Learning Outcomes

 Learn about essential steps in creating, assembling,

and executing an assembly language program.
 To know the syntax, which for assembly language.
 variables declaration.
 Basic data movement and arithmetic instructions.
 To explore the program organization.
 code, data, and the stack, just like a machine language
program.

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Assembly Language Syntax
 Generally, not case sensitive, but use upper case to
differentiate code from the rest of the text.
 Each statement is either an instruction or an assembler
directive
 the assembler translates into machine code.
 instructs the assembler to perform some specific task,
such as allocating memory space for a variable.
 Both instructions and directives have up to four fields:

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Assembly Language Syntax (2)
 An example of an instruction is:

Name Operations Operands Comments

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Assembly Language Syntax (3)
 An example of an assembler directive is

Operation
Name

Directive creates
a procedure called
MAIN
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Assembly Language Syntax (4)
 Name Field
 Use for instruction labels, procedure names, and
variable names.
 Translates names into memory addresses.
 1 to 31 characters long and may consist of letters, digits,
and the special characters ? . @ _ $ %.
 If a period is used, it must be the first character.
 Not begin with a digit.

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Assembly Language Syntax (5)
 Examples of legal names
COUNTER1
?character
SUM_OF_DIGITS
$1000
DONE?
.TEST

 Examples of illegal names

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Assembly Language Syntax (6)
 Operation Field
 Contains a symbolic operation code (opcode).
 Often describe the operation's function; for example,
MOV, ADD, SUB.
 The operation field contains a pseudo-operation code
(pseudo-op).
 Not translated into machine code.
 PROC pseudo-op is used to create a procedure.

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Assembly Language Syntax (7)
 Operand Field
 Specifies the data that are to be acted on by the
operation.
 Instruction may have zero, one, or two operands.
 The first operand is the destination operand.
 register or memory location where the result is stored
 The second operand is the source operand.

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 Program Data
 Express data as binary, decimal, or hex numbers, and
even as characters.
 Numbers:
Number Type
11011 decimal
11011B binary
64223 decimal
-21843D decimal
1, 234 illegal-contains a nondig1t character
1B4BH hex
1B4D illegal hex number doesn't end in "H"
FFFFH illegal hex number-doesn't begin with a decimal
digit
0FFFFH hex 10
Program Data (2)
 Characters
 must be enclosed in single or double quotes: for
example, "A" or 'hello'.
 translated into their ASCII codes by the assembler.
 no difference between using "A" and 41h in a program.

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Variables
 Each variable has a data type and is assigned a memory
address by the program.
 Data-defining pseudo-ops and their meanings as
below:

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Variables (2)
 Byte Variables

Uninitialized

 Word Variables

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Variables (3)
 Arrays
 a sequence of memory bytes or words.

 B_ARRAY is associated with the first of these bytes

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Variables (4)

how ?

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A Few Basic Instructions
 More than 100 instruction sets
 There are some more instructions for more advanced
processors.
 Only six of the most useful instructions transferring
data and doing arithmetic.
 Uses either word or byte operands.
 MOV and XCHG
 Use to transfer data between registers, between a
register and a memory location, or to move a number
directly into a register or memory location.

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A Few Basic Instructions (2)
 The syntax is:

 MOV AX, BX
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A Few Basic Instructions (3)
 Legal Combinations of Operands for MOV

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A Few Basic Instructions (4)
 XCHG operation is used to exchange the contents of two
registers or a register and a memory location.
 The syntax is:

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A Few Basic Instructions (5)
 Legal Combinations of Operands for XCHG

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Restrictions on MOV and XCHG

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A Few Basic Instructions (6)
 ADD, SUB, INC, and DEC
 ADD and SUB instructions are used to add or subtract
 Contents of two registers,
 A register and a memory location, or
 To add (subtract) a number to (from) a register or memory
location.

 Contents of AX and memory word WORD1 to be added,

and the sum is stored in WORD1.

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A Few Basic Instructions (6)

 SUB AX, DX
 INC is used to add 1 to the contents of a register or
memory location and DEC subtracts 1 from a register
or memory location.

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A Few Basic Instructions (6)
 The syntax is

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A Few Basic Instructions (7)
 NEG is used to negate the contents of the destination.

NEG BX

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 Translation of High level Language
to Assembly Language
 Only MOV, ADD, SUB, INC, DEC, and NEG are used
to translate assembly language.

 Note that, a direct memory-memory move is illegal.

 The contents of A into a register before moving it to B.

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Translation of High level Language
to Assembly Language (2)
 For instance, statement, A = 5 – A

MOV AX, 5 ; Keep 5 in AX

SUB AX, A ; AX = 5 - A
MOV A, AX ; keep A = AX

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Translation of High level Language
to Assembly Language (3)
 Example shows how to do multiplication by a
constant.

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Program Structure
 The code, data, and stack are structured as program
segments.
 Program segment is translated into a memory segment
by the assembler.
 Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM).
 Memory Models
 Size of code and data a program can have is determined
by specifying a memory model (.Model directive)
 Frequently used memory models are SMALL, MEDIUM,
COMPACT, and LARGE.
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Program Structure (2)

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Program Structure (3)
 Data segment contains all the variable definition.
 .DATA
 Stack segment declaration is to set aside a block of
memory (the stack area) to store the stack.
 .STACK size
 Code segment contains a program's instructions. The
declaration syntax is:
 .CODE name

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Program Structure (4)

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Input and Output Instructions
 There are two instructions, IN and OUT, that access
the ports directly.
 Use when fast I/O essential; for example, in a game
program.
 the Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) routines and the
DOS routines.
 The INT Instruction
 To invoke a DOS or BIOS routine
 INT interrupt_number

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Input and Output Instructions (2)
 INT 21h
 Invoke a large number of DOS functions
 Function is requested by placing a function number in
the AH register and invoking INT 21h

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Input and Output Instructions (3)

Processor will wait for the user to hit a key if necessary. If

a character key is pressed, AL gets its ASCII code;
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Input and Output Instructions (4)

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First Program
 The first program will read a character from the
keyboard and display it at the beginning of the next
line.
 start by displaying a question mark:

 Next read a character:

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First Program (2)
 to display the character on the next line, the character
must be saved in another register.

 to move the cursor to the beginning of the next line,

execute a carriage return and line feed.

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Creating and Running a Program
1. Use a text editor or word processor to create a source
program file.
2. Use an assembler to create a machine language
object file.
3. Use the LINK program (see description later) to link
one or more object files to create a run file.
4. Execute the run file.

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Programming Steps

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Displaying Input Character at the
Beginning of the Next Line

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Displaying a String
 INT 21h function that can be used to display a
character string:

 MSG DB ‘Hello! $’

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Displaying a String (2)
 The LEA Instruction
 Puts a copy of the source offset address into the
destination.
 LEA destination, source
 LEA DX MSG
 Offset address of the variable MSG into DX

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Displaying a String (3)

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A Case Conversion Program

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