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L1-introduction to assembly language programming

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L1-introduction to assembly language programming

Uploaded by

Joseph
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© © All Rights Reserved
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INTRODUCTION TO ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE

BY
J. Marwa
Prerequis
ite
• Before proceeding with this unit, you should have a basic understanding of
Computer Programming terminologies.

• A basic understanding of any of the programming languages will help you in


understanding the Assembly programming concepts and move fast on the
learning track.
Intended Learning
Outcomes
1. Assembly language applications
2. Basic features of PC hardware
3. Basic Microprocessor design
Levels of programming
languages
1. Machine language
• Consist of individual instructions that will be executed by the CPU one at a time

2. Assembly language(low-level language)


• Designed for specific family of processors( different processor/family/group has different
assembly language
3. High level language
• C,C++, Java
• Designed to eliminate the technicalities of a given computer
• Statements compiled in ahigh level language typically generate many low-level
instructions
Definiti
on
• Assembly language is a low-level programming language for a computer, or other
programmable device specific to a particular computer architecture.

• Assembly language is converted into executable machine code by a utility


program referred to as an assembler like NASM, MASM etc.

• So, the low-level assembly language is designed for a specific family of processors
that represents various instructions in symbolic code and a more understandable
form.
Advantages of Assembly
Language
An understanding of assembly language provides knowledge of:

1. Interface of programs with OS, processor and BIOS


2. Representation of data in memory and other external devices
3. How processor accesses and executes instruction
4. How instructions accesses and process data
5. How a program access external devices
6. It requires less memory and execution time
7. It allows hardware-specific complex jobs in an easier way
8. It is suitable for time-critical jobs
9. It is most suitable for writing interrupt service routines and other memory
resident programs.
Assembly language
applications
• Assembly languages remain the subject of study by computer science students, in order to help
them understand how modern software relates to its underlying hardware platforms.

 High Frequency trading (Speed and accuracy is key for profits)


 Access to registers or instructions that are not usually provided by a High-level language
 Direct hardware manipulation (device drivers)
 Transition from Bootloader to Application
 Code Optimization in a Control Loop
 To study Microcontroller Fundamentals
Basic features of PC
hardware
• The main internal hardware of a PC consists of the processor, memory
and the registers.
• The registers are processor components that hold data and address.
• To execute a program the system copies it from the external
device into the internal memory.
• The processor executes the program instructions
Con
t’
• The fundamental unit of computer storage is a bit, and it could be on (1) or off
(0).
• A group of nine related bits makes a byte.
• 8 bits are used for data and the last one is used for parity.
• According to the rule of parity, number of bits that are on (1) in each byte should
always be odd.
• So, the parity bit is used to make the number of bits in a byte odd.
• If the parity is even, the system assumes that there had been a parity error
(though rare) which might have caused due to hardware fault or electrical
disturbance.
Processor data
sizes
1) Word: a 2-byte data item
2) Doubleword: a 4-byte (32 bit) data item
3) Quadword: an 8-byte (64 bit) data item
4) Paragraph: a 16-byte (128 bit) area
5) Kilobyte: 1024 bytes
6) Megabyte: 1,048,576 bytes
The Binary Number
System
• Every number system uses positional notation i.e., each position in which a digit is written has a
different positional value.
• Each position is power of the base, which is 2 for binary number system, and these powers begin
at 0 and increase by 1.
• The value of a binary number is based on the presence of 1 bits and their positional value.
• So, the value of the given binary number is: 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 +16 + 32 + 64 + 128 = 255, which is same
as 28 - 1.

Table 1: The following table shows the positional values for an 8-bit binary number, where all bits are set on.
The Hexadecimal Number
System
• Hexadecimal number system uses base 16.
• The digits range from 0 to 15.
• By convention, the letters A through F is used to represent the hexadecimal digits corresponding to decimal
values 10 through 15.
• Main use of hexadecimal numbers in computing is for abbreviating lengthy binary representations
• To convert a binary number to its hexadecimal equivalent, break it into groups of 4 consecutive groups each,
starting from the right, and write those groups over the corresponding digits of the hexadecimal number.

Example: Binary number 1000 1100 1101 0001 is equivalent to hexadecimal - 8CD1
• To convert a hexadecimal number to binary just write each hexadecimal digit into its 4-digit binary
equivalent.
Example: Hexadecimal number FAD8 is equivalent to binary - 1111 1010 1101 1000
Table 2:The following table provides the decimal, binary and
hexadecimal equivalents:
Binary
Arithmetic
• The following table illustrates four simple rules for binary addition:

• Rules (iii) and (iv) shows a carry of a 1-bit into the next left position.

Example:
Con
t’
• A negative binary value is expressed in two's complement notation.
• According to this rule, to convert a binary number to its negative value is to reverse its bit values and add 1.

• To subtract one value from another, convert the number being subtracted to two's complement format and add the
numbers.

• Overflow of the last 1 bit is lost.


Addressing Data in
Memory
• The process through which the processor controls the execution of instructions is
referred as the fetch-decode execute cycle, or the execution cycle.
• It consists of three continuous steps:
• Fetching the instruction from memory
• Decoding or identifying the instruction
• Executing the instruction
• The processor may access one or more bytes of memory at a time.
• Let us consider a hexadecimal number 0725H.
• This number will require two bytes of memory. The high-order byte or most significant
byte is 07 and the low order byte is 25.
• The processor stores data in reverse-byte sequence i.e., the low-order byte is stored in
low memory address and high-order byte in high memory address.
• Therefore, if processor brings the value 0725H from register to memory, it will transfer
25 first to the lower memory address and 07 to the next memory address.
• When the processor gets the numeric data from memory to register, it again reverses the bytes. There
are two kinds of memory addresses:

• An absolute address - a direct reference of specific location.


• The segment address (or offset) - starting address of a memory segment with the offset value
Basic Microprocessor
Design

General architecture of microprocessor


In the above figure:

• Buses: Highways that allow exchange of words between blocks


• Arithmetic & Logic Unit: Used for arithmetic and logic operations
• Internal registers: Temporary storage of data, instructions, and addresses during
execution of a program.
EN
D
Any Questions!

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