Assembly Language for Intel-Based

Computers, 5th Edition

Kip Irvine

Chapter 1: Basic Concepts

(c) Pearson Education, 2006-2007. All rights reserved. You may modify and copy this slide show for your personal use,
or for use in the classroom, as long as this copyright statement, the author's name, and the title are not changed.

Welcome to Assembly Language

What are Assemblers and Linkers?
An assembler is a program that converts source code program
from assembly language into machine language (such as listing
files generated by an assembler).
A linker is program that combines individual files created by an
assembler into a single executable program.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Welcome to Assembly Language

What Hardware and Software Do I Need?

For hardware you need computer with Intel386,Intel486, Pentium,
or compatible processor.
For Software you need
1. Editor : use text editor to write an assembly language source file
2. Assembler : MASM version 6.15

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Welcome to Assembly Language

How Does Assembly Language (AL) Relate to Machine Language

Machine Language: is a numeric language specifically

understood by the computers processor (the CPU).
Assembly Language: consists of statements written with
short mnemonics such as ADD, MOV and SUB. Assembly
language has a one-to-one relationship with machine
language.
Each
assembly
language
instruction
corresponds to single machine-language instruction.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Binary Numbers
Digits are 1 and 0
1 = true
0 = false

MSB most significant bit

LSB least significant bit
MSB

Bit numbering:

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

LSB

1011001010011100
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Binary Numbers

Each digit (bit) is either 1 or 0

Each bit represents a power of 2:

Every binary
number is a
sum of powers
of 2

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Translating Binary to Decimal

Weighted positional notation shows how to calculate the
decimal value of each binary bit:
dec = (Dn-1 2n-1) (Dn-2 2n-2) ... (D1 21) (D0 20)
D = binary digit

binary 00001001 = decimal 9:

(1 23) + (1 20) = 9

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Translating Unsigned Decimal to Binary

Repeatedly divide the decimal integer by 2. Each
remainder is a binary digit in the translated value:

37 = 100101
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Binary Addition
Starting with the LSB, add each pair of digits, include
the carry if present.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Integer Storage Sizes

Standard sizes:
Note byte = 8 bits

What is the largest unsigned integer that may be stored in 20 bits?

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Hexadecimal Integers
Binary values are represented in hexadecimal.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Translating Binary to Hexadecimal

Each hexadecimal digit corresponds to 4 binary bits.
Example: Translate the binary integer
000101101010011110010100 to hexadecimal:

And this equal to 16A794

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Converting Hexadecimal to Decimal

Multiply each digit by its corresponding power of 16:
dec=(D3163)+(D2162)+(D1161)+(D0160)

Hex1234equals(1163)+(2162)+(3161)+(4160),or
decimal4,660.

Hex3BA4equals(3163)+(11162)+(10161)+(4160),or
decimal15,268.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Converting Decimal to Hexadecimal

decimal 422 = 1A6 hexadecimal

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Hexadecimal Addition

Divide the sum of two digits by the number base (16). The quotient becomes the
carry value, and the remainder is the sum digit.

36
42
78

28
45
6D

28
58
80

6A
4B
B5
21 / 16 = 1, rem 5

Important skill: Programmers frequently add and subtract the

addresses of variables and instructions.
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Hexadecimal Subtraction

When a borrow is required from the digit to the left, add 16

(decimal) to the current digit's value:
16 + 5 = 21

C6
A2
24

75
47
2E

Practice: The address of var1 is 00400020. The address of the next

variable after var1 is 0040006A. How many bytes are used by var1?

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Signed Integers
The highest bit (MSB) indicates the sign. 1 = negative,
0 = positive

If the highest digit of a hexadecimal integer is > 7, the value is

negative. Examples: 8A, C5, A2, 9D

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Forming the Two's Complement

Negative numbers are stored in two's complement
notation

11111111 is the twos complement representation

of -1
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Binary Subtraction
When subtracting A B, convert B to its two's
complement
Add A to (B)
00001100
00000011

00001100
11111101
00001001

Practice: Subtract 0101 from 1001.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Two's Complement of Hexadecimal

Form the two's complement of a hexadecimal

integer
1. Subtract each digit from F
2. Add 1 to the result
Ex. Twos comp of
6A3D = 95C2 + 1 = 95C3
95C3 = 6A3C + 1 = 6A3D
21F0 = DE0F + 1 = DE10
DE10 = 21EF + 1 = 21F0

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Convert Signed Binary to Decimal

If the highest bit is 1 then the

number is stored in twoscomplement so take the twos
complement a second time to
get its positive equivalent. Then
convert this new number to
decimal as if it were unsigned
binary integer.
If the highest bit is 0 convert it
to decimal as if it were unsigned
binary integer.
Ex. Signed binary 11110000
represent -16 because it has 1
in the highest bit, indicating that
it is a negative integer.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

Twos of 11110000
flip all bit 00001111
Add 1
00001111 +
1
----------------00010000
Convert to decimal 16
Because the original integer
(11110000) was negative, we
infer its decimal value was -16.

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Convert Signed Decimal to Binary

1. Convert the absolute value
of the decimal integer to
binary.
2. If the original decimal
integer was negative, form
the twos complement of the
binary number from the
previous step.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

Ex -43 decimal to binary

1. The binary representation of
unsigned 43 is 00101011
2. Take the twos comp
because the original value
was negative
11010101 and this is the
representation of -43

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Convert Signed Decimal to Hexadecimal

1. Convert the absolute value of the decimal integer to
hexadecimal.
2. If the decimal integer was negative, form the twos
complement of the Hexadecimal number from the previous
step.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Convert signed hexadecimal to decimal

1. If the hexadecimal integer is negative, form its twos
complement ; otherwise , retain the integer as is.
2. Using the integer from the previous step , convert it
to decimal. If the original value was negative, attach
a minus sign to the beginning of the decimal integer.

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Ranges of Signed Integers

The highest bit is reserved for the sign. This limits the range:
A signed integer of n bits uses only n-1 bits to represent the
numbers magnitude.

Practice: What is the largest positive value that may be stored in 20 bits?

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Character Storage
Character sets

Standard ASCII (0 127)

Extended ASCII (0 255)
ANSI (0 255)
Unicode (0 65,535)

Null-terminated String
Array of characters followed by a null byte

Using the ASCII table

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Character Storage

Using the ASCII table

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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General-Purpose Registers
Registers are high-speed storage locations directly
inside the CPU, designed to be accessed at much
higher speed than conventional memory.
The general-purpose registers are primarily used for
arithmetic and data movement.
32-bit General-Purpose Registers
EAX

EBP

EBX

ESP

ECX

ESI

EDX

EDI
16-bit Segment Registers

EFLAGS
EIP

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

CS

ES

SS

FS

DS

GS

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Accessing Parts of Registers

Use 8-bit name, 16-bit name, or 32-bit name
Applies to EAX, EBX, ECX, and EDX

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Index and Base Registers

Some registers have only a 16-bit name for their
:lower half

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Some Specialized Register Uses (1 of 2)

General-Purpose
EAX accumulator
ECX loop counter
ESP stack pointer
ESI, EDI index registers

Segment
CS code segment
DS data segment
SS stack segment
ES, FS, GS - additional segments

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Some Specialized Register Uses (2 of 2)

EIP instruction pointer (contains the address of the next

instruction to be executed)
EFLAGS
The EFLAGS register consists of individual binary bits that
.reflect the outcome of some CPU operation
Some instructions test and manipulate individual processor
.flags
Each flag is a single binary bit

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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Status Flags
Carry Flag
is set when the result of an unsigned arithmetic operation
.is too large to fit into the destination
Overflow Flag
signed arithmetic out of range
Sign Flag
Set when the result is negative
Zero Flag
Ser when the result is zero
Parity
is set if the least-significant byte in the result contains an
even number of 1 bits. Otherwise, PF is clear. In general,
it is used for error checking when there is a possibility that
data might be altered or corrupted

Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers 5/e, 2007.

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