EL213: Computer Org.

& Assembly
Language Lab
Lab#03 – Basics of Assembly Language

Agenda
Introduction to Assembly Programming ....................................................................................................... 2
Basic Assembly Commands ....................................................................................................................... 2
MOV (Move) .................................................................................................................................... 2
ADD (Addition) ................................................................................................................................. 2
SUB (Subtraction) ............................................................................................................................. 3
MUL (Multiplication): ....................................................................................................................... 3
Data Types in Assembly Language ............................................................................................................ 4
Symbolic Constants ...................................................................................................................... 10
Equal-Sign Directive ..................................................................................................................... 10

1|Page
Introduction to Assembly Programming
Basic Assembly Commands
You should have basic information about general purpose registers according to IA (Intel Architecture).

1. MOV
2. ADD
3. SUB
4. MUL

MOV (Move)
Copies data from a source operand to a destination operand, it is equivalent to assignment operator as
in C/C++. General Format of instruction is as follows:

Syntax

MOV destination, source

MOV reg1,reg2 ;reg1=reg2

MOV reg, mem ;reg=mem

For example

MOV eax,512 ;EAX=512

MOV ebx,eax ;EBX=EAX
;EBX=512

ADD (Addition)
A source operand is added to a destination operand, and the sum is stored in the destination. Operand
must be the same size. General Instruction format is as follows:

Syntax

ADD destination, source

ADD reg1, reg2 ;reg1 =reg1+reg2

ADD reg, mem ;reg =reg + mem

ADD mem , reg ;mem =mem + reg

2|Page
For example

MOV eax,512 ;EAX=512

MOV ebx,123 ;EBX=EAX

ADD eax,ebx ;EAX=EAX+EBX

;EAX=635

SUB (Subtraction)
Subtract the source operand from destination operand, and the subtraction is stored the destination.
Operand must be the same size. General Instruction format is as follows:

Syntax

SUB destination, source

SUB reg1, reg2 ;reg1 =reg1-reg2

SUB reg, mem ;reg =reg - mem

SUB mem, reg ;mem =mem - reg

For example

MOV eax,512 ;EAX=512

MOV ebx,123 ;EBX=EAX

SUB eax,ebx ;EAX=EAX-EBX

;EAX=389

MUL (Multiplication):
Multiplies AL, AH, AX or EAX by a source operand. i.e. Multiplies the source operand with Accumulator
Register(AC). General Instruction format is as follows:

Syntax

MUL source

MUL reg ;EAX =EAX*reg

MUL mem ;EAX =EAX*mem

3|Page
For example

MOV eax,12 ;EAX=12

MOV ebx,5 ;EBX=5

MUL ebx ;EAX=EAX*EBX

;EAX=60

Data Types in Assembly Language

Following data types are used in assembly for variable declaration.

1. BYTE: 8-bit unsigned integer;

2. SBYTE: 8-bit signed integer
3. WORD: 16-bit unsigned
4. SWORD: 16 – Bit Signed integer
5. DWORD: 32-bit unsigned
6. SDWORD: 32 – bit signed integer
7. QWORD: 64-bit integer
8. TBYTE: 80-bit integer
9. REAL4: 4-byte IEEE short real
10. REAL8: 8-byte IEEE long real
11. REAL10: 10-byte IEEE extended real

Generic syntax to declare a variable is given below.

<Variable Name> <Data Type> <Default Value>/?

For example

myWord WORD ?
myDWord DWORD 5000

Note: Instruction XOR is used to clear the registers contents e.g. XOR EAX, EAX

Getting Started
Use
 Call WriteInt ;statement to display the signed integer
 Call WriteDec ;statement to display the unsigned integer
 Call WriteChar ;statement to display a character
 Call WriteString ;statement to display a appropriate message.
 Call Crlf ;for new line (CR = Carriage Return (\r), LF = Line Feed (\n))
 Call Clrscr ;statement to clear the screen

4|Page
Defining BYTE and SBYTE Data
TITLE Data Definitions
; Examples showing how to define data.
INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

; ----------------- Byte Values ----------------

.data ;identifies the are of program that contains variables

value1 BYTE 'A'
value2 BYTE 0
value3 BYTE 255
value4 SBYTE 120
value5 SBYTE +127
value6 BYTE ?

.code ;identifies the area of program that contains instructions

main PROC ;identifies beginning of a procedure
mov al, value1
call WriteChar ;prints 'A'
call crlf ;for new line

xor eax,eax ;to cear the register to avoid un-expected results

mov al, value2
call Writedec
call crlf

mov al,value3
call WriteDec
call crlf

XOR EAX,EAX
mov al,value4
call WriteDec
call writeInt
call crlf

XOR EAX,EAX
mov al,value5
call WriteDec
call writeInt
call crlf

;(insert instructions here to do some more as you want)

exit
main ENDP
END main

5|Page
Defining String Data Types
TITLE Data Definitions
; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data

; ----------------- Strings ---------------------

Str1 BYTE "Welcome to this lab", 0

Str2 BYTE "Welcome to this program", 0dh, 0ah

.code
main PROC
mov edx, OFFSET Str1
call WriteString
call crlf

xor edx,edx
mov edx, offset str2
call WriteString
exit
main ENDP
END main

Both 0ah and 0dh are hexadecimal values. Hex values can be specified in two ways in assembly - append
an h after the hex value or append the value to 0x.
0ah is equivalent to 10 in decimal and to linefeed ('\n') in ASCII which moves the cursor to the next row
of the screen but maintaining the same column. 0dh is equivalent to 13 in decimal and to carriage return
('\r') in ASCII which moves the cursor to the beginning of the current row. A combination of the two thus
moves the cursor to the beginning of the next row of the screen.

Note:
The OFFSET operator returns the offset address of a variable.
OFFSET: The distance in bytes from the segment address to another location within segment.

6|Page
Using DUP Operator
The DUP operator generates a repeated storage allocation. It is particularly useful when allocating space
for a string or array, and can be used with both initialized and uninitialized data definitions

TITLE Data Definitions

; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
; ----------------- Usage of DUP Operator ---------------------

Bytedup1 BYTE 20 DUP(0); 20 bytes, all equal to zero

Bytedup2 BYTE 20 DUP(?); 20 bytes, uninitialized
Bytedup3 BYTE 3 DUP(“FAST-NU”); 21 bytes, “FAST-NUFAST-NUFAST-NU”

.code
main PROC

;(insert instructions here to print & manipulate these values)

exit
main ENDP
END main

Defining Word Data along with Array

TITLE Data Definitions

; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
; ----------------- Word Values ---------------------

word1 WORD 65535 ; largest unsigned value

word3 WORD ? ; uninitialized
myList WORD 1,2,3,4,5 ; array of words

.code
main PROC

;(insert instructions here to print & manipulate these values)

exit
main ENDP
END main

Defining Double Word Data along with DUP Operator

TITLE Data Definitions

7|Page
; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
; --------------- DoubleWord Values --------------

val1 DWORD 12345678h

val3 DWORD 20 DUP(?)

.code
main PROC

;(insert instructions here to print & manipulate these values)

exit
main ENDP
END main

8|Page
Defining Quad-Word and Ten-Byte

TITLE Data Definitions

; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
; ------- QuadWord and TenByte Values ------------

quad1 DQ 234567812345678h
ten1 DT 1000000000123456789Ah

.code
main PROC

;(insert instructions here to print & manipulate these values)

exit
main ENDP
END main

Defining Pointer Data Types

TITLE Data Definitions

; Examples showing how to define data.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
; ----------------- Pointers ---------------------

arrayB BYTE 10,20,30,40

arrayW WORD 1000h,2000h,3000h,4000h

ptrB DWORD arrayB ; points to arrayB

ptrW DWORD arrayW ; points to arrayW

.code
main PROC

;(insert instructions here to print & manipulate these values)

exit
main ENDP
END main

9|Page
Symbolic Constants

Equal-Sign Directive
The equal-sign directive associates a symbol name with an integer expression. The Syntax is:

name = expression

TITLE Symbolic Constants: Equal-Sign Directive

; Examples showing how to use Symbolic Constants.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data
COUNT = 10
myarray BYTE COUNT DUP(0)

.code
main PROC

COUNT = 100;
mov eax, count;
call WriteInt
call crlf ; for new line

; (insert more instructions here to manipulate)

exit
main ENDP
END main

Calculating the Sizes of Arrays

Masm uses $ operator (current location counter) to return the offset associated with current program
statement. In the following example, listsize is calculated by subtracting the offset of list from the
current location counter ($):

TITLE Symbolic Constants: Equal-Sign Directive

; Examples showing how to use Symbolic Constants.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.data

list BYTE 10,20,30,40

listsize = ($ - list)

.code
main PROC

mov eax, listsize

10 | P a g e
 call WriteDec
call Crlf

exit
main ENDP
END main

Using EQU Directive

The EQU directive associates a symbolic name with either an integer expression or some arbitrary text.
There are three formats

Name EQU expression

Name EQU symbol
Name EQU <text>
Where,
expression must be a valid integer expression
symbol is an existing symbol name
and any text may appear within the brackets <…>

TITLE Symbolic Constants: EQU Directive

; Examples showing how to use Symbolic Constants.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data

presskey EQU <"Press any key",0>

prompt BYTE presskey

.code
main PROC

mov edx, OFFSET prompt

Call WriteString
Call Crlf

exit
main ENDP
END main

11 | P a g e
Using TEXTEQU Directive
It is very similar to the EQU directive. There are three different formats:

name TEXTEQU <text>

name TEXTEQU textmacro
name TEXTEQU %constExpr

The first assigns text, the second assigns an existing text macro, and the third assigns constant integer
expression.

TITLE Symbolic Constants: Using TEXTEQU Directive

; Examples showing how to use Symbolic Constants.

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.data
rowsize = 5
count TEXTEQU %(rowsize*2) ;same as: count TEXTEQU <10>
move TEXTEQU <mov>
setupEAX TEXTEQU <move eax,count>
;same as: setupEAX TEXTQU <move eax, 10>
.code
main PROC
setupEAX
call WriteDec
call Crlf
exit
main ENDP
END main

12 | P a g e