Intel 8086 Microprocessor

Memory Partition and Registers

Department of Computer Science & Engineering

BRAC University.

Course ID: CSE341

Course Title: Microprocessors
Lecture References:
 Book:
 Microprocessors and Interfacing: Programming and Hardware,
Chapter # 2, Author: Douglas V. Hall
 The 8086/8088 Family: Design, Programming, And Interfacing,
Chapter # 2, Author: John Uffenbeck.

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Microprocessor
 Intel 8086
 The microprocessor 8086 can be considered to be the basic
processor for the Intel X86 family from 1978.
 It has a 20-bit address bus along with 16-bit data bus.
 With the knowledge of 8086 16-bit processor, one can study the
further versions of this processor 80286, 80406 and Pentium.

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Memory Partitioning for 8086 Processor
 The 8086 processor assign a 20-bit physical address to its memory
locations.
220 → 1 Mbyte -> 1,048,576 bytes
20 bits → 5 hex digits
First addresses: 00000, 00001,…,0000A,…FFFFF.
But Registers are 16-bits (4 Hex digits) and can address only 216 = 64 KBytes.
0000,0001,0002,……FFFF
Suppose 20 bits → 5 hex digits: 38A41H
3 8 A 4 1
0011 1000 1010 0100 0001

Here, 0011 1000 1010 0100 0001 = 20 bits = 5 Hex digits

 Partition the memory into segments
 Total of (16), 64 Kbytes segments might be positioned within the 1 Mbyte
address space of an 8086 processor.

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Memory Segment: Address Space
FFFFF
F0000
FFFF0 To FFFFF
E0000
is reserved for
D0000
ROM (16 bytes)
C0000

B0000

A0000

90000 8000:FFFF
80000 One Segment
8000:0000
70000

60000

50000 segment offset

40000

30000 00000 to 3FFFF

20000 is reserved in
10000 RAM to load
00000
system function
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Memory Segmentation
 Segmentation is the process in which the main memory
of the computer is logically divided into different
segments and each segment has its own base address.
 It is basically used to enhance the speed of execution of
the computer system, so that the processor is able to fetch
and execute the data from the memory easily and fast.
 A segment is a logical unit of memory that may be up to
64 kilobytes long. Each segment is made up of contiguous
memory locations.

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Memory Segment: Address Space
 Memory segment is a block of 216 (64) KBytes
consecutive memory bytes.

 Each segment is identified by a 16-bit number called segment

number, starting with 0000 up to FFFFh. Segment registers
hold segment number.
 Within a segment, a memory location is specified by giving an
offset (16-bit) = It is the number of bytes from the beginning of
the segment (0→ FFFFh).
 The basic difference between Logical and physical
address is that Logical address is generated by CPU in
perspective of a program whereas the physical address is
a location that exists in the memory unit.
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Memory Segment: Address Space
 A memory location may be specified by a segment number and
offset ( logical address ).
Example :
A4FB : 4872
h
Segment Offset

 Offset: is the distance from the beginning to a particular

location in the segment.

 Segment Number: defines the starting of the segment

within the memory space.
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Segmented Memory Address
Highest Address: A4FB:FFFF = A4FB0
FFFF
B4FAF
A9822 (20 bits)

Offset 4872 (16 bits) Base address: A4FB

(16 bits)

A4FB0 (20 bits)

Lowest Address: A4FB:0000 = A4FB0

4Hex digits = 4 x 4 = 16 digits

so lowest value can be 0000 and highest value can be FFFF
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Segmented Memory Address
 Start location of the segment must be 20 bits  the absolute
address is obtained by appending a hexadecimal zero (0H =
0000) to the segment number, i.e. , multiplying by 16(10h).
 Adds 4 Nibble bits at the lower portion of each 16-bit address.
Starting location Address = Segment number X 10h = A4FB0
 So, the Physical Memory Address is equal to:
Physical Address = Segment number X 10h + Offset

 Physical Address for A4FB : 4872

Here, A4FB0 =1010 0100 1111A4FB0
1011 0000h (16+4=20bits)
4872 = 0100 1000 0111 0010 (16 bits)
+ 4872 h
A9822 =1010 1001 1000 0010 0010 (20 bits)
A9822 h (20 Bits)
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Memory Segmentation
 Types Of Segmentation –
 Overlapping Segment – A segment starts at a particular
address and its maximum size can go up to 64kilobytes.
But if another segment starts along with this 64kilobytes
location of the first segment, then the two are said to
be Overlapping Segment.
 Non-Overlapped Segment – A segment starts at a
particular address and its maximum size can go up to
64kilobytes. But if another segment starts before or after
this 64kilobytes location of the first segment, then the two
segments are said to be Non-Overlapped Segment.

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Physical Location of Segments
Segment Physical Address (hex)
…
10021
10020
End of Segment 2 1001F 0001F physical address has
1001E
… Different logical address
10010 For Segment 0,
End of Segment 1 1000F
1000E Base address = 0000
… offset = 001F
10000
End of Segment 0 0FFFF
0FFFE For Segment 1,
…
00021 Base address = 0001
Start of Segment 2 00020 Offset = 000F
0001F
…
64Kbyte 00011
Start of Segment 1 00010
0000F
…
00003
00002
00001
Start of Segment 0 00000

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Registers:
 Registers:
 Information is stored in registers
 Registers are classified according to the functions they
perform
 All Processors have internal registers some are visible and
some are not visible to the programmers.
 Internal Registers are used as temporary storage for
operands, and if the operand is already in memory, it takes
less time for execution of the associated instruction.

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8086 Register Categories
 Data registers (4):
General data registers
hold data for an
operation (AX, BX,
CX, DX).
 Address registers (9):
(Segment, Pointer and
Index registers) hold
the address of an
instruction or data.
 Status register (1):
FLAG register keeps
the current states of the
processor.
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8086 Registers and Memory
Number of Registers: 14, each of that16-bit registers
Memory Size: 1M Bytes

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Memory Segment and Segment Registers
 Note that, 8086 does not work with the whole 1MB memory
at a given time, it works only with four 64KB segments
within the whole memory, namely
 Code segment CS: holds segment number of the code segment.
 Data Segment DS: holds segment number of the data segment.
 Extra Segment ES: extra segment : holds alternate segment
number of the data segment.
 Stack Segment SS: holds segment number of the stack segment
and used when sub-program executes.
 Codes , data , and stack are loaded into different memory
segments (registers).

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General Data Registers
 These are 16-bit registers and can also be used as two 8 bit registers:
low and high bytes can be accessed separately
 AX (Accumulator)
 Can be partitioned into AH, AL
 Most efficient register for arithmetic, logic operations and data transfer: the use
of AX generates the shortest machine code.
 In multiplication and division operations, one of the numbers involved must be in
AL or AX
 BX (Base)
 The base address register (offset)
 CX (Counter)
 Counter for looping operations: loop counter, in REP instruction, and in the shift
and rotate bits
 DX (Data)
 Used in multiply and divide, also used in I/O operations

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Pointer and Index Registers
 Used for offset of data, often used as pointers. Unlike segment
registers, they can be used in arithmetic and other operations.
 SP (Stack Pointer):
 Used with SS for accessing the stack segment.
 Holds Offset address relative to SS
 Always points to word (byte at even address)
 An empty stack will had SP = FFFEh
 BP (Base Pointer):
 Used with SS to access data on the stack. However, unlike SP,
BP can be used to access data in other segments.
 Primarily used to access parameters passed via the stack
 Holds Offset address relative to SS

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Pointer and Index Registers
 SI (Source Index):
 Source of string operations. Used with DS (or ES).
 Can be used for pointer addressing of data with effective address (EA)
 Used as source in some string processing instructions
 Offset address relative to DS
 DI (Destination Index):
 Destination of string operation. Used with ES (or DS).
 Can be used for pointer addressing of data
 Used as destination in some string processing instructions
 Offset address relative to ES
 IP (Instruction pointer):
 Points to the next instruction.
 Offset address relative to CS

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Memory Segmentation
 Rules of the Segmentation: Segmentation process
follows some rules:
 The starting address of a segment should be such that it
can be evenly divided by 16.
 Minimum size of a segment can be 16 bytes and the
maximum can be 64 kB.

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Memory Segmentation
 Advantages of the Segmentation The main advantages of
segmentation are as follows:
 It provides a powerful memory management mechanism.
 Data related or stack related operations can be performed in different
segments.
 Code related operation can be done in separate code segments.
 It allows to processes to easily share data.
 It allows to extend the address ability of the processor, i.e.
segmentation allows the use of 16 bit registers to give an addressing
capability of 1 Megabytes. Without segmentation, it would require 20
bit registers.
 It is possible to enhance the memory size of code, data or stack
segments beyond 64 KB by allotting more than one segment for each
area.
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Task
 Q1. Suppose, segment no = 1111 H, offset = 1332 H,
calculate the physical address?

Q2. Suppose, physical address = 33330, offset = 0020,

calculate the segment no?

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 Thank You !!

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