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Assembly Language - Topic 1

This document introduces assembly language. Assembly language provides a low-level view of how a computer and its software work at the machine level. It has a one-to-one correspondence with a computer's machine language instructions. Each computer architecture has its own assembly language and instruction set. An assembler translates assembly language instructions into binary machine code that can be executed by the computer's CPU. Learning assembly language provides utility for certain types of programming and allows for understanding a computer's architecture and operating system.

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88 views8 pages

Assembly Language - Topic 1

This document introduces assembly language. Assembly language provides a low-level view of how a computer and its software work at the machine level. It has a one-to-one correspondence with a computer's machine language instructions. Each computer architecture has its own assembly language and instruction set. An assembler translates assembly language instructions into binary machine code that can be executed by the computer's CPU. Learning assembly language provides utility for certain types of programming and allows for understanding a computer's architecture and operating system.

Uploaded by

ficryabas
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Faculty of Computer and Mathematical

Sciences

An Introduction
to
Assembly Language

TOPIC 1
Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Introducing Assembly Language


• Assembly language is a specific set of instructions for a
particular computer system.
• It unlocks the secrets of your computer’s hardware and
software.
• It teaches you about the way the computer’s hardware and
OS work together and how application programs
communicate with the OS.
• It is a programming language with a one-to-one
correspondence between its statement and a computer’s main
machine language.
• To learn how a computer and its software really work, you
need to view them at machine level.

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 2


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Introducing Assembly Language (cont)

• There is no single assembly language.


• Each computer or family of computers uses a different
set of machine instructions and a different assembly
language (the computer’s design influences the
instructions it can execute).
• An assembler – a program that converts or translates
source-code programs into machine language, which
may in turn be executed by the computer (runs under the
disk operating systems MS-DOS or PC-DOS).

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 3


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Assembler vs. Compiler

Assembly Assembler Machine


Language Language
(Source code) (Object code)

High-level Compiler Machine


language Language
(Source code) (Object code)

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 4


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Why learn Assembly Language?

• To learn about the computer’s architecture and


OS.
• For its utility :
- Certain types of programming are difficult and
impossible to do in high-level languages.
- Assembly language has very few restrictions or
rules.

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 5


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Machine Instruction

• A machine instruction is a binary code that has a


special meaning for a computer’s CPU - it tells
the computer to perform a task.
• Each machine instruction is precisely defined
when the CPU is constructed, and it is specified to
that type of CPU. For example:
00000100 Add a number to the AL register.
10100011 Move the AX register to another
register.

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 6


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Machine Instruction (cont)

• Registers are high-speed storage locations inside


the CPU which are used by nearly every
instructions
• They are identified by 2-letter names, such as AH,
AL, AX and so on.
• We refer to machine instructions using hexadecimal
numbers because they take up less writing space.

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 7


Faculty of Computer and Mathematical
Sciences

Assembly Language Instruction (cont)

• Mnemonic : a short alphabetic code that literally


“assists the memory” in remembering CPU instruction
• It may be an instruction or a directive
• E.g. an instruction MOV (move)
• E.g. a directive DB (definite byte, used to create
memory variables)
• An instruction may contain zero, one or two operands.

December 8, 2021 CSC428 - COMPUTER ORGANIZATION 8

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