Assembly Language Programming
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Questions and Answers

What is the difference between SAL and SHL instructions?

There is no difference between the SAL and SHL instructions. They both perform the same operations.

What is the purpose of the SAR instruction?

The SAR instruction is used for signed data and performs an arithmetic right shift.

What is the purpose of the SHR instruction?

The SHR instruction is used for unsigned data and performs a logical right shift.

What is the purpose of using C structs in assembly code?

<p>The purpose of using C structs in assembly code is to access and manipulate structured data in a more organized and efficient manner.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How would you access the value of 't.x' in assembly code?

<p>To access the value of 't.x' in assembly code, you would use the instruction 'movl (%edx), %eax', where 'edx' is the pointer to the struct and 'eax' is the register to store the value.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the left shift instructions used for in machine level instructions?

<p>The left shift instructions (SAL/SHL) are used to shift the bits in a byte, word, or long word by a variable number of positions, and are commonly used to implement the C language operators &gt;.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the differences between SAL and SHL instructions?

<p>SAL and SHL instructions perform the same operations, which is left shifting the bits. The only difference is that SAL is used for signed data (arithmetic left shift) and SHL is used for unsigned data (logical left shift).</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the SAR instruction?

<p>The SAR instruction is used for right shifting signed data (arithmetic right shift). It preserves the sign bit and shifts the remaining bits to the right.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the SHR instruction?

<p>The SHR instruction is used for right shifting unsigned data (logical right shift). It shifts all the bits to the right, including the sign bit, which is set to 0.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of using C structs in assembly code?

<p>The purpose of using C structs in assembly code is to access and manipulate structured data in a high-level language like C, while still being able to optimize and control the low-level details of the assembly code.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How would you access the value of 't.y' in assembly code?

<p>To access the value of 't.y' in assembly code, you would use the appropriate memory address offset of 't.y' relative to the base address of the structure.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the left shift instructions used for in machine level instructions?

<p>The left shift instructions (SAL / SHL) are used to shift the bits in a byte, word, or long word to the left by a variable number of positions, implementing the left shift operator in the C language.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the CMPB instruction in Gas code?

<p>The purpose of the CMPB instruction in Gas code is to set/reset the flags based on the comparison between two values.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the condition for the jl jump instruction in signed comparisons?

<p>The condition for the jl jump instruction in signed comparisons is 'less than'.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What does the carry flag indicate in unsigned comparisons?

<p>The carry flag indicates underflow in unsigned comparisons.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the loop instruction?

<p>The purpose of the loop instruction is to decrement, test, and jump based on the value of the %ecx register.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of jump instructions in assembly language programming?

<p>Jump instructions are used to implement branching and looping in assembly language, similar to 'if-else' and 'for' statements in higher-level languages.</p> Signup and view all the answers

How does a jump instruction differ from a 'call' instruction in assembly language?

<p>A jump instruction transfers control to a different part of the program without pushing a return address onto the stack, while a 'call' instruction transfers control to a subroutine and pushes a return address onto the stack.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What design technique is commonly used in assembly language programming to support program logic?

<p>The flowchart is a design technique commonly used in assembly language programming to represent the flow of control and logic in a program, with circles representing labels and arrows representing 'go-to' instructions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of a conditional jump instruction in assembly code?

<p>The purpose of a conditional jump instruction in assembly code is to modify the flow of control based on the state of specific flags in the %eflags register. If the condition specified by the flags is true, the instruction will load a new value into the %eip register, otherwise the instruction will let the %eip be incremented to the next sequential instruction.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the flags that can be set by arithmetic or logical instructions in assembly code?

<p>The flags that can be set by arithmetic or logical instructions in assembly code are the Carry Flag, Zero Flag, Sign Flag, Parity Flag, Overflow Flag, and Auxiliary Carry Flag.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the Carry Flag in assembly code?

<p>The purpose of the Carry Flag in assembly code is to indicate whether an addition or subtraction operation resulted in a carry out or borrow into the most significant bits added or subtracted.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the Overflow Flag in assembly code?

<p>The purpose of the Overflow Flag in assembly code is to indicate whether the sum of two numbers with the sign bits off yields a result number with the sign bit on, or whether the sum of two numbers with the sign bits on yields a result number with the sign bit off.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the assembler directives for defining the code section and the data section of a program?

<p>.text for the code section and .data for the data section.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of indirect addressing in assembly language?

<p>Indirect addressing allows the use of a register as the address of the memory location to access in an instruction.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Why can't we write instructions to move a value directly from memory to memory?

<p>The Intel instruction set does not support instructions to move a value from memory to memory. It always requires a register as an intermediate location for the value being moved.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the cpuid function in the assembly code example?

<p>The cpuid function retrieves the CPU ID value and stores it in a string buffer.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the advantages of using C over assembly code?

<p>Easier to read and understand source code; Requires fewer lines of code for same function; Does not require knowledge of the hardware.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the advantages of learning assembly language?

<p>It is a good way to learn how a processor works; It is possible to improve performance in time-critical sections of code; It is necessary in writing a new operating system or in porting an existing system to a new machine.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of integrating C and assembly code?

<p>To let C do most of the work and integrate with assembly code where needed; To make gas routines callable from C by using C compiler conventions for function calls and preserving registers that C compiler expects saved.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What are the four fields in the format of an assembly language instruction?

<p>Label, Mnemonic, Operand(s), Comment.</p> Signup and view all the answers

What is self-modifying code and why might it not work in certain situations?

<p>Self-modifying code refers to the practice of a program modifying its own instructions during runtime. However, self-modifying code may not work in situations where the code is physically located in PROM/ROM or if there is an operating system like UNIX/Linux that protects the code space from being modified.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Provide an example of self-modifying code in C.

<p>Here is an example of self-modifying code in C:</p> <p>int main(int argc, char **args) { // array to hold the machine code bytes of the function static char function;</p> <pre><code>// put code instructions byte by byte into the function array function[0] = 0xb8; // move address of the string to %eax. function[1] = 0xc3; // and return. // execute the function whose address is the array printf(&quot;%s\n&quot;, (* (char * (*)()) function) ()); return 0; </code></pre> <p>}</p> Signup and view all the answers

Explain the purpose of the CMPB instruction in Gas code.

<p>The CMPB instruction in Gas code is used to compare two bytes or characters. It subtracts the second operand from the first operand and sets the flags accordingly. The result of the subtraction is not stored, but the flags are updated based on the result.</p> Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Here are the study notes for the text:

Assembly Language Programming IV: Shift, Struct, and Recursion

  • Shift Instructions
    • Can shift bits in a byte, word, or long word by a variable number of positions
    • Implemented using SAL/SHL (logical left shift) and SAR/SHR (arithmetic/logical right shift)
    • Target can be a register or memory location (byte, word, or long word)
    • Count of bits to shift can be specified with immediate data or the %cl register
  • Structures in C and Assembly
    • Example C struct: struct teststruct { int x; int y; char name[NAMELEN]; } t;
    • Accessing structs in assembly code:
      • movl 4(%esp),%edx (pointer to t)
      • movl (%edx),%eax (x itself)
      • movl 4(%edx),%ebx (y itself)
      • movb 8(%edx),%cl (first string char)
  • Multiply and Divide Instructions
    • Unsigned multiply and divide: mul and div
    • Signed multiply and divide: imul and idiv
    • Multiply operation: mulb %bl, %ax (byte), mulw %bx, %dx, %ax (word), mull %ebx, %edx, %eax (long)
  • Example: For/While Loop and Mul
    • C code: unsigned int i, n; n = 1; for (i = 1; i &lt;= n; i++) { ... }
    • Assembly code: movl $1, %ecx (initial loop count), loop label (decrement and test %ecx)

Assembly Language Programming III: Condition Codes and Jump Instructions

  • Jumps and Flow of Control
    • No "if-else", "for", "do", or "do...while" statements in assembly language
    • Use conditional and unconditional jump instructions for branching and looping
  • Flags and Conditional Jumps
    • Flags set by arithmetic or logical instructions:
      • Carry Flag (CF)
      • Zero Flag (ZF)
      • Sign Flag (SF)
      • Parity Flag (PF)
      • Overflow Flag (OF)
    • Conditional jump instructions: jz (zero), jnz (not zero), js (sign), jns (not sign), etc.
  • Unconditional Jumps
    • jmp instruction: loads a new value into %eip
    • jmp can be used to create infinite loops

Assembly Language Programming I: Introduction

  • C versus Assembly Language
    • C is a "portable assembly language"
    • Advantages of assembly language: low-level operations, access to memory via pointers, integrates well with assembly language functions
  • Best of Both Worlds
    • Integrate C and assembly code
    • Make assembly code callable from C### Assembler Directives
  • .globl directive defines a label for external reference (call)
  • .text directive defines the code section of a program (ROM)
  • .data directive defines the static data section of a program (RAM)
  • .end directive marks the end of the assembly language
  • .bss directive allows the assembler to set labels for uninitialized memory space (not used in this context)

Sections and Directives

  • .text section places assembler output into program memory space (e.g., ROM)
  • .data section places assembler output into a static initialized memory space (e.g., RAM)
  • .section directive designates sections where assembler output is placed into memory

Defining and Initializing Static Storage Locations

  • .long directive defines a 32-bit memory location
  • .word directive defines a 16-bit memory location
  • .byte directive defines an 8-bit memory location
  • .ascii directive defines a string
  • .asciz directive defines a null-terminated string

Defining Constant Values

  • Constant definitions follow C conventions (e.g., $123, $0x123, $'a', $'\n')
  • Note: $'\0' results in 0 instead of \0, use $0 to get around this problem

Symbolic Constant Names

  • Allow the use of symbols for numeric values
  • Format: SYMBOL = value
  • Example: NCASES = 8

Addressing Memory

  • Direct addressing uses hard-coded memory addresses (not recommended except for HW-based addresses)
  • Indirect addressing uses a label for a memory address
  • Indirect addressing with offset is similar to *(pointer+4) in C

Integrating C and Assembly

  • Using a makefile, C driver filename is mycodec.c, and assembly filename is mycode.s
  • Example: function cpuid with C "driver" in cpuidc.c and assembly code in cpuid.s

Self-Modifying Code

  • Assembler does not support cpuid instruction, so self-modifying code is used as a workaround
  • However, this approach would not work in certain environments (e.g., PROM/ROM, UNIX/Linux with code space protection)

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Test your knowledge of assembly language programming and its use in manipulating structures, performing shifts, and implementing recursion. This quiz covers topics such as accessing C structures in assembly code and using C structs in assembly code. Sharpen your skills and see how well you understand these concepts.

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