Syntax

               .bitsvalue[, size in bits]

Description

The .bits directive places a value into consecutive bits of the current section.

The .bits directive is similar to the .field directive (see .field topic ). However, the .bits directive does not force the value to be aligned to a field boundary. If the .bits directive is followed by a different space-creating directive, the SPC is aligned to an appropriate value for the directive that follows.

This directive has two operands:

• The value is a required parameter; it is an expression that is evaluated and placed in the current section at the current location. The value must be absolute.
• The size in bits is an optional parameter; it specifies a number from 1 to 32, which is the number of bits in the value. The default size is 16 bits. If you specify a value that cannot fit in size in bits, the assembler truncates the value and issues a warning message. For example, .bits 3,1 causes the assembler to truncate the value 3 to 1; the assembler also prints the message:

     *** WARNING! line 21: W0001: Field value truncated to 1
                     .bits  3, 1