Computer Organization and

Assembly Language
Lecture: 2
BS(CS) Part 3 semester 2nd

By: Kashif Dayo

Lecturer Computer Science
The Shaikh Ayaz University, Shikarpur
Email: kashifdayo@Hotmail.com
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Lecture Outline
 Basic Microcomputer Design
 Instruction Execution Cycle
 Multi-Stage Pipeline
 Welcome to Assembly Language
 Why Learn Assembly Language?
 Assembly Language for x86 Processors
 What hardware and software do I need?
 Programmer's View
 A Hierarchy of Languages

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Basic Microcomputer Design
 The central processor unit (CPU)
 Calculations and logical operations take place
 It contains:
 Limited number of storage locations named registers
A high-frequency clock (synchronizes the internal operations of the CPU
with other system components)
A control unit (coordinates the sequencing of steps involved in executing
machine instructions)
 An arithmetic logic unit.
 Bus is a group of parallel wires that transfer data from one part of the
computer to another.
 Memory storage unit is where instructions and data are held while a computer
program is running.
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Basic Microcomputer Design Cont..
 A computer system usually contains 4 bus types:
 Data
 Data bus transfers instructions and data between the CPU and memory.

 Control
 Control bus uses binary signals to synchronize actions of all devices
attached to the system bus.
 Address.
 Address bus holds the addresses of instructions and data when the
currently executing instruction transfers data between the CPU and
memory.
 The I/O bus
 Transfers data between the CPU and the system input/output devices.
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Basic Microcomputer Design

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Clock
 Each operation involving the CPU and the system bus is synchronized by an
internal clock.
 It is an electrical signal on the control bus which alternates between zero and
one at a periodic rate.
 Basic unit of time for machine instructions is a machine cycle (or clock cycle).
 Clock cycle = Clock period = 1 / Clock rate
 Clock rate = Clock frequency = Cycles per second
1 Hz = 1 cycle/sec 1 KHz = 103 cycles/sec
1 MHz = 106 cycles/sec 1 GHz = 109 cycles/sec
2 GHz clock has a cycle time = 1/(2×10 9) = 0.5 nanosecond (ns)
 Clock cycles measure the execution of instructions

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Memory
 Ordered sequence of bytes
 The sequence number is called the memory address
 Byte addressable memory
 Each byte has a unique address
 Supported by almost all processors
 Physical address space
 Determined by the address bus width
 Pentium has a 32-bit address bus
 Physical address space = 4GB = 232 bytes
 Itanium with a 64-bit address bus can support
 Up to 264 bytes of physical address space

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Cache Memory
 Computer memory creates a speed bottleneck.
 Solution to this problem is in storing the most recently used instructions and data in
high-speed memory called cache (cash).
 Program is more likely to want to access the same memory and instructions repeatedly
 Cache memory keeps these values where they can be accessed quickly.
 If there happens to be a loop in that block of code, the same instructions will be in
cache.
 Cache hit
 Cache miss
 Temporal locality of reference
 Program repeatedly accesses the same memory location during a short time period
 Spatial locality of reference
 Program accesses neighboring memory locations.

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Cache Memory Cont..
 Cache memory for the x86 family comes in two types.
 Level-1 cache (or primary cache):
 Stored right on the CPU.
 Level-2 cache (or secondary cache):
 Is it a little bit slower, and attached to the CPU by a high-speed data
bus.
 Cache memory is faster than conventional RAM.
 Constructed from a special type of memory chip called static RAM
 Expensive, but it does not have to be constantly refreshed in order to keep
its contents unlike dynamic RAM.

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Welcome to Assembly Language

 Assembly language has a pretty bad reputation.

 Hard To learn, to debug, to maintain etc.…
 Time consuming large code
 Not portable

 What’s Right With Assembly Language?

 Speed.

You can speed up many programs by a factor of five or ten over HLL
 Space.

programs are often less than one-half the size of comparable HLL program.
 Capability

Direct access certain I/O devices on the computer.

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Assembly language has a one-to-one relationship with machine language.

 instruction corresponds to a single machine-language

instruction.
Assembly Code Machine Code
mov ax, 5 B80500

mov bx, 10 BB0A00

add ax, bx 01D8

mov bx, 15 BB0F00

add ax, bx 01D8

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Why Learn Assembly Language?

 Write embedded programs.

 Short programs stored in a small amount of memory in single-purpose devices.
 telephones, air-conditioning control systems, security systems, video or sound
cards, hard drives, modems, printers etc.
 Real-time applications
 simulation and hardware monitoring require precise timing and responses.
 Computer game consoles
 highly optimized for small code size and fast execution.
 Hardware/device drivers
 Device drivers are programs that translate general operating system commands
into specific references to hardware details.

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Assembly and Machine Language
 Machine language
 Native to a processor: executed directly by hardware
 Instructions consist of binary code: 1s and 0s
 Assembly language
 Slightly higher-level language
 Readability of instructions is better than machine language
 One-to-one correspondence with machine language instructions
 Assemblers translate assembly to machine code
 Compilers translate high-level programs to machine code
 Either directly, or Indirectly via an assembler

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Assembly vs High-Level Languages
Comparison of Assembly Language to High-Level Languages.

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Assembly Language for x86 Processors

 Programming microprocessors compatible with Intel and AMD processors.

 Microsoft Macro Assembler (known as MASM)
 TASM (Turbo Assembler)
 NASM (Netwide Assembler)
 GAS (GNU assembler)

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What hardware and software do I need?
 Microprocessors: compatible with Intel and AMD processors running under
32-bit and 64-bit versions of Microsoft Windows.
 Editor: Microsoft Visual Studio editor (used with Visual C++ ).
 Assembler: You need Microsoft Assembler (MASM).
 Linker: You need a linker utility to produce executable files.
 Debugger: Microsoft Visual Studio (msdev.exe), part of Microsoft Visual C+
+.

 Web site (asmirvine.com) for the latest details about support for MASM in
Visual Studio.

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Debugger
 Allows you to trace the execution of a program
 Allows you to view code, memory, registers, etc.
 You will use the 32-bit Windows debugger

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Linker and Link Libraries
 You need a linker program to produce executable files
 It combines your program's object file created by the assembler with other
object files and link libraries, and produces a single executable program
 LINK32.EXE is the linker program provided with the MASM distribution for
linking 32-bit programs

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What types of programs will I create?
 16-bit Real-Address Mode:
 Running either pure MS-DOS or a DOS emulator
 16-bit programs can also run under 32-bit versions of Windows and on
embedded systems.
 32-Bit Protected Mode:
 Using Microsoft Windows
 You can create 32-bit Protected mode programs
 Can display both text and graphics.

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Programmer's View/Specific Machine Levels
 Digital Logic (Level 0)
 Implements the microarchitecture
 Programs consist of binary numbers.
 Uses digital logic gates
 Logic gates are implemented using transistors
 Microarchitecture (Level 1)
 Controls the execution of machine instructions (Level 2)
 Average users/programmers are not allowed to write microinstructions .
 Specific microarchitecture commands are often a proprietary secret.
 Implemented by digital logic (Level 0)
 Instruction Set Architecture (Level 2)
 Specifies how a processor functions, Machine instructions, registers, and memory are exposed
 Instruction set (machine language) to carry out basic operations, such as move, add, or multiply
 This set of instructions is also referred to as machine language.
 Machine-language instruction is executed by several microinstructions .

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Programmer's View/Specific Machine Levels
 Operating System (Level 3)
 Provides services to level 4 and 5 programs
 Translated to run at the machine instruction level
(Level 2)
 Assembly Language (Level 4)
 Instruction mnemonics are used
 Have one-to-one correspondence to machine language
 Calls functions written at the operating system level
(Level 3)
 Programs are translated to ISA or machine (Level 2)
 Application Programs (Level 5)
 Written in high-level programming languages
 Such as Java, C++, Pascal, Visual Basic . . .
 Programs compile into assembly language level (Level
4)

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 THE END

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