Scribd
Upload
2 views

Lab 8

This document covers software interrupts, their invocation, servicing, and various DOS and BIOS interrupts. It explains the concept of interrupts, including hardware interrupts, software interrupts, and exceptions, detailing how software interrupts are executed using the INT instruction and managed through the Interrupt Vector Table (IVT). Additionally, it provides examples of using interrupts in assembly language and outlines exercises for students to practice coding with hexadecimal numbers.

Uploaded by

Saqlain Haider
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
2 views

Lab 8

This document covers software interrupts, their invocation, servicing, and various DOS and BIOS interrupts. It explains the concept of interrupts, including hardware interrupts, software interrupts, and exceptions, detailing how software interrupts are executed using the INT instruction and managed through the Interrupt Vector Table (IVT). Additionally, it provides examples of using interrupts in assembly language and outlines exercises for students to practice coding with hexadecimal numbers.

Uploaded by

Saqlain Haider
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Lab 8: Software Interrupts

Learning Outcomes

 Students will know about interrupts and their types.


 Students will know how software interrupts are invoked.
 Students will know how software interrupts are serviced.
 Students will know various DOS and BIOS interrupts.

Interrupts

The notion of "interrupt" was originally conceived to allow devices to interrupt the current
operation of the CPU. For example, whenever a key is pressed, the 8086 must be notified to
read a key code from the keyboard buffer. Such interrupts are called hardware interrupts.
On the other hand, the software interrupts are generated by the programs to get a service
from the operating system or the BIOS. For example, to read a file from disk or a character
from the keyboard.

Another type of interrupt is an exception, which is generated automatically when an error


occurs during the execution of an instruction. For example, divide by zero or overflow.

In this manual, we are going to discuss only software interrupts. The software interrupts are
invoked by using an "INT" instruction, which is followed by an interrupt number. There are
256 interrupts in the system. Some are reserved for exceptions, and the rest can be used as
hardware or software interrupts.

The processor uses the interrupt number to index the Interrupt Vector Table (IVT) to get the
address of a special type of procedure called an Interrupt Service Routine (ISR). The ISR is
executed whenever the interrupt is generated. There are 256 entries in IVT, and each entry
stores the logical address of a respective ISR. IVT resides in memory at physical address
0x00000. Each entry stores the logical address, which is 4 bytes; the total size of the IVT is
256 x 4B = 1 KB. To index the IVT, the processor multiplies the interrupt number by 4 to
get the physical address of the entry against that interrupt number.

The control transfer to an ISR is similar to that of a procedure call. Before transferring
control to the ISR, the processor first saves the address of the next instruction on the
stack, called the return address. 8086 also saves the FLAG register on the stack. When
the ISR returns, the FLAG register and return address are restored from the stack.
BIOS and DOS Interrupts

There are some interrupts that are provided by the BIOS to perform basic I/O operations,
and some are provided by the DOS. There are multiple services against each interrupt
number. The following table shows a few interrupts with few of its services. The service
number is moved to the AH register before invoking an interrupt instruction. Depending on
your needs, you may find more interrupts and services in your textbook.

Interrupt# Service# Description BIOS/DOS


read character from standard input, with echo,
result is stored in AL.
0x21 0x1 DOS
if there is no character in the keyboard buffer, the
function waits until any key is pressed.
read character from standard input, without echo,
result is stored in AL.
0x21 0x7 DOS
if there is no character in the keyboard buffer, the
function waits until any key is pressed.
write character to standard output device.
0x21 0x2 entry: DL = Character to write. DOS
After execution AL = DL.
Print string at DS: DX on screen. String must be
0x21 0x9 DOS
terminated by '$'.
Terminate program and return control to DOS
0x21 0x4C DOS
Set Cursor position.
DH  ROW#
0x10 0x2 DL  COL # BIOS
BH  Page# (i.e., 0)

Display character & attributes on current cursor


position.
AL = character to display.
0x10 0x9 BIOS
BH = page number (i.e. 0).
BL = Color attributes.
CX = number of times to write character.
Example#1:
Program to write “Hello” on screen and terminate itself using interrupts.

.model small

.stack 100h

.data
Msg db “Hello$”
.code
;display string on screen

Mov ax,@data
Mov ah,0x4c ;terminating
Int 0x21 program

Example#2:
Program to read a single-digit number as character from keyboard and convert it to a
number and store in variable.

.model small

.stack 100h

.data

n db ?

.code

Mov ax,@data
Mov ds,ax

mov ah,0x1 ; read character from keyboard


int 0x21

sub al,0x30 ; subtract 0x30 from the character to make it a number


mov n,al ; store the number to variable

mov ah,0x4c
int 0x21
Emu8086 Tutorial Step by Step

Step-1

Double click on the icon on the desktop

Step-2
The following window will appear. Click on “new”.
Step-3:
Click on the “empty workspace” and press OK.

Step-4:
Type the code given in example#2 and click on “emulate”.
Step-5:
Click on the vars button.

Step-6:
Keep clicking on "Single step" till the last instruction and provide input by
pressing a numeric key when prompted.
Lab-8 Exercise

Task-1

Write a code that inputs a 16-bit integer number in hexadecimal


radix from the keyboard and store it in a variable.

Task-2
Write a code that prints a number stored in a 16-bit variable on
screen in a hexadecimal radix.

Task-3
Write a program that inputs two 16-bit hexadecimal numbers
from the user and displays their sum on the screen.

You might also like