Computer Organization and

Assembly Language (CS235)

Fall
2013

Introduction to Assembly Language

Muhammad Jameel <muhammad.jameel@seecs.edu.pk>
 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers

• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs

• Defining Data

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Integer constants & expressions

• Character and string constants
• Reserved words and identifiers
• Directives and instructions
• Labels
• Mnemonics and Operands
• Comments

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Reserved words
– Reserved words cannot be used as identifiers
– Instruction mnemonics, directives, type attributes,
operators, predefined symbols
– Examples: BYTE, MOV, ADD
• Identifiers
– To identify a variable, a constant, a label, a proc.
– Examples: $first, _main, @myfile

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Directives
– Used to declare code, data areas, select memory
model, declare procedures, etc.
– not case sensitive
– Example: .data, .code

• Different assemblers have different directives

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Instructions
– Assembled into machine code by assembler
– Executed at runtime by the CPU
– An instruction contains:
• Label (optional)
• Mnemonic (required)
• Operand (depends on the instruction)
• Comment (optional)

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Labels
– Follow identifier rules
– Data label
• must be unique
• example: myArray (not followed by colon)
– Code label
• target of jump and loop instructions
• example: L1: (followed by colon)

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Instruction Mnemonics
– Identify the operation carried out by an instruction
– examples: MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, INC, DEC
• Operands
– constant
– constant expression
– register
– memory (data label)
– Example: MOV count, bx : INC ax
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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Comments
– Single-line comments
• begin with semicolon (;)
• Example: ; my code goes here
– Multi-line comments
• begin with COMMENT directive and a programmer-
chosen character
• Example: COMMENT &
These lines are commented
&
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 An Assembly Program Template
; Program Description:
; Author:
; Creation Date:
; Revisions:
; Date: Modified by:

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
; (insert variables here)
.code
main PROC
; (insert executable instructions here)
exit
main ENDP
; (insert additional procedures here)
END main

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 Example (Assembly program)
• ; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit
integers.

• INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
• .code
• main PROC
• mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h
• add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h
• sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h
• call DumpRegs ; display registers
• exit
• main ENDP
• END main

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 Example Program Output

• Program output, showing registers and flags:

EAX=00030000 EBX=7FFDF000 ECX=00000101 EDX=FFFFFFFF
ESI=00000000 EDI=00000000 EBP=0012FFF0 ESP=0012FFC4
EIP=00401024 EFL=00000206 CF=0 SF=0 ZF=0 OF=0

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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers

• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs

• Defining Data

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Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs

• Assemble-Link Execute Cycle

Link
Library
Step 2: Step 3: Step 4:
Source assembler Object linker Executable OS loader
Output
File File File

Listing Map
Step 1: text editor File File

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 Make32.bat

• Called a batch file

• Contains a command that executes ML.EXE
• Contains a command that executes LINK32.EXE
• Command-Line syntax:
make32 progName
(progName does not include the .asm extension)

Use make16.bat to assemble and link Real-mode programs

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 Listing File

• Use it to see how your program is compiled

• Contains
– source code
– addresses
– object code (machine language)
– segment names
– symbols (variables, procedures, and constants)
• Example: addSub.lst

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 MAP File

• Information about each program segment:

– starting address
– ending address
– size
– segment type
• Example: addSub.map (16-bit version)

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 Data Types

• BYTE, SBYTE
– 8-bit unsigned integer; 8-bit signed integer
• WORD, SWORD
– 16-bit unsigned & signed integer
• DWORD, SDWORD
– 32-bit unsigned & signed integer
• QWORD
– 64-bit integer
• TBYTE
– 80-bit integer

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 Defining BYTE and SBYTE Data

value1 BYTE 'A' ; character constant

value2 BYTE 0 ; smallest unsigned byte
value3 BYTE 255 ; largest unsigned byte
value4 SBYTE -128 ; smallest signed byte
value5 SBYTE +127 ; largest signed byte
value6 BYTE ? ; uninitialized byte

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 Defining Byte Arrays

list1 BYTE 10,20,30,40

list2 BYTE 10,20,30,40
BYTE 50,60,70,80
BYTE 81,82,83,84
list3 BYTE ?,32,41h,00100010b
list4 BYTE 0Ah,20h,‘A’,22h

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 Defining Strings

str1 BYTE "Enter your name",0

str2 BYTE 'Error: halting program',0
str3 BYTE 'A','E','I','O','U'
greeting BYTE "Welcome to the Encryption Demo program "
BYTE "created by Kip Irvine.",0

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 Defining Strings

menu BYTE "Checking Account",0dh,0ah,

"1. Create a new account",0dh,0ah,
"2. Open an existing account",0dh,0ah,
"3. Credit the account",0dh,0ah,
"4. Debit the account",0dh,0ah,
"5. Exit",0ah,0ah,
"Choice> ",0

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 Defining Strings

menu BYTE "Checking Account",0dh,0ah,

"1. Create a new account",0dh,0ah,
"2. Open an existing account",0dh,0ah,
"3. Credit the account",0dh,0ah,
"4. Debit the account",0dh,0ah,
"5. Exit",0ah,0ah,
"Choice> ",0

End-of-line character sequence:

0Dh = carriage return
0Ah = line feed

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 Using the DUP Operator

var1 BYTE 20 DUP(0) ; 20 bytes, all equal to zero

var2 BYTE 20 DUP(?) ; 20 bytes, uninitialized
var3 BYTE 4 DUP("STACK") ; 20 bytes: "STACKSTACKSTACKSTACK”

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 Defining WORD and SWORD Data

word1 WORD 65535 ; largest unsigned value

word2 SWORD –32768 ; smallest signed value
word3 WORD ? ; uninitialized, unsigned
word4 WORD "AB" ; double characters
myList WORD 1,2,3,4,5 ; array of words
array WORD 5 DUP(?) ; uninitialized array

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Defining QWORD, TBYTE, Real Data

quad1 QWORD 1234567812345678h

val1 TBYTE 1000000000123456789Ah
rVal1 REAL4 -2.1
rVal2 REAL8 3.2E-260
rVal3 REAL10 4.6E+4096
ShortArray REAL4 20 DUP(0.0)

REAL4
4-byte IEEE short real
REAL8
8-byte IEEE long real
REAL10
10-byte IEEE extended real

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 Little Endian Order

All data types larger than a byte store their individual

bytes in reverse order. The least significant byte occurs at
the first (lowest) memory address.

Example:
val1 DWORD 12345678h

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 Adding Variables to AddSub
TITLE Add and Subtract, Version 2 (AddSub2.asm)
; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit unsigned
; integers and stores the sum in a variable.
INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
val1 DWORD 10000h
val2 DWORD 40000h
val3 DWORD 20000h
finalVal DWORD ?
.code
main PROC
mov eax,val1 ; start with 10000h
add eax,val2 ; add 40000h
sub eax,val3 ; subtract 20000h
mov finalVal,eax ; store the result (30000h)
call DumpRegs ; display the registers
exit
main ENDP
END main

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