ASSEMBLY SYSTEM CALLS

System calls are APIs for the interface between the user space and the kernel space. We have
already used the system calls. sys_write and sys_exit, for writing into the screen and exiting
from the program, respectively.

Linux System Calls

You can make use of Linux system calls in your assembly programs. You need to take the
following steps for using Linux system calls in your program

Put the system call number in the EAX register.

Store the arguments to the system call in the registers EBX, ECX, etc.

Call the relevant interrupt (80h).

The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

There are six registers that store the arguments of the system call used. These are the EBX,
ECX, EDX, ESI, EDI, and EBP. These registers take the consecutive arguments, starting with
the EBX register. If there are more than six arguments, then the memory location of the first
argument is stored in the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows the use of the system call sys_exit
mov
int

eax,1
0x80

; system call number (sys_exit)

; call kernel

The following code snippet shows the use of the system call sys_write
mov
mov

edx,4
ecx,msg

; message length
; message to writ

Assembly - Addressing Modes

Most assembly language instructions require operands to be processed. An operand address
provides the location, where the data to be processed is stored. Some instructions do not
require an operand, whereas some other instructions may require one, two, or three operands.
When an instruction requires two operands, the first operand is generally the destination,
which contains data in a register or memory location and the second operand is the source.
Source contains either the data to be delivered (immediate addressing) or the address (in
register or memory) of the data. Generally, the source data remains unaltered after the
operation.

The three basic modes of addressing are

Register addressing

Immediate addressing

Memory addressing

Register Addressing

In this addressing mode, a register contains the operand. Depending upon the instruction, the
register may be the first operand, the second operand or both.
For example,
MOV DX, TAX_RATE
MOV COUNT, CX
MOV EAX, EBX

; Register in first operand

; Register in second operand
; Both the operands are in registers

As processing data between registers does not involve memory, it provides fastest processing
of data.
Immediate Addressing

An immediate operand has a constant value or an expression. When an instruction with two
operands uses immediate addressing, the first operand may be a register or memory location,
and the second operand is an immediate constant. The first operand defines the length of the
data.
For example,
BYTE_VALUE DB 150
WORD_VALUE DW 300
ADD BYTE_VALUE, 65
MOV AX, 45H

;
;
;
;

Direct Memory Addressing

A byte value is defined

A word value is defined
An immediate operand 65 is added
Immediate constant 45H is transferred to AX

When operands are specified in memory addressing mode, direct access to main memory,
usually to the data segment, is required. This way of addressing results in slower processing
of data. To locate the exact location of data in memory, we need the segment start address,
which is typically found in the DS register and an offset value. This offset value is also called
effective address.
In direct addressing mode, the offset value is specified directly as part of the instruction,
usually indicated by the variable name. The assembler calculates the offset value and
maintains a symbol table, which stores the offset values of all the variables used in the
program.
In direct memory addressing, one of the operands refers to a memory location and the other
operand references a register.

For example,
ADD
MOV

BYTE_VALUE, DL ; Adds the register in the memory location

BX, WORD_VALUE ; Operand from the memory is added to register

Direct-Offset Addressing

This addressing mode uses the arithmetic operators to modify an address. For example, look
at the following definitions that define tables of data
BYTE_TABLE DB
WORD_TABLE DW

14, 15, 22, 45

134, 345, 564, 123

; Tables of bytes
; Tables of words

The following operations access data from the tables in the memory into registers
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV

CL,
CL,
CX,
CX,

BYTE_TABLE[2]
BYTE_TABLE + 2
WORD_TABLE[3]
WORD_TABLE + 3

;
;
;
;

Gets
Gets
Gets
Gets

Indirect Memory Addressing

the
the
the
the

3rd
3rd
4th
4th

element
element
element
element

of
of
of
of

the
the
the
the

BYTE_TABLE
BYTE_TABLE
WORD_TABLE
WORD_TABLE

This addressing mode utilizes the computer's ability of Segment:Offset addressing. Generally,
the base registers EBX, EBP (or BX, BP) and the index registers (DI, SI), coded within
square brackets for memory references, are used for this purpose.
Indirect addressing is generally used for variables containing several elements like, arrays.
Starting address of the array is stored in, say, the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows how to access different elements of the variable.
MY_TABLE TIMES 10 DW 0
0
MOV EBX, [MY_TABLE]
MOV [EBX], 110
ADD EBX, 2
MOV [EBX], 123

; Allocates 10 words (2 bytes) each initialized to

The MOV Instruction

;
;
;
;

Effective Address of MY_TABLE in EBX

MY_TABLE[0] = 110
EBX = EBX +2
MY_TABLE[1] = 123

We have already used the MOV instruction that is used for moving data from one storage
space to another. The MOV instruction takes two operands.
Syntax

The syntax of the MOV instruction is

MOV

destination, source

The MOV instruction may have one of the following five forms
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV

register, register
register, immediate
memory, immediate
register, memory
memory, register

Please note that

Both the operands in MOV operation should be of same size

The value of source operand remains unchanged

The MOV instruction causes ambiguity at times. For example, look at the statements
MOV
MOV

EBX, [MY_TABLE] ; Effective Address of MY_TABLE in EBX

[EBX], 110
; MY_TABLE[0] = 110

It is not clear whether you want to move a byte equivalent or word equivalent of the number
110. In such cases, it is wise to use a type specifier.
Following table shows some of the common type specifiers
Type Specifier

Bytes addressed

BYTE

WORD

DWORD

QWORD

TBYTE

10

Example

The following program illustrates some of the concepts discussed above. It stores a name
'Zara Ali' in the data section of the memory, then changes its value to another name 'Nuha Ali'
programmatically and displays both the names.
section .text
global_start
_start:

;must be declared for linker (ld)

;tell linker entry point

;writing the name 'Zara Ali'

mov edx,9
;message length
mov ecx, name
;message to write
mov ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80
;call kernel
mov [name],

dword 'Nuha'

; Changed the name to Nuha Ali

;writing the name 'Nuha Ali'

mov edx,8
;message length
mov ecx,name
;message to write
mov ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80
;call kernel
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
name db 'Zara Ali '

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Zara Ali Nuha Ali

Assembly - Variables
NASM provides various define directives for reserving storage space for variables. The
define assembler directive is used for allocation of storage space. It can be used to reserve as
well as initialize one or more bytes.

Allocating Storage Space for Initialized Data

The syntax for storage allocation statement for initialized data is
[variable-name]

define-directive

initial-value

[,initial-value]...

Where, variable-name is the identifier for each storage space. The assembler associates an
offset value for each variable name defined in the data segment.
There are five basic forms of the define directive
Directive
DB
DW
DD
DQ
DT

Purpose
Define Byte
Define Word
Define Doubleword
Define Quadword
Define Ten Bytes

Storage Space
allocates 1 byte
allocates 2 bytes
allocates 4 bytes
allocates 8 bytes
allocates 10 bytes

Following are some examples of using define directives

choice
number
neg_number
big_number
real_number1
real_number2

DB
DW
DW
DQ
DD
DQ

'y'
12345
-12345
123456789
1.234
123.456

Please note that

Each byte of character is stored as its ASCII value in hexadecimal.

Each decimal value is automatically converted to its 16-bit binary equivalent and
stored as a hexadecimal number.

Processor uses the little-endian byte ordering.

Negative numbers are converted to its 2's complement representation.

Short and long floating-point numbers are represented using 32 or 64 bits,

respectively.

The following program shows the use of define directive

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,choice
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for linker (gcc)

;tell linker entry point
;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
choice DB 'y'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
y

Allocating Storage Space for Uninitialized Data

The reserve directives are used for reserving space for uninitialized data. The reserve
directives take a single operand that specifies the number of units of space to be reserved.
Each define directive has a related reserve directive.
There are five basic forms of the reserve directive
Directive
RESB
RESW
RESD
RESQ
REST

Purpose
Reserve a Byte
Reserve a Word
Reserve a Doubleword
Reserve a Quadword
Reserve a Ten Bytes

Multiple Definitions
You can have multiple data definition statements in a program. For example

choice
number1
number2

DB
DW
DD

'Y'
;ASCII of y = 79H
12345
;12345D = 3039H
12345679 ;123456789D = 75BCD15H

The assembler allocates contiguous memory for multiple variable definitions.

Multiple Initializations
The TIMES directive allows multiple initializations to the same value. For example, an array
named marks of size 9 can be defined and initialized to zero using the following statement
marks

TIMES

DW

The TIMES directive is useful in defining arrays and tables. The following program displays
9 asterisks on the screen
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,9
ecx, stars
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for linker (ld)

;tell linker entry point
;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
stars
times 9 db '*'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
*********

Assembly - Constants
There are several directives provided by NASM that define constants. We have already used
the EQU directive in previous chapters. We will particularly discuss three directives

EQU

%assign

%define

The EQU Directive

The EQU directive is used for defining constants. The syntax of the EQU directive is as
follows
CONSTANT_NAME EQU expression

For example,
TOTAL_STUDENTS equ 50

You can then use this constant value in your code, like
mov
cmp

ecx,
eax,

TOTAL_STUDENTS
TOTAL_STUDENTS

The operand of an EQU statement can be an expression

LENGTH equ 20
WIDTH equ 10
AREA
equ length * width

Above code segment would define AREA as 200.

Example

The following example illustrates the use of the EQU directive

SYS_EXIT equ 1
SYS_WRITE equ 4
STDIN
equ 0
STDOUT
equ 1
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,
mov ebx,
mov ecx,
mov edx,
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg1
len1

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg2
len2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg3
len3

mov eax,SYS_EXIT
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg1 db 'Hello, programmers!',0xA,0xD
len1 equ $ - msg1
msg2 db 'Welcome to the world of,', 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $ - msg2

msg3 db 'Linux assembly programming! '

len3 equ $- msg3

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

The %assign Directive

The %assign directive can be used to define numeric constants like the EQU directive. This
directive allows redefinition. For example, you may define the constant TOTAL as
%assign TOTAL 10

Later in the code, you can redefine it as

%assign

TOTAL

20

This directive is case-sensitive.

The %define Directive

The %define directive allows defining both numeric and string constants. This directive is
similar to the #define in C. For example, you may define the constant PTR as
%define PTR [EBP+4]

The above code replaces PTR by [EBP+4].

This directive also allows redefinition and it is case-sensitive.

Assembly - Arithmetic Instructions

The INC Instruction

The INC instruction is used for incrementing an operand by one. It works on a single operand
that can be either in a register or in memory.
Syntax

The INC instruction has the following syntax

INC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit operand.

Example
INC EBX
; Increments 32-bit register
INC DL
; Increments 8-bit register
INC [count] ; Increments the count variable

The DEC Instruction

The DEC instruction is used for decrementing an operand by one. It works on a single
operand that can be either in a register or in memory.

Syntax

The DEC instruction has the following syntax

DEC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit operand.

Example
segment .data
count dw 0
value db 15
segment .text
inc [count]
dec [value]
mov ebx, count
inc word [ebx]
mov esi, value
dec byte [esi]

The ADD and SUB Instructions

The ADD and SUB instructions are used for performing simple addition/subtraction of binary
data in byte, word and doubleword size, i.e., for adding or subtracting 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit
operands, respectively.
Syntax

The ADD and SUB instructions have the following syntax

ADD/SUB destination, source

The ADD/SUB instruction can take place between

Register to register

Memory to register

Register to memory

Register to constant data

Memory to constant data

However, like other instructions, memory-to-memory operations are not possible using
ADD/SUB instructions. An ADD or SUB operation sets or clears the overflow and carry
flags.
Example

The following example will ask two digits from the user, store the digits in the EAX and
EBX register, respectively, add the values, store the result in a memory location 'res' and
finally display the result.

SYS_EXIT
SYS_READ
SYS_WRITE
STDIN
STDOUT

equ
equ
equ
equ
equ

1
3
4
0
1

segment .data
msg1 db "Enter a digit ", 0xA,0xD
len1 equ $- msg1
msg2 db "Please enter a second digit", 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $- msg2
msg3 db "The sum is: "
len3 equ $- msg3
segment .bss
num1 resb 2
num2 resb 2
res resb 1
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,
mov ebx,
mov ecx,
mov edx,
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg1
len1

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_READ
STDIN
num1
2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg2
len2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_READ
STDIN
num2
2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg3
len3

; moving the first number to eax register and second number to ebx
; and subtracting ascii '0' to convert it into a decimal number
mov eax, [num1]

sub eax, '0'

mov ebx, [num2]
sub ebx, '0'
; add eax and ebx
add eax, ebx
; add '0' to to convert the sum from decimal to ASCII
add eax, '0'
; storing the sum in memory location res
mov [res], eax
; print the sum
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, res
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
exit:
mov eax, SYS_EXIT
xor ebx, ebx
int 0x80

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Enter a digit:
3
Please enter a second digit:
4
The sum is:
7

The program with hardcoded variables

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
;tell linker entry point
mov eax,'3'
sub
eax, '0'
mov ebx, '4'
sub
ebx, '0'
add eax, ebx
add eax, '0'
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[sum], eax
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,sum
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
7

The MUL/IMUL Instruction

There are two instructions for multiplying binary data. The MUL (Multiply) instruction
handles unsigned data and the IMUL (Integer Multiply) handles signed data. Both
instructions affect the Carry and Overflow flag.
Syntax

The syntax for the MUL/IMUL instructions is as follows

MUL/IMUL multiplier

Multiplicand in both cases will be in an accumulator, depending upon the size of the
multiplicand and the multiplier and the generated product is also stored in two registers
depending upon the size of the operands. Following section explains MUL instructions with
three different cases
S
N

Scenarios

When two bytes are multiplied The multiplicand is in the AL register, and the multiplier is a byte in the memory or in
another register. The product is in AX. High-order 8 bits of the product is stored in AH
1 and the low-order 8 bits are stored in AL.

2 When two one-word values are multiplied -

The multiplicand should be in the AX register, and the multiplier is a word in memory or
another register. For example, for an instruction like MUL DX, you must store the
multiplier in DX and the multiplicand in AX.
The resultant product is a doubleword, which will need two registers. The high-order
(leftmost) portion gets stored in DX and the lower-order (rightmost) portion gets stored in
AX.

When two doubleword values are multiplied When two doubleword values are multiplied, the multiplicand should be in EAX and the
multiplier is a doubleword value stored in memory or in another register. The product
3 generated is stored in the EDX:EAX registers, i.e., the high order 32 bits gets stored in the
EDX register and the low order 32-bits are stored in the EAX register.

Example
MOV AL,
MOV DL,
MUL DL
...
MOV DL,
MOV AL,
IMUL DL

10
25
0FFH
0BEH

; DL= -1
; AL = -66

Example

The following example multiplies 3 with 2, and displays the result

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov al,'3'
sub
al, '0'
mov bl, '2'
sub
bl, '0'
mul bl
add al, '0'
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[res], al
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,res
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The result is:
6

The DIV/IDIV Instructions

The division operation generates two elements - a quotient and a remainder. In case of
multiplication, overflow does not occur because double-length registers are used to keep the
product. However, in case of division, overflow may occur. The processor generates an
interrupt if overflow occurs.
The DIV (Divide) instruction is used for unsigned data and the IDIV (Integer Divide) is used
for signed data.
Syntax

The format for the DIV/IDIV instruction

DIV/IDIV

divisor

The dividend is in an accumulator. Both the instructions can work with 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit
operands. The operation affects all six status flags. Following section explains three cases of
division with different operand size
S
N

Scenarios

When the divisor is 1 byte The dividend is assumed to be in the AX register (16 bits). After division, the quotient
goes to the AL register and the remainder goes to the AH register.
1

2 When the divisor is 1 word -

The dividend is assumed to be 32 bits long and in the DX:AX registers. The high-order 16
bits are in DX and the low-order 16 bits are in AX. After division, the 16-bit quotient goes
to the AX register and the 16-bit remainder goes to the DX register.

When the divisor is doubleword The dividend is assumed to be 64 bits long and in the EDX:EAX registers. The high-order
32 bits are in EDX and the low-order 32 bits are in EAX. After division, the 32-bit
quotient goes to the EAX register and the 32-bit remainder goes to the EDX register.
3

Example

The following example divides 8 with 2. The dividend 8 is stored in the 16-bit AX register
and the divisor 2 is stored in the 8-bit BL register.
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ax,'8'
sub
ax, '0'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

mov bl, '2'

sub
bl, '0'
div bl
add ax, '0'
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[res], ax
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,res
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The result is:
4

Assembly - Logical Instructions

The processor instruction set provides the instructions AND, OR, XOR, TEST, and NOT
Boolean logic, which tests, sets, and clears the bits according to the need of the program.
The format for these instructions
SN

Instruction

Format

AND

AND operand1, operand2

OR

OR operand1, operand2

XOR

XOR operand1, operand2

TEST

TEST operand1, operand2

NOT

NOT operand1

The first operand in all the cases could be either in register or in memory. The second
operand could be either in register/memory or an immediate (constant) value. However,
memory-to-memory operations are not possible. These instructions compare or match bits of
the operands and set the CF, OF, PF, SF and ZF flags.
The AND Instruction

The AND instruction is used for supporting logical expressions by performing bitwise AND
operation. The bitwise AND operation returns 1, if the matching bits from both the operands
are 1, otherwise it returns 0. For example
Operand1:
Operand2:
---------------------------After AND -> Operand1: 0001

0101
0011

The AND operation can be used for clearing one or more bits. For example, say the BL
register contains 0011 1010. If you need to clear the high-order bits to zero, you AND it with
0FH.
AND

BL,

0FH

; This sets BL to 0000 1010

Let's take up another example. If you want to check whether a given number is odd or even, a
simple test would be to check the least significant bit of the number. If this is 1, the number is
odd, else the number is even.
Assuming the number is in AL register, we can write
AND
JZ

AL, 01H
EVEN_NUMBER

; ANDing with 0000 0001

The following program illustrates this

Example
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
and
jz
mov
mov
mov
mov
int
jmp

ax,
8h
ax, 1
evnn
eax, 4
ebx, 1
ecx, odd_msg
edx, len2
0x80
outprog

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point
;getting 8 in the ax
;and ax with 1
;system call number (sys_write)
;file descriptor (stdout)
;message to write
;length of message
;call kernel

evnn:
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ah,
eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

09h
4
1
even_msg
len1

;system call number (sys_write)

;file descriptor (stdout)
;message to write
;length of message
;call kernel

outprog:
mov
int

eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section
.data
even_msg db 'Even Number!' ;message showing even number
len1 equ $ - even_msg
odd_msg db 'Odd Number!'
len2 equ $ - odd_msg

;message showing odd number

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Even Number!

Change the value in the ax register with an odd digit, like

mov

ax, 9h

; getting 9 in the ax

The program would display:

Odd Number!

Similarly to clear the entire register you can AND it with 00H.

The OR Instruction

The OR instruction is used for supporting logical expression by performing bitwise OR

operation. The bitwise OR operator returns 1, if the matching bits from either or both
operands are one. It returns 0, if both the bits are zero.
For example,
Operand1:
0101
Operand2:
0011
---------------------------After OR -> Operand1:
0111

The OR operation can be used for setting one or more bits. For example, let us assume the AL
register contains 0011 1010, you need to set the four low-order bits, you can OR it with a
value 0000 1111, i.e., FH.
OR BL, 0FH

; This sets BL to

0011 1111

Example

The following example demonstrates the OR instruction. Let us store the value 5 and 3 in the
AL and the BL registers, respectively, then the instruction,
OR AL, BL

should store 7 in the AL register

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
mov
mov
or
add

;tell linker entry point

;getting 5 in the al
;getting 3 in the bl
;or al and bl registers, result should be 7
;converting decimal to ascii

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int
outprog:
mov
int

al,
bl,
al,
al,

5
3
bl
byte '0'

[result], al
eax, 4
ebx, 1
ecx, result
edx, 1
0x80
eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section
.bss
result resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
7

The XOR Instruction

The XOR instruction implements the bitwise XOR operation. The XOR operation sets the
resultant bit to 1, if and only if the bits from the operands are different. If the bits from the
operands are same (both 0 or both 1), the resultant bit is cleared to 0.
For example,
Operand1:
0101
Operand2:
0011
---------------------------After XOR -> Operand1:
0110

XORing an operand with itself changes the operand to 0. This is used to clear a
register.
XOR

EAX, EAX

The TEST Instruction

The TEST instruction works same as the AND operation, but unlike AND instruction, it does
not change the first operand. So, if we need to check whether a number in a register is even or
odd, we can also do this using the TEST instruction without changing the original number.
TEST
JZ

AL, 01H
EVEN_NUMBER

The NOT Instruction

The NOT instruction implements the bitwise NOT operation. NOT operation reverses the bits
in an operand. The operand could be either in a register or in the memory.
For example,
Operand1:
After NOT -> Operand1:

0101 0011
1010 1100

Assembly - Conditions
Conditional execution in assembly language is accomplished by several looping and
branching instructions. These instructions can change the flow of control in a program.
Conditional execution is observed in two scenarios
S
N

Conditional Instructions

1 Unconditional jump

This is performed by the JMP instruction. Conditional execution often involves a transfer
of control to the address of an instruction that does not follow the currently executing
instruction. Transfer of control may be forward, to execute a new set of instructions or

backward, to re-execute the same steps.

Conditional jump
2 This is performed by a set of jump instructions j<condition> depending upon the

condition. The conditional instructions transfer the control by breaking the sequential
flow and they do it by changing the offset value in IP.
Let us discuss the CMP instruction before discussing the conditional instructions.
CMP Instruction

The CMP instruction compares two operands. It is generally used in conditional execution.
This instruction basically subtracts one operand from the other for comparing whether the
operands are equal or not. It does not disturb the destination or source operands. It is used
along with the conditional jump instruction for decision making.
Syntax
CMP destination, source

CMP compares two numeric data fields. The destination operand could be either in register or
in memory. The source operand could be a constant (immediate) data, register or memory.
Example
CMP DX, 00
JE L7
.
.
L7: ...

; Compare the DX value with zero

; If yes, then jump to label L7

CMP is often used for comparing whether a counter value has reached the number of times a
loop needs to be run. Consider the following typical condition
INC
CMP
JLE

EDX
EDX, 10 ; Compares whether the counter has reached 10
LP1
; If it is less than or equal to 10, then jump to LP1

Unconditional Jump

As mentioned earlier, this is performed by the JMP instruction. Conditional execution often
involves a transfer of control to the address of an instruction that does not follow the
currently executing instruction. Transfer of control may be forward, to execute a new set of
instructions or backward, to re-execute the same steps.
Syntax

The JMP instruction provides a label name where the flow of control is transferred
immediately. The syntax of the JMP instruction is
JMP

label

Example

The following code snippet illustrates the JMP instruction

MOV
MOV
MOV
L20:
ADD
ADD
SHL
JMP

AX, 00
BX, 00
CX, 01

; Initializing AX to 0
; Initializing BX to 0
; Initializing CX to 1

AX, 01
BX, AX
CX, 1
L20

;
;
;
;

Conditional Jump

Increment AX
Add AX to BX
shift left CX, this in turn doubles the CX value
repeats the statements

If some specified condition is satisfied in conditional jump, the control flow is transferred to a
target instruction. There are numerous conditional jump instructions depending upon the
condition and data.
Following are the conditional jump instructions used on signed data used for arithmetic
operations
Instruction

Description

Flags tested

JE/JZ

Jump Equal or Jump Zero

ZF

JNE/JNZ

Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero

ZF

JG/JNLE

Jump Greater or Jump Not Less/Equal

OF, SF, ZF

JGE/JNL

Jump Greater or Jump Not Less

OF, SF

JL/JNGE

Jump Less or Jump Not Greater/Equal

OF, SF

JLE/JNG

Jump Less/Equal or Jump Not Greater

OF, SF, ZF

Following are the conditional jump instructions used on unsigned data used for logical
operations
Instruction

Description

Flags tested

JE/JZ

Jump Equal or Jump Zero

ZF

JNE/JNZ

Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero

ZF

JA/JNBE

Jump Above or Jump Not Below/Equal

CF, ZF

JAE/JNB

Jump Above/Equal or Jump Not Below

CF

JB/JNAE

Jump Below or Jump Not Above/Equal

CF

JBE/JNA

Jump Below/Equal or Jump Not Above

AF, CF

The following conditional jump instructions have special uses and check the value of flags
Instruction
JXCZ

Description
Jump if CX is Zero

Flags tested
none

JC

Jump If Carry

CF

JNC

Jump If No Carry

CF

JO

Jump If Overflow

OF

JNO

Jump If No Overflow

OF

JP/JPE

Jump Parity or Jump Parity Even

PF

JNP/JPO

Jump No Parity or Jump Parity Odd

PF

JS

Jump Sign (negative value)

SF

JNS

Jump No Sign (positive value)

SF

The syntax for the J<condition> set of instructions

Example,
CMP
AL, BL
JE
EQUAL
CMP
AL, BH
JE
EQUAL
CMP
AL, CL
JE
EQUAL
NON_EQUAL: ...
EQUAL: ...

Example

The following program displays the largest of three variables. The variables are double-digit
variables. The three variables num1, num2 and num3 have values 47, 72 and 31, respectively

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
cmp
jg
mov

ecx, [num1]
ecx, [num2]
check_third_num
ecx, [num3]

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

check_third_num:
cmp
jg
mov

ecx, [num3]
_exit
ecx, [num3]
_exit:

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[largest], ecx
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
0x80 ;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,largest
edx, 2
ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
0x80 ;call kernel

mov
int

eax, 1
80h

section .data
msg db "The largest digit is: ", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
num1 dd '47'
num2 dd '22'
num3 dd '31'
segment .bss
largest resb 2

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The largest digit is:
47

Assembly - Loops
The JMP instruction can be used for implementing loops. For example, the following code
snippet can be used for executing the loop-body 10 times.
MOV
CL, 10
L1:
<LOOP-BODY>
DEC
CL
JNZ
L1

The processor instruction set, however, includes a group of loop instructions for
implementing iteration. The basic LOOP instruction has the following syntax
LOOP

label

Where, label is the target label that identifies the target instruction as in the jump instructions.
The LOOP instruction assumes that the ECX register contains the loop count. When the
loop instruction is executed, the ECX register is decremented and the control jumps to the
target label, until the ECX register value, i.e., the counter reaches the value zero.
The above code snippet could be written as
mov ECX,10
l1:
<loop body>
loop l1

Example

The following program prints the number 1 to 9 on the screen

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ecx,10
mov eax, '1'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

l1:

mov [num], eax

mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
push ecx
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
mov eax, [num]
sub eax, '0'
inc eax
add eax, '0'
pop ecx
loop l1

mov eax,1
int 0x80
section .bss
num resb 1

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
123456789:

Assembly Numbers
Numerical data is generally represented in binary system. Arithmetic instructions operate on
binary data. When numbers are displayed on screen or entered from keyboard, they are in
ASCII form.
So far, we have converted this input data in ASCII form to binary for arithmetic calculations
and converted the result back to binary. The following code shows this
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,'3'
sub
eax, '0'
mov ebx, '4'
sub
ebx, '0'
add eax, ebx

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

add eax, '0'

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[sum], eax
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,sum
edx, 1
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
7

Such conversions, however, have an overhead, and assembly language programming allows
processing numbers in a more efficient way, in the binary form. Decimal numbers can be
represented in two forms

ASCII form

BCD or Binary Coded Decimal form

ASCII Representation
In ASCII representation, decimal numbers are stored as string of ASCII characters. For
example, the decimal value 1234 is stored as
31

32

33

34H

Where, 31H is ASCII value for 1, 32H is ASCII value for 2, and so on. There are four
instructions for processing numbers in ASCII representation

AAA ASCII Adjust After Addition

AAS ASCII Adjust After Subtraction

AAM ASCII Adjust After Multiplication

AAD ASCII Adjust Before Division

These instructions do not take any operands and assume the required operand to be in the AL
register.
The following example uses the AAS instruction to demonstrate the concept
section .text
global _start
_start:
sub
mov
sub
aas
or
mov

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

ah, ah
al, '9'
al, '3'
al, 30h
[res], ax

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,res
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db 'The Result is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg
section .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The Result is:
6

BCD Representation
There are two types of BCD representation

Unpacked BCD representation

Packed BCD representation

In unpacked BCD representation, each byte stores the binary equivalent of a decimal digit.
For example, the number 1234 is stored as

01

02

03

04H

There are two instructions for processing these numbers

AAM - ASCII Adjust After Multiplication

AAD - ASCII Adjust Before Division

The four ASCII adjust instructions, AAA, AAS, AAM, and AAD, can also be used with
unpacked BCD representation. In packed BCD representation, each digit is stored using four
bits. Two decimal digits are packed into a byte. For example, the number 1234 is stored as
12

34H

There are two instructions for processing these numbers

DAA - Decimal Adjust After Addition

DAS - decimal Adjust After Subtraction

There is no support for multiplication and division in packed BCD representation.

Example
The following program adds up two 5-digit decimal numbers and displays the sum. It uses the
above concepts
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov
esi, 4
;pointing to the rightmost digit
mov
ecx, 5
;num of digits
clc
add_loop:
mov al, [num1 + esi]
adc al, [num2 + esi]
aaa
pushf
or
al, 30h
popf
mov [sum + esi], al
dec esi
loop add_loop
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov edx,5

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;message length

mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,sum
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
msg db 'The Sum is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg
num1 db '12345'
num2 db '23456'
sum db '
'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The Sum is:
35801

Assembly - Strings
We have already used variable length strings in our previous examples. The variable length
strings can have as many characters as required. Generally, we specify the length of the string
by either of the two ways

Explicitly storing string length

Using a sentinel character

We can store the string length explicitly by using the $ location counter symbol that
represents the current value of the location counter. In the following example
msg
len

db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string

equ $ - msg
;length of our dear string

$ points to the byte after the last character of the string variable msg. Therefore, $-msg gives
the length of the string. We can also write
msg db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string
len equ 13
;length of our dear string

Alternatively, you can store strings with a trailing sentinel character to delimit a string instead
of storing the string length explicitly. The sentinel character should be a special character that
does not appear within a string.
For example
message DB 'I am loving it!', 0

String Instructions
Each string instruction may require a source operand, a destination operand or both. For 32bit segments, string instructions use ESI and EDI registers to point to the source and
destination operands, respectively.
For 16-bit segments, however, the SI and the DI registers are used to point to the source and
destination, respectively.
There are five basic instructions for processing strings. They are

MOVS This instruction moves 1 Byte, Word or Doubleword of data from memory
location to another.

LODS This instruction loads from memory. If the operand is of one byte, it is
loaded into the AL register, if the operand is one word, it is loaded into the AX
register and a doubleword is loaded into the EAX register.

STOS This instruction stores data from register (AL, AX, or EAX) to memory.

CMPS This instruction compares two data items in memory. Data could be of a
byte size, word or doubleword.

SCAS This instruction compares the contents of a register (AL, AX or EAX) with
the contents of an item in memory.

Each of the above instruction has a byte, word, and doubleword version, and string
instructions can be repeated by using a repetition prefix.
These instructions use the ES:DI and DS:SI pair of registers, where DI and SI registers
contain valid offset addresses that refers to bytes stored in memory. SI is normally associated
with DS (data segment) and DI is always associated with ES (extra segment).
The DS:SI (or ESI) and ES:DI (or EDI) registers point to the source and destination operands,
respectively. The source operand is assumed to be at DS:SI (or ESI) and the destination
operand at ES:DI (or EDI) in memory.
For 16-bit addresses, the SI and DI registers are used, and for 32-bit addresses, the ESI and
EDI registers are used.
The following table provides various versions of string instructions and the assumed space of
the operands.
Basic Instruction

Operands at
ES:DI, DS:EI

MOVS

Byte Operation
MOVSB

Word Operation
MOVSW

Double
word
Operation
MOVSD

LODS

AX, DS:SI

LODSB

LODSW

LODSD

STOS

ES:DI, AX

STOSB

STOSW

STOSD

CMPS

DS:SI, ES: DI

CMPSB

CMPSW

CMPSD

SCAS

ES:DI, AX

SCASB

SCASW

SCASD

Repetition Prefixes
The REP prefix, when set before a string instruction, for example - REP MOVSB, causes
repetition of the instruction based on a counter placed at the CX register. REP executes the
instruction, decreases CX by 1, and checks whether CX is zero. It repeats the instruction
processing until CX is zero.
The Direction Flag (DF) determines the direction of the operation.

Use CLD (Clear Direction Flag, DF = 0) to make the operation left to right.

Use STD (Set Direction Flag, DF = 1) to make the operation right to left.

The REP prefix also has the following variations:

REP: It is the unconditional repeat. It repeats the operation until CX is zero.

REPE or REPZ: It is conditional repeat. It repeats the operation while the zero flag
indicates equal/zero. It stops when the ZF indicates not equal/zero or when CX is
zero.

REPNE or REPNZ: It is also conditional repeat. It repeats the operation while the
zero flag indicates not equal/zero. It stops when the ZF indicates equal/zero or when
CX is decremented to zero.

Assembly Arrays
We have already discussed that the data definition directives to the assembler are used for
allocating storage for variables. The variable could also be initialized with some specific
value. The initialized value could be specified in hexadecimal, decimal or binary form.
For example, we can define a word variable 'months' in either of the following way

MONTHS DW
MONTHS DW
MONTHS DW

12
0CH
0110B

The data definition directives can also be used for defining a one-dimensional array. Let us
define a one-dimensional array of numbers.
NUMBERS DW

34,

45,

56,

67,

75, 89

The above definition declares an array of six words each initialized with the numbers 34, 45,
56, 67, 75, 89. This allocates 2x6 = 12 bytes of consecutive memory space. The symbolic
address of the first number will be NUMBERS and that of the second number will be
NUMBERS + 2 and so on.
Let us take up another example. You can define an array named inventory of size 8, and
initialize all the values with zero, as
INVENTORY

DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Which can be abbreviated as

INVENTORY

DW

0, 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0

The TIMES directive can also be used for multiple initializations to the same value. Using
TIMES, the INVENTORY array can be defined as:
INVENTORY TIMES 8 DW 0

Example

The following example demonstrates the above concepts by defining a 3-element array x,
which stores three values: 2, 3 and 4. It adds the values in the array and displays the sum 9
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for linker (ld)

_start:
mov
mov
mov
top:

eax,3
ebx,0
ecx, x

add
dec
jnz

add

;number bytes to be summed

;EBX will store the sum
;ECX will point to the current element to be summed

ebx, [ecx]

ecx,1
eax
top

;move pointer to next element

;decrement counter
;if counter not 0, then loop again

done:
add
mov

ebx, '0'
[sum], ebx ;done, store result in "sum"

display:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx, sum
ebx, 1
eax, 4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
int

eax, 1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
global x
x:
db 2
db 4
db 3
sum:
db

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
9

Assembly - Procedures
Procedures or subroutines are very important in assembly language, as the assembly language
programs tend to be large in size. Procedures are identified by a name. Following this name,
the body of the procedure is described which performs a well-defined job. End of the
procedure is indicated by a return statement.
Syntax

Following is the syntax to define a procedure

proc_name:
procedure body
...
ret

The procedure is called from another function by using the CALL instruction. The CALL
instruction should have the name of the called procedure as an argument as shown below
CALL proc_name

The called procedure returns the control to the calling procedure by using the RET
instruction.
Example

Let us write a very simple procedure named sum that adds the variables stored in the ECX
and EDX register and returns the sum in the EAX register

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ecx,'4'
sub
ecx, '0'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

mov edx, '5'

sub
edx, '0'
call
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

sum
[res], eax
ecx, msg
edx, len
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,
edx,
ebx,
eax,
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

res
1
1
4

mov eax,1
int 0x80
sum:
mov
eax, ecx
add
eax, edx
add
eax, '0'
ret

;call sum procedure

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
9

Stacks Data Structure

A stack is an array-like data structure in the memory in which data can be stored and removed
from a location called the 'top' of the stack. The data that needs to be stored is 'pushed' into
the stack and data to be retrieved is 'popped' out from the stack. Stack is a LIFO data
structure, i.e., the data stored first is retrieved last.
Assembly language provides two instructions for stack operations: PUSH and POP. These
instructions have syntaxes like
PUSH
POP

operand
address/register

The memory space reserved in the stack segment is used for implementing stack. The
registers SS and ESP (or SP) are used for implementing the stack. The top of the stack, which

points to the last data item inserted into the stack is pointed to by the SS:ESP register, where
the SS register points to the beginning of the stack segment and the SP (or ESP) gives the
offset into the stack segment.
The stack implementation has the following characteristics

Only words or doublewords could be saved into the stack, not a byte.

The stack grows in the reverse direction, i.e., toward the lower memory address

The top of the stack points to the last item inserted in the stack; it points to the lower
byte of the last word inserted.

As we discussed about storing the values of the registers in the stack before using them for
some use; it can be done in following way
; Save the AX and BX registers in the stack
PUSH
AX
PUSH
BX
; Use the registers for other purpose
MOV
AX, VALUE1
MOV
BX, VALUE2
...
MOV
VALUE1, AX
MOV
VALUE2, BX
; Restore the original values
POP
AX
POP
BX

Example

The following program displays the entire ASCII character set. The main program calls a
procedure named display, which displays the ASCII character set.
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
call
display
mov eax,1
int 0x80
display:
mov
next:
push
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx, 256
ecx
eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
80h

4
1
achar
1

;tell linker entry point

;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

pop
ecx
mov dx, [achar]
cmp byte [achar], 0dh
inc byte [achar]
loop
next
ret
section .data
achar db '0'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
0123456789:;<=>?
@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}
...
...

Assembly - Recursion
A recursive procedure is one that calls itself. There are two kind of recursion: direct and
indirect. In direct recursion, the procedure calls itself and in indirect recursion, the first
procedure calls a second procedure, which in turn calls the first procedure.
Recursion could be observed in numerous mathematical algorithms. For example, consider
the case of calculating the factorial of a number. Factorial of a number is given by the
equation
Fact (n) = n * fact (n-1) for n > 0

For example: factorial of 5 is 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 = 5 x factorial of 4 and this can be a good

example of showing a recursive procedure. Every recursive algorithm must have an ending
condition, i.e., the recursive calling of the program should be stopped when a condition is
fulfilled. In the case of factorial algorithm, the end condition is reached when n is 0.
The following program shows how factorial n is implemented in assembly language. To keep
the program simple, we will calculate factorial 3.
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov bx, 3
call proc_fact
add
ax, 30h
mov [fact], ax

;for calculating factorial 3

mov

;message length

edx,len

mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,fact
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
int

eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

proc_fact:
cmp
bl, 1
jg
do_calculation
mov
ax, 1
ret
do_calculation:
dec
bl
call proc_fact
inc
bl
mul
bl
;ax = al * bl
ret
section .data
msg db 'Factorial 3 is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg
section .bss
fact resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Factorial 3 is:
6

Assembly - Macros
Writing a macro is another way of ensuring modular programming in assembly language.

A macro is a sequence of instructions, assigned by a name and could be used

anywhere in the program.

In NASM, macros are defined with %macro and %endmacro directives.

The macro begins with the %macro directive and ends with the %endmacro directive.

The Syntax for macro definition

%macro macro_name
<macro body>
%endmacro

number_of_params

Where, number_of_params specifies the number parameters, macro_name specifies the name
of the macro.
The macro is invoked by using the macro name along with the necessary parameters. When
you need to use some sequence of instructions many times in a program, you can put those
instructions in a macro and use it instead of writing the instructions all the time.
For example, a very common need for programs is to write a string of characters in the
screen. For displaying a string of characters, you need the following sequence of instructions

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

In the above example of displaying a character string, the registers EAX, EBX, ECX and
EDX have been used by the INT 80H function call. So, each time you need to display on
screen, you need to save these registers on the stack, invoke INT 80H and then restore the
original value of the registers from the stack. So, it could be useful to write two macros for
saving and restoring data.
We have observed that, some instructions like IMUL, IDIV, INT, etc., need some of the
information to be stored in some particular registers and even return values in some specific
register(s). If the program was already using those registers for keeping important data, then
the existing data from these registers should be saved in the stack and restored after the
instruction is executed.
Example

Following example shows defining and using macros

; A macro with two parameters
; Implements the write system call
%macro write_string 2
mov
eax, 4
mov
ebx, 1
mov
ecx, %1
mov
edx, %2
int
80h
%endmacro
section .text
global _start
_start:
write_string msg1, len1
write_string msg2, len2
write_string msg3, len3
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg1 db 'Hello, programmers!',0xA,0xD
len1 equ $ - msg1
msg2 db 'Welcome to the world of,', 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $- msg2
msg3 db 'Linux assembly programming! '
len3 equ $- msg3

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

Assembly - File Management

The system considers any input or output data as stream of bytes. There are three standard file
streams

Standard input (stdin),

Standard output (stdout), and

Standard error (stderr).

File Descriptor
A file descriptor is a 16-bit integer assigned to a file as a file id. When a new file is created
or an existing file is opened, the file descriptor is used for accessing the file.
File descriptor of the standard file streams - stdin, stdout and stderr are 0, 1 and 2,
respectively.

File Pointer
A file pointer specifies the location for a subsequent read/write operation in the file in terms
of bytes. Each file is considered as a sequence of bytes. Each open file is associated with a
file pointer that specifies an offset in bytes, relative to the beginning of the file. When a file is
opened, the file pointer is set to zero.

File Handling System Calls

The following table briefly describes the system calls related to file handling
%eax
2
3
4
5
6
8
19

Name
sys_fork
sys_read
sys_write
sys_open
sys_close
sys_creat
sys_lseek

%ebx
struct pt_regs
unsigned int
unsigned int
const char *
unsigned int
const char *
unsigned int

%ecx
char *
const char *
int
int
off_t

%edx
size_t
size_t
int
unsigned int

The steps required for using the system calls are same, as we discussed earlier

Put the system call number in the EAX register.

Store the arguments to the system call in the registers EBX, ECX, etc.

Call the relevant interrupt (80h).

The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

Creating and Opening a File

For creating and opening a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_creat() number 8, in the EAX register.

Put the filename in the EBX register.

Put the file permissions in the ECX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.

Opening an Existing File

For opening an existing file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_open() number 5, in the EAX register.

Put the filename in the EBX register.

Put the file access mode in the ECX register.

Put the file permissions in the EDX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.
Among the file access modes, most commonly used are: read-only (0), write-only (1), and
read-write (2).

Reading from a File

For reading from a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_read() number 3, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the pointer to the input buffer in the ECX register.

Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to read, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the number of bytes read in the EAX register, in case of error, the
error code is in the EAX register.

Writing to a File
For writing to a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_write() number 4, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the pointer to the output buffer in the ECX register.

Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to write, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the actual number of bytes written in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.

Closing a File
For closing a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_close() number 6, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in the EAX register.

Updating a File
For updating a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_lseek () number 19, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the offset value in the ECX register.

Put the reference position for the offset in the EDX register.

The reference position could be:

Beginning of file - value 0

Current position - value 1

End of file - value 2

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in the EAX register.

Example
The following program creates and opens a file named myfile.txt, and writes a text 'Welcome
to Tutorials Point' in this file. Next, the program reads from the file and stores the data into a
buffer named info. Lastly, it displays the text as stored in info.
section .text
global _start
_start:
;create the file
mov eax, 8
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0777
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

;read, write and execute by all

;call kernel

mov [fd_out], eax

; write into the file
mov edx,len
mov ecx, msg
mov ebx, [fd_out]
mov eax,4
int 0x80

;number of bytes
;message to write
;file descriptor
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

; close the file

mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_out]
; write the message indicating end of file write

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax, 4
ebx, 1
ecx, msg_done
edx, len_done
0x80

;open the file for reading

mov eax, 5
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0
;for read only access
mov edx, 0777
;read, write and execute by all
int 0x80
mov

[fd_in], eax

;read from file

mov eax, 3
mov ebx, [fd_in]
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80
; close the file
mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_in]
; print the info
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
file_name db 'myfile.txt'
msg db 'Welcome to Tutorials Point'
len equ $-msg
msg_done db 'Written to file', 0xa
len_done equ $-msg_done
section .bss
fd_out resb 1
fd_in resb 1
info resb 26

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Written to file
Welcome to Tutorials Point

Assembly - Memory Management

The sys_brk() system call is provided by the kernel, to allocate memory without the need of
moving it later. This call allocates memory right behind the application image in the memory.
This system function allows you to set the highest available address in the data section.
This system call takes one parameter, which is the highest memory address needed to be set.
This value is stored in the EBX register.
In case of any error, sys_brk() returns -1 or returns the negative error code itself. The
following example demonstrates dynamic memory allocation.
Example

The following program allocates 16kb of memory using the sys_brk() system call
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov eax, 45
xor ebx, ebx
int 80h

;sys_brk

add
mov
mov
int

eax, 16384
ebx, eax
eax, 45
80h

;number of bytes to be reserved

cmp
jl
mov
sub
mov
xor
std
rep
cld

eax,
exit
edi,
edi,
ecx,
eax,

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
80h

4
1
msg
len

;sys_brk

;exit, if error
eax
;EDI = highest available address
4
;pointing to the last DWORD
4096
;number of DWORDs allocated
eax
;clear eax
;backward
stosd
;repete for entire allocated area
;put DF flag to normal state

;print a message

exit:
mov eax, 1
xor ebx, ebx
int 80h
section .data
msg
db
len
equ

"Allocated 16 kb of memory!", 10
$ - msg

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result

Allocated 16 kb of memory!

Assembly - Introduction
What is Assembly Language?

Each personal computer has a microprocessor that manages the computer's arithmetical,
logical, and control activities.
Each family of processors has its own set of instructions for handling various operations such
as getting input from keyboard, displaying information on screen and performing various
other jobs. These set of instructions are called 'machine language instructions'.
A processor understands only machine language instructions, which are strings of 1's and 0's.
However, machine language is too obscure and complex for using in software development.
So, the low-level assembly language is designed for a specific family of processors that
represents various instructions in symbolic code and a more understandable form.
Advantages of Assembly Language

Having an understanding of assembly language makes one aware of

How programs interface with OS, processor, and BIOS;

How data is represented in memory and other external devices;

How the processor accesses and executes instruction;

How instructions access and process data;

How a program accesses external devices.

Other advantages of using assembly language are

It requires less memory and execution time;

It allows hardware-specific complex jobs in an easier way;

It is suitable for time-critical jobs;

It is most suitable for writing interrupt service routines and other memory resident
programs.

Basic Features of PC Hardware

The main internal hardware of a PC consists of processor, memory, and registers. Registers
are processor components that hold data and address. To execute a program, the system

copies it from the external device into the internal memory. The processor executes the
program instructions.
The fundamental unit of computer storage is a bit; it could be ON (1) or OFF (0). A group of
nine related bits makes a byte, out of which eight bits are used for data and the last one is
used for parity. According to the rule of parity, the number of bits that are ON (1) in each byte
should always be odd.
So, the parity bit is used to make the number of bits in a byte odd. If the parity is even, the
system assumes that there had been a parity error (though rare), which might have been
caused due to hardware fault or electrical disturbance.
The processor supports the following data sizes

Word: a 2-byte data item

Doubleword: a 4-byte (32 bit) data item

Quadword: an 8-byte (64 bit) data item

Paragraph: a 16-byte (128 bit) area

Kilobyte: 1024 bytes

Megabyte: 1,048,576 bytes

Binary Number System

Every number system uses positional notation, i.e., each position in which a digit is written
has a different positional value. Each position is power of the base, which is 2 for binary
number system, and these powers begin at 0 and increase by 1.
The following table shows the positional values for an 8-bit binary number, where all bits are
set ON.
Bit value
Position value as a power of
base 2
Bit number

128

64

32

16

The value of a binary number is based on the presence of 1 bits and their positional value. So,
the value of a given binary number is
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 +16 + 32 + 64 + 128 = 255
which is same as 28 - 1.

Hexadecimal Number System

Hexadecimal number system uses base 16. The digits in this system range from 0 to 15. By
convention, the letters A through F is used to represent the hexadecimal digits corresponding
to decimal values 10 through 15.
Hexadecimal numbers in computing is used for abbreviating lengthy binary representations.
Basically, hexadecimal number system represents a binary data by dividing each byte in half
and expressing the value of each half-byte. The following table provides the decimal, binary,
and hexadecimal equivalents
Decimal number

Binary representation

Hexadecimal representation

10

11

100

101

110

111

1000

1001

10

1010

11

1011

12

1100

13

1101

14

1110

15

1111

To convert a binary number to its hexadecimal equivalent, break it into groups of 4

consecutive groups each, starting from the right, and write those groups over the
corresponding digits of the hexadecimal number.
Example Binary number 1000 1100 1101 0001 is equivalent to hexadecimal - 8CD1
To convert a hexadecimal number to binary, just write each hexadecimal digit into its 4-digit
binary equivalent.

Example Hexadecimal number FAD8 is equivalent to binary - 1111 1010 1101 1000
Binary Arithmetic

The following table illustrates four simple rules for binary addition
(i)

(ii)

(iii)

(iv)
1

+0

+0

+1

+1

=0

=1

=10

=11

Rules (iii) and (iv) show a carry of a 1-bit into the next left position.
Example
Decimal

Binary

60

00111100

+42

00101010

102

01100110

A negative binary value is expressed in two's complement notation. According to this rule,
to convert a binary number to its negative value is to reverse its bit values and add 1.
Example
Number 53

00110101

Reverse the bits

11001010

Add 1

Number -53

11001011

To subtract one value from another, convert the number being subtracted to two's
complement format and add the numbers.
Example
Subtract 42 from 53
Number 53

00110101

Number 42

00101010

Reverse the bits of 42

11010101

Add 1

Number -42

11010110

53 - 42 = 11

00001011

Overflow of the last 1 bit is lost.

Addressing Data in Memory

The process through which the processor controls the execution of instructions is referred as
the fetch-decode-execute cycle or the execution cycle. It consists of three continuous steps

Fetching the instruction from memory

Decoding or identifying the instruction

Executing the instruction

The processor may access one or more bytes of memory at a time. Let us consider a
hexadecimal number 0725H. This number will require two bytes of memory. The high-order
byte or most significant byte is 07 and the low-order byte is 25.
The processor stores data in reverse-byte sequence, i.e., a low-order byte is stored in a low
memory address and a high-order byte in high memory address. So, if the processor brings
the value 0725H from register to memory, it will transfer 25 first to the lower memory
address and 07 to the next memory address.

x: memory address
When the processor gets the numeric data from memory to register, it again reverses the
bytes. There are two kinds of memory addresses

Absolute address - a direct reference of specific location.

Segment address (or offset) - starting address of a memory segment with the offset
value.

Assembly - Environment Setup

Try it Option Online

We already have set up NASM assembler to experiment with Assembly programming online,
so that you can execute all the available examples online at the same time when you are
doing your theory work. This gives you confidence in what you are reading and to check the
result with different options. Feel free to modify any example and execute it online.
Try the following example using our online compiler option available at
http://www.compileonline.com/
section .text
global_start

;must be declared for linker (ld)

_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

;tells linker entry point

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db 'Hello, world!', 0xa ;our dear string
len equ $ - msg
;length of our dear string

For most of the examples given in this tutorial, you will find a Try it option in our website
code sections at the top right corner, that will take you to the online compiler. So just make
use of it and enjoy your learning.
Local Environment Setup

Assembly language is dependent upon the instruction set and the architecture of the
processor. In this tutorial, we focus on Intel 32 processors like Pentium. To follow this
tutorial, you will need

An IBM PC or any equivalent compatible computer

A copy of Linux operating system

A copy of NASM assembler program

There are many good assembler programs, such as

Microsoft Assembler (MASM)

Borland Turbo Assembler (TASM)

The GNU assembler (GAS)

We will use the NASM assembler, as it is

Free. You can download it from various web sources.

Well documented and you will get lots of information on net.

Could be used on both Linux and Windows.

Installing NASM

If you select "Development Tools" while installing Linux, you may get NASM installed along
with the Linux operating system and you do not need to download and install it separately.
For checking whether you already have NASM installed, take the following steps

Open a Linux terminal.

Type whereis nasm and press ENTER.

If it is already installed, then a line like, nasm: /usr/bin/nasm appears. Otherwise, you
will see just nasm:, then you need to install NASM.

To install NASM, take the following steps

Check The netwide assembler (NASM) website for the latest version.

Download the Linux source archive nasm-X.XX.ta.gz, where X.XX is the NASM
version number in the archive.

Unpack the archive into a directory which creates a subdirectory nasm-X. XX.

cd to nasm-X. XX and type ./configure. This shell script will find the best C compiler
to use and set up Makefiles accordingly.

Type make to build the nasm and ndisasm binaries.

Type make install to install nasm and ndisasm in /usr/local/bin and to install the man
pages.

This should install NASM on your system. Alternatively, you can use an RPM distribution for
the Fedora Linux. This version is simpler to install, just double-click the RPM file.

Assembly - Basic Syntax

An assembly program can be divided into three sections

The data section,

The bss section, and

The text section.

The data Section

The data section is used for declaring initialized data or constants. This data does not change
at runtime. You can declare various constant values, file names, or buffer size, etc., in this
section.
The syntax for declaring data section is
section.data

The bss Section

The bss section is used for declaring variables. The syntax for declaring bss section is
section.bss

The text section

The text section is used for keeping the actual code. This section must begin with the
declaration global _start, which tells the kernel where the program execution begins.
The syntax for declaring text section is
section.text
global _start
_start:

Comments

Assembly language comment begins with a semicolon (;). It may contain any printable
character including blank. It can appear on a line by itself, like
; This program displays a message on screen

or, on the same line along with an instruction, like

add eax ,ebx

; adds ebx to eax

Assembly Language Statements

Assembly language programs consist of three types of statements

Executable instructions or instructions,

Assembler directives or pseudo-ops, and

Macros.

The executable instructions or simply instructions tell the processor what to do. Each
instruction consists of an operation code (opcode). Each executable instruction generates one
machine language instruction.

The assembler directives or pseudo-ops tell the assembler about the various aspects of the
assembly process. These are non-executable and do not generate machine language
instructions.
Macros are basically a text substitution mechanism.
Syntax of Assembly Language Statements

Assembly language statements are entered one statement per line. Each statement follows the
following format
[label]

mnemonic

[operands]

[;comment]

The fields in the square brackets are optional. A basic instruction has two parts, the first one
is the name of the instruction (or the mnemonic), which is to be executed, and the second are
the operands or the parameters of the command.
Following are some examples of typical assembly language statements
INC COUNT

; Increment the memory variable COUNT

MOV TOTAL, 48

; Transfer the value 48 in the

; memory variable TOTAL

ADD AH, BH

; Add the content of the

; BH register into the AH register

AND MASK1, 128

; Perform AND operation on the

; variable MASK1 and 128

ADD MARKS, 10
MOV AL, 10

; Add 10 to the variable MARKS

; Transfer the value 10 to the AL register

The Hello World Program in Assembly

The following assembly language code displays the string 'Hello World' on the screen
section .text
global_start

;must be declared for linker (ld)

_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

;tells linker entry point

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db 'Hello, world!', 0xa
len equ $ - msg

;our dear string

;length of our dear string

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, world!

Compiling and Linking an Assembly Program in NASM

Make sure you have set the path of nasm and ld binaries in your PATH environment variable.
Now, take the following steps for compiling and linking the above program

Type the above code using a text editor and save it as hello.asm.

Make sure that you are in the same directory as where you saved hello.asm.

To assemble the program, type nasm -f elf hello.asm

If there is any error, you will be prompted about that at this stage. Otherwise, an
object file of your program named hello.o will be created.

To link the object file and create an executable file named hello, type ld -m elf_i386
-s -o hello hello.o

Execute the program by typing ./hello

If you have done everything correctly, it will display 'Hello, world!' on the screen.

Assembly - Memory Segments

We have already discussed the three sections of an assembly program. These sections
represent various memory segments as well.
Interestingly, if you replace the section keyword with segment, you will get the same result.
Try the following code
segment .text
global_start

;code segment
;must be declared for linker

_start:
mov edx,len
mov ecx,msg
mov ebx,1
mov eax,4
int 0x80

;tell linker entry point

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

segment .data
;data segment
msg
db 'Hello, world!',0xa
;our dear string
len
equ
$ - msg
;length of our dear string

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, world!

Memory Segments

A segmented memory model divides the system memory into groups of independent
segments referenced by pointers located in the segment registers. Each segment is used to

contain a specific type of data. One segment is used to contain instruction codes, another
segment stores the data elements, and a third segment keeps the program stack.
In the light of the above discussion, we can specify various memory segments as

Data segment It is represented by .data section and the .bss. The .data section is
used to declare the memory region, where data elements are stored for the program.
This section cannot be expanded after the data elements are declared, and it remains
static throughout the program.
The .bss section is also a static memory section that contains buffers for data to be
declared later in the program. This buffer memory is zero-filled.

Code segment It is represented by .text section. This defines an area in memory

that stores the instruction codes. This is also a fixed area.

Stack This segment contains data values passed to functions and procedures within
the program.

Assembly - Registers
Processor operations mostly involve processing data. This data can be stored in memory and
accessed from thereon. However, reading data from and storing data into memory slows
down the processor, as it involves complicated processes of sending the data request across
the control bus and into the memory storage unit and getting the data through the same
channel.
To speed up the processor operations, the processor includes some internal memory storage
locations, called registers.
The registers store data elements for processing without having to access the memory. A
limited number of registers are built into the processor chip.
Processor Registers

There are ten 32-bit and six 16-bit processor registers in IA-32 architecture. The registers are
grouped into three categories

General registers,

Control registers, and

Segment registers.

The general registers are further divided into the following groups

Data registers,

Pointer registers, and

Index registers.

Data Registers

Four 32-bit data registers are used for arithmetic, logical, and other operations. These 32-bit
registers can be used in three ways

As complete 32-bit data registers: EAX, EBX, ECX, EDX.

Lower halves of the 32-bit registers can be used as four 16-bit data registers: AX, BX,
CX and DX.

Lower and higher halves of the above-mentioned four 16-bit registers can be used as
eight 8-bit data registers: AH, AL, BH, BL, CH, CL, DH, and DL.

Some of these data registers have specific use in arithmetical operations.

AX is the primary accumulator; it is used in input/output and most arithmetic instructions.
For example, in multiplication operation, one operand is stored in EAX or AX or AL register
according to the size of the operand.
BX is known as the base register, as it could be used in indexed addressing.
CX is known as the count register, as the ECX, CX registers store the loop count in
iterative operations.
DX is known as the data register. It is also used in input/output operations. It is also used
with AX register along with DX for multiply and divide operations involving large values.
Pointer Registers

The pointer registers are 32-bit EIP, ESP, and EBP registers and corresponding 16-bit right
portions IP, SP, and BP. There are three categories of pointer registers

Instruction Pointer (IP) The 16-bit IP register stores the offset address of the next
instruction to be executed. IP in association with the CS register (as CS:IP) gives the
complete address of the current instruction in the code segment.

Stack Pointer (SP) The 16-bit SP register provides the offset value within the
program stack. SP in association with the SS register (SS:SP) refers to be current
position of data or address within the program stack.

Base Pointer (BP) The 16-bit BP register mainly helps in referencing the parameter
variables passed to a subroutine. The address in SS register is combined with the
offset in BP to get the location of the parameter. BP can also be combined with DI and
SI as base register for special addressing.

Index Registers

The 32-bit index registers, ESI and EDI, and their 16-bit rightmost portions. SI and DI, are
used for indexed addressing and sometimes used in addition and subtraction. There are two
sets of index pointers

Source Index (SI) It is used as source index for string operations.

Destination Index (DI) It is used as destination index for string operations.

Control Registers

The 32-bit instruction pointer register and the 32-bit flags register combined are considered
as the control registers.
Many instructions involve comparisons and mathematical calculations and change the status
of the flags and some other conditional instructions test the value of these status flags to take
the control flow to other location.

The common flag bits are:

Overflow Flag (OF) It indicates the overflow of a high-order bit (leftmost bit) of
data after a signed arithmetic operation.

Direction Flag (DF) It determines left or right direction for moving or comparing
string data. When the DF value is 0, the string operation takes left-to-right direction
and when the value is set to 1, the string operation takes right-to-left direction.

Interrupt Flag (IF) It determines whether the external interrupts like keyboard
entry, etc., are to be ignored or processed. It disables the external interrupt when the
value is 0 and enables interrupts when set to 1.

Trap Flag (TF) It allows setting the operation of the processor in single-step mode.
The DEBUG program we used sets the trap flag, so we could step through the
execution one instruction at a time.

Sign Flag (SF) It shows the sign of the result of an arithmetic operation. This flag is
set according to the sign of a data item following the arithmetic operation. The sign is
indicated by the high-order of leftmost bit. A positive result clears the value of SF to 0
and negative result sets it to 1.

Zero Flag (ZF) It indicates the result of an arithmetic or comparison operation. A

nonzero result clears the zero flag to 0, and a zero result sets it to 1.

Auxiliary Carry Flag (AF) It contains the carry from bit 3 to bit 4 following an
arithmetic operation; used for specialized arithmetic. The AF is set when a 1-byte
arithmetic operation causes a carry from bit 3 into bit 4.

Parity Flag (PF) It indicates the total number of 1-bits in the result obtained from
an arithmetic operation. An even number of 1-bits clears the parity flag to 0 and an
odd number of 1-bits sets the parity flag to 1.

Carry Flag (CF) It contains the carry of 0 or 1 from a high-order bit (leftmost)
after an arithmetic operation. It also stores the contents of last bit of a shift or rotate
operation.

The following table indicates the position of flag bits in the 16-bit Flags register:
Flag:
Bit no:

15

Segment Registers

14

13

12

11

10

A
5

P
3

C
1

Segments are specific areas defined in a program for containing data, code and stack. There
are three main segments

Code Segment It contains all the instructions to be executed. A 16-bit Code

Segment register or CS register stores the starting address of the code segment.

Data Segment It contains data, constants and work areas. A 16-bit Data Segment
register or DS register stores the starting address of the data segment.

Stack Segment It contains data and return addresses of procedures or subroutines.

It is implemented as a 'stack' data structure. The Stack Segment register or SS register
stores the starting address of the stack.

Apart from the DS, CS and SS registers, there are other extra segment registers - ES (extra
segment), FS and GS, which provide additional segments for storing data.
In assembly programming, a program needs to access the memory locations. All memory
locations within a segment are relative to the starting address of the segment. A segment
begins in an address evenly divisible by 16 or hexadecimal 10. So, the rightmost hex digit in
all such memory addresses is 0, which is not generally stored in the segment registers.
The segment registers stores the starting addresses of a segment. To get the exact location of
data or instruction within a segment, an offset value (or displacement) is required. To
reference any memory location in a segment, the processor combines the segment address in
the segment register with the offset value of the location.
Example

Look at the following simple program to understand the use of registers in assembly
programming. This program displays 9 stars on the screen along with a simple message
section .text
global_start ;must be declared for linker (gcc)
_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;tell linker entry point

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

edx,9
ecx,s2
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80
section .data

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

msg db 'Displaying 9 stars',0xa ;a message

len equ $ - msg ;length of message
s2 times 9 db '*'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Displaying 9 stars
*********

Assembly - System Calls

System calls are APIs for the interface between the user space and the kernel space. We have
already used the system calls. sys_write and sys_exit, for writing into the screen and exiting
from the program, respectively.
Linux System Calls

You can make use of Linux system calls in your assembly programs. You need to take the
following steps for using Linux system calls in your program

Put the system call number in the EAX register.

Store the arguments to the system call in the registers EBX, ECX, etc.

Call the relevant interrupt (80h).

The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

There are six registers that store the arguments of the system call used. These are the EBX,
ECX, EDX, ESI, EDI, and EBP. These registers take the consecutive arguments, starting with
the EBX register. If there are more than six arguments, then the memory location of the first
argument is stored in the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows the use of the system call sys_exit
mov
int

eax,1
0x80

; system call number (sys_exit)

; call kernel

The following code snippet shows the use of the system call sys_write
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,4
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;
;
;
;
;

message length
message to write
file descriptor (stdout)
system call number (sys_write)
call kernel

All the syscalls are listed in /usr/include/asm/unistd.h, together with their numbers (the value
to put in EAX before you call int 80h).
The following table shows some of the system calls used in this tutorial
%eax

Name

%ebx

%ecx

%edx

%esx

%edi

sys_exit

int

sys_fork

struct pt_regs

sys_read

unsigned int

char *

size_t

sys_write

unsigned int

const char *

size_t

sys_open

const char *

int

int

sys_close

unsigned int

Example

The following example reads a number from the keyboard and displays it on the screen
section .data
userMsg db
lenUserMsg
dispMsg db
lenDispMsg

;Data segment
'Please enter a number: ' ;Ask the user to enter a number
equ $-userMsg
;The length of the message
'You have entered: '
equ $-dispMsg

section .bss
num resb 5

;Uninitialized data

section .text
global _start

;Code Segment

_start:
mov eax,
mov ebx,
mov ecx,
mov edx,
int 80h

;User prompt
4
1
userMsg
lenUserMsg

;Read and store the user input

mov eax, 3
mov ebx, 2
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 5
;5 bytes (numeric, 1 for sign) of that information
int 80h
;Output the message 'The entered number is: '
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, dispMsg
mov edx, lenDispMsg
int 80h
;Output the number entered
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 5
int 80h
; Exit code
mov eax, 1
mov ebx, 0

int 80h

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Please enter a number:
1234
You have entered:1234

Assembly - Addressing Modes

Most assembly language instructions require operands to be processed. An operand address
provides the location, where the data to be processed is stored. Some instructions do not
require an operand, whereas some other instructions may require one, two, or three operands.
When an instruction requires two operands, the first operand is generally the destination,
which contains data in a register or memory location and the second operand is the source.
Source contains either the data to be delivered (immediate addressing) or the address (in
register or memory) of the data. Generally, the source data remains unaltered after the
operation.
The three basic modes of addressing are

Register addressing

Immediate addressing

Memory addressing

Register Addressing

In this addressing mode, a register contains the operand. Depending upon the instruction, the
register may be the first operand, the second operand or both.
For example,
MOV DX, TAX_RATE
MOV COUNT, CX
MOV EAX, EBX

; Register in first operand

; Register in second operand
; Both the operands are in registers

As processing data between registers does not involve memory, it provides fastest processing
of data.
Immediate Addressing

An immediate operand has a constant value or an expression. When an instruction with two
operands uses immediate addressing, the first operand may be a register or memory location,
and the second operand is an immediate constant. The first operand defines the length of the
data.
For example,

BYTE_VALUE DB 150
WORD_VALUE DW 300
ADD BYTE_VALUE, 65
MOV AX, 45H

;
;
;
;

Direct Memory Addressing

A byte value is defined

A word value is defined
An immediate operand 65 is added
Immediate constant 45H is transferred to AX

When operands are specified in memory addressing mode, direct access to main memory,
usually to the data segment, is required. This way of addressing results in slower processing
of data. To locate the exact location of data in memory, we need the segment start address,
which is typically found in the DS register and an offset value. This offset value is also called
effective address.
In direct addressing mode, the offset value is specified directly as part of the instruction,
usually indicated by the variable name. The assembler calculates the offset value and
maintains a symbol table, which stores the offset values of all the variables used in the
program.
In direct memory addressing, one of the operands refers to a memory location and the other
operand references a register.
For example,
ADD
MOV

BYTE_VALUE, DL ; Adds the register in the memory location

BX, WORD_VALUE ; Operand from the memory is added to register

Direct-Offset Addressing

This addressing mode uses the arithmetic operators to modify an address. For example, look
at the following definitions that define tables of data
BYTE_TABLE DB
WORD_TABLE DW

14, 15, 22, 45

134, 345, 564, 123

; Tables of bytes
; Tables of words

The following operations access data from the tables in the memory into registers
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV

CL,
CL,
CX,
CX,

BYTE_TABLE[2]
BYTE_TABLE + 2
WORD_TABLE[3]
WORD_TABLE + 3

;
;
;
;

Gets
Gets
Gets
Gets

Indirect Memory Addressing

the
the
the
the

3rd
3rd
4th
4th

element
element
element
element

of
of
of
of

the
the
the
the

BYTE_TABLE
BYTE_TABLE
WORD_TABLE
WORD_TABLE

This addressing mode utilizes the computer's ability of Segment:Offset addressing. Generally,
the base registers EBX, EBP (or BX, BP) and the index registers (DI, SI), coded within
square brackets for memory references, are used for this purpose.
Indirect addressing is generally used for variables containing several elements like, arrays.
Starting address of the array is stored in, say, the EBX register.
The following code snippet shows how to access different elements of the variable.
MY_TABLE TIMES 10 DW 0
0

; Allocates 10 words (2 bytes) each initialized to

MOV
MOV
ADD
MOV

EBX, [MY_TABLE]
[EBX], 110
EBX, 2
[EBX], 123

The MOV Instruction

;
;
;
;

Effective Address of MY_TABLE in EBX

MY_TABLE[0] = 110
EBX = EBX +2
MY_TABLE[1] = 123

We have already used the MOV instruction that is used for moving data from one storage
space to another. The MOV instruction takes two operands.
Syntax

The syntax of the MOV instruction is

MOV

destination, source

The MOV instruction may have one of the following five forms
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV
MOV

register, register
register, immediate
memory, immediate
register, memory
memory, register

Please note that

Both the operands in MOV operation should be of same size

The value of source operand remains unchanged

The MOV instruction causes ambiguity at times. For example, look at the statements
MOV
MOV

EBX, [MY_TABLE] ; Effective Address of MY_TABLE in EBX

[EBX], 110
; MY_TABLE[0] = 110

It is not clear whether you want to move a byte equivalent or word equivalent of the number
110. In such cases, it is wise to use a type specifier.
Following table shows some of the common type specifiers
Type Specifier

Bytes addressed

BYTE

WORD

DWORD

QWORD

TBYTE

10

Example

The following program illustrates some of the concepts discussed above. It stores a name
'Zara Ali' in the data section of the memory, then changes its value to another name 'Nuha Ali'
programmatically and displays both the names.

section .text
global_start
_start:

;must be declared for linker (ld)

;tell linker entry point

;writing the name 'Zara Ali'

mov edx,9
;message length
mov ecx, name
;message to write
mov ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80
;call kernel
mov [name],

dword 'Nuha'

; Changed the name to Nuha Ali

;writing the name 'Nuha Ali'

mov edx,8
;message length
mov ecx,name
;message to write
mov ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
mov eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
int 0x80
;call kernel
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
name db 'Zara Ali '

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Zara Ali Nuha Ali

Assembly - Variables
NASM provides various define directives for reserving storage space for variables. The
define assembler directive is used for allocation of storage space. It can be used to reserve as
well as initialize one or more bytes.
Allocating Storage Space for Initialized Data

The syntax for storage allocation statement for initialized data is

[variable-name]

define-directive

initial-value

[,initial-value]...

Where, variable-name is the identifier for each storage space. The assembler associates an
offset value for each variable name defined in the data segment.
There are five basic forms of the define directive
Directive

Purpose

Storage Space

DB

Define Byte

allocates 1 byte

DW

Define Word

allocates 2 bytes

DD

Define Doubleword

allocates 4 bytes

DQ

Define Quadword

allocates 8 bytes

DT

Define Ten Bytes

allocates 10 bytes

Following are some examples of using define directives

choice
number
neg_number
big_number
real_number1
real_number2

DB
DW
DW
DQ
DD
DQ

'y'
12345
-12345
123456789
1.234
123.456

Please note that

Each byte of character is stored as its ASCII value in hexadecimal.

Each decimal value is automatically converted to its 16-bit binary equivalent and
stored as a hexadecimal number.

Processor uses the little-endian byte ordering.

Negative numbers are converted to its 2's complement representation.

Short and long floating-point numbers are represented using 32 or 64 bits,

respectively.

The following program shows the use of define directive

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,choice
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for linker (gcc)

;tell linker entry point
;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
choice DB 'y'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
y

Allocating Storage Space for Uninitialized Data

The reserve directives are used for reserving space for uninitialized data. The reserve
directives take a single operand that specifies the number of units of space to be reserved.
Each define directive has a related reserve directive.
There are five basic forms of the reserve directive

Directive

Purpose

RESB

Reserve a Byte

RESW

Reserve a Word

RESD

Reserve a Doubleword

RESQ

Reserve a Quadword

REST

Reserve a Ten Bytes

Multiple Definitions

You can have multiple data definition statements in a program. For example
choice
number1
number2

DB
DW
DD

'Y'
;ASCII of y = 79H
12345
;12345D = 3039H
12345679 ;123456789D = 75BCD15H

The assembler allocates contiguous memory for multiple variable definitions.

Multiple Initializations

The TIMES directive allows multiple initializations to the same value. For example, an array
named marks of size 9 can be defined and initialized to zero using the following statement
marks

TIMES

DW

The TIMES directive is useful in defining arrays and tables. The following program displays
9 asterisks on the screen
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,9
ecx, stars
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for linker (ld)

;tell linker entry point
;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
stars
times 9 db '*'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
*********

Assembly - Constants
There are several directives provided by NASM that define constants. We have already used
the EQU directive in previous chapters. We will particularly discuss three directives

EQU

%assign

%define

The EQU Directive

The EQU directive is used for defining constants. The syntax of the EQU directive is as
follows
CONSTANT_NAME EQU expression

For example,
TOTAL_STUDENTS equ 50

You can then use this constant value in your code, like
mov
cmp

ecx,
eax,

TOTAL_STUDENTS
TOTAL_STUDENTS

The operand of an EQU statement can be an expression

LENGTH equ 20
WIDTH equ 10
AREA
equ length * width

Above code segment would define AREA as 200.

Example

The following example illustrates the use of the EQU directive

SYS_EXIT equ 1
SYS_WRITE equ 4
STDIN
equ 0
STDOUT
equ 1
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,
mov ebx,
mov ecx,
mov edx,
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg1
len1

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg2
len2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg3
len3

mov eax,SYS_EXIT
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg1 db 'Hello, programmers!',0xA,0xD
len1 equ $ - msg1
msg2 db 'Welcome to the world of,', 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $ - msg2
msg3 db 'Linux assembly programming! '
len3 equ $- msg3

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

The %assign Directive

The %assign directive can be used to define numeric constants like the EQU directive. This
directive allows redefinition. For example, you may define the constant TOTAL as
%assign TOTAL 10

Later in the code, you can redefine it as

%assign

TOTAL

20

This directive is case-sensitive.

The %define Directive

The %define directive allows defining both numeric and string constants. This directive is
similar to the #define in C. For example, you may define the constant PTR as
%define PTR [EBP+4]

The above code replaces PTR by [EBP+4].

This directive also allows redefinition and it is case-sensitive.

Assembly - Arithmetic Instructions

The INC Instruction

The INC instruction is used for incrementing an operand by one. It works on a single operand
that can be either in a register or in memory.
Syntax

The INC instruction has the following syntax

INC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit operand.

Example
INC EBX
; Increments 32-bit register
INC DL
; Increments 8-bit register
INC [count] ; Increments the count variable

The DEC Instruction

The DEC instruction is used for decrementing an operand by one. It works on a single
operand that can be either in a register or in memory.
Syntax

The DEC instruction has the following syntax

DEC destination

The operand destination could be an 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit operand.

Example
segment .data
count dw 0
value db 15
segment .text
inc [count]
dec [value]
mov ebx, count
inc word [ebx]
mov esi, value
dec byte [esi]

The ADD and SUB Instructions

The ADD and SUB instructions are used for performing simple addition/subtraction of binary
data in byte, word and doubleword size, i.e., for adding or subtracting 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit
operands, respectively.
Syntax

The ADD and SUB instructions have the following syntax

ADD/SUB destination, source

The ADD/SUB instruction can take place between

Register to register

Memory to register

Register to memory

Register to constant data

Memory to constant data

However, like other instructions, memory-to-memory operations are not possible using
ADD/SUB instructions. An ADD or SUB operation sets or clears the overflow and carry
flags.
Example

The following example will ask two digits from the user, store the digits in the EAX and
EBX register, respectively, add the values, store the result in a memory location 'res' and
finally display the result.
SYS_EXIT
SYS_READ
SYS_WRITE
STDIN
STDOUT

equ
equ
equ
equ
equ

1
3
4
0
1

segment .data
msg1 db "Enter a digit ", 0xA,0xD
len1 equ $- msg1
msg2 db "Please enter a second digit", 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $- msg2
msg3 db "The sum is: "
len3 equ $- msg3
segment .bss
num1 resb 2
num2 resb 2
res resb 1
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,
mov ebx,
mov ecx,
mov edx,
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg1
len1

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_READ
STDIN
num1
2

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg2
len2

mov
mov
mov
mov

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,

SYS_READ
STDIN
num2
2

int 0x80
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

SYS_WRITE
STDOUT
msg3
len3

; moving the first number to eax register and second number to ebx
; and subtracting ascii '0' to convert it into a decimal number
mov eax, [num1]
sub eax, '0'
mov ebx, [num2]
sub ebx, '0'
; add eax and ebx
add eax, ebx
; add '0' to to convert the sum from decimal to ASCII
add eax, '0'
; storing the sum in memory location res
mov [res], eax
; print the sum
mov eax, SYS_WRITE
mov ebx, STDOUT
mov ecx, res
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
exit:
mov eax, SYS_EXIT
xor ebx, ebx
int 0x80

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Enter a digit:
3
Please enter a second digit:
4
The sum is:
7

The program with hardcoded variables

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
;tell linker entry point
mov eax,'3'
sub
eax, '0'
mov ebx, '4'
sub
ebx, '0'
add eax, ebx
add eax, '0'
mov [sum], eax

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,sum
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
7

The MUL/IMUL Instruction

There are two instructions for multiplying binary data. The MUL (Multiply) instruction
handles unsigned data and the IMUL (Integer Multiply) handles signed data. Both
instructions affect the Carry and Overflow flag.
Syntax

The syntax for the MUL/IMUL instructions is as follows

MUL/IMUL multiplier

Multiplicand in both cases will be in an accumulator, depending upon the size of the
multiplicand and the multiplier and the generated product is also stored in two registers
depending upon the size of the operands. Following section explains MUL instructions with
three different cases
S
N

Scenarios

When two bytes are multiplied The multiplicand is in the AL register, and the multiplier is a byte in the memory or in
another register. The product is in AX. High-order 8 bits of the product is stored in AH
1 and the low-order 8 bits are stored in AL.

2 When two one-word values are multiplied -

The multiplicand should be in the AX register, and the multiplier is a word in memory or
another register. For example, for an instruction like MUL DX, you must store the
multiplier in DX and the multiplicand in AX.
The resultant product is a doubleword, which will need two registers. The high-order
(leftmost) portion gets stored in DX and the lower-order (rightmost) portion gets stored in
AX.

When two doubleword values are multiplied When two doubleword values are multiplied, the multiplicand should be in EAX and the
multiplier is a doubleword value stored in memory or in another register. The product
3 generated is stored in the EDX:EAX registers, i.e., the high order 32 bits gets stored in the
EDX register and the low order 32-bits are stored in the EAX register.

Example
MOV AL,
MOV DL,
MUL DL
...
MOV DL,
MOV AL,
IMUL DL

10
25
0FFH
0BEH

; DL= -1
; AL = -66

Example

The following example multiplies 3 with 2, and displays the result

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov al,'3'
sub
al, '0'
mov bl, '2'
sub
bl, '0'
mul bl
add al, '0'
mov [res], al
mov ecx,msg
mov edx, len

mov ebx,1
mov eax,4
int 0x80
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

ecx,res
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The result is:
6

The DIV/IDIV Instructions

The division operation generates two elements - a quotient and a remainder. In case of
multiplication, overflow does not occur because double-length registers are used to keep the
product. However, in case of division, overflow may occur. The processor generates an
interrupt if overflow occurs.
The DIV (Divide) instruction is used for unsigned data and the IDIV (Integer Divide) is used
for signed data.
Syntax

The format for the DIV/IDIV instruction

DIV/IDIV

divisor

The dividend is in an accumulator. Both the instructions can work with 8-bit, 16-bit or 32-bit
operands. The operation affects all six status flags. Following section explains three cases of
division with different operand size
S
N

Scenarios

1 When the divisor is 1 byte -

The dividend is assumed to be in the AX register (16 bits). After division, the quotient
goes to the AL register and the remainder goes to the AH register.

When the divisor is 1 word The dividend is assumed to be 32 bits long and in the DX:AX registers. The high-order 16
bits are in DX and the low-order 16 bits are in AX. After division, the 16-bit quotient goes
to the AX register and the 16-bit remainder goes to the DX register.
2

When the divisor is doubleword The dividend is assumed to be 64 bits long and in the EDX:EAX registers. The high-order
32 bits are in EDX and the low-order 32 bits are in EAX. After division, the 32-bit
quotient goes to the EAX register and the 32-bit remainder goes to the EDX register.
3

Example

The following example divides 8 with 2. The dividend 8 is stored in the 16-bit AX register
and the divisor 2 is stored in the 8-bit BL register.
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ax,'8'
sub
ax, '0'
mov bl, '2'
sub
bl, '0'
div bl

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

add ax, '0'

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[res], ax
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,res
edx, 1
ebx,1
;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4
;system call number (sys_write)
0x80
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The result is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The result is:
4

Assembly - Logical Instructions

The processor instruction set provides the instructions AND, OR, XOR, TEST, and NOT
Boolean logic, which tests, sets, and clears the bits according to the need of the program.
The format for these instructions
SN

Instruction

Format

AND

AND operand1, operand2

OR

OR operand1, operand2

XOR

XOR operand1, operand2

TEST

TEST operand1, operand2

NOT

NOT operand1

The first operand in all the cases could be either in register or in memory. The second
operand could be either in register/memory or an immediate (constant) value. However,
memory-to-memory operations are not possible. These instructions compare or match bits of
the operands and set the CF, OF, PF, SF and ZF flags.
The AND Instruction

The AND instruction is used for supporting logical expressions by performing bitwise AND
operation. The bitwise AND operation returns 1, if the matching bits from both the operands
are 1, otherwise it returns 0. For example
Operand1:
Operand2:
---------------------------After AND -> Operand1: 0001

0101
0011

The AND operation can be used for clearing one or more bits. For example, say the BL
register contains 0011 1010. If you need to clear the high-order bits to zero, you AND it with
0FH.
AND

BL,

0FH

; This sets BL to 0000 1010

Let's take up another example. If you want to check whether a given number is odd or even, a
simple test would be to check the least significant bit of the number. If this is 1, the number is
odd, else the number is even.
Assuming the number is in AL register, we can write
AND
JZ

AL, 01H
EVEN_NUMBER

; ANDing with 0000 0001

The following program illustrates this

Example
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
and
jz
mov
mov
mov
mov
int
jmp

ax,
8h
ax, 1
evnn
eax, 4
ebx, 1
ecx, odd_msg
edx, len2
0x80
outprog

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point
;getting 8 in the ax
;and ax with 1
;system call number (sys_write)
;file descriptor (stdout)
;message to write
;length of message
;call kernel

evnn:
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ah,
eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
0x80

09h
4
1
even_msg
len1

;system call number (sys_write)

;file descriptor (stdout)
;message to write
;length of message
;call kernel

outprog:
mov
int

eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section
.data
even_msg db 'Even Number!' ;message showing even number
len1 equ $ - even_msg

odd_msg db 'Odd Number!'

len2 equ $ - odd_msg

;message showing odd number

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Even Number!

Change the value in the ax register with an odd digit, like

mov

ax, 9h

; getting 9 in the ax

The program would display:

Odd Number!

Similarly to clear the entire register you can AND it with 00H.
The OR Instruction

The OR instruction is used for supporting logical expression by performing bitwise OR

operation. The bitwise OR operator returns 1, if the matching bits from either or both
operands are one. It returns 0, if both the bits are zero.
For example,
Operand1:
0101
Operand2:
0011
---------------------------After OR -> Operand1:
0111

The OR operation can be used for setting one or more bits. For example, let us assume the AL
register contains 0011 1010, you need to set the four low-order bits, you can OR it with a
value 0000 1111, i.e., FH.
OR BL, 0FH

; This sets BL to

0011 1111

Example

The following example demonstrates the OR instruction. Let us store the value 5 and 3 in the
AL and the BL registers, respectively, then the instruction,
OR AL, BL

should store 7 in the AL register

section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
mov
mov
or
add

;tell linker entry point

;getting 5 in the al
;getting 3 in the bl
;or al and bl registers, result should be 7
;converting decimal to ascii

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov

al,
bl,
al,
al,

5
3
bl
byte '0'

[result], al
eax, 4
ebx, 1
ecx, result
edx, 1

int

0x80

outprog:
mov
int

eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section
.bss
result resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
7

The XOR Instruction

The XOR instruction implements the bitwise XOR operation. The XOR operation sets the
resultant bit to 1, if and only if the bits from the operands are different. If the bits from the
operands are same (both 0 or both 1), the resultant bit is cleared to 0.
For example,
Operand1:
0101
Operand2:
0011
---------------------------After XOR -> Operand1:
0110

XORing an operand with itself changes the operand to 0. This is used to clear a
register.
XOR

EAX, EAX

The TEST Instruction

The TEST instruction works same as the AND operation, but unlike AND instruction, it does
not change the first operand. So, if we need to check whether a number in a register is even or
odd, we can also do this using the TEST instruction without changing the original number.
TEST
JZ

AL, 01H
EVEN_NUMBER

The NOT Instruction

The NOT instruction implements the bitwise NOT operation. NOT operation reverses the bits
in an operand. The operand could be either in a register or in the memory.
For example,
Operand1:
After NOT -> Operand1:

0101 0011
1010 1100

Assembly - Conditions
Conditional execution in assembly language is accomplished by several looping and
branching instructions. These instructions can change the flow of control in a program.
Conditional execution is observed in two scenarios
S

Conditional Instructions

Unconditional jump
This is performed by the JMP instruction. Conditional execution often involves a transfer

1 of control to the address of an instruction that does not follow the currently executing

instruction. Transfer of control may be forward, to execute a new set of instructions or

backward, to re-execute the same steps.
Conditional jump
2 This is performed by a set of jump instructions j<condition> depending upon the

condition. The conditional instructions transfer the control by breaking the sequential
flow and they do it by changing the offset value in IP.
Let us discuss the CMP instruction before discussing the conditional instructions.
CMP Instruction

The CMP instruction compares two operands. It is generally used in conditional execution.
This instruction basically subtracts one operand from the other for comparing whether the
operands are equal or not. It does not disturb the destination or source operands. It is used
along with the conditional jump instruction for decision making.
Syntax
CMP destination, source

CMP compares two numeric data fields. The destination operand could be either in register or
in memory. The source operand could be a constant (immediate) data, register or memory.
Example
CMP DX, 00
JE L7
.
.
L7: ...

; Compare the DX value with zero

; If yes, then jump to label L7

CMP is often used for comparing whether a counter value has reached the number of times a
loop needs to be run. Consider the following typical condition
INC
CMP
JLE

EDX
EDX, 10 ; Compares whether the counter has reached 10
LP1
; If it is less than or equal to 10, then jump to LP1

Unconditional Jump

As mentioned earlier, this is performed by the JMP instruction. Conditional execution often
involves a transfer of control to the address of an instruction that does not follow the
currently executing instruction. Transfer of control may be forward, to execute a new set of
instructions or backward, to re-execute the same steps.

Syntax

The JMP instruction provides a label name where the flow of control is transferred
immediately. The syntax of the JMP instruction is
JMP

label

Example

The following code snippet illustrates the JMP instruction

MOV
MOV
MOV
L20:
ADD
ADD
SHL
JMP

AX, 00
BX, 00
CX, 01

; Initializing AX to 0
; Initializing BX to 0
; Initializing CX to 1

AX, 01
BX, AX
CX, 1
L20

;
;
;
;

Conditional Jump

Increment AX
Add AX to BX
shift left CX, this in turn doubles the CX value
repeats the statements

If some specified condition is satisfied in conditional jump, the control flow is transferred to a
target instruction. There are numerous conditional jump instructions depending upon the
condition and data.
Following are the conditional jump instructions used on signed data used for arithmetic
operations
Instruction

Description

Flags tested

JE/JZ

Jump Equal or Jump Zero

ZF

JNE/JNZ

Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero

ZF

JG/JNLE

Jump Greater or Jump Not Less/Equal

OF, SF, ZF

JGE/JNL

Jump Greater or Jump Not Less

OF, SF

JL/JNGE

Jump Less or Jump Not Greater/Equal

OF, SF

JLE/JNG

Jump Less/Equal or Jump Not Greater

OF, SF, ZF

Following are the conditional jump instructions used on unsigned data used for logical
operations
Instruction

Description

Flags tested

JE/JZ

Jump Equal or Jump Zero

ZF

JNE/JNZ

Jump not Equal or Jump Not Zero

ZF

JA/JNBE

Jump Above or Jump Not Below/Equal

CF, ZF

JAE/JNB

Jump Above/Equal or Jump Not Below

CF

JB/JNAE

Jump Below or Jump Not Above/Equal

CF

JBE/JNA

Jump Below/Equal or Jump Not Above

AF, CF

The following conditional jump instructions have special uses and check the value of flags
Instruction

Description

Flags tested

JXCZ

Jump if CX is Zero

none

JC

Jump If Carry

CF

JNC

Jump If No Carry

CF

JO

Jump If Overflow

OF

JNO

Jump If No Overflow

OF

JP/JPE

Jump Parity or Jump Parity Even

PF

JNP/JPO

Jump No Parity or Jump Parity Odd

PF

JS

Jump Sign (negative value)

SF

JNS

Jump No Sign (positive value)

SF

The syntax for the J<condition> set of instructions

Example,
CMP
AL, BL
JE
EQUAL
CMP
AL, BH
JE
EQUAL
CMP
AL, CL
JE
EQUAL
NON_EQUAL: ...
EQUAL: ...

Example

The following program displays the largest of three variables. The variables are double-digit
variables. The three variables num1, num2 and num3 have values 47, 72 and 31, respectively

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov
cmp
jg
mov

;tell linker entry point

ecx, [num1]
ecx, [num2]
check_third_num
ecx, [num3]
check_third_num:

cmp

;must be declared for using gcc

ecx, [num3]

jg
mov

_exit
ecx, [num3]
_exit:

mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[largest], ecx
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
0x80 ;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,largest
edx, 2
ebx,1 ;file descriptor (stdout)
eax,4 ;system call number (sys_write)
0x80 ;call kernel

mov
int

eax, 1
80h

section .data
msg db "The largest digit is: ", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
num1 dd '47'
num2 dd '22'
num3 dd '31'
segment .bss
largest resb 2

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The largest digit is:
47

Assembly - Loops
The JMP instruction can be used for implementing loops. For example, the following code
snippet can be used for executing the loop-body 10 times.
MOV
CL, 10
L1:
<LOOP-BODY>
DEC
CL
JNZ
L1

The processor instruction set, however, includes a group of loop instructions for
implementing iteration. The basic LOOP instruction has the following syntax
LOOP

label

Where, label is the target label that identifies the target instruction as in the jump instructions.
The LOOP instruction assumes that the ECX register contains the loop count. When the
loop instruction is executed, the ECX register is decremented and the control jumps to the
target label, until the ECX register value, i.e., the counter reaches the value zero.
The above code snippet could be written as

mov ECX,10
l1:
<loop body>
loop l1

Example

The following program prints the number 1 to 9 on the screen

section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ecx,10
mov eax, '1'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

l1:

mov [num], eax

mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
push ecx
mov ecx, num
mov edx, 1
int 0x80
mov eax, [num]
sub eax, '0'
inc eax
add eax, '0'
pop ecx
loop l1

mov eax,1
int 0x80
section .bss
num resb 1

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
123456789:

Assembly - Numbers
Numerical data is generally represented in binary system. Arithmetic instructions operate on
binary data. When numbers are displayed on screen or entered from keyboard, they are in
ASCII form.
So far, we have converted this input data in ASCII form to binary for arithmetic calculations
and converted the result back to binary. The following code shows this
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov eax,'3'
sub
eax, '0'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

mov ebx, '4'

sub
ebx, '0'
add eax, ebx
add eax, '0'
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

[sum], eax
ecx,msg
edx, len
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,sum
edx, 1
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $ - msg
segment .bss
sum resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
7

Such conversions, however, have an overhead, and assembly language programming allows
processing numbers in a more efficient way, in the binary form. Decimal numbers can be
represented in two forms

ASCII form

BCD or Binary Coded Decimal form

ASCII Representation

In ASCII representation, decimal numbers are stored as string of ASCII characters. For
example, the decimal value 1234 is stored as
31

32

33

34H

Where, 31H is ASCII value for 1, 32H is ASCII value for 2, and so on. There are four
instructions for processing numbers in ASCII representation

AAA ASCII Adjust After Addition

AAS ASCII Adjust After Subtraction

AAM ASCII Adjust After Multiplication

AAD ASCII Adjust Before Division

These instructions do not take any operands and assume the required operand to be in the AL
register.
The following example uses the AAS instruction to demonstrate the concept
section .text
global _start
_start:
sub
mov
sub
aas
or
mov

ah, ah
al, '9'
al, '3'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

al, 30h
[res], ax

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,res
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg db 'The Result is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg
section .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The Result is:
6

BCD Representation

There are two types of BCD representation

Unpacked BCD representation

Packed BCD representation

In unpacked BCD representation, each byte stores the binary equivalent of a decimal digit.
For example, the number 1234 is stored as
01

02

03

04H

There are two instructions for processing these numbers

AAM - ASCII Adjust After Multiplication

AAD - ASCII Adjust Before Division

The four ASCII adjust instructions, AAA, AAS, AAM, and AAD, can also be used with
unpacked BCD representation. In packed BCD representation, each digit is stored using four
bits. Two decimal digits are packed into a byte. For example, the number 1234 is stored as
12

34H

There are two instructions for processing these numbers

DAA - Decimal Adjust After Addition

DAS - decimal Adjust After Subtraction

There is no support for multiplication and division in packed BCD representation.

Example

The following program adds up two 5-digit decimal numbers and displays the sum. It uses the
above concepts
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov
esi, 4
;pointing to the rightmost digit
mov
ecx, 5
;num of digits
clc
add_loop:
mov al, [num1 + esi]
adc al, [num2 + esi]
aaa
pushf
or
al, 30h
popf
mov [sum + esi], al
dec esi
loop add_loop
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,5
ecx,sum
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov eax,1
int 0x80
section .data

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

msg db 'The Sum is:',0xa

len equ $ - msg
num1 db '12345'
num2 db '23456'
sum db '
'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The Sum is:
35801

Assembly - Strings
We have already used variable length strings in our previous examples. The variable length
strings can have as many characters as required. Generally, we specify the length of the string
by either of the two ways

Explicitly storing string length

Using a sentinel character

We can store the string length explicitly by using the $ location counter symbol that
represents the current value of the location counter. In the following example
msg
len

db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string

equ $ - msg
;length of our dear string

$ points to the byte after the last character of the string variable msg. Therefore, $-msg gives
the length of the string. We can also write
msg db 'Hello, world!',0xa ;our dear string
len equ 13
;length of our dear string

Alternatively, you can store strings with a trailing sentinel character to delimit a string instead
of storing the string length explicitly. The sentinel character should be a special character that
does not appear within a string.
For example
message DB 'I am loving it!', 0

String Instructions

Each string instruction may require a source operand, a destination operand or both. For 32bit segments, string instructions use ESI and EDI registers to point to the source and
destination operands, respectively.
For 16-bit segments, however, the SI and the DI registers are used to point to the source and
destination, respectively.
There are five basic instructions for processing strings. They are

MOVS This instruction moves 1 Byte, Word or Doubleword of data from memory
location to another.

LODS This instruction loads from memory. If the operand is of one byte, it is
loaded into the AL register, if the operand is one word, it is loaded into the AX
register and a doubleword is loaded into the EAX register.

STOS This instruction stores data from register (AL, AX, or EAX) to memory.

CMPS This instruction compares two data items in memory. Data could be of a
byte size, word or doubleword.

SCAS This instruction compares the contents of a register (AL, AX or EAX) with
the contents of an item in memory.

Each of the above instruction has a byte, word, and doubleword version, and string
instructions can be repeated by using a repetition prefix.
These instructions use the ES:DI and DS:SI pair of registers, where DI and SI registers
contain valid offset addresses that refers to bytes stored in memory. SI is normally associated
with DS (data segment) and DI is always associated with ES (extra segment).
The DS:SI (or ESI) and ES:DI (or EDI) registers point to the source and destination operands,
respectively. The source operand is assumed to be at DS:SI (or ESI) and the destination
operand at ES:DI (or EDI) in memory.
For 16-bit addresses, the SI and DI registers are used, and for 32-bit addresses, the ESI and
EDI registers are used.
The following table provides various versions of string instructions and the assumed space of
the operands.
Double
word
Basic Instruction Operands at Byte Operation Word Operation
Operati
on

MOVS

ES:DI, DS:EI

MOVSB

MOVSW

MOVSD

LODS

AX, DS:SI

LODSB

LODSW

LODSD

STOS

ES:DI, AX

STOSB

STOSW

STOSD

CMPS

DS:SI, ES: DI

CMPSB

CMPSW

CMPSD

SCAS

ES:DI, AX

SCASB

SCASW

SCASD

Repetition Prefixes

The REP prefix, when set before a string instruction, for example - REP MOVSB, causes
repetition of the instruction based on a counter placed at the CX register. REP executes the
instruction, decreases CX by 1, and checks whether CX is zero. It repeats the instruction
processing until CX is zero.
The Direction Flag (DF) determines the direction of the operation.

Use CLD (Clear Direction Flag, DF = 0) to make the operation left to right.

Use STD (Set Direction Flag, DF = 1) to make the operation right to left.

The REP prefix also has the following variations:

REP: It is the unconditional repeat. It repeats the operation until CX is zero.

REPE or REPZ: It is conditional repeat. It repeats the operation while the zero flag
indicates equal/zero. It stops when the ZF indicates not equal/zero or when CX is
zero.

REPNE or REPNZ: It is also conditional repeat. It repeats the operation while the
zero flag indicates not equal/zero. It stops when the ZF indicates equal/zero or when
CX is decremented to zero.

Assembly - Arrays
We have already discussed that the data definition directives to the assembler are used for
allocating storage for variables. The variable could also be initialized with some specific
value. The initialized value could be specified in hexadecimal, decimal or binary form.
For example, we can define a word variable 'months' in either of the following way
MONTHS DW
MONTHS DW
MONTHS DW

12
0CH
0110B

The data definition directives can also be used for defining a one-dimensional array. Let us
define a one-dimensional array of numbers.
NUMBERS DW

34,

45,

56,

67,

75, 89

The above definition declares an array of six words each initialized with the numbers 34, 45,
56, 67, 75, 89. This allocates 2x6 = 12 bytes of consecutive memory space. The symbolic
address of the first number will be NUMBERS and that of the second number will be
NUMBERS + 2 and so on.

Let us take up another example. You can define an array named inventory of size 8, and
initialize all the values with zero, as
INVENTORY

DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW
DW

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

Which can be abbreviated as

INVENTORY

DW

0, 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0 , 0

The TIMES directive can also be used for multiple initializations to the same value. Using
TIMES, the INVENTORY array can be defined as:
INVENTORY TIMES 8 DW 0

Example

The following example demonstrates the above concepts by defining a 3-element array x,
which stores three values: 2, 3 and 4. It adds the values in the array and displays the sum 9
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for linker (ld)

_start:
mov
mov
mov
top:

eax,3
ebx,0
ecx, x
add

add
dec
jnz

;number bytes to be summed

;EBX will store the sum
;ECX will point to the current element to be summed

ebx, [ecx]

ecx,1
eax
top

;move pointer to next element

;decrement counter
;if counter not 0, then loop again

done:
add
mov

ebx, '0'
[sum], ebx ;done, store result in "sum"

display:
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx, sum
ebx, 1
eax, 4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
int

eax, 1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
global x
x:

db
db
db

2
4
3

sum:
db

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
9

Assembly - Procedures
Procedures or subroutines are very important in assembly language, as the assembly language
programs tend to be large in size. Procedures are identified by a name. Following this name,
the body of the procedure is described which performs a well-defined job. End of the
procedure is indicated by a return statement.
Syntax

Following is the syntax to define a procedure

proc_name:
procedure body
...
ret

The procedure is called from another function by using the CALL instruction. The CALL
instruction should have the name of the called procedure as an argument as shown below
CALL proc_name

The called procedure returns the control to the calling procedure by using the RET
instruction.
Example

Let us write a very simple procedure named sum that adds the variables stored in the ECX
and EDX register and returns the sum in the EAX register
section .text
global _start
_start:
mov ecx,'4'
sub
ecx, '0'

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

mov edx, '5'

sub
edx, '0'
call
mov
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

sum
[res], eax
ecx, msg
edx, len
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;call sum procedure

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

ecx,
edx,
ebx,
eax,
0x80

res
1
1
4

mov eax,1
int 0x80
sum:
mov
eax, ecx
add
eax, edx
add
eax, '0'
ret

;file descriptor (stdout)

;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel
;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

section .data
msg db "The sum is:", 0xA,0xD
len equ $- msg
segment .bss
res resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
The sum is:
9

Stacks Data Structure

A stack is an array-like data structure in the memory in which data can be stored and removed
from a location called the 'top' of the stack. The data that needs to be stored is 'pushed' into
the stack and data to be retrieved is 'popped' out from the stack. Stack is a LIFO data
structure, i.e., the data stored first is retrieved last.
Assembly language provides two instructions for stack operations: PUSH and POP. These
instructions have syntaxes like
PUSH
POP

operand
address/register

The memory space reserved in the stack segment is used for implementing stack. The
registers SS and ESP (or SP) are used for implementing the stack. The top of the stack, which
points to the last data item inserted into the stack is pointed to by the SS:ESP register, where
the SS register points to the beginning of the stack segment and the SP (or ESP) gives the
offset into the stack segment.
The stack implementation has the following characteristics

Only words or doublewords could be saved into the stack, not a byte.

The stack grows in the reverse direction, i.e., toward the lower memory address

The top of the stack points to the last item inserted in the stack; it points to the lower
byte of the last word inserted.

As we discussed about storing the values of the registers in the stack before using them for
some use; it can be done in following way
; Save the AX and BX registers in the stack
PUSH
AX
PUSH
BX
; Use the registers for other purpose
MOV
AX, VALUE1
MOV
BX, VALUE2
...
MOV
VALUE1, AX
MOV
VALUE2, BX
; Restore the original values
POP
AX
POP
BX

Example

The following program displays the entire ASCII character set. The main program calls a
procedure named display, which displays the ASCII character set.
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
call
display
mov eax,1
int 0x80
display:
mov
next:
push
mov
mov
mov
mov
int

;tell linker entry point

;system call number (sys_exit)
;call kernel

ecx, 256
ecx
eax,
ebx,
ecx,
edx,
80h

4
1
achar
1

pop
ecx
mov dx, [achar]
cmp byte [achar], 0dh
inc byte [achar]
loop
next
ret
section .data
achar db '0'

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
0123456789:;<=>?
@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}
...
...

Assembly - Recursion
A recursive procedure is one that calls itself. There are two kind of recursion: direct and
indirect. In direct recursion, the procedure calls itself and in indirect recursion, the first
procedure calls a second procedure, which in turn calls the first procedure.
Recursion could be observed in numerous mathematical algorithms. For example, consider
the case of calculating the factorial of a number. Factorial of a number is given by the
equation
Fact (n) = n * fact (n-1) for n > 0

For example: factorial of 5 is 1 x 2 x 3 x 4 x 5 = 5 x factorial of 4 and this can be a good

example of showing a recursive procedure. Every recursive algorithm must have an ending
condition, i.e., the recursive calling of the program should be stopped when a condition is
fulfilled. In the case of factorial algorithm, the end condition is reached when n is 0.
The following program shows how factorial n is implemented in assembly language. To keep
the program simple, we will calculate factorial 3.
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov bx, 3
call proc_fact
add
ax, 30h
mov [fact], ax

;for calculating factorial 3

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,1
ecx,fact
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

mov
int

eax,1
0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

proc_fact:
cmp
bl, 1
jg
do_calculation
mov
ax, 1
ret
do_calculation:
dec
bl
call proc_fact
inc
bl
mul
bl
;ax = al * bl
ret

section .data
msg db 'Factorial 3 is:',0xa
len equ $ - msg
section .bss
fact resb 1

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Factorial 3 is:
6

Assembly - Macros
Writing a macro is another way of ensuring modular programming in assembly language.

A macro is a sequence of instructions, assigned by a name and could be used

anywhere in the program.

In NASM, macros are defined with %macro and %endmacro directives.

The macro begins with the %macro directive and ends with the %endmacro directive.

The Syntax for macro definition

%macro macro_name
<macro body>
%endmacro

number_of_params

Where, number_of_params specifies the number parameters, macro_name specifies the name
of the macro.
The macro is invoked by using the macro name along with the necessary parameters. When
you need to use some sequence of instructions many times in a program, you can put those
instructions in a macro and use it instead of writing the instructions all the time.
For example, a very common need for programs is to write a string of characters in the
screen. For displaying a string of characters, you need the following sequence of instructions

mov
mov
mov
mov
int

edx,len
ecx,msg
ebx,1
eax,4
0x80

;message length
;message to write
;file descriptor (stdout)
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

In the above example of displaying a character string, the registers EAX, EBX, ECX and
EDX have been used by the INT 80H function call. So, each time you need to display on
screen, you need to save these registers on the stack, invoke INT 80H and then restore the
original value of the registers from the stack. So, it could be useful to write two macros for
saving and restoring data.

We have observed that, some instructions like IMUL, IDIV, INT, etc., need some of the
information to be stored in some particular registers and even return values in some specific
register(s). If the program was already using those registers for keeping important data, then
the existing data from these registers should be saved in the stack and restored after the
instruction is executed.
Example

Following example shows defining and using macros

; A macro with two parameters
; Implements the write system call
%macro write_string 2
mov
eax, 4
mov
ebx, 1
mov
ecx, %1
mov
edx, %2
int
80h
%endmacro
section .text
global _start
_start:
write_string msg1, len1
write_string msg2, len2
write_string msg3, len3
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;must be declared for using gcc

;tell linker entry point

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
msg1 db 'Hello, programmers!',0xA,0xD
len1 equ $ - msg1
msg2 db 'Welcome to the world of,', 0xA,0xD
len2 equ $- msg2
msg3 db 'Linux assembly programming! '
len3 equ $- msg3

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Hello, programmers!
Welcome to the world of,
Linux assembly programming!

Assembly - File Management

The system considers any input or output data as stream of bytes. There are three standard file
streams

Standard input (stdin),

Standard output (stdout), and

Standard error (stderr).

File Descriptor

A file descriptor is a 16-bit integer assigned to a file as a file id. When a new file is created
or an existing file is opened, the file descriptor is used for accessing the file.
File descriptor of the standard file streams - stdin, stdout and stderr are 0, 1 and 2,
respectively.
File Pointer

A file pointer specifies the location for a subsequent read/write operation in the file in terms
of bytes. Each file is considered as a sequence of bytes. Each open file is associated with a
file pointer that specifies an offset in bytes, relative to the beginning of the file. When a file is
opened, the file pointer is set to zero.
File Handling System Calls

The following table briefly describes the system calls related to file handling
%eax

Name

%ebx

%ecx

%edx

sys_fork

struct pt_regs

sys_read

unsigned int

char *

size_t

sys_write

unsigned int

const char *

size_t

sys_open

const char *

int

int

sys_close

unsigned int

sys_creat

const char *

int

19

sys_lseek

unsigned int

off_t

unsigned int

The steps required for using the system calls are same, as we discussed earlier

Put the system call number in the EAX register.

Store the arguments to the system call in the registers EBX, ECX, etc.

Call the relevant interrupt (80h).

The result is usually returned in the EAX register.

Creating and Opening a File

For creating and opening a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_creat() number 8, in the EAX register.

Put the filename in the EBX register.

Put the file permissions in the ECX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.
Opening an Existing File

For opening an existing file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_open() number 5, in the EAX register.

Put the filename in the EBX register.

Put the file access mode in the ECX register.

Put the file permissions in the EDX register.

The system call returns the file descriptor of the created file in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.
Among the file access modes, most commonly used are: read-only (0), write-only (1), and
read-write (2).
Reading from a File

For reading from a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_read() number 3, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the pointer to the input buffer in the ECX register.

Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to read, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the number of bytes read in the EAX register, in case of error, the
error code is in the EAX register.
Writing to a File

For writing to a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_write() number 4, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the pointer to the output buffer in the ECX register.

Put the buffer size, i.e., the number of bytes to write, in the EDX register.

The system call returns the actual number of bytes written in the EAX register, in case of
error, the error code is in the EAX register.
Closing a File

For closing a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_close() number 6, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in the EAX register.
Updating a File

For updating a file, perform the following tasks

Put the system call sys_lseek () number 19, in the EAX register.

Put the file descriptor in the EBX register.

Put the offset value in the ECX register.

Put the reference position for the offset in the EDX register.

The reference position could be:

Beginning of file - value 0

Current position - value 1

End of file - value 2

The system call returns, in case of error, the error code in the EAX register.
Example

The following program creates and opens a file named myfile.txt, and writes a text 'Welcome
to Tutorials Point' in this file. Next, the program reads from the file and stores the data into a
buffer named info. Lastly, it displays the text as stored in info.
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:
;create the file
mov eax, 8
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0777
int 0x80

;tell linker entry point

;read, write and execute by all

;call kernel

mov [fd_out], eax

; write into the file
mov edx,len
mov ecx, msg
mov ebx, [fd_out]
mov eax,4
int 0x80

;number of bytes
;message to write
;file descriptor
;system call number (sys_write)
;call kernel

; close the file

mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_out]
; write the message indicating end of file write
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, msg_done
mov edx, len_done
int 0x80
;open the file for reading
mov eax, 5
mov ebx, file_name
mov ecx, 0
;for read only access
mov edx, 0777
;read, write and execute by all
int 0x80
mov

[fd_in], eax

;read from file

mov eax, 3
mov ebx, [fd_in]
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80
; close the file
mov eax, 6
mov ebx, [fd_in]
; print the info
mov eax, 4
mov ebx, 1
mov ecx, info
mov edx, 26
int 0x80
mov eax,1
int 0x80

;system call number (sys_exit)

;call kernel

section .data
file_name db 'myfile.txt'
msg db 'Welcome to Tutorials Point'

len equ

$-msg

msg_done db 'Written to file', 0xa

len_done equ $-msg_done
section .bss
fd_out resb 1
fd_in resb 1
info resb 26

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Written to file
Welcome to Tutorials Point

Assembly - Memory Management

The sys_brk() system call is provided by the kernel, to allocate memory without the need of
moving it later. This call allocates memory right behind the application image in the memory.
This system function allows you to set the highest available address in the data section.
This system call takes one parameter, which is the highest memory address needed to be set.
This value is stored in the EBX register.
In case of any error, sys_brk() returns -1 or returns the negative error code itself. The
following example demonstrates dynamic memory allocation.
Example

The following program allocates 16kb of memory using the sys_brk() system call
section .text
global _start

;must be declared for using gcc

_start:

;tell linker entry point

mov eax, 45
xor ebx, ebx
int 80h

;sys_brk

add
mov
mov
int

eax, 16384
ebx, eax
eax, 45
80h

;number of bytes to be reserved

cmp
jl
mov
sub
mov
xor
std
rep
cld

eax,
exit
edi,
edi,
ecx,
eax,

;sys_brk

;exit, if error
eax
;EDI = highest available address
4
;pointing to the last DWORD
4096
;number of DWORDs allocated
eax
;clear eax
;backward
stosd
;repete for entire allocated area
;put DF flag to normal state

mov eax, 4

mov
mov
mov
int

ebx, 1
ecx, msg
edx, len
80h

;print a message

exit:
mov eax, 1
xor ebx, ebx
int 80h
section .data
msg
db
len
equ

"Allocated 16 kb of memory!", 10
$ - msg

When the above code is compiled and executed, it produces the following result
Allocated 16 kb of memory!