10/6/2024

Lecture 5: 80x86 Assembly

Programming I
Seyed-Hosein Attarzadeh-Niaki

Based on the slides by Hongzi Zhu

Microprocessors and Interfacing 1

Review
• 80x86 memory organization
– Memory segments
• Addressing modes

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Outline
• Assembly statement
• Model definition
• Segments definition
• Building programs
• Data movement instructions
• Control transfer instructions
– Short, near and far
• Data types and definition

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Assembly Language Programs

• A series of statements (lines)
– Assembly language instructions (ADD, MOV, etc.)
• Perform the real work of the program
– Directives (pseudo-instructions)
• Give instructions for the assembler program about how to
translate the program into machine code.
• Consists of multiple segments
– CPU can access only one data segment, one code
segment, one stack segment and one extra segment
(Why? )

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Form of a Statement
[label:] mnemonic [operands] [;comment]
• label is a reference to this statement
– Rules for names: each label must be unique; letters, 0-
9, (?), (.), (@), (_), and ($); first character cannot be a
digit; less than 31 characters
– “:” is needed if it is an instruction
• Mnemonic and the operands perform the real
work of the program.
• “;” leads a comment, the assembler omits
anything on this line following a semicolon

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Example of an Assembly Program

• Full segment definition
– See an example later
• Simple segment definition using models

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Model Definition
• The MODEL directive selects the
size of the memory model
– SMALL: code <= 64KB
data <= 64KB
– MEDIUM: data <= 64KB
code > 64KB
– COMPACT:code <= 64KB
data > 64KB
– LARGE: data > 64KB
(single set of data<64KB)
code> 64KB
– HUGE: data > 64KB
code > 64KB
– TINY: code + data < 64KB

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Simplified Segment Definition

• Simplified segment definition
– .CODE, .DATA, .STACK
– Only three segments can be defined
– Automatically correspond to the CPU’s CS, DS, SS

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Segments, All at a Glance

• Stack segment
• Data segment
– Data definition
• Code segment
– Write your statements
– Procedures definition
label PROC [FAR|NEAR]
label ENDP
– Entrance proc should be FAR

Note: On program start, the OS

assigns CS and SS, the program must
initialize DS.

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Sample Shell of an Assembly Program

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Full Segment Definition

• Full segment definition
label SEGMENT
label ENDS
– You name those labels
– as many as needed
– DOS assigns CS, SS
– Program assigns DS (manually
load data segments) and ES

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Program Execution
• Program starts from the
entrance
– Ends whenever calls 21H
interrupt with AH = 4CH
• Procedure caller and callee
– CALL procedure
– RET

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Build up Your Program

• .asm: the source file
• .obj: object file created by
assembler
• .lst: lists opcodes, offset
addresses and detected
errors
• .crf: cross reference file lists
references and lables and
their addresses
• .map: name of the
segments, their address and
size

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Assemble and Link

• The assembler program converts a symbolic source
module (file) into a hexadecimal object file.
ml new.asm
– The version that comes with Visual C will not work for 16-
bit DOS programs
• The linker program, reads the object files created by
the assembler and links them together into a single
execution file
• To use a library called NUMB.LIB while assembling a
program called NEW.ASM, type
ML NEW.ASM /LINK NUMB.LIB
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Data Movement Instructions

Transfer data between Instructions
• registers, • Data movement instructions
• register and memory, include
– MOV, PUSH, POP, XCHG, XLAT,
• register and the stack,
IN, OUT, LEA, LOS, LES, LSS,
• memory and the stack, LGS, LFS, LAHF, SAHF
• accumulator and I/O, • String instructions
• flags and stack. – LODS, STOS, MOVS, INS, and
OUTS.

➢ Memory-to-memory only
with MOVS
Check the reference for more details
Microprocessors and Interfacing 15

Control Transfer Instructions

• Range
– SHORT, intrasegment
• IP changed: one-byte range (within -128 to
+ 127 bytes of the IP)
– Near, intrasegment
• IP changed: two-bytes range (±32K bytes)
• If control is transferred within the same
code segment
– FAR, intersegment
• CS and IP all changed
• If control is transferred outside the current
code segment
• Jumps
• CALL statement

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Conditional Jumps
• Jump according to the value of the flag
register
• Short jumps
• Example:

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Unconditional Jumps
• JMP [SHORT|NEAR|FAR PTR] label
• Near by default
• In FAR jump, both IP and CS change
– another way to obtain a far jump is to define a
label as a far label
– The JMP UP instruction references a far label.
• label UP is defined as a far label by the EXTRN UP:FAR
directive

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Subroutines & CALL Statement

• PROC & ENDP are used to define a subroutine
– Start and end of the procedure, require a label
• PROC is followed by a range definition
– NEAR: procedure is defined within the same code segment with
the caller (most procedures)
• Local: can be used by the current program
– FAR: procedure is defined outside the current code segment of
the caller • In MASM version 6.x, the NEAR
• Global: can be used by any program or FAR type can be followed by
the USES statement.
• USES allows any number of
• CALL is used to call a subroutine registers to be automatically
– Pushes the return address to stack pushed to and popped from
– RET is put at the end of a subroutine the stack within the procedure
– Difference between a far and a near call?
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Calling a NEAR Proc

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Calling a FAR Proc

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Data Types & Definition

• CPU can process either 8-bit or 16 bit ops
– What if your data is bigger?
• Directives
– ORG: indicates the beginning of the offset address
• E.g., ORG 10H
– Define variables:
• DB: allocate byte-size chunks
– E.g., x DB 12 | y DB 23H,48H |Z DB ‘Good Morning!’
| str DB “I’m good!”
• DW, DD, DQ
– EQU: define a constant
• E.g., NUM EQU 234
– DUP: duplicate a given number of characters
• E.g., x DB 6 DUP(23H) | y DW 3 DUP(0FF10H)

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Example

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More about Variables

• For variables, they may have names
– E.g., luckyNum DB 27H, time DW 0FFFFH
• Variable names have three attributes:
– Segment value
– Offset address
Logical address
– Type: how a variable can be accessed (e.g., DB is byte-wise, DW is word-
wise)
• Get the segment value of a variable
– Use SEG directive (E.g., MOV AX, SEG luchyNum)
• Get the offset address of a variable
– Use OFFSET directive, or LEA instruction
– E.g., MOV AX, OFFSET time, or LEA AX, time

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More about Labels

• Label definition:
– Implicitly:
• E.g., AGAIN: ADD AX, 03423H
– Use LABEL directive:
• E.g., AGAIN LABEL FAR
ADD AX, 03423H
• Labels have three attributes:
– Segment value:
– Offset address: Logical address
– Type: range for jumps, NEAR, FAR

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More about the PTR Directive

• Temporarily change the type (range) attribute of
a variable (label)
– To guarantee that both operands in an instruction
match
– To guarantee that the jump can reach a label
• E.g., DATA1 DB 10H,20H,30H ;
DATA2 DW 4023H,0A845H
……
MOV BX, WORD PTR DATA1 ; 2010H -> BX
MOV AL, BYTE PTR DATA2 ; 23H -> AL
MOV WORD PTR [BX], 10H ; [BX],[BX+1]←0010H
• E.g., JMP FAR PTR aLabel

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.COM Executable
• One segment in total
– Put data and code all together
– Less than 64KB

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Next Lecture
• 8086 Assembly
– Addition and subtraction
– Multiplication and division (unsigned)
– BCD arithmetic
– Rotate instructions

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