and provide reasoning behind your proof.

This tasks would be trivial in any practical programming language, but completing fizzbuzz took me over 40 hours of work.

Nuova is a relatively simple language. Each instruction is executed one-by-one in order from start to end. The key difficulty with Nuova is that invalid instructions directly hash all three of the registers (a, b, and c), and the programmer only has full control over every second instruction, so your registers typically get hashed frequently.

This Repository

  • raw-nuova.c: the definitive Nuova interpreter. Run with bin/prog as the input via make run-raw-nuova, or ./bin/nuova fizzbuzz to run a different file as input.
  • nuova.c: a formatted version with debugging statements (prints to logs/nuova.log), memory limit, and runtime limit. Run with bin/prog as the input via make run-nuova.
  • sources/*.s: my solutions to the tasks, in an assembly-like format.
  • compiler.c, compiler.h: my primary compiler for generating Nuova code. Generate Nuova bytecode at bin/prog for a particular program using make run-compiler prog=cat-terminating.
  • solver.py: my first attempt, using Z3 (though Z3 is no faster than exhaustive search since the hash has no useful patterns)
  • See the releases page for binaries of programs for all six tasks.

Hash details

The hash itself is a three-round multiply-xorshift hash, named triple32 from Hash Prospector, which notes "this hash function is indistinguishable from a perfect PRF (e.g. a random permutation of all 32-bit integers)." Nuova names this function P. Fortunately, since P is collisionless, it is invertible. Also P(0) = 0, which has some niche use.

Execution

Program and data is stored on the same "unbounded" (bounded by 32 bit integer addressing) tape of unsigned 32-bit integers (call it mem). In each step, the memory at the instruction pointer (initially 0) is read like instruction = mem[ip], and the instruction pointer is incremented. If that instruction is one of the 23 valid instructions, then the corresponding statement occurs (described below) and the next step begins. Otherwise, all three of the registers (a, b, and c) get hashed through P, and the next step begins.

Three instructions are load-immediate:

0x0F: a = mem[ip++];
0x1F: b = mem[ip++];
0x2F: c = mem[ip++];

Three instructions are jump-immediate. 0x3F is unconditional. 0x4F and 0x5F are conditional, but note they also conditionally increment the instruction pointer (so a fall-through will typically end up hashing the registers)

0x3F: ip = mem[ip++];
0x4F: if (a <= b) ip = mem[ip++];
0x5F: if (b >= c) ip = mem[ip++];

Three instructions are memset-immediate. After setting the memory (in the cell immediately after the instruction), they increment the instruction pointer again

0x00: mem[ip] = a; ip++;
0x10: mem[ip] = b; ip++;
0x20: mem[ip] = c; ip++;

Three instructions are random-access memset:

0x30: mem[a] = b;
0x40: mem[a] = c;
0x50: mem[a] = mem[a]; // why?

Four instructions move registers through a:

0x60: b = a;
0x70: c = a;
0x80: a = b;
0x90: a = c;

One instruction is an unconditional jump to register:

0xA0: ip = a;

Two instructions do arithmetic using b and c as arguments, with a as the result (I wish there was a += b):

0xB0: a = b + c;
0xC0: a = b - c;

Two instructions do I/O on individual characters (bytes, C locale). Note putchar only cares about the lower 8 bits of a, and getchar returns -1 = 0xFFFFFFFF for EOF.

0xD0: putchar(a);
0xE0: a = getchar();

There is one instruction to exit cleanly, like exit(0); in C, or return 0; in the main function in C:

0xF0: exit(0);

We don't talk about 0x6F.

Any other memory value executes a = P(a); b = P(a); c = P(c);.

There is no instruction for reading from an arbitrary memory address.

Startup memory

The Nuova interpreter takes a single binary file as input, but its operation depends on 32-bit integers in all registers. What gives?

For the most part, at program start, mem[i] = P(i) ^ c, where c is the ith byte of the input file. Since each byte is only one byte, and the result of the hash P(i) can be any 32-bit value, the programmer really only has control over the bottom byte of the startup memory. The top three bytes are all exactly the top three bytes of P(i).

Unfortunately the instructions rely on the entire 32-bit value of instruction = mem[ip] being a correct value, so the top three bytes must be 0. To allow the Nuova programmer control over this, Nuova has a mechanism for setting 32-bit values. If the ith byte of the input file meets c & 0xF = 0xF (so the bottom nibble is set), then the next four bytes are read as a 32-bit integer v, to set mem[i + 1] = P(i + 1) ^ v. Thus the programmer has full control over mem[i + 1] by choosing the four bytes such that v = P(i + 1) ^ k, to get mem[i + 1] = k.

We don't talk about the last cell that gets set.

Example (a = 42)

Suppose the input file is the sequence of five bytes 0F 04 27 41 FC.

  1. Nuova starts by setting mem[0] = P(0) ^ 0x0F. Fortunately, P(0) = 0, so mem[0] = 0x0F.
  2. Since the byte 0x0F has bottom nibble set, Nuova reads the next four bytes to set mem[1] = P(1) ^ 0x042741fc. I chose that value carefully since P(1) = 0x42741d6, so mem[1] = 0x042741fc ^ 0x42741d6 = 0x2a = 42.

The end result of all this is that mem[0] = 0x0F and mem[1] = 42. So Nuova executes as follows:

  1. Read mem[0] = 0x0F and conclude that it's time to do a = mem[ip++]
  2. Read mem[1] = 42 to set a = 42.
  3. End with instruction pointer ip = 2

Example (putchar('h'))

A consequence of Nuova's input is that the programmer has no control over a cell of the startup memory unless the previous cell is initialized with a byte whose lowest nibble is 0xF. Hence the bytecode input really only has control over every second cell, so hashing is inevitable.

So to write a program whose effect is putchar('h'), we dont start by setting a = 104 = 0x68 = 'h' like in the previous section. We start by setting a = 0xb7cd2d00 because we expect it to get hashed once.

Hence a full terminating program to print h looks like

0F B3EA6CD6 FF C0F0B597 FF E33DE5D1

I've grouped together four bytes when they get read as a set of four bytes. After the initial processing, the startup memory looks as follows:

mem[0] = 0x0F;       // a = mem[1]; ip = 2;
mem[1] = 0xB7CD2D00;
mem[2] = 0xF1DFE816; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[3] = 0xD0;       // putchar(a);
mem[4] = 0xD3A15F6A; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[5] = 0xF0;       // exit(0);

Execution proceeds as:

  1. ip = 0. Instruction 0x0F is read at mem[0], so a = mem[ip++] is executed. Then a = 0xB7CD2D00.
  2. ip = 2. Since 0xF1DFE816 is not a valid instruction, all the registers get hashed, so a = P(0xB7CD2D00) = 0x68 = 'h'. We were able to force this by selecting mem[1] = inverseP(0x68).
  3. ip = 3. Instruction 0xD0 is read, so putchar(a). We get h printed to stdout!
  4. ip = 4. Hash all the registers.
  5. ip = 5. Instruction 0xF0 is read, so exit(0);, terminating cleanly.

Task 1 (printf("hi"))

The previous example (putchar('h')) is so short because P(0) = 0, so the bytecode has full control over the first two memory locations. Since we want to follow up with putchar('i'), it might seem like a tall task because it's hard in general to get memory to initialize such that mem[i] = 0x0F and mem[i + 1] = inverseP('h'). This was used earlier at i = 0 to start with a = inverseP('h') in order to putchar(P(mem[i + 1])) = putchar(P(inverseP('h'))) = putchar('h').

But now we want to putchar(P(mem[i + 1])) while only having control over the bottom byte of mem[i + 1]. But this isn't too bad because we only care about the bottom byte of P(mem[i + 1]) since putchar(x) ≡ putchar(x & 0xF).

Exhaustive search gives three options here:

>>> [hex(c) for c in range(256) if P(c ^ P(6)) & 0xFF == ord('i')]
['0x9f', '0xae', '0xec']

Using 0x9F would mess up input by treating the next four bytes as an integer, so let's choose 0xAE and write the rest of the hi program around it:

0F B3EA6CD6 FF C0F0B597
FF E33DE52E AE FF 42CF8F4F
FF 082C8EEA

This leads the the following startup memory:

// putchar('h')
// 0F B3EA6CD6 FF C0F0B597
mem[0] = 0x0F;       // a =
mem[1] = 0xB7CD2D00; //   0xB7CD2D00
mem[2] = 0xF1DFE816; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[3] = 0xD0;       // putchar(a);
// putchar('i')
// FF E33DE52E AE FF 42CF8F4F
mem[4] = 0xD3A15F6A; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[5] = 0x0F;       // a =
mem[6] = 0xA6385F3F; //   0xA6385F3F
mem[7] = 0x4F25D266; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[8] = 0xD0;       // putchar(a);
// exit(0)
// FF 082C8EEA
mem[9] = 0x8ED47961; // a = P(a); b = P(b); c = P(c);
mem[10] = 0xF0;      // exit(0);

The execution starts as before with putchar('h'). Then:

  1. ip = 4: hash all the registers
  2. ip = 5: Instruction 0x0F, so a = mem[ip++] = 0xA6385F3F
  3. ip = 7: hash all the registers, so a = 0x91CEC869
  4. ip = 8: Instruction 0xD0, so putchar(a). This is equivalent to putchar(0x69), which emits an i character (byte) to stdout.

Then execution wraps up with the same exit(0) approach as the previous example.

Task 2 (printf("Hello, World!\n");)

The "Hello, World\n" task is pretty similar to "hi" except there's more characters to print. For each byte to output, use the same 11-byte, 5-cell pattern:

  1. (cell i) Trash input byte 0xFF to control the next cell
  2. (cell i+1) Four bytes to force 0x0F (a = mem[ip++]) in the memory
  3. (cell i+2) Careful byte c such that P(c ^ P(i + 2)) & 0xFF == 'e' where 'e' is the byte you're trying to print and varies from 'e' to '\n'. Note we must avoid c & 0xF == 0xF to avoid interpreting the following four bytes as a new cell.
  4. (cell i+3) Trash input byte 0xFF to control the next cell
  5. (cell i+4) Four bytes to fource 0xD0 (putchar(a)) in the memory

Note this isn't possible for all starting indices i: there are only 256 - 16 = 240 options for c in step 3, and there are some collisions, so you might have to increment i until a working c is possible to choose.

The compiler

Before we get to more complicated stuff, we're going to need some more notation. To help write out the solutions, I made an assembler to convert some human-readable code into Nuova bytecode.

For example, the "hi" program above can be written as

  .putchar 'h'
  .putchar 'i'

Ok I cheated a bit there because I made putchar a builtin directive for the assembler because it needs to look for the right index. Using other features, the same program can be written as

start: 0
// putchar('h')
  a =
    .val 0xB7CD2D00
  .trash
  putchar(a)
// putchar('i');
  .trash
  a =
    .val 0xA6385F3F
  .trash
  putchar(a)
// exit(0);
  .trash
  exit(0)

There's a lot to unpack here. The code starts with start: 0, which defines a label called "start" which is absolute-positioned at cell 0.

The next non-comment line is a =, which is a mnemonic for the 0x0F instruction a = mem[ip++]. The full list of 23 mnemonics follows. Mnemonics must be written exactly as given; no spaces removed.

Full list of mnemonics
  • 0x0F: a =
  • 0x1F: b =
  • 0x2F: c =
  • 0x3F: ip =
  • 0x4F: if (a <= b) ip =
  • 0x5F: if (b >= c) ip =
  • 0x6F: a = sse(...)
  • 0x00: ms(ip, a)
  • 0x10: ms(ip, b)
  • 0x20: ms(ip, c)
  • 0x30: ms(a, b)
  • 0x40: ms(a, c)
  • 0x50: ms(a, mg(a))
  • 0x60: b = a
  • 0x70: c = a
  • 0x80: a = b
  • 0x90: a = c
  • 0xA0: ip = a
  • 0xB0: a = b + c
  • 0xC0: a = b - c
  • 0xD0: putchar(a)
  • 0xE0: a = getchar()
  • 0xF0: exit(0)

Next is the literal value .val 0xB7CD2D00, which determines the memory in the initial tape. The assembler will pick the right sequence of four bytes in the input file to obtain that value.

After that is .trash, which specifies a literal 0xFF byte in the input bytecode. This allows the next cell to be forced exactly using four bytes.

The source file continues with putchar(a), another mnemonic. Once the assembler reaches the end, it ends up emitting the same bytecode that we handwrote:

0F B3EA6CD6 FF C0F0B597
FF E33DE52E AE FF 42CF8F4F
FF 082C8EEA

Force A

We got lucky in "hi" and "hello world" because you don't need much control on a putchar value. But for all the harder tasks, we're going to need some way to have full control over all 4 bytes of a register.

One way we accomplish this is by combining registers we have low control over to get a register with high control. For example, if we can vary one byte in the input file to get 240 choices for b, and vary another byte to get 240 choices for c, then running a = b + c would give about 240 * 240 = 57600 choices for a (slightly fewer due to collisions). This is slightly less than 2 bytes of control. To get close to a full 4 bytes of control, we run b = a, vary a byte to get 240 choices for c, then again run a = b + c to get a little less than 3 bytes of control. Repeating one more time gives almost 4 bytes of control, which allows for a successful exchaustive search for most start indices.

In the assembly language, this would be written approximately

// example: start at 1
start_pos: 1
  .trash
  b =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  c =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  a = b + c
  .trash
  b = a
  .trash
  c =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  a = b + c
  .trash
  b = a
  .trash
  c =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  a = b + c

The ?? are stand-ins for actual values.

This exhaustive search ends up covering about 3/4 of the possible 32-bit output values. If the search fails, then increment the start index and try again. This is forceA and can be written via the directive .forceA value.

(The exhaustive search is a little slow since it needs to search a few billion options on average, so the assembler caches the results in cache/tsfav)

Example: infinite loop

To get an infinite loop, we need to set the ip back to an earlier position. We can get an empty (useless) infinite loop via

start: 0
  ip =
    .val 0

To get an infinite loop with a body, we can use the ip = a (jump-to-register) instruction:

loop_start: 0x10
  // loop body would go here
loop_end: 0x50
  .trash
  .forceA `0x10
  .trash
  ip = a

Here, the ` denotes inverseP, so `0x10 is the same as the value 0x1CDB46F2 since P(0x1CDB46F2) == 0x10. The first .trash is just to deal with an assembler bug, and the second .trash allows for four bytes to force the value of ip = a.

When the program execution finishes running the instructions generated by the .forceA directive, we have a = 0x1CDB46F2. The .trash instruction then hashes the registers to get a = P(0x1CDB46F2) = 0x10. Then ip = a unconditionally jumps back to loop_start.

To familiarize you with another assembler syntax, &label refers to the cell index of label. Also, values support addition (at most one) or subtraction (at most one), so the above loop can be written as

loop_start: 0x10
  // loop body would go here
loop_end: &loop_start + 0x40
  .trash
  .forceA `&loop_start
  .trash
  ip = a

initMemset

We're working towards a cat program, which requires a = getchar(); and putchar(a); in consecutive instructions. This is difficult in general. The way to do this is by setting the memory to force instructions.

For example, it would be nice for something like this to work:

start: 0x10
  // 0xD0 = "putchar(a)"
  .forceA `0xD0
  b = a
  .forceA `&putchar
  .trash
  ms(a, b)

getchar: 0x50
  a = getchar()
putchar: &getchar + 1
  .trash

The wishful thinking here is that at the point of the ms(a, b) instruction, we'll have a = &putchar = 0x51, and b = 0xD0 (the opcode for putchar(a)). The instruction ms(a, b) aka mem[a] = b would overwrite the final .trash to put a putchar(a) in the cell after a = getchar().

But unfortunately this doesn't work out. The .forceA directive overwrites all three registers, so it is not useful twice in a row.

Instead, we take advantage of the hashing capabilities. We just want to use ms(a, b) eventually with the right a and b. So if b isn't the right value now, we can just wait until it gets hashed to be the right value. So the general plan is

  // whatever number of inverses is needed
  .forceA ```````````&putchar
  .trash
  b =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  .trash
  // however many hashes are needed (need up to 16 million ish)
  .trash
  .trash
  ms(a, b)

Since we have about 8 bits of control over the initial value of b, the "however many hashes are needed" might take up to 24 bits worth of waiting, so 2^24 = 16 million. This is a bit too long for our purposes, but we have another axis of control: when this whole sequence starts.

  .trash
  .trash
  // however much padding is needed (only need about 4000 ish)
  .trash
  .trash
  // whatever number of inverses is needed
  .forceA ```````````&putchar
  .trash
  b =
    .val ?? // 240 choices here
  .trash
  .trash
  // however many hashes are needed (only need about 4000 ish)
  .trash
  .trash
  ms(a, b)

Now, exhaustive search through about 4000 starting positions, 240 initial b values, and 4000 hash counts gives about 2^32 options, which is enough to control b at the point of ms(a, b).

(This is slow if implemented naively, so the assembler accelerates it by using a hash set to store a bunch of inverses of the goal b value).

This whole 4000-240-4000 approach is represented in assembly by putting two mnemonics next to each other without .trash in between. So getchar-putchar is represented by

  a = getchar()
  putchar(a)

The first mnemonic will be inserted by ms_simple, the easy process where the bytecode has a 0xFF byte, then four bytes to control the instruction cell. The second mnemonic will be inserted by initMemset, the complicated 4000-240-4000 approach above.

Task 3: cat (non-terminating)

Using initMemset, non-terminating cat is easy to write

// cat non-terminating
p: 0x1500
  a = getchar() // ms_simple
  putchar(a)    // initMemset

  .trash
  .forceA `&p
  .trash
  ip = a

The assembler puts the initMemset block somewhere before 0x1500, which gives about 5000 total cells of freedom. This works out by luck even though it's less than 4000+240+4000.

The program ends with the same infinite loop as the infinite loop example.

Golfing non-terminating cat

To save 47 bytes, the loop at the end can be swapped out for ip = 0 using

  b = a
  .trash
  c = a
  .trash
  a = b - c
  .trash
  ip = a

This is much shorter than a general .forceA by subtracting two equal registers to get 0, and it relies on P(0) = 0. The assembler defines a directive to zero a which corresponds to exactly the above code:

  .zero_a
  .trash
  ip = a

Task 4: cat (terminating)

Terminating cat is similar to non-terminating cat. It just needs to check for EOF using a conditional jump.

p: 0x4A00
  a = getchar()
  if (a <= b) ip =
    .val &not_eof

  .trash
  exit(0)

.trash
not_eof: &p + 8
  putchar(a)

  .forceA `&p
  .trash
  ip = a

Since EOF is the maximum 32-bit integer 0xFFFFFFFF, pretty much all integers compare less than it, so we don't really need to initialize b, just ensure that it is not in a cycle including 0xFFFFFFFF.

Example: global variables

Nuova does not have a random-access memory get instruction, so memory must be stored where it is read.

For a demonstration, let's reproduce the following program that prints out all the the bytes in a cycle without terminating, starting at ! and cycling due to overflow.

start: 0x10000
  a =
    .val '!'
loop_begin:
  putchar(a)
  // increment register a
  c =
    .val 1
  b = a
  a = b + c
  ip =
    .val &loop_begin

This works correctly, but it requires an unbroken chain where a never gets overwritten. For Fizz Buzz, we will need to store more variables, so we store variables in the actual tape memory.

Method 1: read-immediate

Let's demonstrate by storing the current character in memory at address 0x10001 (labelled with x below).

loop_begin: 0x10000
  a =
  x:
    .val '!'
  putchar(a)
  // b ← a + 1
  c =
    .val 1
  b = a
  a = b + c
  b = a
  // set the value of x to be a
  a =
    .val &x
  ms(a, b)
  // loop back to start
  // overwriting register a is ok
  .trash
  a =
    .val `&loop_begin
  .trash
  ip = a

This means that the value of x can only be read at the beginning of the loop. If you need to read it in two locations, the program has to also write the value to those two locations, as demonstrated in the next section.

Method 1 with several reads

The fizzbuzz program included in this repository as fizzbuzz.s uses the method of writing the value to those multiple locations. For example, fizzbuzz needs to read d0 (the ones digit) in two places: once for incrementing the counter, and once for printing out the counter. So it stores two copies of the value at different addresses d0_a and d0_b.

When d0, it reads from d0_a and writes to d0_a and d0_b:

// increment the ones digit d0
inc_d0: 0x35100
  // read the current value from the address labelled d0_a
  b =
  d0_a:
    .val '0'
  // add one
  c =
  .val 0x01
  a = b + c
  c = a
  // set d0_a to the new value of d0
  a =
    .val &d0_a
  ms(a, c)
  // set d0_b to the new value of d0
  a =
    .val &d0_b
  ms(a, c)

When printing d0, it reads from d0_b:

a =
  d0_b: 0x35E10
    .val '0'
  putchar(a)

When zeroing d0, it writes to d0_a and d0_b:

  b =
    .val '0'
  a =
    .val &d0_a
  ms(a, b)
  a =
    .val &d0_b
  ms(a, b)

Macros for Method 1

For Method 1, it helps to define a macro to simplify the memory operations. The make run-compiler uses the gcc preprocessor (gcc -E) to expand macros. Unfortunately, it replaces newlines with spaces, so as a hack, write ; instead of \ when you want the macro to continue onto several lines (make run-compiler replaces ; with ;\, then runs gcc -E, then replaces ; with newlines again).

#define MS_b(addr) \
  a =;
    .val addr;
  ms(a, b)

Then the previous code block can be written as

  b =
    .val '0'
  MS_b(&d0_a)
  MS_b(&d0_b)

Method 2: read and callback

Another way to implement global variables is by storing their value in one place and reading them through callbacks.

// skip ahead past the x_b_eq declaration
skip_decls: 0xE0000
  ip =
    .val &loop_begin

// declare variable x
// it gets accessed by jumping to x_b_eq with the callback in register a
x_b_eq: 0xE1000
  b =
  x: 0xE1001
    .val '!'
  ip = a

loop_begin: 0xF0000
  // setup callback got_x
  a =
    .val &got_x
  // jump to x_b_eq
  ip =
    .val &x_b_eq
  // x_b_eq will jump back to got_x with the value of x in register b
got_x: 0xF0010
  a = b
  putchar(a)
  // b ← a + 1
  c =
    .val 1
  a = b + c
  b = a
  // Set the value of x to be b
  a =
    .val &x
  ms(a, b)
  // loop back to start
  // overwriting register a is ok
  .trash
  ip =
    .val &loop_begin

This method extends to reading in several places, as long as the callback values are set correctly.

Macros for Method 2

For Method 2, it helps to define some macros to simplify the memory operations.

#define glue2(x,y) x##y
#define glue(x,y) glue2(x,y)

#define global_declare(var, value, pos) \
  glue(var, _b_eq): pos;
  b =;
  var: pos + 1;
    value;
  ip = a

#define b_eq_global(var, return_idx) \
  a =;
    .val &return_idx;
  ip =;
    .val &var - 1

#define global_eq_b(var) \
  a =;
    .val &var;
  ms(a, b)

Then the ASCII loop code can be written as

skip_decls: 0xE0000
  ip =
    .val &loop_begin

global_declare(x, .val '!', 0xE1000)

loop_begin: 0xF0000
  b_eq_global(x, got_x)
got_x: 0xF0010
  a = b
  putchar(a)
  // b ← a + 1
  c =
    .val 1
  b = a
  a = b + c
  b = a
  // put b into x
  global_eq_b(x)
  // loop back to start
  // overwriting register a is ok
  .trash
  ip =
    .val &loop_begin

Task 5: Fizz Buzz

Usage: echo -n '123' | ./nuova fizzbuzz.

Since Fizz Buzz only needs to go up to four-digit numbers (10000 is buzz), it's reasonable to just store the digits in four separate memory locations instead of an aray.

High-level C-like psuedocode with GOTOs: (the full assembly is in sources/fizzbuzz.s)

u32 a, b, c;
u32 num_lines = 0;
u32 d0 = 0, d1 = 0, d2 = 0, d3 = 0;
bool filled_d1 = 0, filled_d2 = 0, filled_d3 = 0;
u32 x3 = 0, x5 = 0;
bool do_decimal = 0;

// getc is fornumber reading
getc:
  a = getchar();
  if (a != EOF) goto cplus;
  // end of input number, so fallthrough and start main loop

// BEGIN main loop
dec_num_lines:
  if (num_lines-- == 0) exit(0);

// increment the four-digit number d = d3 d2 d1 d0
inc_d0:
  if (++d0 <= 9) goto inc_x3;
  d0 = 0
inc_d1:
  filled_d1 = true;
  if (++d1 <= 9) goto inc_x3;
  d1 = 0
inc_d2:
  filled_d2 = true;
  if (++d2 <= 9) goto inc_x3;
  d2 = 0
inc_d3:
  filled_d3 = true;
  ++d3;

// increment multiple of 3 counter (x3)
inc_x3:
  if (++x3 <= 2) goto inc_x5
  x3 = 0;
  do_decimal = false;
  printf("Fizz");

// increment multiple of 5 counter (x5)
inc_x5:
  if (++x5 <= 4) goto check_decimal
  printf("Buzz");
  goto endline;

// don't print the number if we printed Fizz
check_decimal:
  if (!do_decimal) goto endline

// print d3 d2 d1 d0 without leading decimals
print_d3:
  if (!filled_d3) goto print_d2;
  printf("%d", d3);
print_d2:
  if (!filled_d2) goto print_d1;
  printf("%d", d2);
print_d1:
  if (!filled_d1) goto print_d0;
  printf("%d", d1);
print_d0:
  printf("%d", d0);

endline:
  printf("\n");
  goto dec_num_lines;
// END main loop

// cplus is part of number input
cplus:
  c = num_lines
  c = 10 * c + (a - '0')
  num_lines = c
  goto getc;

Task 6: Turing Completeness

I decided to implement cyclic tag.

Usage examples:

  • echo -n '"011"10"101;1;' | ./nuova cyclic-tag for the cyclic tag system (011, 10, 101) and initial string 1
  • echo -n '"010001"100"100100100""";100100100100;' | ./nuova cyclic-tag for the cyclic tag system (010001, 100, 100100100, ε, ε, ε) and initial string 100100100100

First, it parses the input into a bunch of 2-word jmp instruction pairs ip = immediate similar to what follows

// 3 production rules
ip = pdone // < curr
ip = p0
ip = p1
ip = p1
ip = pdone
ip = p1
ip = p0
ip = pdone
ip = p1
ip = p0
ip = p1
ip = preturn
// data section
ip = d1 // < head
        // < tail

Each instruction pair is at two consecutive addresses in memory.

It works by extending the data section from tail (with tail always pointing after the last datum) whenever a global variable do_append is set to 1. Then when a pdone is hit (done with that production string), it jumps back to head, prints that value (and increments head by 2), sets do_append, and jumps back to the production strings.

The first byte of the first jmp (ip = pdone) is at address start (0x100000), and the global variable curr is initialized with the value 0x100000. The global variable head is initialized with the value of 0x100018 (the position of the first data string jmp), and tail is initialized to point immediately after it at 0x10001A. The global do_append is initialized to 0.

Execution begins at the start of the first rule, and proceeds by the following pseudocode:

pdone:
  jmp head
p0:
  if do_append {
    *tail = (2 instructions)"ip = d0"
    tail += 2
  }
  curr += 2
  jmp curr
p1:
  if do_append {
    *tail = (2 instructions)"ip = d1"
    tail += 2
  }
  curr += 2
  jmp curr
preturn:
  jmp start
d0:
  putchar('0')
  do_append = 0
  head += 2
  curr += 2
  jmp curr
d1:
  putchar('1')
  do_append = 1
  head += 2
  curr += 2
  jmp curr