How is a long int stored in an 8 bit Arduino register

Question

Assume the following code in C:

long int a = 262143;

which in binary will be 111111111111111111 (18 bits). If an atmega328p register can hold 8 bits, how is the above represented in the register?

Compiled Assembly:

 .file "a.c"
__SP_H__ = 0x3e
__SP_L__ = 0x3d
__SREG__ = 0x3f
__tmp_reg__ = 0
__zero_reg__ = 1
 .text
.global main
 .type main, @function
main:
 push r28
 push r29
 rcall .
 rcall .
 in r28,__SP_L__
 in r29,__SP_H__
/* prologue: function */
/* frame size = 4 */
/* stack size = 6 */
.L__stack_usage = 6
 ldi r24,lo8(-1)
 ldi r25,lo8(-1)
 ldi r26,lo8(3)
 ldi r27,0
 std Y+1,r24
 std Y+2,r25
 std Y+3,r26
 std Y+4,r27
 ldi r24,0
 ldi r25,0
/* epilogue start */
 pop __tmp_reg__
 pop __tmp_reg__
 pop __tmp_reg__
 pop __tmp_reg__
 pop r29
 pop r28
 ret
 .size main, .-main
 .ident "GCC: (GNU) 8.2.0"

Answer 1

It isn't. It's split into four 8-bit values, each representing a quarter of the bits. Each value is stored in a separate register or memory location (depending on what is being done with it).

Software then combines them together to act as a single 32-bit value.

• Josh l: Then how would a single instruction look like? isn't an instruction supposed to be 8 bits in length in this case?
• Majenko: There is no "single instruction". You should compile some code and look at the resultant assembly language - you'll find it's many instructions long. This is why 32-bit CPUs are more efficient than 8 bit.
• Josh l: I added the assembly code above, so I guess ldi r24,lo8(-1) ldi r25,lo8(-1) are doing that
• Majenko: and ldi r26,lo8(3) since you're working with 18 bits not 16. 0xFF is -1 in two's complement, so you have 0x03 ff ff which is 0b111111111111111111.
• Majenko: @Joshl No - instructions are in flash, not RAM, and flash is 16 bits wide. Each instruction either fits in one 16 bit word or two 16 bit words depending on the instruction. The CPU knows how "long" each instruction is by the fact that the instruction itself will contain information about what needs to be fetched from where.