Assembly Language for x86 Processors

7th Edition
Kip Irvine

Chapter 3: Assembly Language

Fundamentals

Slides prepared by the author

Revised by Zuoliu Ding at Fullerton College, 07/2014

(c) Pearson Education, 2015. All rights reserved. You may modify and copy this slide show for your personal use, or
for use in the classroom, as long as this copyright statement, the author's name, and the title are not changed.
 Chapter Overview

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• 64-Bit Programming

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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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 Integer Constants
• Optional leading + or – sign
• binary, decimal, hexadecimal, or octal digits
• Common radix characters:
• h – hexadecimal
• d – decimal
• b – binary
• r – encoded real

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

Hexadecimal beginning with letter: 0A5h

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 Integer Expressions
• Operators and precedence levels:

• Examples:

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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 and Identifiers

• Reserved words cannot be used as identifiers

• Instruction mnemonics, directives, type attributes,
operators, predefined symbols
• See MASM reference in Appendix A
• Microsoft Macro Assembler Reference
• Identifiers
• 1-247 characters, including digits
• not case sensitive
• first character must be a letter, _, @, ?, or $

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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

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 Instructions
• 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)

[Label:] Mnemonic Operand(s) [; 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)
• Code label
• target of jump and loop instructions
• example: L1: (followed by colon)

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 Mnemonics and Operands

• Instruction Mnemonics
• memory aid
• examples: MOV, ADD, SUB, MUL, INC, DEC
• Operands
• constant
• constant expression
• register
• memory (data label)

Constants and constant expressions are often called

immediate values

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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 COMMENT !
;Here is the comment
• Single-line comments
mov ax, bx
• begin with semicolon (;) add ax, 7
!
• Multi-line comments
• begin with COMMENT directive and a programmer-
chosen character
• end with the same programmer-chosen character

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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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 What's Next

• Basic Elements of Assembly Language

• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Running Programs
• Defining Data
• Symbolic Constants
• 64-Bit Programming

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 Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers

; AddTwo.asm – adds two 32-bit integers

.386
.model flat,stdcall
.stack 4096
ExitProcess PROTO, dwExitCode:DWORD
.code
main PROC
mov eax,5 ; move 5 to the EAX register
add eax,6 ; add 6 to the EAX register

INVOKE ExitProcess,0
main ENDP
END main

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 Example Output

Showing registers and flags in the debugger:

EAX = 0000000B EBX = 7EFDE000 ECX = 00000000 EDX = 0040100A

ESI = 00000000 EDI = 00000000 EIP = 00401054 ESP = 0018FF8C
EBP = 0018FF94 EFL = 00000202

•OV = 0 UP = 0 EI = 1 PL = 0 ZR = 0 AC = 0 PE = 0 CY = 0

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 16-bit FLAGS Register

Bit 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Txt OF DF IF SF ZF AF PF CF
VS OV UP EI PL ZR AC PE CY

Bit0: CF - Carry Flag Bit1: always a 1

Bit2: PF - Parity Flag Bit3: always a 0
Bit4: AF - Auxiliary (Carry) Bit5: always a 0
Bit6: ZF - Zero Flag Bit7: SF - Sign Flag
Bit8: TF - Trap Flag (no use) Bit9: IF - Interrupt Flag
Bit10: DF - Direction Flag Bit11: OF – Overflow

• Reference: The Flag Register at A Guide to DEBUG

• http://thestarman.pcministry.com/asm/debug/debug.htm

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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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 Program Template
; Program Template (Template.asm)

; Description:
; Author: .386
; Creation Date: .model flat,stdcall
.stack 4096
; Revisions:
ExitProcess PROTO, dwExitCode:DWORD
; Date:
; Modified by: .data
; declare variables here

.code
main PROC
; write your code here
INVOKE ExitProcess,0
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
• 64-Bit 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
• 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.

• The assembler contains a preprocessor to process directives, etc.

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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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 The NOP Instruction
• Code alignment: Align next instruction
• Check from a list file
• Debug from Disassembly window:

11: .code
12: main PROC
13: mov ax, bx
00401010 66 8B C3 mov ax,bx
14: nop
00401013 90 nop

15: mov edx, ecx

00401014 8B D1 mov edx,ecx
16:
17: exit
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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
• 64-Bit Programming

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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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 Defining Byte Arrays

Examples that use multiple initializers:

list1 BYTE 10,20,30,40

list2 BYTE 10,20,30,40
BYTE 50,60,70,80
BYTE 81,82,83,84
list3 BYTE ?,32,41h,00100010b
list4 BYTE 0Ah,20h,‘A’,22h

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 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
• 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",0dh,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

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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

How about ? word5 WORD "ABC”

word6 WORD "A"

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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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 Big Endian Order

• All data types larger than a byte store their individual

bytes in “usual” order. The most 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
• 64-Bit Programming

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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) is byte count

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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 Redefine with Equal-Sign

count = 5
mov al, count

...
count = 100
mov al, count
...

; Count = “This is a count!”

Count = “This”

zd: must be 32 bit size

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 EQU Directive
• Define a symbol as either a number or text expression.
• Cannot be redefined
PI EQU <3.1416>
pressKey EQU <"Press any key to continue...",0>
.data
prompt BYTE pressKey

Matrix1 EQU 10*10

Matrix2 EQU <10*10>
.data
M1 word Matrix1 M1 word 100
M2 word Matrix2 M2 word 10*10

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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
• 64-Bit Programming

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 64-Bit Programming
• MASM supports 64-bit programming, although the
following directives are not permitted:
• INVOKE, ADDR, .model, .386, .stack
• (Other non-permitted directives will be introduced in
later chapters)

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 64-Bit Version of AddTwoSum
1: ; AddTwoSum_64.asm - Chapter 3 example.
3: ExitProcess PROTO
5: .data
6: sum DWORD 0
8: .code
9: main PROC
10: mov eax,5
11: add eax,6
12: mov sum,eax
13:
14: mov ecx,0
15: call ExitProcess
16: main ENDP
17: END

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 Things to Notice About the Previous Slide
• The following lines are not needed:
.386
.model flat,stdcall
.stack 4096
• INVOKE is not supported.
• CALL instruction cannot receive arguments
• Use 64-bit registers when possible

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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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