Assembly Language

Fundamentals
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Integer constants
• Integer expressions
• Character and string constants
• Reserved words and identifiers
• Directives and instructions
• Labels
• Mnemonics and Operands
• Comments
main PROC
mov eax, 5 ; move 5 to the EAX register
add eax, 6 ; add 6 to the EAX register
call WriteInt ; display value in EAX
exit; quit
main ENDP

Add two numbers and displays the result

• [{+ | -}] digits [radix]
• Optional leading + or – sign
• binary, decimal, hexadecimal, or octal digits
• Common radix characters:
• h – hexadecimal
• q | o – octal
• d – decimal
• b – binary
• r – encoded real
• If no radix given, assumed to be decimal
• Operators and precedence levels:

These can be evaluated at

assembly time – they are
not runtime expressions

• Examples:

Precedence Examples:
4+5*2 Multiply, add
12 – 1 MOD 5 Modulus, subtract
-5 + 2 Unary minus, add
(4 + 2) * 6 Add, multiply
• Represented as decimal real.
• Decimal real contains optional sign followed by integer,
decimal point, and optional integer that expresses a
fractional and an optional exponent
• [sign] integer.[integer] [exponent]
• Sign {+, -}
• Exponent E[{+, -}] integer
• Examples
• 2.
• +3.0
• -44.2E+05
• 26.E5
• Enclose character in single or double quotes
• 'A', "x"
• Enclose strings in single or double quotes
• "ABC"
• 'xyz'
• Each character occupies a single byte
• Embedded quotes:
• 'Say "Goodnight," Gracie'
• Reserved words cannot be used as identifiers
• Instruction mnemonics
• MOV, ADD, MUL,, …
• Register names
• Directives – tells assembler how to assemble programs to
reserve space in the program (for variable for example).
• type attributes – provides size and usage information
for variables and operands.
• BYTE, WORD
• Operators – used in constant expressions
• predefined symbols – @data, which return constant integer
values
• Identifiers
• Programmer-chosen name to identify a variable, constant,
procedure, or code label
• 1-247 characters, including digits
• not case sensitive
• first character must be a letter (A..Z, a..z), _, @, ?, or $
• Cannot be the same as a reserved word
• @ is used by assembler as a prefix for predefined symbols,
so avoid it in your own identifiers.
• Examples
• Var1, Count, $first, _main, MAX, open_file, myFile, xVal,
_12345
• Directives can define variables, macros, and
procedures.
• They can assign names to memory segments and
perform many other tasks related to the assembler.
• It is Commands that are recognized and acted upon
by the assembler
• Not part of the Intel instruction set
• Used to declare code, data areas, select memory
model, declare procedures, etc.
• not case sensitive
• Different assemblers have different directives
myVar DWORD 26 ; DWORD directive, reserve
; enough space for double word

• One important function of assembler directives is to

define program sections, or segments
.data
The .DATA directive identifies the area of a
program containing variables
. code
The .CODE directive identifies the area of a
program containing executable instructions
. stack 100h
The .STACK directive identifies the area of a program
holding the runtime stack, setting its size
• An instruction is a statement that becomes executable
when a program is assembled.
• Assembled into machine code by assembler
• Executed at runtime by the CPU
• We use the Intel IA-32 instruction set
• An instruction contains:
• Label (optional)
• Mnemonic (required)
• Operand (depends on the instruction)
• Comment (optional)
• Basic syntax
• [label:] mnemonic [operands] [ ; comment]
• Act as place markers
• marks the address (offset) of code and data
• Follow identifier rules
• Data label : identifies the location of a variable to
reference the variable in code
• must be unique
• example:
count
• count DWORD 100 (not followed by colon)

• Code label
• target of jump and loop instructions
• example: target:
target: (followed by colon)
mov ax, bx
…
jmp target
• Instruction Mnemonics
• is short word that identifies an instruction.
• examples: MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, INC, DEC
• Operands
• constant 96
• constant expression 2+4
• register eax
• memory (data label) count

Constants and constant expressions are often called immediate values

STC instruction
stc ; set Carry flag

INC instruction
inc eax ; add 1 to EAX

MOV instruction
mov count, ebx ; move EBX to count
; first operand is destination
; second is the source
IMUL instruction (three operands)
imul eax, ebx, 5 ; ebx multiplied by 5, product in EAX
• Comments are good!
• explain the program's purpose
• when it was written, and by whom
• revision information
• tricky coding techniques
• application-specific explanations
• Single-line comments
• begin with semicolon (;) or TITLE directive
• Multi-line comments
• begin with COMMENT directive and a programmer-
chosen character
• end with the same programmer-chosen character
• Single line comment
• inc eax ; single line at end of instruction
• ; single line at beginning of line
• Multiline comment
COMMENT !
This line is a comment
This line is also a comment
!
COMMENT &
This is a comment
This is also a comment
&
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
TITLE Add and Subtract (AddSub.asm)
; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit

integers. INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.code
main PROC
mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h
add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h
sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h
call DumpRegs ; display registers
exit
main ENDP
END main
TITLE Add and Subtract (AddSub.asm)

The TITLE directive marks the entire line as a comment. You can put
anything you want on this line.

; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit integers.

All text to the right of a semicolon is ignored by the assembler, so we use

it for comments.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

The INCLUDE directive copies necessary definitions and setup

information from a text file named Irvine32.inc.
.code

The .code directive marks the beginning of the code segment, where all
executable statements in a program are located.

main PROC

The PROC directive identifies the beginning of a procedure.

mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h

The MOV instruction moves (copies) the integer 10000h to the EAX
register.
add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h

The ADD instruction adds 40000h to the EAX

register.

sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h

The SUB instruction subtracts 20000h from the EAX register.

call DumpRegs ; display registers

The CALL statement calls a procedure that displays the current values of
the CPU registers.
Exit

The exit statement (indirectly) calls a predefined MS-Windows function

that halts the program. it’s a macro command defined in the Irvine32.inc.

main ENDP

The ENDP directive marks the end of the main procedure.

END main

The END directive marks the last line of the program to be assembled.
 Program output, showing registers and flags:

EAX=00030000 EBX=7FFDF000 ECX=00000101 EDX=FFFFFFFF

ESI=00000000 EDI=00000000 EBP=0012FFF0 ESP=0012FFC4
EIP=00401024 EFL=00000206 CF=0 SF=0 ZF=0 OF=0
• Some approaches to capitalization
• Use lowercase for keywords, mixed case for
identifiers, and all capitals for constants.

• Capitalize all reserved words, including

instruction mnemonics and register names

• Capitalize directives and operators except that

lowercase is used for the .code, .stack, .model, and
.data directives.
• Other suggestions
• descriptive identifier names
• spaces surrounding arithmetic operators
• blank lines between procedures
• Indentation and spacing
• code and data labels – no indentation
• executable instructions – indent 4-5 spaces
• comments: right side of page, aligned vertically
• 1-3 spaces between instruction and its operands
• ex: mov ax,bx
• 1-2 blank lines between procedures
TITLE Add and Subtract (AddSubAlt.asm)

; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit integers.

.386
.MODEL flat,stdcall
.STACK 4096

ExitProcess PROTO,
dwExitCode:DWORD DumpRegs PROTO
.code
main PROC
mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h
add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h
sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h
call DumpRegs
INVOKE ExitProcess,0
main ENDP END
main
.386
identifies the minimum CPU required for this program (Intel386,
the first x86 processor).
.MODEL flat,stdcall
used to identify the segmentation model used by the program and it
identifies the convention used for passing parameters to procedures.
The flat keyword tells the assembler to generate code for a
protected mode program. The stdcall keyword enables the calling of
MS- Windows functions.
.STACK 4096
identifies the area of a program holding the runtime stack, and setting its
size 4096.
ExitProcess PROTO,
dwExitCode:DWORD DumpRegs PROTO
Two PROTO directives declare prototypes for procedures used by this
program:
ExitProcess is an MS-Windows function that halts the current program, and
DumpRegs is a procedure from the Irvine32 link library that displays
registers.

INVOKE ExitProcess,0
INVOKE is directive that calls a procedure function. ExitProcess
function ends the program.
TITLE Program Template (Template.asm)

;***************************************************
; Program Name:
; Program Description:
; Author:
; Version:
; Date:
; Other Information:
;***************************************************

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
; (insert variables here)
.code
main PROC
; (insert executable instructions here)
exit
main ENDP
; (insert additional procedures here)
END main
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming
• Assemble-Link-Execute Cycle
• Listing File
• Map File
 • Assembly language program must be translated to machine
language for the target processor.
• The following diagram describes the steps from creating a
source program through executing the compiled program.
• If the source code is modified, Steps 2 through 4 must
be repeated.

Link
Library
Step 2: Step 3: Step 4:
Source assembler Object linker Executable OS loader
Output
File File File

Listing Map
Step 1: text editor File File
Step 1: A programmer uses a text editor to create the source
file.

Step 2: The assembler reads the source file and produces an

object file, and listing file.

Step 3: The linker reads the object file and checks to see if
the program contains any calls to procedures in a link library,
combines them with the object file, and produces the
executable file.

Step 4: The operating system loader utility reads the

executable file into memory and branches the CPU to the
program’sstarting address, and the program begins to
execute. 37
• Use it to see how your program is compiled
• Contains
• source code
• addresses
• object code (machine language)
• segment names
• symbols (variables, procedures, and constants)
• Information about each program segment:
• starting address
• ending address
• size
• segment type
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Intrinsic Data Types
• Data Definition Statement
• Defining BYTE and SBYTE Data
• Defining WORD and SWORD Data
• Defining DWORD and SDWORD Data
• Defining QWORD Data
• Defining TBYTE Data
• Defining Real Number Data
• Little Endian Order
• Adding Variables to the AddSub Program
• Declaring Uninitialized Data
• BYTE, SBYTE
• 8-bit unsigned integer; 8-bit signed integer
• WORD, SWORD
• 16-bit unsigned & signed integer
• DWORD, SDWORD
• 32-bit unsigned & signed integer
• QWORD
• 64-bit integer
• TBYTE
• 80-bit integer
 Intrinsic Data Types (2 of 2)

• REAL4
• 4-byte short real
• REAL8
• 8-byte long real
• REAL10
• 10-byte extended real
• A data definition statement sets aside storage in
memory for a variable.
• It creates variables based on intrinsic data types

• Syntax:
[name] directive initializer [,initializer] . . .

value1 BYTE 10

• All initializers become binary data in memory

 Each of the following defines a single byte of storage:

value2 BYTE 0 ; smallest unsigned byte

value3 BYTE 255 ; largest unsigned byte
value4 SBYTE -128 ; smallest signed byte
value5 SBYTE +127 ; largest signed byte
value6 BYTE ? ; uninitialized byte
 Offset Value
list1 0000 10
0001 20
0002 30
Examples that use
0003 40
multiple initializers:
list2 0004 10
list1 BYTE 10,20,30,40 0005 20
list2 BYTE 10,20,30,40 0006 30
BYTE 50,60,70,80 0007 40
0008 50
BYTE 81,82,83,84
0009 60
list3 BYTE ?,32,41h,00100010b
000A 70
list4 BYTE 0Ah,20h,12h,22h
000B 80
000C 81
000D 82
000E 83
000F 84
0010 46
list3
• A string is implemented as an array of characters
• For convenience, it is usually enclosed in quotation marks
• It often will be null-terminated (ending with ,0)
• Examples:

str1 BYTE "Enter your name",0

str2 BYTE 'Error: halting program',0
str3 BYTE 'A','E','I','O','U'
greeting BYTE "Welcome to the Encryption Demo program "
BYTE "created by Kip Irvine.",0
• To continue a single string across multiple lines, end
each line with a comma:

menu BYTE "Checking Account",0dh,0ah,0dh,0ah,

"1. Create a new account",0dh,0ah,
"2. Open an existing
account",0dh,0ah, "3. Credit the
account",0dh,0ah,
"4. Debit the
account",0dh,0ah, "5.
Exit",0ah,0ah,
"Choice> ",0
• End-of-line character sequence:
• 0Dh = carriage return
• 0Ah = line feed

str1 BYTE "Enter your name: ",0Dh,0Ah

BYTE "Enter your address: ",0

newLine BYTE 0Dh,0Ah,0

• The DUP operator allocates storage for multiple data
items, using a constant expression as a counter.
• Syntax: counter DUP ( argument )
• Counter and argument must be constants or constant
expressions

var1 BYTE 20 DUP(0) ; 20 bytes, all equal to zero

var2 BYTE 20 DUP(?) ; 20 bytes, uninitialized
var4 BYTE 10,3 DUP(0),20 ; 5 bytes
 • Define storage for 16-bit integers
• single value or multiple values

word1 WORD 65535 ; largest unsigned value

word2 SWORD –32768 ; smallest signed value
word3 WORD ? ; uninitialized, unsigned
List WORD 1,2,3,4,5 ; array of words
array WORD 5 DUP(?) ; uninitialized array (5
word elements)

• The legacy DW directive can also be used:

val1 DW 65535 ; unsigned
val2 DW -32768 ; signed
Storage definitions for signed and unsigned 32-bit integers:

val1 DWORD 12345678h ; unsigned

val2 SDWORD –2147483648 ; signed
val3 DWORD 20 DUP(?) ; unsigned array
val4 SDWORD –3,–2,–1,0,1 ; signed array

The legacy DD directive can also be used to define

doubleword data.
val1 DD 12345678h ; unsigned
val2 DD −2147483648 ; signed
Storage definitions for quadwords, tenbyte values,
and real numbers:

quad1 QWORD 1234567812345678h

val1 TBYTE 1000000000123456789Ah
rVal1 REAL4 -2.1
ShortArray REAL4 20 DUP(0.0)
• The terms endian and endianness, refers to how bytes
of a data word are ordered within memory.
• All data types larger than a byte store their individual
bytes in reverse order. The least significant byte occurs
at the first memory address (low to high).
• Example: val1 DWORD 12345678h

Some other computer systems use big endian order

(high to low).
TITLE Add and Subtract, Version 2 (AddSub2.asm)
; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit unsigned
; integers and stores the sum in a variable.
INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
val1 DWORD 10000h
val2 DWORD 40000h
val3 DWORD 20000h
finalVal DWORD ?
.code
main PROC
mov eax,val1 ; start with 10000h
add eax,val2 ; add 40000h
sub eax,val3 ; subtract 20000h
mov finalVal,eax ; store the result (30000h)
call DumpRegs ; display the registers
exit
main ENDP
END main
• Use the .data ? directive to declare an uninitialized
data segment:
.data?
bigArray DWORD 5000 DUP(?) ; 20,000 bytes,
not initialized
• Within the segment, declare variables with "?"
initializers:
smallArray DWORD 10 DUP(?)
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Equal-Sign Directive
• Calculating the Sizes of Arrays and Strings
• EQU Directive
• TEXTEQU Directive
• Symbolic constants are used to assign names (identifiers)
to constant values.
• Using symbolic constants instead of numbers makes your
code more readable and easier to maintain.
• name = expression
• expression is a 32-bit integer (expression or constant)
• Can not redefine
• name is called a symbolic constant

• good programming style to use symbols

COUNT = 500
mov eax,COUNT
• current location counter: $
• return the offset associated with the current program
statement.
• subtract address of list
• difference is the number of bytes

list BYTE 10,20,30,40

ListSize = ($ - list)

• subtracting the offset of list from the current location

counter ($) to get the number of bytes as size of
array.
Divide total number of bytes by 2 (the size of a word)

list WORD
1000h,2000h,3000h,4000h
ListSize = ($ - list) / 2
Divide total number of bytes by 4 (the size of a
doubleword)

list DWORD
10000000h,20000000h
ListSize = ($ - list) / 4
• Define a symbol as either integer expression, symbol
or text .
• Cannot be redefined
name EQU expression
name EQU symbol
name EQU <text>

pressKey EQU <"Press any key to continue...",0>

matrix1 EQU 10 * 10
matrix2 EQU <10 * 10>
.data
prompt BYTE pressKey
M1 WORD matrix1 ; matrix1 100
M2 WORD matrix2 ; matrix2 10 * 10
• Define a symbol as either an integer, text expression or text
macro.
• Can be redefined
name TEXTEQU <text>
name TEXTEQU textmacro
name TEXTEQU %constExpr
continueMsg TEXTEQU <"Do you wish to continue (Y/N)?"> ; text
macro rowSize = 5
.data
prompt1 BYTE continueMsg
; evaluates the expression
count TEXTEQU %(rowSize * 2)
move TEXTEQU <mov>
setup AL TEXTEQU <move al,count>
.code
setupAL ; generates: "mov al,10"
• Integer expression, character constant
• directive – interpreted by the assembler
• instruction – executes at runtime
• code, data, and stack segments
• source, listing, object, map, executable files
• Data definition directives:
• BYTE, SBYTE, WORD, SWORD, DWORD, SDWORD, QWORD,
TBYTE, REAL4, REAL8, and REAL10
• DUP operator, location counter ($)
• Symbolic constant
• EQU and TEXTEQU