8086 Memory Segmentation

The Intel Microprocessors 8th Edition

by Brey
>2–2 REAL MODE MEMORY ADDRESSING
Segments and offset

Assembly language programming Ytha Yu

> Chapter 3 section 3.2

Md. Shafqat Talukder Rakin

Lecturer, Department of CSE,
Courtesy: Nasif M. Sir
United International University
Email id : [email protected]
 MEMORY SEGMENTATION

 - The total memory size is divided into

segments of various sizes.
 - A segment is just an area in memory.
 - The process of dividing memory this way
is called Segmentation.

2
Description of Address Registers

The memory of 8086 is divided into 4

segments namely

Code segment (program memory)

Data segment (data memory)

Stack segment (stack memory)

Extra segment (extra memory)

3
 SEGMENT REGISTERS
Code Segment (CS) register is a 16-bit register containing
address of 64 KB segment with processor instructions.

Stack Segment (SS) register is a 16-bit register containing

address of 64KB segment with program stack

Data Segment (DS) register is a 16-bit register containing

address of 64KB segment with program data

Extra Segment (ES) register is a 16-bit register containing

address of 64KB segment, usually with program data. This
segment is also similar to data memory where additional
data may be stored and maintained
4
 Segmented Memory
Within the 1 MB of
memory, the 8086 defines
4, 64KB memory blocks.

DS: E000 CS: B300

SS: 7000 ES: 5D27
7FFF
F

The segment registers point

to location 0 of each
segment. (The base address)
5
6
Description of Address Registers
• IP: Instruction Pointer
– Points to Next Instruction in code Memory.
• SP: Stack pointer
– Pointer to the top of the stack.
• BP: Base Pointer
- Used to point to the base of the stack.
• SI & DI: Source and Destination Index
register
– is required for string operation

7
8
Figure : The 8086 memory segments.
• A segment starts at a particular address and its maximum
size can go up to 64 Kbytes. But if another segment starts
along this 64Kbytes location of the first segment, the two
segments are said to be overlapping segment.
Figure : Overlapping of the 8086 memory segments.
SEGMENTATION AND OFFSET
 Book chapter: Ytha yu 3.2.3 Segment Registers
 Memory Segment
A memory segment is a block of 64 KB memory blocks. Each
segment is identified by a segment number, starting with 0000H. A
segment number is 16 bits, so the highest segment number is FFFFH.
Within a segment, a memory location is specified by an offset. This
is the number of bytes from the beginning of the segment. The first
byte in a segment has offset 0. The last offset in a segment is FFFFH.

 Segment: Offset Address

A memory location may be specified by providing a segment number
and an offset, written in the form segment: offset; this is known 12
as a
logical address. For example, A4FB:4872h means offset 4872H
within segment A4FBH.
SEGMENTATION AND OFFSET

• Segmentation is used to increase the execution speed of

computer system so that processor can able to fetch and
execute the data from memory easily and quickly.

• The size of address bus of 8086 is 20 and is able to

address 1 Mbytes of physical memory.

• The compete 1 Mbytes memory can be divided into 16

segments, each of 64 Kbytes size.
Once the beginning address is known, the ending
address is found by adding FFFFH (64K).
For example, if a segment register contains 3000H, the
first address of the segment is 30000H, and the last
address is 3FFFFH.
The following table shows several examples of segment
register contents and the starting and ending addresses
of the memory segments selected by each segment
address.
 MEMORY SEGMENTATION
 In 8086, memory has four different types
of segments.
 These are:
-Code Segment
-Data Segment
-Stack Segment
-Extra Segment

6 Oct. 2010
4
 SEGMENT
REGISTERS
 - Each of these segments are addressed by an
address stored in corresponding segment register.
 - These registers are 16-bit in size.
 - Each register stores the base address
(starting address) of the corresponding
segment.
 - Because the segment registers cannot store 20
bits, they only store the upper 16 bits.

5
6
 SEGMENT REGISTERS
 Q: How is a 20-bit address obtained if there are
only 16-bit registers?
 The 20-bit address is called Physical Address.
The 16-bit address is called Logical Address.
 Logical address is in the form of:
Base Address : Offset
 Offset is the displacement of the memory location
from the starting location of the segment.
Thus a memory location may be specified by providing
the 16-bit segment base address, and a 16-bit offset,
written in the form
segment : offset; this is known as a logical address for7
the memory location.
 SEGMENT REGISTERS
For example, the logical address A4FBH : 4872H means
offset 4872H within segment A4FBH, that is, the segment
starting at physical address A4FB0H.
To obtain the corresponding 20-bit physical (i.e., absolute)
address, the 8086 microprocessor first shifts the segment
base address 4 bits to the left (this is equivalent to multiplying
by 10H), and then adds the offset. Thus the physical address
for A4FB:4872h is:
A4FB0h
+ 4872h
A9822h (20-bit physical address)

10
Left shift 3 bit
Bits positions
vacated by shift are
filled with zeros

10
 EXAMPLE

If the data at any location has a logical

address specified as: CS: IP
2222 H : 0016 H
Then, 2222 H is the value of Base address. The
number 0016 H is the offset . Calculate the physical
address?

9
 EXAMPLE
 The value of Code Segment Register (CS) is 2222 H
 Convert this 16-bit address into 20-bit,
 The starting address of the Code Segment becomes
22220H

8
 EXAMPLE (CONTD.)

 Therefore:
2222 * 10 H
+ 0016 H
------------
 Physical
address = 22236 H

11
 2222 H BYTE – 0
22220 H
BYTE – 1
CS Register
BYTE – 2
-
offset = 0016 -
H -
-
-

22236 H

EXAMPLE (CONTD.)
Addressed Byte

12
Figure : The 8086 memory-addressing, using a segment address plus an offset.
Segment: Offset Address (Logical Address)
 To obtain a 20 bit physical address,
• - Shift the segment address 4 bit to
the left ( i.e. multiply by 10h)
• - Add the offset
Example:
Segment : offset = A4FB:4872h
Physical address
= segment number * 10h + offset
= A4FBh * 10h + 4872h = A9822h

Segments may overlap, so the

segment : offset form of an address is not
unique.
27
 Default Segment and Offset Registers
• The 8086 has a set of rules that apply to segments whenever
memory is addressed. These rules, define the segment register
and offset register combination. For example, the code segment
register (CS) is always used with the instruction pointer (IP)
to address the next instruction in a program.
• The code segment register defines the start of the code
segment and the instruction pointer locates the next
instruction within the code segment.
• This combination (CS:IP) locates the next instruction executed
by the CPU.
• For example, if CS=1400H and IP=1200H , the microprocessor
fetches its next instruction from memory location or 15200H.
Default Segment and Offset Registers

• Another default combinations is the stack.

Stack data are referenced through the stack segment register
(SS) at the memory location addressed by either the stack
pointer (SP) or the pointer (BP).

• These combinations are referred to as SS:SP or SS:BP. For

example, SS=2000H and BP=3000H , the CPU addresses
memory location 23000H for the stack segment memory
location. Other defaults of segment and offset combinations
are shown in the following table.
WHERE TO LOOK FOR THE
OFFSET

Segment Offset Registers Function

CS IP Address of the next instruction
DS BX, DI, SI Address of data
SS SP, BP Address in the stack
ES BX, DI, SI Address of destination data
(for string operations)

14
 QUESTION
 The contents of the following registers are:
 CS = 1111 H
 DS = 3333 H
 SS = 2526 H
 IP = 1232 H
 SP = 1100 H
 DI = 0020 H
 Calculate the corresponding physical addresses
for the address bytes in CS, DS and SS.

15
 SOLUTIO
1. CS = 1111 H N
 The base address of the code segment is 11110 H.
 Physical address of memory is given by 11110H +
1232H = 12342H.
2. DS = 3333 H
 The base address of the data segment is 33330 H.
 Physical address of memory is given by 33330H +
0020H = 33350H.
3. SS = 2526 H
 The base address of the stack segment is 25260 H.
 Physical address of memory is given by 25260H + 16
1100H = 26360H.
 Because segments may overlap, the segment : offset form
of an address is not unique for a particular memory
location as is the case for the physical address of that
memory location.
 Example 3.1 For the memory location whose
physical address is specified by 1256Ah, give
the address in segment : offset for segments
1256h and 1240h

33
 Example 3.1 For the memory location whose physical address is
specified by 1256Ah, give the address in segment : offset for segments
1256h and 1240h
 Solution:
Physical address = segment number * 10h + offset
=> 1256AH = 1256h * 10H + offset
=> Offset = 1256AH – 12560H = AH
So, 1256AH = 1256 H : 000AH
Physical address = segment number * 10h + offset
=> 1256AH = 1240H * 10H + offset
=> Offset = 1256AH – 12400H = 16AH
So, 1256AH = 1240 H : 016AH
34
Segment: Offset Address (Logical Address)

Example 3.2 A memory location has

physical address 805D2h. In what segment
does it have offset BFD2h?

35
Segment: Offset Address (Logical Address)

 Example 3.2 A memory location has physical address 805D2h. In what

segment does it have offset BFD2h?
 Solution:
Physical address = segment number * 10h + offset
=> 805D2h = segment number * 10h + BFD2h
Þ Segment number = (805D2h – BFD2h)/10h = 74600h/10h =
7460h
So, 805D2h = 7460 h : BFD2h

36