Department of Computer Engineering Microprocessor Laboratory (2019 course)

Experiments No:2
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Subject:MPL Department :Computer Engg. Class: SE COMP (Div-B)

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Title: Display string

Problem Statement: Write an X86/64 ALP to accept a string and to display its length.

Objective: To learn and understand the operation of accept and display string.

Outcomes: On completion of this practical ,students will be able to

C218.1: Understand and apply various addressing modes and instruction set to implement
assembly language programs

Hardware Requirement: NA

Software Requirement: Ubuntu ,NASM etc.

Theory Contents :

The 80x86 String Instructions: All members of the 80 x 86 families support five different string
instructions: MOVS, CMPS, SCAS, LODS and STOS. They are the string primitives since you
can build most other string operations from these five instructions.

How the String Instructions Operate:The string instructions operate on blocks (contiguous
linear arrays) of memory. For example, the MOVS instruction moves a sequence of bytes from
one memory location to another. The CMPS instruction compares two blocks of memory. The

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Department of Computer Engineering Microprocessor Laboratory (2019 course)

SCAS instruction scans a block of memory for a particular value. These string instructions often
require three operands a destination block address a source block address and (optionally) an
element count. For example, when using the MOVS instruction to copy a string you need a source
address a destination address and a count (the number of string elements to move).

Unlike other instructions which operate on memory the string instructions are single-byte
instructions which don't have any explicit operands. The operands for the string instructions
include

The SI (source index) register

The DI (destination index) register

The CX (count) register

The AX register and

The direction flag in t e FLAGS register.

For example one variant of the MOVS (move string) instruction copies a string from the source
address specified by DS:SI to the destination address sspecified by ES:DI of length CX. Likewise,
the CMPS instruction compares the string pointed at by DS:SI of length CX to the string pointed
at by ES: DI.

Not all instructions have source and destination operands (only MOVS and CMPS support them).
For example, the SCAS instruction (scan a string) compares the value in the accumulator to
values in memory. Despite their differences the 80x86's string instructions all have one thing in
common - using them requires that you deal with two segments the data segment and the extra
segment.

The REP/REPE/REPZ and REPNZ/REPNE Prefixes

The string instructions by themselves do not operate on strings of data. The MOVS instruction for
example will move a single byte word or double word. When executed by itself the MOVS
instruction ignores the value in the CX register. The repeat prefixes tell the 80x86 to do a
multi-byte string operation. The syntax for the repeat prefix is:

Field: Label repeat mnemonic operand; comment

For MOVS:

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Department of Computer Engineering Microprocessor Laboratory (2019 course)

REP MOVS

For CMPS:

REPE CMPS REPZ

REPNE REPNZ CMPS

For SCAS:

REPE SCAS

REPZ SCAS

REPNE SCAS

REPNZ SCAS

For STOS:

REP STOS {operands}

You don't normally use the repeat prefixes with the LODS instruction.

As you can see the presence of the repeat prefixes introduces a new field in the source line
- the repeat prefix field. This field appears only on source lines containing string instructions. In
your source file:

The label field should always begin in column one

The repeat field should begin at the first tab stop and

The mnemonic field should begin at the second tab stop.

When specifying the repeat prefix before a string instruction the string instruction repeats CX
times. Without the repeat prefix the instruction operates only on a single byte word or double
word.

You can use repeat prefixes to process entire strings with a single instruction. You can use the
string instructions without the repeat prefix as string primitive operations to synthesize more
powerful string operations.

The operand field is optional. If present MASM simply uses it to determine the size of the string to

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Department of Computer Engineering Microprocessor Laboratory (2019 course)

operate on. If the operand field is the name of a byte variable the string instruction operates on
bytes. If the operand is a word address the instruction operates on words. Likewise for double
words. If the operand field is not present you must append a "B" "W" or "D" to the end of the
string instruction to denote the size e.g. MOVSB MOVSW or MOVSD.

The Direction Flag

Besides the SI, DI and ax registers one other register controls the 80x86's string instructions - the
flags register. Specifically, the direction flag in the flags register controls how the CPU processes
strings.

If the direction flag is clear the CPU increments SI and DI after operating upon each string
element. For example if the direction flag is clear then executing MOVS will move the byte word
or double word at DS:SI to ES:DI and will increment SI and DI by one two or four. When
specifying the REP prefix before this instruction the CPU increments SI and DI for each element
in the string. At completion the SI and DI registers will be pointing at the first item beyond the
string.

If the direction flag is set, then the 80x86 decrements si and di after processing each string
element. After a repeated string operation, the si and di registers will be pointing at the first byte or
word before the strings if the direction flag was set.

The direction flag may be set or cleared using the cld (clear direction flag) and std (set direction
flag) instructions. When using these instructions inside a procedure keep in mind that they modify
the machine state. Therefore you may need to save the direction flag during the execution of that
procedure.

Assignment Questions (write-ups)

1. What is the use of addressing mode? And Explain its type.
2. Explain File Descriptor of Assembly program?
3. Explain with example string instructions of 80386 Microprocessor.
4. What is the maximum size of the instruction in 80386?
5. Which are string instructions?
6. In string operations which is by default a string source pointer?
7. In string operations which is by default a string destination pointer?
8. What is LEA? What is its use in our program?
9. Write Code of Hex to Ascii Procedure ?

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Department of Computer Engineering Microprocessor Laboratory (2019 course)

Output : The output shows us actual length of string without using inbuilt string Function.

Conclusion:In this way we studied about accepting and displaying strings using 80386
microprocessors.

MPL Practical Oral Question Bank

Sr B Questions Oral 1 Oral 2 Remark

No L (improve
ment)

1 1 What is a MacroProcessor?

2 1 What are the types of registers and their use?

3 2 What is addressing mode and its type?

4 1 Which file descriptors are used in an

Assembly program?

5 2 What is a System call?Give examples of the

same.
6 1 What is the use of Macro?

7 2 Which Assembler directive is used for macro?

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