Addressing Modes

Introduction
• Efficient software development for the
microprocessor requires a complete familiarity
with the addressing modes employed by each
instruction.
• This chapter explains the operation of the
stack memory so that the PUSH and POP
instructions and other stack operations will
be understood.
Objectives
Upon completion of this topic, you will be able to:

• Explain the operation of each data-addressing

mode.
• Use the data-addressing modes to form
assembly language statements.
• Explain the operation of each program
memory-addressing mode.
• Use the program memory-addressing modes
to form assembly and machine language
statements.
Objectives (cont.)
Upon completion of this topic, you will be able to:

• Select the appropriate addressing mode to

accomplish a given task.
• Describe sequence of events that place data
onto the stack or remove data from the stack.
• Explain how a data structure is placed in
memory and used with software.
1 DATA ADDRESSING MODES
• MOV instruction is a common and flexible
instruction.
– provides a basis for explanation of data-
addressing modes
• Source is to the right and destination the left,
next to the opcode MOV.
– an opcode, or operation code, tells the
microprocessor which operation to perform
The MOV instruction showing the source, destination, and direction of data flow.
• Figure shows all possible variations of the
data-addressing modes using MOV.
• These data-addressing modes are found with
all versions of the Intel microprocessor.
8086–Core2 data-addressing modes.
Register Addressing
• The most common form of data addressing.
– once register names learned, easiest to apply.
• The microprocessor contains these 8-bit
register names used with register addressing:
AH, AL, BH, BL, CH, CL, DH, and DL.
• 16-bit register names: AX, BX, CX, DX, SP,
BP, SI, and DI.
• In 80386 & above, extended 32-bit register
names are: EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX, ESP, EBP,
EDI, and ESI.
• 64-bit mode register names are: RAX, RBX,
RCX, RDX, RSP, RBP, RDI, RSI, and R8
through R15.
• Important for instructions to use registers that
are the same size.
– never mix an 8-bit \with a 16-bit register, an 8- or
a 16-bit register with a 32-bit register
– this is not allowed by the microprocessor and
results in an error when assembled
The effect of executing the MOV BX, CX instruction at the point just before the BX
register changes. Note that only the rightmost 16 bits of register EBX change.
• Figure shows the operation of the MOV BX,
CX instruction.
• The source register’s contents do not change.
– the destination register’s contents do change
• The contents of the destination register or
destination memory location change for all
instructions except the CMP and TEST
instructions.
• The MOV BX, CX instruction does not affect
the leftmost 16 bits of register EBX.
Immediate Addressing
• Term immediate implies that data immediately
follow the hexadecimal opcode in the memory.
– immediate data are constant data
– data transferred from a register or memory
location are variable data
• Immediate addressing operates upon a byte
or word of data.
• Figure shows the operation of a MOV
EAX,13456H instruction.
The operation of the MOV EAX,3456H instruction. This instruction copies the
immediate data (13456H) into EAX.

• As with the MOV instruction illustrated in

Figure , the source data overwrites the
destination data.
• In symbolic assembly language, the symbol #
precedes immediate data in some
assemblers.
– MOV AX,#3456H instruction is an example
• Most assemblers do not use the # symbol,
but represent immediate data as in the MOV
AX,3456H instruction.
– an older assembler used with some Hewlett-
Packard logic development does, as may others
– in this text, the # is not used for immediate data
• The symbolic assembler portrays immediate
data in many ways.
• The letter H appends hexadecimal data.
• If hexadecimal data begin with a letter, the
assembler requires the data start with a 0.
– to represent a hexadecimal F2, 0F2H is used
in assembly language
• Decimal data are represented as is and
require no special codes or adjustments.
– an example is the 100 decimal in the
MOV AL,100 instruction
Direct Data Addressing
• Applied to many instructions in a typical
program.
• Two basic forms of direct data addressing:
– direct addressing, which applies to a MOV between
a memory location and AL, AX, or EAX
– displacement addressing, which applies to almost
any instruction in the instruction set
• Address is formed by adding the displacement
to the default data segment address or an
alternate segment address.
Direct Addressing
• Direct addressing with a MOV instruction
transfers data between a memory location,
located within the data segment, and the AL
(8-bit), AX (16-bit), or EAX (32-bit) register.
– usually a 3-byte long instruction
• MOV AL,DATA loads AL from the data
segment memory location DATA (1234H).
– DATA is a symbolic memory location, while
1234H is the actual hexadecimal location
The operation of the MOV AL,[1234H] instruction when DS=1000H .

• This instruction transfers a copy contents of

memory location 11234H into AL.
– the effective address is formed by adding
1234H (the offset address) and 10000H
(the data segment address of 1000H times
10H) in a system operating in the real mode
Displacement Addressing
• Almost identical to direct addressing, except
the instruction is 4 bytes wide instead of 3.
• This type of direct data addressing is much
more flexible because most instructions use it.
Register Indirect Addressing
• Allows data to be addressed at any memory
location through an offset address held in any
of the following registers: BP, BX, DI, and SI.
• In addition, 80386 and above allow register
indirect addressing with any extended register
except ESP.
• In the 64-bit mode, the segment registers
serve no purpose in addressing a location
in the flat model.
The operation of the MOV AX,[BX] instruction when BX = 1000H and DS = 0100H.
Note that this instruction is shown after the contents of memory are transferred to AX.
• The data segment is used by default with
register indirect addressing or any other mode
that uses BX, DI, or SI to address memory.

• If the BP register addresses memory, the

stack segment is used by default.
– these settings are considered the default for
these four index and base registers
• In some cases, indirect addressing requires
specifying the size of the data by the special
assembler directive BYTE PTR, WORD
PTR, DWORD PTR, or QWORD PTR.
– these directives indicate the size of the memory
data addressed by the memory pointer (PTR)
• The directives are with instructions that
address a memory location through a
pointer or index register with immediate data.
• Indirect addressing often allows a program to
refer to tabular data located in memory.
• Figure shows the table and the BX register
used to sequentially address each location in
the table.
• To accomplish this task, load the starting
location of the table into the BX register
with a MOV immediate instruction.
• After initializing the starting address of the
table, use register indirect addressing to
store the 50 samples sequentially.
An array (TABLE) containing 50 bytes that are indirectly addressed through register
BX.
Base-Plus-Index Addressing
• Similar to indirect addressing because it
indirectly addresses memory data.
• The base register often holds the beginning
location of a memory array.
– the index register holds the relative position
of an element in the array
– whenever BP addresses memory data, both the
stack segment register and BP generate the
effective address
Locating Data with Base-Plus-Index
Addressing
• Figure shows how data are addressed by the
MOV DX,[BX + DI] instruction when the
microprocessor operates in the real mode.
• The Intel assembler requires this addressing
mode appear as [BX][DI] instead of [BX + DI].
• The MOV DX,[BX + DI] instruction is MOV DX,
[BX][DI] for a program written for the Intel ASM
assembler.
 An example showing how the base-plus-index addressing mode functions for the
MOV DX,[BX + DI] instruction. Notice that memory address 02010H is accessed
because DS=0100H, BX=1000H and DI=0010H.
Locating Array Data Using Base-
Plus-Index Addressing
• A major use is to address elements in a
memory array.
• To accomplish this, load the BX register (base)
with the beginning address of the array and
the DI register (index) with the element
number to be accessed.
• Figure shows the use of BX and DI to access
an element in an array of data.
An example of the base-plus-index addressing mode. Here an element (DI) of an
ARRAY (BX) is addressed.
Register Relative Addressing
• Similar to base-plus-index addressing and
displacement addressing.
– data in a segment of memory are addressed by
adding the displacement to the contents of a base
or an index register (BP, BX, DI, or SI)
• Figure shows the operation of the MOV AX,
[BX+1000H] instruction.
• A real mode segment is 64K bytes long.
The operation of the MOV AX, [BX+1000H] instructon, when BX=100H and
DS=0200H .
Addressing Array Data with
Register Relative
• It is possible to address array data with
register relative addressing.
– such as with base-plus-index addressing
• In Figure , register relative addressing is
illustrated with the same example as for base-
plus-index addressing.
– this shows how the displacement ARRAY adds
to index register DI to generate a reference to
an array element
 Register relative addressing used to address an element of ARRAY. The
displacement addresses the start of ARRAY, and DI accesses an element.
Base Relative-Plus-Index
Addressing
• Similar to base-plus-index addressing.
– adds a displacement
– uses a base register and an index register to
form the memory address
• This type of addressing mode often addresses
a two-dimensional array of memory data.
Addressing Data with Base
Relative-Plus-Index
• Least-used addressing mode.
• Figure shows how data are referenced if the
instruction executed by the microprocessor is
MOV AX,[BX + SI + 100H].
– displacement of 100H adds to BX and SI to form
the offset address within the data segment
• This addressing mode is too complex for
frequent use in programming.
 An example of base relative-plus-index addressing using a MOV AX,[BX+SI+1000H]
instruction. Note: DS=1000H
Data Structures
• Used to specify how information is stored in a
memory array.
– a template for data
• The start of a structure is identified with the
STRUC assembly language directive and the
end with the ENDS statement.
2 PROGRAM MEMORY-
ADDRESSING MODES
• Used with the JMP (jump) and CALL
instructions.
• Consist of three distinct forms:
– direct, relative, and indirect
Direct Program Memory Addressing
• Used for all jumps and calls by early
microprocessor; also used in high-level
languages, such as BASIC.
– GOTO and GOSUB instructions
• The microprocessor uses this form, but not as
often as relative and indirect program memory
addressing.
• The instructions for direct program memory
addressing store the address with the opcode.
The 5-byte machine language version of a JMP [10000H] instruction.
• This JMP instruction loads CS with 1000H
and IP with 0000H to jump to memory location
10000H for the next instruction.
– an intersegment jump is a jump to any memory
location within the entire memory system
• Often called a far jump because it can jump to
any memory location for the next instruction.
– in real mode, any location within the first 1M byte
• The only other instruction using direct
program addressing is the intersegment or far
CALL instruction.
• Usually, the name of a memory address,
called a label, refers to the location that is
called or jumped to instead of the actual
numeric address.
• When using a label with the CALL or JMP
instruction, most assemblers select the best
form of program addressing.
Relative Program Memory
Addressing
• Not available in all early microprocessors, but
it is available to this family of microprocessors.
• The term relative means “relative to the
instruction pointer (IP)”.
• The JMP instruction is a 1-byte instruction,
with a 1-byte or a 2-byte displacement that
adds to the instruction pointer.
 A JMP [2] instruction. This instruction skips over the 2 bytes of memory that follow
the JMP instruction.
Indirect Program Memory
Addressing
• The microprocessor allows several forms of
program indirect memory addressing for the
JMP and CALL instructions.
• If a relative register holds the address, the
jump is considered to be an indirect jump.
• For example, JMP [BX] refers to the memory
location within the data segment at the offset
address contained in BX.
– at this offset address is a 16-bit number used as
the offset address in the intrasegment jump
– this type of jump is sometimes called an indirect-
indirect or double-indirect jump
3 STACK MEMORY-ADDRESSING
MODES
• The stack plays an important role in all
microprocessors.
– holds data temporarily and stores return
addresses used by procedures
• Stack memory is LIFO (last-in, first-out)
memory
– describes the way data are stored and removed
from the stack
• Data are placed on the stack with a PUSH
instruction; removed with a POP instruction.
• Stack memory is maintained by two registers:
– the stack pointer (SP or ESP)
– the stack segment register (SS)
• Whenever a word of data is pushed onto the
stack, the high-order 8 bits are placed in the
location addressed by SP – 1.
– low-order 8 bits are placed in the location
addressed by SP – 2
• The SP is decremented by 2 so the next word
is stored in the next available stack location.
– the SP/ESP register always points to an area of
memory located within the stack segment.

• When data are popped from the stack, the

low-order 8 bits are removed from the location
addressed by SP.
– high-order 8 bits are removed sp +1 ; the SP
register is incremented by 2
 The PUSH and POP instructions: (a) PUSH BX places the contents of BX onto the
stack; (b) POP CX removes data from the stack and places them into CX. Both
instructions are shown after execution.
End of lecture