Department of Electrical and computer Engineering

College of Engineering and Technology

Jimma University
 INT21H used to invoke a large number of
DOS function.
 Type of called function specified by putting a
number in AH register.
 AH=1 single-key input with echo
 AH=2 single-character output
 AH=9 character string output
 AH=8 single-key input without echo
 AH=0Ah character string input
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 Input: AH=9, DX= offset address of a string.
 String must end with a ‘$’ character.
 To display the message Hello!
 MSG DB “Hello!$”
 MOV AH, 9
 MOV DX, offset MSG
 INT 21H
 OFFSET operator returns the address of a
variable
 The instruction LEA (load effective address)
loads destination with address of source
 LEA DX, MSG
 Input: AH=10, DX= offset address of a buffer to
store read string.
 First byte of buffer should contain maximum string
size+1
 Second byte of buffer reserved for storing size of read
string.
 To read a Name of maximum size of 20B display
it
 Name DB 21,0,20 dup(“$”)
 MOV AH, 10
 LEA DX, Name
 INT 21H
 MOV AH, 9
 LEA DX, Name+2
 INT 21H
 .model small
 .stack 100
 .data
 array db 21,?,20 dup('$')
 \n db 10,13,'$'
 .code
 start:
 mov ax,@data
 mov ds,ax
 mov ah,10
 lea dx,array
 int 21h

 mov dx,offset \n
 mov ah,9h
 int 21h
 mov dx,offset array+2
 mov ah,9h
 int 21h
 end start

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 .model small
 .stack 100
 .data
 array db 63h,32h,45h,75h,12h,42h,09h,14h,56h,38
 search db 09h
 posi db ?
 .code
 start:
 mov ax,@data
 mov ds,ax
 mov es,ax
 mov cx,000ah
 lea di,array
 mov al,search
 cld
 repne scans array
 mov al,10
 sub al,cl
 end start

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 Prompt the user to enter a lowercase letter,
and on next line displays another message
with letter in uppercase.
 Enter a lowercase letter: a
 In upper case it is: A
 .DATA
 CR EQU 0DH
 LF EQU 0AH
 MSG1 DB ‘Enter a lower case letter: $’
 MSG2 DB CR, LF, ‘In upper case it is: ‘
 Char DB ?, ‘$’
 .CODE
 Start: ; initialize data segment
 LEA DX, MSG1 ; display first message
 MOV AH, 9
 INT 21H
 MOV AH, 1 ; read character
 INT 21H
 SUB AL, 20H ; convert it to upper case
 MOV CHAR, AL ; and store it
 LEA DX, MSG2 ; display second message and
 MOV AH, 9 ; uppercase letter
 INT 21h
 Mov ax, 4c00h
 Int21
 End start ; return to DOS
.DATA
String1 DB “Hello”
String2 DB 5 dup(?)
.CODE
MOV AX, @DATA
MOV DS, AX
MOV ES, AX
CLD
MOV CX, 5
LEA SI, String1
LEA DI, String2
REP MOVSB
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 Procedure
 Used to define subroutines, offers modular programming.
 Call to procedure will be a transfer of control to called
procedure during run time.
PROC: indicates beginning of procedure.
Procedure type helps assembler to decide weather to code
return as near/far.
Near/Far term follows PROC indicates type of procedure.[Near
by default]
ENDP: indicates assembler the end of procedure

Example: Procedure Name PROC

…
;do procedure code stuuff
…
RET
Procedure Name ENDP
 Procedure Declaration
Name PROC type
;body of the procedure

RET
Name ENDP
 Procedure type
 NEAR (statement that calls procedure in same
segment with procedure)
 FAR (statement that calls procedure in different
segment)
 Default type is near
 Procedure Invocation
 CALL Name
 Executing a CALL instruction causes
 Save return address on the stack
 Near procedure: PUSH IP
 Far procedure: PUSH CS; PUSH IP
 IP gets the offset address of the first instruction of
the procedure
 CS gets new segment number if procedure is far
• Executing a RET instruction causes
 Transfer control back to calling procedure
 Near procedure: POP IP
 Far procedure: POP IP; POP CS
 RET n
 IP  [SP+1:SP]
 SP  SP + 2 + n
 .model small
 .stack 100h
 cr equ 13
 lf equ 10
 .data
 msg1 db 'enter an upper case letter: $'
 result db cr,lf,'The lower case equivalent is:',
cr,lf,'$'
 .code
 start:
 mov ax , @data
 mov ds,ax
 mov dx, offset msg1

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 call outputs
 call getc
 mov bl,al
 add bl,32
 mov dx,offset result
 call outputs
 mov dl,bl
 call putc
 mov ax,4c00h
 int 21h

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 putc proc
 mov ah,2h
 int 21h
 ret
 getc proc
 mov ah,01h
 int 21h
 ret
 outputs proc
 mov ah,9h
 int 21h
 ret
 end start

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 MACRO definition directive
 Used to define macro constants.
 Call to macro will be replaced by its body during
assembly time.
 EQU: macro symbol
 MACRO: informs assembler the beginning of macro. It is a
open subroutines. It gets expanded when call is made to
it.
 MacroName MACRO [arg1,arg2…argn]
 Advantage: save great amount of effort and time by
avoiding overhead of writing repeated pattern of code.
 ENDM: informs assembler the end of macro.
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