CE302

Microprocessors
Lecture 2

Levent Eren
Izmir University of Economics
 Outline

• Programming with registers

• Instruction components and format
• Addressing modes
• Sampling of addressing modes

Levent Eren ce302

 Programming Model
Registers

Note:
32 bit registers are
not available on
8086, 8088, 80286

Levent Eren ce302

 Programming with Registers
General-Purpose Registers

• AX(accumulator) often holds the temporary result after an arithmetic

and logic operation (also addressed as EAX, AH, or AL)
• BX (base) often holds the base (offset) address of data located in the
memory (also addressed as EBX, BX, BL)
• CX (count) contains the count for certain instructions such as shift
count (CL) for shifts and a counter (CX or ECX) with the LOOP
instruction (also addressed as ECX, CH, or CL)
• DX (data) holds
– the most significant part of the product after a 16- or 32-bit multiplication,
– the most significant part of the dividend before a division, and
– I/O port number for a variable I/O instruction (also addressed as EDX, DH,
DL)

Levent Eren ce302

 Programming with Registers
Pointer and Index Registers

• SP (stack pointer) used to address data in a LIFO (last-in, first-

out) stack memory, most often used when
– the PUSH and POP instructions are executed
– a subroutine is CALLed or RETurned within a program
– Don’t ever mess with this directly
• BP (base pointer) often used to address an array of data in the
stack memory
• SI (source index) used to address source data indirectly for use
with the string instructions
• DI (destination index) normally used to address destination data
indirectly for use with the string instructions
• IP (instruction pointer) always used to address the next
instruction executed by the microprocessor

Levent Eren ce302

 Programming with Registers
Flag Register

• Flags indicate the condition of the microprocessor as well as its

operation
• The flag bits change after many arithmetic and logic instructions
execute
• Example flags,
– C(carry) indicates carry after addition or a borrow after subtraction
– O(overflow) is a condition that occurs when signed numbers are
added or subtracted
– Z(zero) indicates that the result of an arithmetic or logic operation is
zero
– T(trap) when the trap flag is set , it enables trapping through the on-
chip debugging feature

Levent Eren ce302

 Programming with Registers
Segment Registers

• CS(code) defines the starting address of the section of memory-

holding code(programs and procedures used by programs)
• DS(data) a section of memory that contains most data used by
a program
• ES(extra) an additional data segment
• SS(stack) defines the area of memory used for the stack.
– the location of the current entry point in the stack segment is
determined by the stack pointer register.
– the BP register addresses data within the stack segment
• FS and GS available on 80386 and 80486 allow two additional
memory segments for access by programs

Levent Eren ce302

 Machine Language
• Machine language is the native binary code that the
microprocessor understands and uses as the instructions that
control its operation
• Interpretation of machine’s language allows debugging or
modification at the machine language level
• Microprocessor requires an assembler program, which
generates machine code
– the machine language instructions are too complex to generate by
hand
• Machine language instructions for the 8086-80486, vary in
length from 1 to as many as 13 bytes
– there are over 20000 variations of machine language instructions

Levent Eren ce302

 Machine Language (cont.)

• 16 -bit instruction mode

– if the machine operates in the real mode the instructions for Intel
family of microprocessors are 16 -bit instructions
– this means that instructions use 16-bit offset address and 16-bit
registers
• In the protected mode the D bit in the descriptor (within a look-
up table of descriptors) indicates how the 80386/80486
instructions access register and memory data in protected mode
– D = 0, the 80386/80486 assumes 16 bit instructions
– D = 1, the 80386/80486 assumes 32 bit instructions
• the 32-bit instruction mode assumes all offset addresses are 32
bits as well as all registers

Levent Eren ce302

 Instruction Components and Format
Data
• s
Opcode Mode Displacement
Immediate value

Instruction Components

Levent Eren ce302

 Addressing Modes

• Register - transfers a byte or word from the source register or

memory location to the destination register or memory location
MOV BX, CX
• Immediate - transfers an immediate byte or word of data into
the destination register or memory location
MOV AX, 3456h
• Direct - moves a byte or word between a memory location and
a register
MOV AL, [1234h] (1234h is treated as a displacement within
data segment)

Levent Eren ce302

 Addressing Modes(cont.)

• Register Indirect (base relative or indexed) - transfers a byte

or word of data between a register and the memory location
addressed by an index (DI or SI) or base register (BP or BX)
MOV AX, [BX]
• Base Plus Index (base relative indexed) - transfers a byte or
word of data between a register and the memory location
addressed by a base register (BP or BX) plus index (DI or SI)
register
MOV DX, [BX + DI]

Levent Eren ce302

 Addressing Modes(cont.)

• Register Relative - transfers a byte or word of data between a

register and the memory location addressed by an index (DI or
SI) or base register (BP or BX) plus displacement
MOV AX, [BX + 1000h]

• Base Relative Plus Index (base relative indexed) - transfers a

byte or word of data between a register and the memory
location addressed by a base register (BP or BX) plus an index
register (DI or SI)
MOV AX, [BX + SI + 100h]

Levent Eren ce302

 Instruction Components

Instructions have four components that specify the operation to

execute, and how to treat the associated data.

D W

MOD REG R/M

OPCODE

Levent Eren ce302

 Instruction Components
OPCODE

• Opcode (one or two bytes) selects the operation (e.g., addition,

subtraction, move) performed by the microprocessor

D - direction of the data flow

D W D = 0 data flow to R/M field from register field
D = 1 data flow to the register field from R/M in
the next byte of the instruction
OPCODE
W - data size
W = 0 data size is a byte
W = 1 data size is a word/double word

Levent Eren ce302

 Instruction Components
MOD

• MOD field specifies the addressing mode for the selected

instruction and whether the displacement is present with the
specified addressing mode
MOD FUNCTION

00 no displacement
01 8-bit sign-extended displacement
MOD REG R/M
10 16-bit displacement
11 R/M is a register (register addressing
mode)
• If the MOD filed contains a 00, 01, or 10, the R/M field selects
one of the data memory-addressing modes, e.g.,
– MOV AL, [DI] (no displacement)
– MOV AL, [DI + 2] (8-bit displacement)

Levent Eren ce302

 Instruction Components
REG & R/M in Register Assignment

Register assignment for the REG and R/M fields

Code W = 0 (Byte) W = 1(Word) W =1 (Double Word)

000 AL AX EAX
001 CL CX ECX
010 DL DX EDX
011 BL BX EBX
100 AH SP ESP
101 CH BP EBP
110 DH SI ESI
111 BH DI EDI

Levent Eren ce302

 Register Assignment
Example

• Consider 2 byte instruction 8BECh in the machine language

program (assuming 16-bit instruction mode)

binary representation: 1000 1011 1110 1100, from this we have

opcode: 100010 => MOV
D=W 1 => a word moves into the register
specified in the REG field
MOD 11 => R/M field also indicates register
REG 101 => indicates register BP
R/M 100 => indicates register SP
consequently the instruction is: MOV BP, SP

Levent Eren ce302

 Use of R/M Filed in Determining
Addressing Mode

• If the MOD field contains a 00, 01, or 10, the R/M field takes on
a new meaning
• Examples: Code Function
1. if MOD = 00 and R/M = 101
000 DS:[BX+SI]
the addressing mode is [DI] Base plus
001 DS:[BX+DI]
Index
2. if MOD = 01 or 10 and R/M = 101 010 SS:[BP+SI]
011 SS:[BP+DI]
the addressing mode is 100 DS:[SI]
[DI + 33h] or LIST[DI + 22H], 101 DS:[DI] Register
where 33h, LIST, 22h are arbitrary values 110 SS:[BP] indirect
for displacement 111 DS:[BX]

Levent Eren ce302

 Example

• Consider machine language instruction 8A15h

binary representation is: 1000 1010 0001 0101

opcode: 100010 => MOV
D 1 => a word moves into the register
specified in the REG field
W 0 => byte
MOD 00 => no displacement
REG 010 => indicates register DL
R/M 101 => indicates addressing mode [DI]

the instruction is: MOV DL, [DI]

Levent Eren ce302

 Direct Addressing Mode

• Direct Addressing mode (for 16-bit instructions) occurs

whenever memory data are referenced by only the
displacement mode of addressing, e.g.,
MOV [1000h], DL moves the contents of DL into data
segment memory location 1000h
MOV NUMB, DL moves the contents of DL into symbolic
data segment memory location NUMB
OPCODE D W MOD REG R/M MOV [1000h], DL
1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0
Whenever the instruction has
Byte 1 Byte 2 only a displacement:
Displacement-low Displacement-high

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 MOD is always 00
R/M is always 110
Byte 3 Byte 4

Levent Eren ce302

 Immediate Instruction

• Consider an instruction: MOV word PTR[BX + 1000h], 1234h

Moves 1234h into the word-sized memory

location addressed by the sum of
OPCODE W MOD R/M 1000h, BX, and DS x 10h
1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1
WORD PTR directive indicates to the
Byte 1 Byte 2 assembler that the instruction uses a word-sized
Displacement-low Displacement-high memory pointer
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0
(if the instruction moves a byte of immediate data,
then BYTE PTR directive is used.
Byte 3 Byte 4
The above directive are only needed when it is not
Data-low Data-high
clear if the operation is a byte or a word, e.g.,
0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 MOV [BX], AL clear a byte move
MOV [BX], 1 not clear, can be byte-, word, or
Byte 5 Byte 6 double word-sized move
should be for instance
MOV BYTE PTR [BX], 1
Levent Eren ce302
 Segment MOV Instructions

• The contents of a segment register are moved by MOV, PUSH,

POP
• Segment registers are selected by appropriate setting of
register bits (REG field)
Code Segment Register Example: MOV BX, CS

000 ES OPCODE MOD REG R/M

001 CS 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1
010 SS
011 DS
100 FS REG is 001 => selects CS
101 GS R/M is 011 => selects BX

Note: MOV CS, ?? and POP CS Note that the opcode for this instruction is
are not allowed different for the prior MOV instructions

Levent Eren ce302

 Sampling of Addressing Modes

Levent Eren ce302

 Sampling of Addressing Modes

Levent Eren ce302

 Sampling of Addressing Modes

Levent Eren ce302