CSC222: Computer Organization

& Assembly Language

7 – Processor Status & Flags

Instructor: Ms. Nausheen Majeed

The FLAG Register
 Nine individual bits called as flag are used to represent the
8086 processor state.
 Flags are placed in FLAG Register.
 Two types of flags:
 Status Flags: Reflects the result of a computation. Located in
bits: 0, 2, 4, 6, 7 and 11.
 Control Flags: Used to enable/disable certain operations of the
processor. Located in bits 8, 9 and 10.

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 Flags

Overflow Carry flag

Direction Parity flag

Interrupt enable Auxiliary flag
Trap Zero
6 are status flags
Sign
3 are control flag
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The Status Flags
1. Carry Flag:
 Set (CY), Unset (NC)
 The Carry Flag is set to 1 when there is a carry out from MSB on
addition or there is a borrow into the MSB on subtraction. Also affected
by shift and rotate instructions.
 Examples:
 0FFh + 11h = 110h (If a register can store only 1 byte, then where to
store the carry generated by MSB?)
 1000 0001b – 1000 0010b = 11111111b (How processor would know a
borrow is required to perform subtraction?)

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Contd..
2. Parity Flag:
 Set (PE), Unset (PO)
 PE (Even Parity): If the low byte of a result has an even number of one
bits. For Even parity, PF =1
 PO (Odd Parity): If the low byte of a result has odd number of one bits.
For Even parity, PF = 0
 Examples:
 1000 0001b – 1000 0010b = 11111111b (Number of one’s in result = 8,
so PF = 1)

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Contd..
3. Auxiliary Carry Flag:
 Set (AC), Unset (NA)
 The Auxiliary Carry Flag is set to 1 if there is a carry out from bit 3 on
addition, or a borrow into bit 3 on subtraction.
 Used in Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) Operations.
 Examples:
 1000 0001b – 0000 0010b = 01111111b (Borrow from bit 4 to bit 3)

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Contd..
4. Zero Flag:
 Set (ZR), Unset (NZ)
 Zero Flag is set when the result is zero.
 Zero Flag is unset when result is non zero.
 Examples:

0FFh – 0FFh = 00h

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Contd..
5. Sign Flag:
 Set when MSB of a result is 1; it means the result is negative (signed
interpretation)
 Unset when MSB is 0 i.e. result is positive.
 Examples:
0FFh – 0FFh = 00h (MSB = 0, PF = 0)

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Contd..
6. Overflow Flag:
 Set (OV), Unset (NV)
 Set if signed overflow occurred, otherwise it is 0.
 Overflow:
 Range of numbers that can be represented in a computer is limited.
 If the result of an operation falls outside the defined range, Overflow
occurs and the truncated result will be incorrect.
 Four possible outcomes of an arithmetic operation:
 No Overflow
 Only Signed Overflow
 Only Unsigned Overflow
 Both Signed and Unsigned Overflow

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Contd..
 Example of Unsigned Overflow Only:
 AX = FFFFh, BX = 0001h
 ADD AX, BX
 Result: AX = 0000h but the correct answer is 10000h
 But FFFFh = -1 and 0001h= 1, -1+1 = 0 so the stored answer
is correct if consider signs as well. Therefore, no sign
overflow occurred.

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Contd..
 Example of Signed Overflow Only:
 AX = 7FFFh, BX = 7FFFh
 ADD AX, BX
 Result: AX = FFFEh (correct unsigned result, so unsigned
overflow)
 7FFFh = 32767,
 32767 + 32767 = 65534, which is out of ranged for signed
numbers, also FFFE = -2 so signed overflow occurred.

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How the Processor indicates overflow?
 The Processor sets:
 Overflow Flag = 1 for Signed Overflow
 Carry Flag = 1 for Unsigned Overflow

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How the Processor determines that overflow occurred?

 Unsigned Overflow:
 Addition: Carry out from MSB
 The correct Answer is largest than the biggest unsigned number
FFFFh for a word and FFh for a byte.
 Subtraction: Borrow into MSB
 Signed Overflow:
 Addition: Same sign but sum has a different sign (e.g.: when you
add two positive numbers and answer is negative)
 Subtraction: If result has different sign than expected
 In Addition/Subtraction of two numbers with different signs,
overflow is impossible. E.g.: A + (-B) = A – B

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How Instructions Affect the Flags
Instructions Affects Flags

MOV/XCHG None

ADD/SUB All

INC/DEC All except CF

NEG All (Carry Flag = 1 unless result is 0, Overflow

Flag = 1 if word operand is 8000h, or byte
operand is 80h

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 Example 5.1
 ADD AX, BX, where AX contains FFFFh, BX contains FFFFh
 Solution:
 Actual Result = 1FFFEh
 Result stored in AX = FFFEh
 Flags:
 SF = 1 because the MSB is 1
 PF = 0 because there are 7 (odd number) of 1 bits in the low byte of the
result.
 ZF = 0 because nonzero result
 CF = 1 because there is a carry out of the MSB on addition
 OF = 0 because the sign of the stored result is the same as that of the
numbers being added (in binary addition, there is a carry into the MSB and
carry out from MSB also)

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Example 5.2
 ADD AL, BL where AL contains 80h, BL contains 80h
 Solution:
 Actual Result = 100h
 Result in AL = 00h
 Flags:
 SF = 0 because MSB is 0
 PF = 1 because all bits in result are 0
 ZF = 1 because result is 0
 CF = 1 because there is a carry out from MSB
 OF = 1 because the numbers being added are both negative but the
MSB in result is 0 (in binary addition, there is a no carry into the MSB
but there is carry out from MSB.

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Example 5.3
 SUB AX, BX where AX contains 8000h and BX contains 0001
h
 Solution:
 Actual Result = Result in AX = 7FFFh
 Flags:
 SF = 0 because MSB is 0
 PF = 1, Parity is Even because there are 8 one bits in the low byte of
the result
 ZF = 0 because result is nonzero
 CF = 0 because a smaller unsigned number is being subtracted from a
larger one
 OF =1 because we are subtracting a positive number from a negative
number but the result is positive (wrong sign of result)

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Example 5.4
 INC AL where AL contains FFh
 Solution:
 Actual Result = 100h
 Result stored in AL = 00h
 Flags:
 SF = 0
 PF = 1
 ZF = 1
 CF = 0 because CF is unaffected by INC
 OF = 0 because number of unlike sign are being added (there is a
carry into the MSB and also carry out from the MSB)

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Example 5.5
 MOV AX, -5
 Solution:
 Result in AX = -5 = FFFBh
 None of the flags are affected by MOV

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Example 5.6
 NEG AX where AX contains 8000h
 Solution:
 Result in AX = 8000h (2’s complement)
 SF = 1
 PF = 1, in low byte of result, number of 1 bits is 0.
 ZF = 0
 CF = 1 because for NEG, CF is always 1 unless the result is
zero
 OF = 1 because there is no sign change

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Program
ORG 100h
.CODE
MOV AX, 4000h ; AX = 4000h
ADD AX, AX ; AX = 8000h
SUB AX, 0FFFFh ; AX = 8001h
NEG AX ; AX = 7FFFh
INC AX ; AX = 8000h
MOV AH, 4Ch
INT 21H

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Control Flags
1. Direction Flag: Controls the assumed direction used by string processing
instructions. 1=Up, 0=Down
2. Interrupt Flag: Enable/Disable external interrupt.
3. Trap Flag: Determines whether or not CPU will be halted after each
instruction.

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