Chapter 6

8088/8086 Programming:
Control Flow Instructions and Program
Structures

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Control Flow Instructions and Program
Structures

 Flag-Control Instructions
 Compare Instruction
 Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Subroutines and Subroutine-Handling Instructions
 The Loop and the Loop-Handling Instructions
 String and String-Handling Instructions
 Input/Output Instructions

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Flag-Control Instructions
 8088 microprocessor has a set of flags that monitors the
state of executing instructions or controls options
 Flag-control instructions directly affect the state of the
flags
 Flag-control instructions include
◦ LAHF (Load AH from flags)
◦ SAHF (Store AH into flags)
◦ CLC (Clear carry)
◦ STC (Set carry)
◦ CMC (Complement carry)
◦ CLI (Clear interrupt)
◦ STI (Set interrupt)

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Flag-Control Instructions
 Flag-Control Instructions & Format of the flags in AH
register for LAHF and SAHF

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Flag-Control Instructions
 EXAMPLE:
◦ Write an instruction sequence to save the current
contents of the 8088’s flags in the memory location
at offset MEM1 of the current data segment and then
reload the flags with the contents of the storage
location at offset MEM2

 Solution:
LAHF ; Load AH from flags
MOV [MEM1], AH ; Move content of AH to MEM1
MOV AH, [MEM2] ; Load AH from MEM2
SAHF ; Store content of AH into flags

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Compare Instruction
 The compare operation enable us to determine the
relationship between two numbers (8 bits or 16 bits)

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Compare Instruction
 The process of comparison performed by the CMP
instruction is a subtraction operation
 But the result of this subtraction is not saved
 6 status register can be changed
◦ ZF
◦ SF
◦ CF
◦ AF
◦ OF
◦ PF

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Compare Instruction
 Example: destination equal source
MOV AL,05
CMP AL,05 ;Zero flag set
 Example: destination less than source
MOV AL,04
CMP AL,05 ;Carry flag set
 Example: destination greater than source
MOV AL,06
CMP AL,05 ; ZF=0 and CF=0

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Compare Instruction
 EXAMPLE:
◦ Describe what happens to the status flags as the
sequence of instructions that follows is executed
MOV AX, 1234
MOV BX, ABCD
CMP AX, BX

 Solution:
(AX) = 123416 = 00010010001101002
(BX) = ABCD16 = 10101011110011012
(AX) – (BX) = 00010010001101002 – 10101011110011012 =
01100110011001112
Therefore, ZF = 0, SF = 0, OF = 0, PF = 0, CF = 1, AF = 1

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Test Instruction
 The TEST instruction performs a bit by bit logical AND
operation on the two operands.
 Similar to compare instruction, it does not change the
operands but it only affects the condition of the flag
register.

The general format of TEST instruction

TEST AX, BX
TEST AX, 88
TEST [700], CX
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TEST Instruction
 Example:
TEST AL,1 ;Test LSB of AL
TEST AL,80 ;Test MSB of AL
 Example: jump to a label if either bit 0 or bit 1 in AL is set.
TEST AL,03

JNZ label

 Example: jump to a label if neither bit 0 nor bit 1 in AL is set.

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Unconditional jump instruction
 Conditional jump instruction
 Branching structure – IF-THEN
 Loop program structure – REPEAT-UNTIL and WHILE-
DO
 Applications using the loop and branch software
structures

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Unconditional jump instruction

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Unconditional jump instruction

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Short-label
+ve 00-7F +127
-ve 80-FF -128
 Near-label
+ve 0000-7FFF +32,767
-ve 8000-FFFFF -32,768
 Memptr16
JMP [BX] where BX=1234

 Regptr16
JMP BX where BX=1234

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions

 Far-label
JMP 1234ABCD

 Memptr32
JMP Dword ptr [DI]

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Unconditional jump instruction
◦ Two basic jumps
1. Intrasegment jump
- It is limited to address within the current code segment

2. Intersegment jump
- It permits jumps from one code segment to another

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 EXAMPLE:
1. JMP BX, with the contents of BX be 001016
2. JMP [BX] , with the contents of BX be 100016

 Solution:
1. IP is changed into 001016
2. IP is changed into DS:100016 (20016)

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Conditional jump instruction

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Conditional jump instruction

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Conditional jump instruction

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Conditional jump instruction

The terms below and above refer to unsigned numbers. Above means larger in magntude.
The terms greater and less refer to sign numbers. Greater than means more positive.
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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Branch program structure – IF-THEN
◦ IF-THEN branch program structure using a flag-condition test

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Branch program structure – IF-THEN
◦ IF-THEN branch program structure using register-bit test

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Branch program structure – IF-THEN
◦ IF-THEN branch program structure using an alternative register-bit
test

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Loop program structures – REPEAT-UNTIL
◦ Typical REPEAT-UNTIL instruction sequence

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Control Flow and Jump Instructions
 Loop program structures – WHILE-DO
◦ Typical WHILE-DO instruction sequence

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