Addressing Modes

Last Updated : 14 Feb, 2023

Addressing Modes– The term addressing modes refers to the way in

which the operand of an instruction is specified. The addressing mode
specifies a rule for interpreting or modifying the address field of the
instruction before the operand is actually executed.

Addressing modes for 8086 instructions are divided into two categories:

1) Addressing modes for data

2) Addressing modes for branch

The 8086 memory addressing modes provide flexible access to memory,

allowing you to easily access variables, arrays, records, pointers, and
other complex data types. The key to good assembly language
programming is the proper use of memory addressing modes.

An assembly language program instruction consists of two parts

The memory address of an operand consists of two components:

IMPORTANT TERMS

Starting address of memory segment.

Effective address or Offset: An offset is determined by adding any
combination of three address elements: displacement, base and index.

Displacement: It is an 8 bit or 16 bit immediate value given in

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Base: Contents of base register, BX or BP. Got It !
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Content of index register SI or DI.
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 According to different ways of specifying an operand by 8086
microprocessor, different addressing modes are used by 8086.

Addressing modes used by 8086 microprocessor are discussed below:

Implied mode:: In implied addressing the operand is specified in the

instruction itself. In this mode the data is 8 bits or 16 bits long and data
is the part of instruction.Zero address instruction are designed with
implied addressing mode.

Example: CLC (used to reset Carry flag to 0)

Immediate addressing mode (symbol #):In this mode data is present in

address field of instruction .Designed like one address instruction
format.
Note:Limitation in the immediate mode is that the range of constants
are restricted by size of address field.

Example: MOV AL, 35H (move the data 35H into AL register)

Register mode: In register addressing the operand is placed in one of 8

bit or 16 bit general purpose registers. The data is in the register that is
specified by the instruction.
Here one register reference is required to access the data.
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 Example: MOV AX,CX (move the contents of CX register to AX
register)

Register Indirect mode: In this addressing the operand’s offset is

placed in any one of the registers BX,BP,SI,DI as specified in the
instruction. The effective address of the data is in the base register or
an index register that is specified by the instruction.
Here two register reference is required to access the data.

The 8086 CPUs let you access memory indirectly through a register
using the register indirect addressing modes.

MOV AX, [BX](move the contents of memory location s

addressed by the register BX to the register AX)

Auto Indexed (increment mode): Effective address of the operand is the

contents of a register specified in the instruction. After accessing the
operand, the contents of this register are automatically incremented to
point to the next consecutive memory location.(R1)+.
Here one register reference,one memory reference and one ALU
operation is required to access the data.
Example:

Add R1, (R2)+ // OR

R1 = R1 +M[R2]
R2 = R2 + d

Useful for stepping through arrays in a loop. R2 – start of array d – size

of an element

Auto indexed ( decrement mode): Effective address of the operand is

the contents
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decremented tomobile to the previous consecutive memory location. –
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 (R1)
Here one register reference,one memory reference and one ALU
operation is required to access the data.
Example:

Add R1,-(R2) //OR

R2 = R2-d
R1 = R1 + M[R2]

Auto decrement mode is same as auto increment mode. Both can also be
used to implement a stack as push and pop . Auto increment and Auto
decrement modes are useful for implementing “Last-In-First-Out” data
structures.

Direct addressing/ Absolute addressing Mode (symbol [ ]): The

operand’s offset is given in the instruction as an 8 bit or 16 bit
displacement element. In this addressing mode the 16 bit effective
address of the data is the part of the instruction.
Here only one memory reference operation is required to access the
data.

Example:ADD AL,[0301] //add the contents of offset

address 0301 to AL

Indirect addressing Mode (symbol @ or () ):In this mode address field

of instruction contains the address of effective address.Here two
references are required.
1st reference to get effective address.
2nd reference to access the data.
Based on the availability of Effective address, Indirect mode is of two
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 1. Register Indirect:In this mode effective address is in the register, and
corresponding register name will be maintained in the address field
of an instruction.
Here one register reference,one memory reference is required to
access the data.
2. Memory Indirect:In this mode effective address is in the memory,
and corresponding memory address will be maintained in the
address field of an instruction.
Here two memory reference is required to access the data.

Indexed addressing mode: The operand’s offset is the sum of the

content of an index register SI or DI and an 8 bit or 16 bit displacement.

Example:MOV AX, [SI +05]

Based Indexed Addressing: The operand’s offset is sum of the content

of a base register BX or BP and an index register SI or DI.

Example: ADD AX, [BX+SI]

Based on Transfer of control, addressing modes are:

PC relative addressing mode: PC relative addressing mode is

used to implement intra segment transfer of control, In this mode
effective address is obtained by adding displacement to PC.

EA= PC + Address field value

PC= PC + Relative value.

Base register addressing mode:Base register addressing mode is

used to implement inter segment transfer of control.In this mode
effective address is obtained by adding base register value to
address field value.

EA= Base
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Note:
 1. PC relative and based register both addressing modes are
suitable for program relocation at runtime.
2. Based register addressing mode is best suitable to write
position independent codes.

Advantages of Addressing Modes

1. To give programmers to facilities such as Pointers, counters for loop

controls, indexing of data and program relocation.
2. To reduce the number bits in the addressing field of the Instruction.

Sample GATE Question

Match each of the high level language statements given on the left hand
side with the most natural addressing mode from those listed on the right
hand side.

1. A[1] = B[J]; a. Indirect addressing

2. while [*A++]; b. Indexed addressing
3. int temp = *x; c. Autoincrement

(A) (1, c), (2, b), (3, a)

(B) (1, a), (2, c), (3, b)
(C) (1, b), (2, c), (3, a)
(D) (1, a), (2, b), (3, c)

Answer: (C)

Explanation:

List 1 List 2
1) A[1] = B[J]; b) Index addressing
Here indexing is used

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3) int temp = *x; a) Indirect addressing
 Here temp is assigned the value of int type stored
at the address contained in X

Hence (C) is correct solution.

lease write comments if you find anything incorrect, or you want to share
more information about the topic discussed above.

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 Difference between assembly language Difference between Memory based and
and high level language Register based Addressing Modes

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