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Assembly Language: Difference between revisions

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Line 59: Line 59:
=== What is the name for a group of 8 bits? ===
=== What is the name for a group of 8 bits? ===
Group of 8 related bits is name a byte.
Group of 8 related bits is name a byte.
=== Which data sizes are supported by the processor? ===
* 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 ===
The base is 2.
=== Hexadecimal number system ===
The base is 16.
=== Octal number system ===
The base is 8.
=== Decimal number system ===
The base is 10.


== External links ==
== External links ==
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/assembly_programming/index.htm
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/assembly_programming/index.htm

Revision as of 10:12, 9 November 2024

Only the x86 instruction set is mostly described here.

Basics

What is Assembly Language

Assembly language is a low-level programming language for a computer or other programmable device.

What is the difference between the Assembly language and high-level programming languages

Each assembly languages is specific for a given computer architecture (instruction set).

High level programming language are mostly portable across multiple systems.

How is the source code of an high-level programming language converted to the executable machine code

Via a Compiler

How is the source code of an assembly language converted to the executable machine code

Via an Assembler

List examples of some assemblers

NASM, MASM.

Why Assembly languages exist?

Each computer has a microprocessor with arithmetical, logical and control activities.

Each family of processors has its own set of instructions.

Processors understands only machine language instructions, which are ones and zeros. But develop software only using ones and zeros is too hard and complex. As the solution there are the assembly languages for each the instruction sets, instructions are represented with symbolic code and a more understandable form.

Advantages of understanding the assembly language

You will know:

  • How applications communicate with the operating system, processor and BIOS
  • The ways, data is represented in memory and other external devices
  • Access and execution of instructions by the processor
  • Access and processing data by instructions

Advantages of the assembly language

Less RAM

Less execution time

Suitable for time-critical jobs

List 3 basic parts of the computer hardware related to the computing part

Processor, memory and registers.

Describe shortly processor

Processor executes program instructions.

Describe shortly registers

Registers hold data and address.

Describe shortly memory

Storage for data. The transfer speed much higher than the speed of an HDD or SDD. The transfer speed is lower than the speed of registers.

What is a bit

The smallest unit of the storage is a bit, which can be ON (1) or OFF (0).

What is the name for a group of 8 bits?

Group of 8 related bits is name a byte.

Which data sizes are supported by the processor?

  • 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

The base is 2.

Hexadecimal number system

The base is 16.

Octal number system

The base is 8.

Decimal number system

The base is 10.

External links

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/assembly_programming/index.htm