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Questions tagged [assembly]

Programming questions are off-topic here. Do not ask questions about how to write code in assembly. However, conceptual questions about how coding in assembly is different may be appropriate. See our help centre for the scope of this site.

65 questions
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Given a specific computer system, is it possible to estimate the actual precise run time of a piece of Assembly code

this is a piece of Assembly code section .text global _start ;must be declared for using gcc _start: ;tell linker entry point mov edx, len ;message length mov ecx, msg ;message to write mov ebx, 1 …
JJJohn
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Why do compilers produce assembly code?

Assembly language is converted in to machine language by assembler. Why would a compiler convert high-level language to assembly? Can't it directly convert from the high-level language to machine code?
CODERSAM
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10
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Purpose of the IRQ on a 6502

I've been researching the NES lately. Why does the IRQ/BRK Instruction exist on the 6502? All it seems to do is say "no more IRQs," jump to a random ROM address, and store the current state. When is this useful? What does this accomplish?
Anonymous Coder
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Why is static recompilation not possible?

I'm researching static recompilation but there doesn't seem to be too much information about the subject. I've heard that dynamic recompilation (emulation) can be up to 6 times slower than native assembly, but I'm curious why we aren't able to…
LetsdothisEpic
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5 answers

Are assembly languages untyped?

I'm writing my Bsc thesis about type systems of various languages and I want to have a short section about assembly languages. Initially I thought I'll bring up assembly as a counter example to languages with advanced type systems. My goal was to…
A. Sallai
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Assembly writer vs compiler in VLIW architecture

I read this sentence in a book: In VLIW architecture, the compiler/and or assembly writer chooses instructions that can be executed in parallel. What is the difference between assembly writer and compiler? Would an assembly writer also mean the…
Dasha Sham
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6 answers

How AlphaDev improved sorting algorithms?

On the 7th of June 2023, Google DeepMind released an article about AlphaDev. AlphaDev is an evolution of AlphaZero (used to beat world champions at Go, Chess and Shogi), and it can produce assembly code for a task if said task is represented as a…
nico263nico
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Essential difference between Assembly languages to all other programming languages

I understand that any assembly programming language has so little abstraction, so that one who programms with it (OS creator, hardware driver creator, "hacker" and so on), would have to know the relevant CPU's architecture pattern very well. For me,…
user109446
5
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5 answers

How is an Assembly Language Processed by a CPU's Circuitry?

I'd like to have a bit more understanding of how, on a circuitry/hardware level, an assembler program works. I think I have a very broad-brush understanding of how a CPU would process machine code on a hardware level. Please bear with me for this…
Major
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How to allocate memory in NASM without C functions (x64)?

So I'm using NASM on linux and I was curious how this is done. All the info I can find online uses functions from C like malloc(). Can this be done purely with assembly code? Perhaps via a system call? Thanks.
Lonely Lad
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Patterson & Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design, 5th edition, Question for Ex. 2.3

I am stumbling over the Exercise 2.3 of Chapter 2, i.e.: For the following C statement, what is the corresponding MIPS assembly code? Assume that the variables f, g, h, i, and j are assigned to registers $s_0$, $s_1$, $s_2$, $s_3$, and $s_4$,…
lordsnyder
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What makes 'interrupt vectors' vectors?

I've recently been learning about interrupt vectors, partly from this Wikipedia page. I've understood that different processors will have different types of interrupts, and the interrupt vector table stores the information about where code…
Jojo
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Detecting Data and Control Hazards for a mips 5 stage pipeline

I'm practicing data and control dependencies, but having trouble detecting them. For this example, I'm assuming this pipeline is fully bypassed (with forwarding). I think the only data dependency is i3 on i2. Is this correct? I also don't know how…
User9123
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Calculate the CPI of a program

foo: addi $t0,$zero,1 addi $v0,$zero,0 outer: beq $t0,$zero,exitout sll $t0,$t0,0 addi $t1,$zero,0 add $t2,$zero,$a0 addi $t0,$zero,0 inner: addi $t8,$a1,-1 slt $t9,$t1,$t8 beq $t9,$zero,outer sll $t0,$t0,0 addi $v0,$v0,1 lw $t8,0($t2) lw…
First_1st
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What is "orthogonality" in the context of Instruction Encoding?

What does it mean by "orthogonality" in the context of Instruction Encoding? Why CISC Architecture is orthogonal while RISC is not?
David Roonie
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