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ROHINI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY
1.4 ASSEMBLER DIRECTIVES

Assembler directives help the assembler to correctly understand the
assembly language programs to prepare the codes. Another type of hint which
helps the assembler to assign a particular constant with a label or initialize
particular memory locations or labels with constants is called an operator. Rather,
the operators perform the arithmetic and logical tasks unlike directives that just
direct the assembler to correctly interpret the program to code it appropriately. The
following directives are commonly used in the assembly language programming
practice using Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) or Turbo Assembler
(TASM).
DB: Define Byte
The DB directive is used to reserve byte or bytes of
memory locations in the available memory.
LIST DB 0lH, 02H, 03H, 04H
This statement directs the assembler to reserve four memory locations for a list
named LIST and initialize them with the above specified four values.
DW: Define Word
It makes the assembler reserve the number of memory words (16-bit) instead
of bytes. Some examples are given to explain this directive.
Examples WORDS DW 1234H, 4567H, 78ABH, 045CH
DQ: Define Quad word
This directive is used to direct the assembler to reset 4words (8

bytes) of memory for the specified variable and may initialize it with the specified
values.
DT: Define Ten Bytes
The DT directive directs the assembler to define the specified
variable requiring l -bytes for its storage and initialize the 10bytes with the
specified values.
EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

ASSUME: Assume Logical Segment Name

The ASSUME directive is used to inform the assembler, the names
of the logical segments to be assumed for different segments used in the program.
In the assembly language program, each segment is given aname.
For example, the code segment may be given the name CODE, data
segment may be given the name DATA etc.
ASSUME CS:
CODE directs the assembler that the machine codes are available
in a segment named CODE, and hence the CS register is to be loaded with the
Address(segment) allotted by the operating system for the label CODE, while
loading.
ASSUME DS:
DATA indicates to the assembler that the data items related to
the program, are available in a logical segment named DATA, and the DS
register is to be initialized by the segment Address value decided by the
operating system for the data segment, while loading.
END: END of Program
The END directive marks the end of an assembly language
program. When the assembler comes across this END directive, it ignores the
source lines available later on. Hence, it should be ensured that the END statement
should be the last statement in the file and should not appear in between.
ENDP: END of Procedure.
In assembly language programming, the subroutines are called
procedures. Thus, procedures may be independent program modules which
return particular results or values to the calling programs. The ENDP directive
is used to indicate the end of a procedure.
PROCEDURE STAR
.
.
STAR ENDP

ENDS: END of Segment

This directive marks the end of a logical segment.
DATA SEGMENT
.
.
.
DATA ENDS
ASSUME CS: CODE, DS:DATA CODE SEGMENT.
.
.
.
C
O
D
E
E
N
D
S
E
N
D
The above structure represents a simple program containing two segments
named DATA and CODE. The data related to the program must lie between the
DATA SEGMENT and DATA ENDS statements. Similarly, all the executable
instructions must lie between CODE SEGMENT and CODE ENDS statements.
EVEN: Align on Even Memory Address
The EVEN directive updates the location counter to the next even
Address if the current location counter contents are not even, and assigns the
following routine or variable or constant to that Address.

EQU: Equate
The directive EQU is used to assign a label with a value or a
symbol. The use of this directive is just to reduce the recurrence of the numerical
values or constants in a program code.
Example
LABEL
EQU
0500H
ADDITI
ON EQU
ADD
The first statement assigns the constant 500H with the label LABEL, while the
second statement assigns another label ADDITION with mnemonic ADD.
EXTRN: External and Public
The directive EXTRN informs the assembler that the names,
procedures and labels declared after this directive have already been defined in
some other assembly language modules.
GROUP: Group the Related segment
The directive is used to form logical groups of segments with
similar purpose or type. This directive is used to inform the assembler to form a
logical group of the following segment names.
PROGRAM GROUP CODE, DATA, STACK
The above statement directs the loader/linker to prepare an EXE file such
that CODE, DATA and STACK segment must lie within a 64kbyte memory
segment that is named as PROGRAM. Now, for the ASSUME statement, one can
use the label PROGRAM rather than CODE, DATA and STACK as shown.
ASSUME CS: PROGRAM, DS: PROGRAM, SS: PROGRAM.
LABEL: Label
The Label directive is used to assign a name to the current content
of the location counter. At the start of the assembly process, the assembler

initializes a location counter to keep track of memory locations assigned to the

program.
LENGTH: Byte Length of a Label
This directive is not available in MASM. This is used to refer
to the length of a data array or a string.
MOV CX, LENGTH ARRAY
LOCAL:
The labels, variables, constants or procedures declared LOCAL
in a module are to be used only by thatmodule.
NAME: Logical Name of a Module
The NAME directive is used to assign a name to an assembly
language program module. The module may now be referred to by its declared
name.
OFFSET: Offset of a Label
When the assembler comes across the OFFSET operator along with a
label, it first computes the 16-bit displacement (also called as offset
interchangeably) of the particular label, and replaces the string 'OFFSET LABEL'
by the computed displacement.
ORG: Origin
The ORG directive directs the assembler to start the memory
allotment for the particular segment, block or code from the declared Addressing.
The ORG statement while starting the assembly process for a module, the
assembler initializes a location counter to keep track of the allotted addresses for
the module. If the ORG statement is not written in the program, the location counter
is initialized to 0000. If an ORG 200H statement is present at the starting of the
code segment of that module, then the code will start from 200H Addressing code
segment.
PROC: Procedure
The PROC directive marks the start of a named procedure in the
statement.

PTR: Pointer
The pointer operator is used to declare the type of a label, variable
or memory operand. The operator PTR is prefixed by either BYTE or WORD. If
the prefix is BYTE, then the particular label, variable or memory operand is treated
as an 8-bit quuantitywhile if WORD is the prefix, then it is treated as a 16- bit quantity.
Example:
MOV AL, BYTE PTR [SI];
Moves content of memory location addressed by SI (8-bit) to AL
SEG: Segment of a Label
The SEG operator is used to decide the segment Address of the label,
variable, or procedure and substitutes the segment base Address in place of ‘SEG
label’. The example given below explains the use of SEG operator.
Example MOV AX, SEG ARRAY;
This statement moves the segment address
SEGMENT: Logical Segment
The SEGMENT directive marks the starting of a logical segment.

The started segment is also assigned a name, i.e. label, by this statement. The
SEGMENT and ENDS directive must bracket each logical segment of a
program.
TYPE :
The TYPE operator directs the assembler to decide the data type
of the specified label and replaces the 'TYPE label' by the decided data type.
For the word type variable, the data type is 2, for double word type, it is 4, and
for byte type, it is 1.
GLOBAL:
The labels, variables, constants or procedures declared
GLOBAL may be used by other modules of the program. Once a variable is
declared GLOBAL, it can be used by any module in the program. The
following statement declares the procedure ROUTINE as a global label.


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ROHINI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & TECHNOLOGY

1.4 ASSEMBLER DIRECTIVES

DQ: Define Quad word

This directive is used to direct the assembler to reset 4words (8

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

ASSUME: Assume Logical Segment Name

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

ENDS: END of Segment

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

initializes a location counter to keep track of memory locations assigned to the

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

SEGMENT: Logical Segment

The SEGMENT directive marks the starting of a logical segment.

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

EC8691 MICROPROCESSORS AND MICROCONTROLLERS

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