Chapter 3:

Assembly Language Fundamentals

 Chapter Overview

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

Lecture 1
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 Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Integer constants
• Integer expressions
• Character and string constants
• Reserved words and identifiers
• Directives and instructions
• Labels
• Mnemonics and Operands
• Comments
• Examples

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 Example Program

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

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 Integer Constants
• [{+ | -}] 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

Examples: 30d, 6Ah, 42, 1101b

Hexadecimal beginning with letter: 0A5h
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 Integer Expressions
integer values and arithmetic operators
• Operators and precedence levels: Must evaluate to an integer
that can be stored in 32
bits

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
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 Real Number Constants
• Represented as decimal reals or encoded
(hexadecimal) reals
• 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
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 Character and String Constants
• Enclose character in single or double quotes
• 'A', "x"
• ASCII character = 1 byte
• Enclose strings in single or double quotes
• "ABC"
• 'xyz'
• Each character occupies a single byte
• Embedded quotes:
• 'Say "Goodnight," Gracie'

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 Reserved Words
• Reserved words cannot be used as identifiers
• Instruction mnemonics
• MOV, ADD, MUL,, …
• Register names
• Directives – tells MASM how to assemble programs
• type attributes – provides size and usage information
• BYTE, WORD
• Operators – used in constant expressions
• predefined symbols – @data
• See MASM reference in Appendix A

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 Identifiers
• 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, _, @, ?, or $
• Subsequent characters may also be digits
• Cannot be the same as a reserved word
• @ is used by assembler as a prefix for predefined symbols,
so avoid it identifiers
• Examples
• Var1, Count, $first, _main, MAX, open_file, myFile, xVal,
_12345

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 Directives

• 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
• NASM not the same as MASM, for example

myVar DWORD 26 ; DWORD directive, set aside

; enough space for double word
Mov eax, myVar ; MOV instruction
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 Instructions
• 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]

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 Labels
• Act as place markers
• marks the address (offset) of code and data
• Follow identifer rules
• Data label
• must be unique
• example: myArray (not followed by colon)
• count DWORD 100
• Code label
• target of jump and loop instructions
• example: L1: (followed by colon)
target:
mov ax, bx
…
jmp target
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 Mnemonics and Operands
• Instruction Mnemonics
• memory aid
• 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

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 Mnemonics and Operands
Examples

STC instruction
stc ; set Carry flag

INC instruction
inc eax ; add 1 to EAX

MOV instruction
mov count, ebx ; move EBX to count
; first operation is destination
; second is the source
IMUL instruction (three operands)
imul eax, ebx, 5 ; ebx multiplied by 5, product in EAX

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 Comments
• 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 (;)
• Multi-line comments
• begin with COMMENT directive and a programmer-
chosen character
• end with the same programmer-chosen character

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 Comments
• 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
&
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 Instruction Format Examples

• No operands
• stc ; set Carry flag
• One operand
• inc eax ; register
• inc myByte ; memory
• Two operands
• add ebx,ecx ; register, register
• sub myByte,25 ; memory, constant
• add eax,36 * 25 ; register, constant-
expression

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 NOP instruction
• Doesn’t do anything
• Takes up one byte
• Sometimes used by compilers and assemblers to align
code to even-address boundaries.
• The following MOV generates three machine code bytes.
The NOP aligns the address of the third instruction to a
doubleword boundary (even multiple of 4)

00000000 66 8B C3 mov ax, bx

00000003 90 nop ; align next instruction
00000004 8B D1 mov edx, ecx

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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

Lecture 2
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 Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers

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

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 Example Output

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

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 Suggested Coding Standards (1 of 2)

• Some approaches to capitalization

• capitalize nothing
• capitalize everything
• capitalize all reserved words, including instruction
mnemonics and register names
• capitalize only directives and operators
• Other suggestions
• descriptive identifier names
• spaces surrounding arithmetic operators
• blank lines between procedures

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 Suggested Coding Standards (2 of 2)

• 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

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 Required Coding Standards
;*********************************************************************
; MyProgram.asm
; Charles Lillie
; 9/12/2012
; Example program to demonstrate what comments are
needed
; Version 0.1
; Whatever else the reader needs to know about this program
;*********************************************************************

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 Required Coding Standards
• Labels and Identifiers
• Labels use a mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters and
underscore characters should be avoided. Some programmers suggest
that underscore characters improve readability, while others insist that
underscores lengthen labels needlessly or that they can be mistaken for
spaces by novice users. Both of these viewpoints have ardent
supporters and it is unlikely that this debate can be settled here.
• In this coding standard, we stop short of banning underscores
altogether, but strongly recommend the selective use of uppercase
characters instead of underscores to indicate breaks in multi-word
labels. For example, use waitRDRF instead of wait_RDRF or
VeryLongLabel instead of very_long_label.

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 Required Coding Standards
• File and Subroutine Headers
• Files and subroutines use title blocks to describe their purpose and to document other
important information. These title blocks are sometimes called file headers and
subroutine headers. Every file and every subroutine should include a header.

;******************************************************************
;* RoutineName - expanded name or phrase describing purpose
;* Brief description, typically a few lines explaining the
;* purpose of the program.
;*
;* I/O: Explain what is expected and what is produced
;*
;* Calling Convention: How is the routine called?
;*
;* Stack Usage: (when needed) When a routine has several variables
;* on the stack, this section describes the structure of the
;* information.
;*
;* Information about routines that are called and any registers
;* that get destroyed. In general, if some registers are pushed at
;* the beginning and pulled at the end, it is not necessary to
;* describe this in the routine header.
;******************************************************************
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 Alternative Version of AddSub
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
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 Program Template
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
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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

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 Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs

• Assemble-Link-Execute Cycle
• Listing File
• Map File

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 Assemble-Link Execute Cycle
• 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.

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 Assemble-Link-Execute
Step 1: A programmer uses a text editor to create an ASCII text file
named the source file.
Step 2: The assembler reads the source file and produces an object file, a
machine-language translation of the program. Optionally, it produces a
listing file. If any errors occur, the programmer must return to Step 1 and
fix the program.
Step 3: The linker reads the object file and checks to see if the program
contains any calls to procedures in a link library. The linker copies any
required procedures from the 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’s starting address, and the
program begins to execute. See the topic “Getting Started” on the
author’s Web site (www.asmirvine.com) for detailed instructions on
assembling, linking, and running assembly language programs using
Microsoft Visual Studio.

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 Listing File

• Use it to see how your program is compiled

• Contains
• source code
• addresses
• object code (machine language)
• segment names
• symbols (variables, procedures, and constants)
• Example: addSub.lst

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 Map File

• Information about each program segment:

• starting address
• ending address
• size
• segment type
• Example: addSub.map (16-bit version)

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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

Lecture 3
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 Defining Data
• 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

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 Intrinsic Data Types (1 of 2)

• 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

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 Intrinsic Data Types (2 of 2)

• REAL4
• 4-byte IEEE short real
• REAL8
• 8-byte IEEE long real
• REAL10
• 10-byte IEEE extended real

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 Data Definition Statement

• A data definition statement sets aside storage in memory for a

variable.
• May optionally assign a name (label) to the data
• Syntax:
[name] directive initializer [,initializer] . . .

value1 BYTE 10

• All initializers become binary data in memory

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 Defining BYTE and SBYTE Data
Each of the following defines a single byte of storage:

value1 BYTE 'A' ; character constant

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

• MASM does not prevent you from initializing a BYTE with a

negative value, but it's considered poor style.
• If you declare a SBYTE variable, the Microsoft debugger will
automatically display its value in decimal with a leading sign.

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 Offset Value
Defining Byte Arrays 0000 10
list1 0001 20

Examples that use 0002 30

0003 40
multiple initializers:
0004 10
list1 BYTE 10,20,30,40
list2
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,‘A’,22h
000B 80
000C 81
000D 82
000E 83
000F 84
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list3 0010
 Defining Strings (1 of 3)

• 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

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 Defining Strings (2 of 3)

• 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

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 Defining Strings (3 of 3)

• 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

Idea: Define all strings used by your program in the same

area of the data segment.

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 Using the DUP Operator
• Use DUP to allocate (create space for) an array or
string. 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
var3 BYTE 4 DUP("STACK") ; 20 bytes: "STACKSTACKSTACKSTACK"
var4 BYTE 10,3 DUP(0),20 ; 5 bytes
var4 10
0
0
0
20

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 Defining WORD and SWORD Data

• Define storage for 16-bit integers

• or double characters
• single value or multiple values

word1 WORD 65535 ; largest unsigned value

word2 SWORD –32768 ; smallest signed value
word3 WORD ? ; uninitialized, unsigned
word4 WORD "AB" ; double characters
myList WORD 1,2,3,4,5 ; array of words
array WORD 5 DUP(?) ; uninitialized array

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 Defining DWORD and SDWORD Data

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

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 Defining QWORD, TBYTE, Real Data

Storage definitions for quadwords, tenbyte values,

and real numbers:

quad1 QWORD 1234567812345678h

val1 TBYTE 1000000000123456789Ah
rVal1 REAL4 -2.1
rVal2 REAL8 3.2E-260
rVal3 REAL10 4.6E+4096
ShortArray REAL4 20 DUP(0.0)

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 Little Endian Order

• All data types larger than a byte store their individual

bytes in reverse order. The least significant byte occurs
at the first (lowest) memory address.

• Example:
val1 DWORD 12345678h

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 Adding Variables to AddSub
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

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 Declaring Unitialized Data

• Use the .data? directive to declare an unintialized

data segment:
.data?
• Within the segment, declare variables with "?"
initializers:
smallArray DWORD 10 DUP(?)

Advantage: the program's EXE file size is reduced.

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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

Lecture 4
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 Symbolic Constants

• Equal-Sign Directive
• Calculating the Sizes of Arrays and Strings
• EQU Directive
• TEXTEQU Directive

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 Equal-Sign Directive
• name = expression
• expression is a 32-bit integer (expression or constant)
• may be redefined
• name is called a symbolic constant
• good programming style to use symbols

COUNT = 500
.
.
mov ax,COUNT

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 Calculating the Size of a Byte Array

• current location counter: $

• subtract address of list
• difference is the number of bytes

list BYTE 10,20,30,40

ListSize = ($ - list)

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 Calculating the Size of a Word Array

Divide total number of bytes by 2 (the size of a word)

list WORD 1000h,2000h,3000h,4000h

ListSize = ($ - list) / 2

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 Calculating the Size of a Doubleword Array

Divide total number of bytes by 4 (the size of a

doubleword)

list DWORD 1,2,3,4

ListSize = ($ - list) / 4

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 EQU Directive

• Define a symbol as either an integer or text expression.

• Cannot be redefined

PI EQU <3.1416>
pressKey EQU <"Press any key to continue...",0>
.data
prompt BYTE pressKey

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 TEXTEQU Directive
• Define a symbol as either an integer or text expression.
• Called a text macro
• Can be redefined

continueMsg TEXTEQU <"Do you wish to continue (Y/N)?">

rowSize = 5
.data
prompt1 BYTE continueMsg
count TEXTEQU %(rowSize * 2) ; evaluates the expression
setupAL TEXTEQU <mov al,count>

.code
setupAL ; generates: "mov al,10"

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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• Real-Address Mode Programming

Lecture 5
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 Real-Address Mode Programming (1 of 2)

• Generate 16-bit MS-DOS Programs

• Advantages
• enables calling of MS-DOS and BIOS functions
• no memory access restrictions
• Disadvantages
• must be aware of both segments and offsets
• cannot call Win32 functions (Windows 95 onward)
• limited to 640K program memory

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 Real-Address Mode Programming (2 of 2)

• Requirements
• INCLUDE Irvine16.inc
• Initialize DS to the data segment:
mov ax,@data
mov ds,ax

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 Add and Subtract, 16-Bit Version
TITLE Add and Subtract, Version 2 (AddSub2r.asm)
INCLUDE Irvine16.inc
.data
val1 DWORD 10000h
val2 DWORD 40000h
val3 DWORD 20000h
finalVal DWORD ?
.code
main PROC
mov ax,@data ; initialize DS
mov ds,ax
mov eax,val1 ; get first value
add eax,val2 ; add second value
sub eax,val3 ; subtract third
value
mov finalVal,eax ; store the result
call DumpRegs ; display registers
exit
main ENDP
END main

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 Summary
• 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

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 4C 61 46 69 6E

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