•Introduction to

Assembly Language
Presentation Outline
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
Constants
• Integer Constants
• Examples: –10, 42d, 10001101b, 0FF3Ah, 777o
• Radix: b = binary, d = decimal, h = hexadecimal, and o = octal
• If no radix is given, the integer constant is decimal
• A hexadecimal beginning with a letter must have a leading 0
• Character and String Constants
• Enclose character or string in single or double quotes
• Examples: 'A', "d", 'ABC', "ABC", '4096'
• Embedded quotes: "single quote ' inside", 'double quote "
inside'
• Each ASCII character occupies a single byte
 Assembly Language Statements
• Three types of statements in assembly language
• Typically, one statement should appear on a line
1. Executable Instructions
• Generate machine code for the processor to execute at runtime
• Instructions tell the processor what to do
2. Assembler Directives
• Provide information to the assembler while translating a program
• Used to define data, select memory model, etc.
• Non-executable: directives are not part of instruction set
3. Macros
• Shorthand notation for a group of statements
• Sequence of instructions, directives, or other macros
 Instructions
• Assembly language instructions have the format:

[label:] mnemonic [operands] [;comment]

• Instruction Label (optional)

• Marks the address of an instruction, must have a colon :
• Used to transfer program execution to a labeled instruction

• Mnemonic
• Identifies the operation (e.g. MOV, ADD, SUB, JMP, CALL)

• Operands
• Specify the data required by the operation
• Executable instructions can have zero to three operands
• Operands can be registers, memory variables, or constants
Instruction Examples
• No operands
stc ; set carry flag
• One operand
inc eax ; increment register eax
call Clrscr ; call procedure Clrscr
jmp L1 ; jump to instruction with label L1
• Two operands
add ebx, ecx ; register ebx = ebx + ecx
sub var1, 25 ; memory variable var1 = var1 - 25
• Three operands
imul eax,ebx,5 ; register eax = ebx * 5
Comments
• Comments are very important!
• Explain the program's purpose
• When it was written, revised, and by whom
• Explain data used in the program
• Explain instruction sequences and algorithms used
• Application-specific explanations
• Single-line comments
• Begin with a semicolon ; and terminate at end of line
• Multi-line comments
• Begin with COMMENT directive and a chosen character
• End with the same chosen character
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
 Flat Memory Program Template
TITLE Flat Memory Program Template (Template.asm)

; Program Description:
; Author: Creation Date:
; Modified by: Modification Date:

.686
.MODEL FLAT, STDCALL
.STACK

INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.DATA
; (insert variables here)
.CODE
main PROC
; (insert executable instructions here)
exit
main ENDP
; (insert additional procedures here)
END main
TITLE and .MODEL Directives
• TITLE line (optional)
• Contains a brief heading of the program and the disk file name
• .MODEL directive
• Specifies the memory configuration
• For our purposes, the FLAT memory model will be used
• Linear 32-bit address space (no segmentation)
• STDCALL directive tells the assembler to use …
• Standard conventions for names and procedure calls

• .686 processor directive

• Used before the .MODEL directive
• Program can use instructions of Pentium P6 architecture
• At least the .386 directive should be used with the FLAT model
 .STACK, .DATA, & .CODE Directives
• .STACK directive
• Tells the assembler to define a runtime stack for the program
• The size of the stack can be optionally specified by this directive
• The runtime stack is required for procedure calls
• .DATA directive
• Defines an area in memory for the program data
• The program's variables should be defined under this directive
• Assembler will allocate and initialize the storage of variables
• .CODE directive
• Defines the code section of a program containing instructions
• Assembler will place the instructions in the code area in memory
INCLUDE, PROC, ENDP, and END
• INCLUDE directive
• Causes the assembler to include code from another file
• We will include Irvine32.inc provided by the author Kip Irvine
• Declares procedures implemented in the Irvine32.lib library
• To use this library, you should link Irvine32.lib to your programs

• PROC and ENDP directives

• Used to define procedures
• As a convention, we will define main as the first procedure
• Additional procedures can be defined aftermain
• END directive
• Marks the end of a program
• Identifies the name (main ) of the program’s startup procedure
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
Adding and Subtracting Integers

TITLE Add and Subtract (AddSub.asm)

; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit integers.
.686
.MODEL FLAT, STDCALL
.STACK
INCLUDE Irvine32.inc

.CODE
main PROC
mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h
add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h
sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h
call DumpRegs ; display registers
exit
main ENDP
END main
Example of Console Output
Procedure DumpRegs is defined in Irvine32.lib library
It produces the following console output,
showing registers and flags:

EAX=00030000 EBX=7FFDF000 ECX=00000101 EDX=FFFFFFFF

ESI=00000000 EDI=00000000 EBP=0012FFF0 ESP=0012FFC4
EIP=00401024 EFL=00000206 CF=0 SF=0 ZF=0 OF=0
 Suggested Coding Standards
• Some approaches to capitalization
• Capitalize nothing
• Capitalize everything
• Capitalize all reserved words, mnemonics and register names
• Capitalize only directives and operators
• MASM is NOT case sensitive: does not matter what case is used
• Other suggestions
• Use meaningful identifier names
• Use blank lines between procedures
• Use indentation and spacing to align instructions and comments
• Use tabs to indent instructions, but do not indent labels
• Align the comments that appear after the instructions
Understanding Program Termination
• The exit at the end of main procedure is a macro
• Defined in Irvine32.inc
• Expanded into a call to ExitProcess that terminates the program
• ExitProcess function is defined in the kernel32 library
• We can replace exit with the following:
push 0 ; push parameter 0 on stack
call ExitProcess ; to terminate program
• You can also replace exit with: INVOKE ExitProcess, 0
• PROTO directive (Prototypes)
• Declares a procedure used by a program and defined elsewhere
ExitProcess PROTO, ExitCode:DWORD
• Specifies the parameters and types of a given procedure
Modified Program
TITLE Add and Subtract (AddSubAlt.asm)
; This program adds and subtracts 32-bit integers

.686
.MODEL flat,stdcall
.STACK 4096

; No need to include Irvine32.inc

ExitProcess PROTO, dwExitCode:DWORD

.code
main PROC
mov eax,10000h ; EAX = 10000h
add eax,40000h ; EAX = 50000h
sub eax,20000h ; EAX = 30000h

push 0
call ExitProcess ; to terminate program
main ENDP
END main
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
Assemble-Link-Debug
• Editor
Cycle
• Write new (.asm) programs
Edit
• Make changes to existing ones
• Assembler: ML.exe program prog.asm

• Translate (.asm) file into object (.

obj) file in machine language Assemble

• Can produce a listing (.lst) file

that shows the work of library.lib prog.obj prog.lst

assembler
• Linker: LINK32.exe program Link

• Combine object (.obj) files with

prog.exe prog.map
link library (.lib) files
• Produce executable (.exe) file
Debug Run
• Can produce optional (.map) file
Assemble-Link-Debug
• MAKE32.bat
Cycle – cont'd
Edit
• Batch command file
• Assemble and link in one step prog.asm

• Debugger: WINDBG.exe
• Trace program execution Assemble

• Either step-by-step, or
library.lib prog.obj prog.lst
• Use breakpoints
• View
Link
• Source (.asm) code
• Registers prog.exe prog.map
• Memory by name & by address
• Modify register & memory content Debug Run
• Discover errors and go back to the editor to fix the program
bugs
Listing File
• Use it to see how your program is assembled
• Contains
Object & source code in a listing file
• Source code
00000000 .code
00000000 main PROC
• Object code 00000000 B8 00060000 mov eax, 60000h
00000005 05 00080000 add eax, 80000h
• Relative addresses 0000000A 2D 00020000 sub eax, 20000h

• Segment names 0000000F 6A 00 push 0

00000011 E8 00000000 E call ExitProcess
• Symbols 00000016 main ENDP
END main
• Variables
• Procedures
• Constants Relative object code source code
Addresses (hexadecimal)
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
Intrinsic
•
Data Types
BYTE, SBYTE  REAL4
• 8-bit unsigned integer  IEEE single-precision float
• 8-bit signed integer  Occupies 4 bytes
• WORD, SWORD  REAL8
• 16-bit unsigned integer  IEEE double-precision
• 16-bit signed integer  Occupies 8 bytes
• DWORD, SDWORD  REAL10
• 32-bit unsigned integer  IEEE extended-precision
• 32-bit signed integer
 Occupies 10 bytes
• QWORD, TBYTE
• 64-bit integer
• 80-bit integer
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 ] . . .

val1 BYTE 10

• All initializers become binary data in memory

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.
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
Defining
•
Strings
A string is implemented as an array of characters
• For convenience, it is usually enclosed in quotation
marks
• It is often terminated with a NULL char (byte value = 0)
• 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 "
BYTE "Demo Program", 0
Defining Strings – cont'd
• 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",0ah,0ah,
"Choice> ",0

 End-of-line character sequence: Idea: Define all strings

used by your program
 0Dh = 13 = carriage return
in the same area of the
 0Ah = 10 = line feed data segment
Using• Use
the DUP Operator
DUP to allocate space for an array or string
• Advantage: more compact than using a list of
initializers
• Syntax
counter DUP ( argument )
Counter and argument must be constants expressions
• The DUP operator may also be nested
var1 BYTE 20 DUP(0) ; 20 bytes, all equal to zero
var2 BYTE 20 DUP(?) ; 20 bytes, all uninitialized
var3 BYTE 4 DUP("STACK") ; 20 bytes: "STACKSTACKSTACKSTACK"
var4 BYTE 10,3 DUP(0),20 ; 5 bytes: 10, 0, 0, 0, 20
var5 BYTE 2 DUP(5 DUP('*'), 5 DUP('!')) ; '*****!!!!!*****!!!!!'
Defining• Define
16-bit and 32-bit Data
storage for 16-bit and 32-bit integers
• Signed and Unsigned
• Single or multiple initial values

word1 WORD 65535 ; largest unsigned 16-bit value

word2 SWORD –32768 ; smallest signed 16-bit value
word3 WORD "AB" ; two characters fit in a WORD
array1 WORD 1,2,3,4,5 ; array of 5 unsigned words
array2 SWORD 5 DUP(?) ; array of 5 signed words
dword1 DWORD 0ffffffffh ; largest unsigned 32-bit value
dword2 SDWORD –2147483648 ; smallest signed 32-bit value
array3 DWORD 20 DUP(?) ; 20 unsigned double words
array4 SDWORD –3,–2,–1,0,1 ; 5 signed double words
QWORD, TBYTE,
 QWORD and TBYTE
and REAL Data
 Define storage for 64-bit and 80-bit integers
 Signed and Unsigned
 REAL4, REAL8, and REAL10
 Defining storage for 32-bit, 64-bit, and 80-bit floating-point data

quad1 QWORD 1234567812345678h

val1 TBYTE 1000000000123456789Ah
rVal1 REAL4 -2.1
rVal2 REAL8 3.2E-260
rVal3 REAL10 4.6E+4096
array REAL4 20 DUP(0.0)
Symbol Table
• Assembler builds a symbol table
• So we can refer to the allocated storage space by name
• Assembler keeps track of each name and its offset
• Offset of a variable is relative to the address of the first
variable

• Example Symbol Table

.DATA Name Offset
value WORD 0 value 0
sum DWORD 0 sum 2
marks WORD 10 DUP (?) marks 6
msg BYTE 'The grade is:',0 msg 26
char1 BYTE ? char1 40
 Byte Ordering and Endianness
• Processors can order bytes within a word in two ways
• Little Endian Byte Ordering
• Memory address = Address of least significant byte
• Examples: Intel 80x86

MSB LSB address a a+1 a+2 a+3

Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . . Byte 0 Byte 1 Byte 2 Byte 3 ...
32-bit Register Memory
• Big Endian Byte Ordering
• Memory address = Address of most significant byte
• Examples: MIPS, Motorola 68k, SPARC

MSB LSB address a a+1 a+2 a+3

Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . . Byte 3 Byte 2 Byte 1 Byte 0 . . .
32-bit Register Memory
Adding Variables to AddSub
TITLE Add and Subtract, Version 2 (AddSub2.asm)
.686
.MODEL FLAT, STDCALL
.STACK
INCLUDE Irvine32.inc
.DATA
val1 DWORD 10000h
val2 DWORD 40000h
val3 DWORD 20000h
result DWORD ?
.CODE
main PROC
mov eax,val1 ; start with 10000h
add eax,val2 ; add 40000h
sub eax,val3 ; subtract 20000h
mov result,eax ; store the result (30000h)
call DumpRegs ; display the registers
exit
main ENDP
END main
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
Defining Symbolic Constants
• Symbolic Constant
• Just a name used in the assembly language program
• Processed by the assembler  pure text substitution
• Assembler does NOT allocate memory for symbolic constants
• Assembler provides three directives:
• = directive
• EQU directive
• TEXTEQU directive
• Defining constants has two advantages:
• Improves program readability
• Helps in software maintenance: changes are done in one place
 Equal-Sign Directive
• Name =Expression
• Name is called a symbolic constant
• Expression is an integer constant expression
• Good programming style to use symbols
COUNT = 500 ; NOT a variable (NO memory allocation)
...
mov eax, COUNT ; mov eax, 500
...
COUNT = 600 ; Processed by the assembler
...
mov ebx, COUNT ; mov ebx, 600

• Name can be redefined in the program

EQU •Directive
Three Formats:
Name EQUExpression Integer constant expression
Name EQUSymbol Existing symbol name
Name EQU <text > Any text may appear within < …>

SIZE EQU 10*10 ; Integer constant expression

PI EQU <3.1416> ; Real symbolic constant
PressKey EQU <"Press any key to continue...",0>
.DATA
prompt BYTE PressKey
• No Redefinition:Name cannot be redefined with EQU
TEXTEQU Directive
• TEXTEQU creates a text macro. Three Formats:
Name TEXTEQU <text > assign any text toname
Name TEXTEQUtextmacro assign existing text macro
Name TEXTEQU %constExpr constant integer expression
• Name can be redefined at any time (unlike EQU)
ROWSIZE = 5
COUNT TEXTEQU %(ROWSIZE * 2) ; evaluates to 10
MOVAL TEXTEQU <mov al,COUNT>
ContMsg TEXTEQU <"Do you wish to continue (Y/N)?">
.DATA
prompt BYTE ContMsg
.CODE
MOVAL ; generates: mov al,10
Next . . .
• Basic Elements of Assembly Language
• Flat Memory Program Template
• Example: Adding and Subtracting Integers
• Assembling, Linking, and Debugging
Programs
• Defining Data
• Defining Symbolic Constants
• Data-Related Operators and Directives
OFFSET Operator
 OFFSET = address of a variable within its segment
 In FLAT memory, one address space is used for code and data
 OFFSET = linear address of a variable (32-bit number)

.DATA
bVal BYTE ? ; Assume bVal is at 00404000h
wVal WORD ?
dVal DWORD ?
dVal2 DWORD ?

.CODE
mov esi, OFFSET bVal ; ESI = 00404000h
mov esi, OFFSET wVal ; ESI = 00404001h
mov esi, OFFSET dVal ; ESI = 00404003h
mov esi, OFFSET dVal2 ; ESI = 00404007h
ALIGN Directive
• ALIGN directive aligns a variable in memory
• Syntax: ALIGNbound
• Wherebound can be 1, 2, 4, or 16
• Address of a variable should be a multiple ofbound
• Assembler inserts empty bytes to enforce alignment

.DATA ; Assume that

b1 BYTE ? ; Address of b1 = 00404000h
ALIGN 2 ; Skip one byte
w1 WORD ? ; Address of w1 = 00404002h
40400C d2
w2 WORD ? ; Address of w2 = 00404004h
404008 d1
ALIGN 4 ; Skip two bytes 404004 w2
d1 DWORD ? ; Address of d1 = 00404008h 404000 b1 w1
d2 DWORD ? ; Address of d2 = 0040400Ch
TYPE• Operator
TYPE operator
• Size, in bytes, of a single element of a data
declaration

.DATA
var1 BYTE ?
var2 WORD ?
var3 DWORD ?
var4 QWORD ?

.CODE
mov eax, TYPE var1 ; eax = 1
mov eax, TYPE var2 ; eax = 2
mov eax, TYPE var3 ; eax = 4
mov eax, TYPE var4 ; eax = 8
LENGTHOF Operator
 LENGTHOF operator
 Counts the number of elements in a single data declaration

.DATA
array1 WORD 30 DUP(?),0,0
array2 WORD 5 DUP(3 DUP(?))
array3 DWORD 1,2,3,4
digitStr BYTE "12345678",0

.code
mov ecx, LENGTHOF array1 ; ecx = 32
mov ecx, LENGTHOF array2 ; ecx = 15
mov ecx, LENGTHOF array3 ; ecx = 4
mov ecx, LENGTHOF digitStr ; ecx = 9
SIZEOF Operator
 SIZEOF operator
 Counts the number of bytes in a data declaration
 Equivalent to multiplying LENGTHOF by TYPE

.DATA
array1 WORD 30 DUP(?),0,0
array2 WORD 5 DUP(3 DUP(?))
array3 DWORD 1,2,3,4
digitStr BYTE "12345678",0

.CODE
mov ecx, SIZEOF array1 ; ecx = 64
mov ecx, SIZEOF array2 ; ecx = 30
mov ecx, SIZEOF array3 ; ecx = 16
mov ecx, SIZEOF digitStr ; ecx = 9
Multiple Line Declarations
A data declaration spans multiple In the following example, array
lines if each line (except the last) identifies the first line WORD
ends with a comma declaration only
The LENGTHOF and SIZEOF Compare the values returned by
operators include all lines LENGTHOF and SIZEOF here to
belonging to the declaration those on the left

.DATA .DATA
array WORD 10,20, array WORD 10,20
30,40, WORD 30,40
50,60 WORD 50,60

.CODE .CODE
mov eax, LENGTHOF array ; 6 mov eax, LENGTHOF array ; 2
mov ebx, SIZEOF array ; 12 mov ebx, SIZEOF array ; 4
PTR Operator
PTR Provides the flexibility to access part of a variable
 Can also be used to combine elements of a smaller type
 Syntax:Type PTR (Overrides default type of a variable)

.DATA dval array

dval DWORD 12345678h
array BYTE 00h,10h,20h,30h 78 56 34 12 00 10 20 30

.CODE
mov al, dval ; error – why?
mov al, BYTE PTR dval ; al = 78h
mov ax, dval ; error – why?
mov ax, WORD PTR dval ; ax = 5678h
mov eax, array ; error – why?
mov eax, DWORD PTR array ; eax = 30201000h
LABEL Directive
• Assigns an alternate name and type to a memory
location
• LABEL does not allocate any storage of its own
• Removes the need for the PTR operator
• Format:Name LABELType
.DATA blist
dval LABEL DWORD
00 10 00 20
wval LABEL WORD
wval
blist BYTE 00h,10h,00h,20h
.CODE dval
mov eax, dval ; eax = 20001000h
mov cx, wval ; cx = 1000h
mov dl, blist ; dl = 00h
Summary
• Instruction  executed at runtime
• Directive  interpreted by the assembler
• .STACK, .DATA, and .CODE
• Define the code, data, and stack sections of a program
• Edit-Assemble-Link-Debug Cycle
• Data Definition
• BYTE, WORD, DWORD, QWORD, etc.
• DUP operator
• Symbolic Constant
• =, EQU, and TEXTEQU directives
• Data-Related Operators
• OFFSET, ALIGN, TYPE, LENGTHOF, SIZEOF, PTR, and LABEL