Report Number: CS-TR-74-407
Institution: Stanford University, Department of Computer Science
Title: FAIL.
Author: Wright, F. H. G., II
Author: Gorin, Ralph E.
Date: April 1974
Abstract: This is a reference manual for FAIL, a fast, one-pass assembler for PDP-10 and PDP-6 machine language. FAIL statements, pseudo-operations, macros, and conditional assembly features are described. Although FAIL uses substantially more main memory than MACRO-10, it assembles typical programs about five time faster. FAIL assembles the entire Stanford time-sharing operating system (two million characters) in less than four minutes of CPU time on a KA-10 processor. FAIL permits an ALGOL-type block structure which provides a way of localizing the usage of some symbols to certain parts of the program, such that the same symbol name can be used to mean different things in different blocks.
http://i.stanford.edu/pub/cstr/reports/cs/tr/74/407/CS-TR-74-407.pdf