What is the meaning of :
Array1 : .word 0:20
What is the meaning of :
Array1 : .word 0:20
Array1 :
is a label (the space is optional).
For MIPS, a :<n>
suffix to an expression in directives such as .word
, .byte
etc. is a repeat count.
So Array1 : .word 0:20
creates a block of 20 words (i.e. 80 bytes) of 0, with the label Array1
pointing to the start of it.
(Footnote: The GNU assembler, gas
, tends to try to follow the "traditional" assembler syntax for each platform; a brief glance suggests that this syntax is not that common on other platforms - only MIPS and Alpha obviously support it.)