Register $v0
Depending on the service, you may have to place arguments in other registers as well.
The following example program prints out a floating point value. It first does this correctly (using system call 2). Then does it incorrectly uses the integer print service (system call 1). Of course, the 32 bits of the floating point value can be interpreted as an integer, so system call 2 innocently does what we asked it to do.
## print.asm
##
## Print out a 32 bit pattern, first as a float,
## then as an integer.
.text
.globl main
main:
l.s $f12,val # use the bit pattern
# in val as a float
li $v0,2 # code 2 == print float
syscall # (correct)
li $v0,4 # print
la $a0,lfeed # line separator
syscall
lw $a0,val # use the bit pattern
# in val as an int
li $v0,1 # code 1 == print int
syscall # (mistake)
li $v0,10 # code 10 == exit
syscall # Return to OS.
.data
val : .float -8.32 # floating point data
lfeed: .asciiz "\n"
Will the assembler catch this error? Will the program bomb when it runs?