Flow Control Instructions

Course Code: CSC 2106 Course Title: Computer Organization and

Architecture

Dept. of Computer Science

Faculty of Science and Technology

Lecturer No: 6.2 Week No: 8 Semester: Summer 21-22

Lecturer: Syma Kamal Chaity, [email protected]
Lecture Outline

Decision making and repeating statement

Jump and loop instructions

Algorithm conversion to assembly language

High-Level Language Structures

 Branches with Compound Conditions
 Sometimes the branching condition in an IF or CASE takes the form

condition_1' AND condition_2’

or

condition_1 OR condition_2

 Where condition 1 and condition:2 are either true or false. We will refer to
the

 First of these as an AND condition and to the second as an OR condition.

 Example : AND
 An AND condition is true if and only if Condition_1 and Condition_2 are both
true. Likewise, if either condition is false, then the whole thing is false.

 Read a character, and if it's an uppercase letter, display it.

 Read a character (into AL)

 IF (character >= 'A') and (character <= 'Z')

 THEN
 display character

 END IF
Converting to Assembly
;read a character CMP AL, 'Z'

JG END_lF ;no exit

MOV AH,1

MOV DL, AL.

INT 21H

; if ('A' <= char> and (chai: <= 'Z') MOV AH, 2

CMP AL, ‘A’ ;char >’A’ INT 21H

JL END_lF ;no exit END_IF:

 OR Conditions
 Condition_1 OR condition_2 is true if at least one of the conditions is true; it is only
false when both conditions are false.

 Read a character. If it's "y" or "Y", display it; otherwise, terminate the program.

 Read a character (into AL)

 IF (character = ‘y‘) OR (character = 'Y‘)

 THEN
 display it
 ELSE
 terminate the program
 END IF
Assembly Conversion
MOV AH,1 THEN:

INT 21H MOV AH,2 ;prepare to

display
CMP AL,’y’ ;AL==‘y’
MOV DL,AL ;get char
JE THEN
INT 21H ;display it
CMP AL, 'Y';char ~ 'Y'?
JMP END IF ;and exit –
JE THEN
;yes, go to display it ELSE_:

JMP ELSE_ MOV AH, 4CH

;no - Terminate
INT 21H ;DOS exit

END_IF:
Looping Structure
 A loop Is a sequence of instructions that is repeated.

 The number of times to repeat may be known in advance, or

 It may depend on conditions

1. FOR LOOP

2. WHILE LOOP

3. REPEAT LOOP
 FOR LOOP
• FOR LOOP is a loop structure in which the loop statements are repeated a known number of
times (a count-controlled loop). In pseudo code,

• FOR loop_count times DO

•
• Statements
• END_FOR

• The LOOP instruction can be used to implement a FOR loop. i.e.

• LOOP destination_label

• The counter for the loop is the register CX which is initialized to loop_count.

• Execution of the LOOP Instruction causes CX to be decremented automatically,

 FOR LOOP
• The control is transferred to
destination_label until CX becomes
0.

• A FOR LOOP can be implemented

using the LOOP instruction:

• TOP:

• ;initialize CX to loop_count

• ;body of the
loop

LOOP TOP
 Example:
MOV CX,80

• Write a count-controlled loop to

display a row of 80 stars: MOV AH,2

FOR 80 times DO MOV DL, '*‘

display ‘*’ TOP:

END_FOR INT 21H

LOOP TOP
 JCXZ and The LOOP
 FOR LOOP executes at least once.

 if CX contains 0 when the loop is entered, the LOOP instruction causes CX to be

decremented to FFFFh

 The loop is then executed FFFFh=65535 times more!

 To Prevent this, the instruction JCXZ (jump if CX is zero) may be used before the loop.
Its syntax


JCXZ destination_label
Use of JCXZ
• If CX contains 0, control transferred to the destination label. So a loop
implemented as follows is bypassed if CX is 0:

• JCXZ SKIP

• TOP:

;body of the loop

LOOP TOP

SKIP:
 WHILE LOOP

• This WHILE LOOP depends on a

condition.

• WHILE condition DO

statements

END_WHILE
 WHILE LOOP
 The condition is checked at the top of the loop.

 If true, the statements are executed;

 If false, the program goes on to whatever follows.

 It is possible the condition will be false initially, in which case the

loop body ls not executed at all.

 The loop executes as long as the condition is true

 Example: WHILE LOOP
• Write some code to count the number of characters in an input line.
MOV DX,0 ; char count
• Initialize count to 0 MOV AH,1
INT 21H
• Read a character WHILE_:
CMP AL,0DH ; CR ?
• WHILE character <> carriage_return DO JE END_WHILE ;yes, exit
INC DX ; not CR so inc
• count =count + 1
INT 21H ; read next char
• read a character
JMP WHILE_ ; loop again
• END_WHILE
END_WHILE:
 WHILE LOOP Insights
 A WHILE loop checks the terminating condition at the top of the
loop,

 So, you must make sure that any variables involved in the condition
are initialized before the loop is entered.

 So you read a character before entering the loop, and read another
one at the bottom.

 The label WHILE_: .is used because WHILE is a reserved word

REPEAT LOOP
REPEAT
statements

UNTIL condition

In a REPEAT…UNTIL loop, the statements are executed, and then the condition is checked.

• If true, the loop terminates;

• If false, control branches to the top of the loop.

Example: REPEAT LOOP
 Write code to read characters until a blank is read.
MOV AH,1

REPEAT REPEAT:

read a character INT 21H

UNTIL character is a BLANK CMP AL,' '

JNE REPEAT
 Difference between WHILE and
REPEAT
 Use of a WHILE loop or a REPEAT loop Is a matter of personal preference.

 The advantage of a WHILE is that the loop can be bypassed if the terminating, condition is
initially false.

 Whereas the statements in a REPEAT must be done at least once.

 However, the code for a REPEAT loop Is likely to be a little shorter because there is only a
conditional jump at the end,

 But a WHILE loop has two jumps: a conditional jump at the top and a JMP at the bottom.
References

• Assembly Language Programming and Organization of the IBM PC, Ytha Yu

and Charles Marut, McGraw Hill, 1992. (ISBN: 0-07-072692-2).

• https://www.slideshare.net/prodipghoshjoy/flow-control-instructions-6060
2372
Books

• Assembly Language Programming and Organization of the IBM PC, Ytha

Yu and Charles Marut, McGraw Hill, 1992. (ISBN: 0-07-072692-2).

• Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture, (Third Edition),

Linda Null and Julia Lobur

• W. Stallings, “Computer Organization and Architecture: Designing for

performance”, 67h Edition, Prentice Hall of India, 2003, ISBN 81 – 203 –
2962 – 7

• Computer Organization and Architecture by John P. Haynes.