Assembly Language

Lecture 1

Ahmed Sallam
Slides based on original lecture slides by Dr. Mahmoud Elgayyar

25/09/2013 Assemly Language-Lecture 1 1

Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information

 Syllabus

 Course arrangment

 General rules

 Why Assembly?
 Blast from the past
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems

 Boolean operations and algebra

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General information
 Lecture
 Lecturer: Ahmed Sallam
 Contact: [email protected] Subject “Student”
 Office hours Wednesday, 1:00 to 2:00 PM email first

 Lab
 Assitant Israa
 Contact [email protected]

 Textbook
 Assembly Language for x86 Processors 6th ed.
(Kip Irvine)

 Course Web page:

 Http://sallamah.weebly.com
 You must visit every Tuesday (>=8:00 PM)

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Syllabus

 Ch1 : Basic Concept

 Ch 2: X86 processor architecture
 Ch 3: Assembly language fundamentals
 Ch 4: Data transfer, addressing and arithmetic
 Ch 5: Procedures
 Ch 6: Conditional processing
 Ch 7: Integer arithmetic
 Ch 8: Advanced procedure
 Ch 9: Strings and arrays

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Course Organization

 Lecture Assignment
 Submitted in groups (3-5 students)
 Submitted to Israa
 (Firm deadline)

 Quiz every 3rd Lecture (Second half)

 Mostly, from assignments.

 Midterm exam

 Bonus

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General rules
 Coming late with logical  Disturb others
exception (<=10 min)
 Eating/Sleeping
 Drinking
 Mobile phones
 Asking any time
 Topics other than CS
 Correcting me when I made a
mistake  Not attending the lecture and
asking me to repeat
 Leave the room- don’t come
back before a new start  Outdoor discussions
 Emailing me  Calling me (except the
monitor)

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Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information

 Syllabus

 Course arrangment

 General rules

 Blast from the past

 Why Assembly?
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems

 Boolean operations and algebra

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Blast from the past

 Once upon a time

Slide rule

Abacus

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Blast from the past cont.1

 17th Century (Gears/Machines)

Curta (1948)

Pascaline

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Blast from the past cont.2

 20th Century (Electronic)

Vacuum Tube

Half Adder

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Blast from the past cont.3

 Memory ?!!

Punched Card

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Blast from the past

 Everything is there now, let’s start to code ?!!!

Intel Machine Language Assembly Language

A1 00000000 mov eax, A

F7 25 00000004 mul B
03 05 00000008
= add eax, C
E8 00500000 call WriteInt

C++ language

cout<<(A*B+C)

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Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information
 Syllabus
 Course arrangment
 General rules
 Blast from the past
 Why Assembly?
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems
 Boolean operations and algebra

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Why Assembly

 Communicate with hardware (drivers, embedded

systems)

 Games, Graphics

 Some thing High level programming can’t do

(context switch)

 Better understanding of programming (reverse

engineering)

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Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information
 Syllabus
 Course arrangment
 General rules
 Blast from the past
 Why Assembly?
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems
 Boolean operations and algebra

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 Layered Architecture
 Computers are complicated

 Layers  abstraction (Hiding the complexity of layers below)

 We also layer programming languages!

 Program execution:

 Interpretation

 Compilation (Translation)

 Every CPU has a built-in interpreter for its own "instruction set"
(ISA, Instruction Set Architecture; the binary language it is
programmed in)

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Machine Levels

High Level
Level 4
Language

Level 3 Assembly Language

Instruction Set
Level 2 Architecture (ISA)

Level 1 Digital Logic

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 C++ Concepts
• Programmer (with an editor)
Visual
Studio
• Produces a C Program

• C Compiler (translator)
Microsoft C
Compiler
• Produces assembly language (object file)

• Microsoft Assembler "MASM" (translator)

MASM • Produces Intel Binary code

• Intel x86 CPU (e.g., Intel Core i5)

x86 • Executes (interprets) Intel Binary Instructions

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Java – Different Concepts

•Programmer
JEdit •Produces a Java Program

•Java Compiler (translator)

Javacc •Produces Java Byte Code (class file)

•JVM (Java Virtual Machine – Interpreter)

Java •Runs the byte code to produce output

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The Key Concepts
1. A High-Level Language (C, C++, Fortran,
High Level
Cobol) is compiled (translated) into Assembly Language
Language Assembly
Language
2. The Assembly Language (for a specific CPU)
Instruction Set
is assembled into binary machine language
Architecture (ISA)
3. The binary machine language is interpreted by
Digital Logic
one of the CPUs in the computer

4. The CPU (Intel, AMD, etc.) uses digital logic

circuits to do the interpretation and generate
the results

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Linking and Loading
 Assembling (running MASM) does not actually create
a program that can be executed …

 There are (at least) 4 basic steps that need to be

performed:
 Assembling – translate code into binary
 Linking – join all the parts together and resolve names
 Loading – move the program into memory
 Execution – run the program

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Assembly Language

 Designed for a specific family of CPUs (i.e., Intel x86)

 Consists of a mnemonic (simplified command word)

followed by the needed data
 Example: mov eax, A
 Move into register eax the contents of the location called A

 Generally each mnemonic (instruction) is equivalent to

a single binary CPU instruction

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CPU Instruction Set

 Appendix B: (Intel IA-32) we will not cover all

 Varies for each CPU

 Intel machines use an approach known as CISC

 CISC = Complex Instruction Set Computing
 Lots of powerful and complex (but slow) instructions

 Opposite is RISC (Reduced) with only a few very

simple instructions that run fast

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Digital Logic
 CPUs are constructed from digital logic gates such as
NAND, OR, XOR, etc.

 Implemented using transistors and various families of

silicon devices

 Super complicated – Many millions of transistors on a

single CPU
Logic is the
fundamental language of computing

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Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information
 Syllabus
 Course arrangment
 General rules
 Blast from the past
 Why Assembly?
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems

 Boolean operations and algebra

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Data Representation

 Computers work with binary data (sometimes

represented in octal – base 8, or hexadecimal – base
16)

 You should know how to translate between these

formats – THERE ARE NO CALCULATORS ON AN
EXAM!

 I expect you to be able to do simple operations in these

bases (you can mostly ignore octal)

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Binary Numbers (Base 2)
 Digits are 1 and 0
 1 = true, current flowing/a charge present

 0 = false, no current flowing/no charge present

 MSB – most significant bit

 LSB – least significant bit

 Bits numbered from LSB to MSB, starting from 0

MSB LSB
1011001010011100
15 0

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Binary  Decimal
1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0

27=128 26=64 25=32 24=16 23=8 22=4 21 = 2 20=1

 Simple! Don't memorize formulas from book (makes it harder)

 Learn the powers of 2:
 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512, 1024, 2048, 4096,…

 Then, just add up the appropriate powers

 10110010 = 128 + 32 + 16 + 2 = 178

 Real programmers use a calculator! We'll just have simple values

in exams so you don't need a calculator and practice the basics

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Decimal  Binary

 Repeatedly divide the decimal integer by 2. Each remainder is a

binary digit in the translated value:

Division Quotient Remainder

37/2 18 1
18/2 9 0
9/2 4 1
4/2 2 0
2/2 1 0
1/2 0 1

37 = 100101
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Binary Addition
 Same as normal addition, from right to left
 0 + 0 = 0

 0 + 1 = 1, 1 + 0 = 1

 1 + 1 = 1 with a carry of 1

carry: 1

0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 (4)

+ 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 (7)

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 (11)
bit position: 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

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Hexadecimal Numbers (Base 16)
 Binary values are represented in hexadecimal
 Not that hard: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F
YOU WILL NEED THIS! Programmers work frequently in Hex

Binary Decimal Hex Binary Decimal Hex

0000 0 0 1000 8 8
0001 1 1 1001 9 9
0010 2 2 1010 10 A
0011 3 3 1011 11 B
0100 4 4 1100 12 C
0101 5 5 1101 13 D
0110 6 6 1110 14 E
0111 7 7 1111 15 F

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Binary  Hexadecimal
 Each hexadecimal digit corresponds to 4 binary bits.
Example: 000101101010011110010100

Group binary into groups of 4 digits (starting from the RIGHT)

Translate the binary into decimal by adding the powers of 1,2,4,

and 8
E.g., 0100 = 4, 1001 = 8 + 1 = 9, 0110 = 4 + 2 + 1 = 7, 1010 = 8 + 2
= 10, 0110 = 4 + 2 = 6, 0001 = 1
Translate the decimal into hex: 1 6 10 7 9 4 = 16A794

0001 0110 1010 0111 1001 0100

1 6 A 7 9 4

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Hexadecimal  Decimal
 Need to know the powers of 16: 1,16,256, 4096, …

 TOO HARD! Just use a calculator for this!

 WHAT IS IMPORTANT is to know that, FROM the RIGHT, the

digits represent: 160 , 161, 162, …

 ALSO REMEMBER: x0 = 1 for all x

 The rightmost digit in a binary, octal, decimal, or hexadecimal

number is the base to the power of 0

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Integer Storage Sizes (Types)
byte 8

word 16
doubleword 32

quadword 64

 Byte = 8 Bits
 Word = 2 Bytes
 Doubleword = 2 Words = 4 Bytes
 Quadword = 4 Words = 8 Bytes = 64 Bits = Max value for a 64 bit CPU

Storage Type Max Value Power of 2

Unsigned byte 255 28-1
Unsigned word 65,535 216-1
Unsigned doubleword 4,294,967,295 ?

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Singed Integers
sign bit

1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0
Negative

0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 Positive

The highest bit 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 

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Two’s Complement
 Negative numbers are stored in two's complement notation

 Represents the additive Inverse

 If you add the number to its additive inverse, the sum is zero.

Starting value: 00000001

Step1: reverse the bits 11111110
Step 2: add 1 to value from step 1 11111110
+
00000001
Sum: two’s complement representation 11111111

Note that 00000001 + 11111111 = 00000000

 Hexadecimal examples:
 6A3D  95C2 + 0001  95C3
 21F0  DE0F + 0001  DE10
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Singed Binary Decimal
 If the highest bit is a 0, convert it directly as unsigned binary
 If the highest bit is 1, the number is stored in two’s complement, form
its two’s complement a second time to get its positive equivalent:
Starting value: 11110000
Step1: reverse the bits 00001111
Step 2: add 1 to value from step 1 00010000
Convert to decimal and add (-) sign -16

 Converting signed decimal to binary:

1. Convert the absolute value into binary

2. If the original decimal is negative, form the two’s complement

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Max & Min Values
Storage Type Range(Min-Max ) Power of 2
Unsigned byte 0 to 255 0 to (28-1)
Singed byte -128 to +127 -27 to (27-1)
Unsigned word 0 to 65,535 0 to (216-1)
Signed word -32,768 to +32,767 -215 to (215-1)

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Character Storage
 Character sets (Variations of the same thing)
 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

 Null means zero/0

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Using the ASCII Table
 Back inside cover of book (Need to know
this)
 To find hexadecimal code of a character:
 ASCII Code of a is 61 hexadecimal

 Character codes 0 to 31  ASCII control

characters
Code Description
(Decimal)
8 Backspace
9 Horizontal tab
10 Line feed (move to next line)
13 Carriage return (leftmost output
column)
27 Escape

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Endianism
 Intel CPUs are "Little Endian"
 For Words, Doublewords, and Quadwords (i.e., types with more than one
byte), Least Significant Bytes Come First
Memory
 Quadword (8 Bytes):
Address Byte
x B0
B7 B6 B5 B4 B3 B2 B1 B0
x+1 B1
x+2 B2
x+3 B3
x+4 B4
x+5 B5
x+6 B6
x+7 B7

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Outline
 Introduction to the course
 General information
 Syllabus
 Course arrangment
 General rules
 Blast from the past
 Why Assembly?
 Layered Perspective of Computing
 Data Representation
 Base 2, 8, 10, 16 Number systems

 Boolean operations and algebra

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Boolean Algebra
 The fundamental model by which digital circuits are designed and, as a
consequence, in which CPUs operate
 Basic assembly language instructions thus perform Boolean operations (so
we need to know them)
 Based on symbolic logic, designed by George Boole
 Boolean expressions created from: NOT, AND, OR

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NOT
 Inverts (reverses) a Boolean value
 Truth table for Boolean NOT operator:

Digital gate diagram for NOT:

NOT

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AND
Truth table for Boolean AND operator: 

Digital gate diagram for AND:

AND

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OR
Truth table for Boolean OR operator: 

Digital gate diagram for OR:

OR

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Operator Precedence
1. Parentheses
2. NOT
3. AND
4. OR

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Truth Tables
 You won't formally have to create these, but you should remember how to
trace out a complex logical operation
 Highly complex logical expressions are often a sign of poor program
structure and design!
 Example: (Y ^ S)  (X ^ ¬S)

Two-input multiplexer
S

X
mux Z
Y

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Thoughts…
 Assembly language is how software is constructed at the
lowest levels
 Assembly language has a one-to-one relationship with
binary machine language
 Many programmers never see more than a HLL (e.g.,
C++) inside and IDE (e.g., Visual Studio) but really, there
is a LOT more going on

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And…
 Nobody uses octal anymore
 Hex is nothing more than a useful way to manipulate
binary
 CPUs do 3 things – Assembly programming is just using
these concepts to do larger and more complicated tasks
 Add (basic integer math)

 Compare (Boolean algebra)

 Move things around

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