Assembler Temporary Register

The assembler temporary register is reserved for use in the machine instructions that pseudoinstructions are translated into. Often a pseudoinstruction is implemented as a short sequence of machine instructions that use $at. Here is how la was translated in the example:

la $t0,val5   ==   lui $1,4097
                   ori $8,$1,8

Sometimes a pseudoinstruction has the same mnemonic as the basic assembler instruction. For example, lw (load word) is a basic assembler instruction. As an assembler instruction, it is used like this:

lw    $t1,8($t0)   #  load the word at address $t0+8

This instruction designates the address with a displacement (eight, in this case) to add to a base register ($t0, in this case). This corresponds exactly to one machine instruction. There is no other form for the non-extended assembler instruction. However, with the extended assembler, the following  pseudoinstruction can be used:

lw    $t1,exp    #  load value at  address exp

The machine instruction lw uses a base register to form an address. The pseudoinstruction lw must be translated into instructions that also use a base register (since this is the only way MIPS instructions can address memory.)