8086 Assembly Language

Programming I
Week 4 Overview of the x86
assembly language
prgoramming

Assembly language
programming
Learning assembly language programming
will help understanding the operations of the
microprocessor
To learn:
Need to know the functions of various registers
Need to know how external memory is organized
and how it is addressed to obtain instructions
and data (different addressing modes)
Need to know what operations (or the
instruction set) are supported by the CPU. For
example, powerful CPUs support floating-point
operations but simple CPUs only support integer
operations

How to learn programming

C Concept
L Logic thinking
P Practice
Concept we must learn the basic syntax,
such as how a program statement is written
Logic thinking programming is problem
solving so we must think logically in order
to derive a solution
Practice write programs

Assembly Program
The native language is machine language
(using 0,1 to represent the operation)
A single machine instruction can take up
one or more bytes of code
Assembly language is used to write the
program using alphanumeric symbols (or
mnemonic), eg ADD, MOV, PUSH etc.
The program will then be assembled
(similar to compiled) and linked into an
executable program.
The executable program could be .com,
.exe, or .bin files

Flow of program
development

Program
.asm

Assembl
e

Object file
.obj

link

Executable file
.exe

Example
Machine code for mov AL, 00H
B4 00 (2 bytes)
After assembled, the value B400 will
be stored in the memory
When the program is executed, then
the value B400 is read from
memory, decoded and carry out the
task

Assembly Program
Each instruction is represented by one
assembly language statement
The statement must specify which
operation (opcode) is to be performed and
the operands
Eg ADD AX, BX
ADD is the operation
AX is called the destination operand
BX is called the source operand
The result is AX = AX + BX
When writing assembly language program,
you need to think in the instruction level

Example
In c++, you can do A = (B+C)*100
In assembly language, only one
instruction per statement
A = B ; only one instruction - MOVE
A = A+C
; only one instruction - ADD
A = A*100 ; only one instruction - Multiply

Format of Assembly
language
General format for an assembly
language statement
Label Instruction Comment
Start: Mov AX, BX ; copy BX into AX
Start is a user defined name and you only put in
a
label in your statement when necessary!!!!
The symbol

is used to indicate that it is a label

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8086 Software Model

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Software model
In 8086, memory is divided into segments
Only 4 64K-byte segments are active and these are:
code, stack, data, and extra
When you write your assembly language program
for an 8086, theoretically you should define the
different segments!!!
To access the active segments, it is via the
segment register: CS (code), SS (stack), DS (data),
ES (extra)
So when writing assembly language program, you
must make use of the proper segment register or
index register when you want to access the
memory

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Registers
In assembly programming, you cannot
operate on two memory locations in the same
instruction
So you usually need to store (move) value of
one location into a register and then perform
your operation
After the operation, you then put the result
back to the memory location
Therefore, one form of operation that you will
use very frequent is the store (move)
operation!!!
And using registers!!!!!

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Example
In C++ A = B+C ; A, B, C are variables
In assembly language A,B, C
representing memory locations so you
cannot do A = B+C
MOV AL, B ; move value of B into AL
register
ADD, AL, C ; do the add AL = AL +C
MOV A, AL ; put the result to A

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Data registers
AX, BX, CX,and DX these are the general purpose
registers but each of the registers also has special
function
Example
AX is called the accumulator to store result in arithmetic
operations

Registers are 16-bit but can be used as 2 8-bit storage

Each of the 4 data registers can be used as the source
or destination of an operand during an arithmetic,
logic, shift, or rotate operation.
In some operations, the use of the accumulator is
assumed, eg in I/O mapped input and output
operations

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Data register
In based addressing mode, base register BX is
used as a pointer to an operand in the current
data segment.
CX is used as a counter in some instructions,
eg. CL contains the count of the number of bits
by which the contents of the operand must be
rotated or shifted by multiple-bit rotate
DX, data register, is used in all multiplication
and division, it also contains an input/output
port address for some types of input/output
operations

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Pointer and index registers

Stack is used as a temporary storage
Data can be stored by the PUSH instruction
and extracted by the POP instruction
Stack is accessed via the SP (Stack Pointer)
and BP (Base Pointer)
The BP contains an offset address in the
current stack segment. This offset address is
employed when using the based addressing
mode and is commonly used by instructions in
a subroutine that reference parameters that
were passed by using the stack

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Pointer and Index Register

Source index register (SI) and Destination
index register (DI) are used to hold offset
addresses for use in indexed addressing of
operands in memory
When indexed type of addressing is used,
then SI refers to the current data segment
and DI refers to the current extra segment
The index registers can also be used as
source or destination registers in arithmetic
and logical operations. But must be used in
16-bit mode
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Data types
Data can be in three forms: 8-bit, 16-bit, or 32-bit
(double word)
Integer could be signed or unsigned and in bytewide or word-wide
For signed integer (2s complement format), the MSB
is used as the sign-bit (0 for positive, 1 for negative)
Signed 8-bit integer 127 to 128,
For signed word 32767 to 32768
Latest microprocessors can also support 64-bit or
even 128-bit data
In 8086, only integer operations are supported!!!

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A sample program
.code
; indicate start of code segment
.startup ; indicate start of program
mov
AX, 0
mov
BX, 0000H
mov
CX, 0
mov
SI, AX
mov
DI, AX
mov
BP, AX
END
; end of file
The flow of the program is usually top-down and
instructions are executed one by one!!!

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Assembly programming
In general, an assembly program must include the code segment!!
Other segments, such as stack segment, data segment are not
compulsory
There are key words to indicate the beginning of a segment as
well as the end of a segment. Just like using main(){} in C++
Programming
Example
DSEG segment data

; define the start of a data segment

DSEG ENDS
; defines the end of a data segment
Segment is the keyword DSEG is the name of the segment
Similarly key words are used to define the beginning of a program,
as well as the end.

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Assembly language
programming
Example
CSEG segment code
START PROC FAR
; define the start of a program (procedure)
RET
START ENDP
CSEG ends
End start

; return
; define the end of a procedure
; end of everything

Different assembler may have different syntax for the definition

of the key words !!!!!
Start is just a name it could be my_prog, ABC etc

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More
sample
Stacksg segment para stack
.
; define the stack segment
Stacksg ends
Datasg segment para

; declare data inside the data segment

Datasg ends
Codesg segment para code
Main proc far
;
assume ss:stacksg, ds: datasg, cs:codesg
mov ax, datasg
mov ds, ax
.
mov ax, 4c00H
int 21H
Main
endp
Codesg ends
end
main

End of everything

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Definitions
To declare a segment, the syntax is:
segment_name SEGMENT alignment class
Example Stacksg segment PARA (this statement is used in previous
slide)
PARA define the alignment of the segment base address, the segment
with a starting addressing that is evenly Divisible by 16. But the default
value is also base address divisible by 16 so the key word PARA can be
ignored!

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Definition
data, code class entry. Is used to
group related segments when linking.
The linker automatically groups
segments of the same class in memory
PROC define procedures (similar to a
function) inside the code segment. Each
procedure must be identified by an
unique name. At the end of the
procedure, you must include the ENDP

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Definitions
FAR is related to program execution. When you request execution
of a program, the program loader uses this procedure as the entry
point for the first instruction to execute.
Assume to associate, or to assign, the name of a segment with a
segment register
In some assembler, you need to move the base address of a segment
directly into the segment register!!!
END ends the entire program and appears as the last statement.
Usually the name of the first or only PROC designated as FAR is put after
END

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Syntax of a simple assembly

language program
If you are doing something simple
then you do not need to define the
segment
Everything will be stored in the code
segment

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start:
mov DL, 0H ; move 0H to DL
mov CL, op1 ; move op1 to CL
mov AL, data; move data to AL
step:
cmp AL, op1 ; compare AL and op1
jc label1
; if carry =1 jump to label1
sub AL, op1 ; AL = AL op1
inc DL
; DL = DL+1
jmp step
; jump to step
label1:
mov AH, DL ; move DL to AH
HLT
; Halt end of program
data db 45
; define a variable called data
op1 db 6
; define a variable called op1
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Assembler for 8086

Emu8086 (http:// www.emu8086.com) there is a trial version but
it does not support all the features such as interrupt
The emu8086 consists of a tutorial and the reference for a
complete instruction set
Keil www.keil.com

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Defining data in a program

Data is usually stored in the data segment
You can define constants, work areas (a chunk of memory )
Data can be defined in different length (8-bit, 16-bit)
8-bit then use DB
16-bit then use DW
The definition for data:
[name] Dn expression

; Dn is either DB or DW

Name a program that references a data item by means of a name.

The name of an item is otherwise optional
Dn this is called the directives. It defines length of the data
Expression define the values (content) for the data

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Examples for data

FLDA

DB

? ; define an uninitialized item called FLDA 8-bit

FLDB

DB

25 ; initialize a data to 25

Define multiple data under the same name (like an array)

FLDC

DB

21, 22, 23, 34 ; the data are stored in adjacent bytes

FLDC stores the first value

FLDC + 1 stores the second value
You can do

mov AL, FLDC+3

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Example for data

definition
DUP duplicate
DUP can be used to define multiple storages
DB 10 DUP (?) ; defines 10 bytes not initialize
DB 5 DUP (12) ; 5 data all initialized to 12
String :
DB this is a test
EQU this directive does not define a data item; instead, it defines
a value that the assembler can use to substitute in other instructions
(similar to defining a constant in C programming or using the #define )
factor EQU 12
mov
CX, factor

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Assembly Program

Assembly language should be more

effective and it will take up less memory
space and run faster
In real-time application, the use of assembly
program is required because program that
is written in a high-level language probably
could not respond quickly enough
You can also put assembly codes into your
C++ program in order to reduce the
execution time!!!!

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Assembly language
programming
The syntax for different
microprocessor may be different but
the concept is the same so once you
learn the assembly programming for
one microprocessor, you can easily
program other kinds of system
For example, programming the 8051
series is very similar to the 8086
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Addressing Modes
Function of the addressing modes is to
access the operands
Available modes (9 modes): register
addressing, immediate addressing, direct
addressing, register indirect addressing,
based addressing, indexed addressing,
based indexed addressing, string
addressing, and port addressing
Addressing modes provide different ways
of computing the address of an operand

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Why addressing mode is

important?

In c++, you can define an array, or a

variable

int x[10], y, *z;

Then to access different elements, you can do
Z=x;
*(x+2);
x[0] = y

How this can be done using assembly language

programming? This is via different addressing
modes!!!!

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Register addressing mode

The operand to be accessed is specified
as residing in an internal register of the
8086
Eg MOV
AX, BX
Move (MOV) contents of BX (the source
operand), to AX (the destination
operand)
Both operands are in the internal
registers

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37

Pay attention to the value of IP and content of AX, BX

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Immediate addressing mode

Source operand is part of the instruction

Usually immediate operands represent constan
The operands can be either a byte or word
e.g MOV AL, 15
15 is a byte wide immediate source operand
Or it could be MOV AL, #15
The immediate operand is stored in program st
memory (i.e the code segment)
This value is also fetched into the instruction qu
in the BIU
No external memory bus cycle is initiated!
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40

41

Direct addressing mode

Move a byte or word between a memory
location and a register
the locations following the instruction
opcode hold an effective memory address
(EA) instead of data
The address is a 16-bit offset of the
storage location of the operand from the
current value in the data segment register
Physcial address = DS + offset
The instruction set does not support a
memory-to-memory transfer!
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Direct addressing
Data is assumed to be stored in the
data segment so DS is used in
calculating the physical address!!!
External memory bus cycle is needed to
do the read
Example of direct addressing: mov AL,
var1
Where Var1 can be regarded as a
variable

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Register indirect addressing mode

Transfer a byte or word between a register and a
memory location addressed by an index or base
register
Example MOV AL, [SI]
SI index register
The symbol [] always refer to an indirect addressing

The effective address (EA) is stored either in a

pointer register or an index register
The pointer register can be either base register
BX or base pointer register BP
The index register can be source index register
SI, or destination index register DI
The default segment is either DS or ES

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Register indirect
addressing
Eg MOV AX, [SI]
Value stored in the SI register is used as the offset
address
The segment register is DS in this example
Meaning of the above is to move the data stored in
the memory location : DS + SI to the AX register
In register indirect addressing mode, the EA
(effective address) is a variable and depends on the
index, or base register value
Eg mov [BX], CL
Which segment register will be used for the above
operation

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Address(in
HEX)

Content

01236

19

01235

18

01234

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According to the memory map

The result of the operation
Mov [BX], CL will result in what???
If CL = 88 and BX = 1233H and DS =0H
Physical address = DS + BX = 01233H

01233

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