Infinite array loop MIPS

Question

So I'm new to MIPS and I'm trying to build a program in Assembly MIPS which finds the maximum value in array:

    .data 
    A: .word 11 100 3 5 8 13 1 16  #array of integers
    N: .word 8  # array length
    output_max: .asciiz "The max value is: "
    
    .text
    .globl main
    
main:
    la $a0 N
    la $a1 A
    
    jal max
    move $s0 $v0
    
    
    li $v0 4
    la $a0 output_max
    syscall
    
    li $v0 1
    move $a0 $s0
    syscall
    j exit
    
    
exit:
    li $v0 10
    syscall

max:
    
    move $t0 $a0  
    move $t1 $a1  
    lw $v0 0($t1)  
    li $t2 0  
    j maxLoop
    
maxLoop:
    addi $t2 $t2 1 
    beq $t2 $t0 maxEnd  
    addi $t1 $t1 4 
    lw $t3 0($t1)
    slt $t4 $v0 $t3 
    beq $t4 1 changeMax
    j maxLoop
    
changeMax:
    move $v0 $t3
    j maxLoop
        

maxEnd:
    jr $ra

The max function should return the maximum value in the input array. So after compiling, it goes into an infinite loop. I can't quite see where the problem is..

Answer 1

The problem is you are running your loop using the address of N and not the value of N . The first line of main loads the address of N into $a0 which becomes $t0 in your max function. However, you then use that address as if its the value of N (ie, 8) in your loop with beq $t2 $t0 maxEnd .

Either just load the value directly into $a0 at the beginning:

main:
    li $a0 8 # Length of A

Or dereference the argument in max first:

max:
    lw $t0 0($a0) # Get value of N from pointer to N