Christian O. Sabas
2
CPE103 – B16
I. What are the different flags used by Intel
processors?
The different flags used by the
microprocessor were:
1. Carry Flag – As dedicated by some
programs the carry flag indicates error
condition error, it holds the carry after
addition of a specific binary
representation or in subtraction it
appears when the borrow.
2. Parity Flag – This is the count of one
either even or odd, for instance there are
three 1’s binary number on the lower 8
bit this implies to an odd parity. This
type of flag has a bit of application to the
modern programming this was used by
the prior intel microprocessor for the
verification of data in the data
communication environments.
3. Auxiliary Flag – This type of flag
focuses between position 3 and 4 of the
result. It holds a half carry after addition
and while borrow after subtraction.
4. Sign Flag – This holds the value at the
most significant bit of the result.
5. Zero Flag – I interprets the number of
zero shown in the result, the way to
access and recognize this, its values can
be interchange accidentally yet this is the
way how intel want this flag to be
named.
6. Overflow Flag – the overflow flag is an
indication that the result goes beyond the
capacity of the system, it only applies
the signed operation and not really
Assignment No.
September 14, 2020
important and usually ignored in
unsigned operations.
7. Trap Flag – This allows trapping using
an on-chip features the debugs, this is
commonly used on visual c++
debugging. Trapping is a feature use
debug faulty software.
8. Interrupt Flag – Typically used in
manipulating the operation of the INTR
input pin.
9. Direction Flag – This choose between
decrement or increment mode for
registers such as DI and/or SI.
10. Nested Task – Implies that the newest
task was nested on another task which is
in protected mode operation.
II. What are the conditions to set or reset the
flags?
These are the condition need to be satisfied
in order to set or reset the later indicated
flags:
1. Carry Flag – Carry is formed when n bit
operations are done and the outcome is
more than n bits, then this flag is set to 1,
then it is reset to 0.
2. Parity Flag – Sets if the number of 1’s is
even and resets when odd.
3. Auxiliary Flag – Sets when the carry
appears on the bit 4 and resets if there is
none
Christian O. Sabas Assignment No. 2
CPE103 – B16 September 14, 2020

4. Sign Flag – sign flag follows binary number REFERENCES

on the most significant bit of the result (left
most part.)
5. Zero Flag – If the entire results of a logical
or an arithmetic operation are purely zeros
flag hold the value of one and on the other
hand if there is even a single number 1 this
flag resets.
6. Overflow Flag – the overflow flag sets or
resets base on the XOR value of the carry in
and carry of the.
7. Trap Flag – The intel 8086 really got no
particular instruction to reset this flag.
Brey, B. B. (2009). The Intel Microprocessor:
Architecture, Programming, Interfacing (8th
ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey
Columbus, Ohio: Pearson Prentice Hall™ is a
trademark of Pearson Education, Inc.
Geeks for Geeks. (n.d.). Retrieved from Flag
Register of 8086:
https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/flag-
register-8086-microprocessor/
Tutorials Point. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/flag-
register-of-8086-microprocessor

8. Interrupt Flag – If this flag is set then the

microprocessor must identify outlying
interrupt requests. Moreover, the interrupt
flag is reset, no interrupt requests will be
registered by the microprocessor, and it will
just be disregarded.

9. Direction Flag – This flag accesses the

string data from the higher location to the
lower position of the memory.

10. Nested Task – Set if recent task is nested

within alternative task.