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Byte Memory · Lesson 7 of 30 · about 10 minutes

Memory: The Computer’s Notebook

Store and actually retrieve a byte after overwriting R0.

01 / Explain

Understand the idea

The memory grid has 256 byte cells, addressed 0 through 255. STORE 10 writes R0 into address 10. LOAD [10] reads the stored byte back; plain LOAD 10 loads the literal number ten.

Registers and memory are different places. Clearing R0 does not clear memory. The lab marks memory reads and writes separately, including writes of zero; a zero cell can still have been used.

02 / Try

Watch it happen

Square brackets perform a real memory read. Watch cells 0 and 1.

LOAD 42
STORE 0
LOAD 99
STORE 1
LOAD 0
LOAD [0]
PRINT
LOAD [1]
PRINT
HALT

Use Step to follow one instruction at a time. You can change the example and replay it.

03 / Challenge

Make it work

Read a byte-valued input (0–255), save it at memory address 10, clear R0, then retrieve it from memory and print it.

The checker runs your current editor program in a fresh machine for each of 3 test cases. It supplies inputs and seeded memory itself; the lab’s current output and memory do not decide your result.

INPUT
STORE 10
LOAD 0
# Read address 10 back.
HALT
Need a hint?

Use LOAD [10], with brackets.

Reveal a worked solution

Read the program, predict each instruction’s effect, then step through it in the lab.

INPUT
STORE 10
LOAD 0
LOAD [10]
PRINT
HALT

Emoji CPU lab

Ready · 0 cycles

Emoji program

Type LOAD, ADD, or another opcode then Space to insert emoji. Ctrl/⌘ + Enter runs or pauses; Escape pauses; Ctrl/⌘ + ] indents. Tab moves focus. Labels use a colon. Jumps use zero-based instruction addresses.

Instruction map and breakpoints (0)

Breakpoints stop before an instruction. Run resumes past the stopped breakpoint once; Step executes it directly. Editing source clears old breakpoints and machine state.

    CPU registers

    R0
    0
    R1
    0
    R2
    0
    R3
    0
    R4
    0
    R5
    0
    R6
    0
    R7
    0
    Program counter (PC)
    0
    Stack pointer (SP)
    255
    Flags
    Zero: off · Negative: off · Overflow: off
    Delay request
    0 ms
    Stacks and loop frames

    SP = 255 − data depth − call depth. The stack is separate from memory.

    Data stack (bottom → top)

    Empty

    Call return addresses (bottom → top)

    Empty

    Loop frames

    Empty

    Output and input

    Run a PRINT instruction to see output.

    Queued input: Empty

    Memory · 256 bytes · 0 nonzero

    Each cell shows address:value. R = read this step; W = written this step. Select a cell to inspect or initialize it before execution. Use arrow keys to move, Home/End for the row, and Ctrl/⌘ + Home/End for the whole memory.

    Reset before initializing memory. Stored values wrap to 0–255.
    Execution trace · 0 entries

    Recent entries below. Inspect any zero-based index to see complete detached before/after state.

    Check your challenge

    You can run this check any time. Every case must pass to record completion.

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