Glossary
 
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  Def of Macro
 
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 %OUT
  The %OUT directive is used for displaying text on the screen.
 .ERR
  When the assembler encounters the .ERR directive, it displayes the message "forced error", which indicates a fatal assembly error.
 .LALL
  The .LALL is a macro list control directive that Enables listing of macro expansions. All source lines are listed, except those beginning with a double semicolon.
 .LIST
  The .LIST directive allows listing of subsequent source lines in the .LST file.
 .SALL
  The .SALL is a macro list control directive that Suppresses listing of all statements in macro expansions.
 .XALL
  The .XALL is a macro list control directive that Lists only the source statements in a macro expansion that generate code or data.
 .XLIST
  The .XLIST directive suppresses listing of subsequent source lines in the .LST file.
 accumulator
  A register that can be used to hold an operand to an instruction as well as the result of executing the instruction
 algorithm
  An abstract description of a solution to a problem represented by a sequence of steps.
 ALU
  see Arithmetic and Logic Unit.
 Arithmetic and Logic Unit
  A digital circuit in the CPU that performs arithmetic and logical operations.
 Assembler
  A program that translates from assembly language to machine language.
 assembly language
  A programming language that uses symbolic names to conveniently represent operations, registers and memory locations. Each assembly instruction corresponds to a machine instruction.
 break points
  Positions in the program that if are encountered during run time, the program will be halted
 bus
  A group of signals that interconnect several devices
 Central Processing Unit
  The data path combined with the control unit of a computer.
 CISC
  A complex instruction set computer (a computer with large number of instructions that are generally capable of performing complex functions)
 code segment
  The memory segment that contains the code part of the program
 compiler
  A program that translates a HLL program to a machine language program of a specific computer.
 control flags
  Enable or disable certain CPU operations
 control unit
  The unit that controls and coordinates the opration of other units in the computer.
 CPU
  see Central Processing Unit.
 data path
  The ALU and the registers of the computer.
 data segment
  The memory segment that contains the data part of the program
 Debugger
  A program that enables the user to find errors in their assembly code
 digital systems
  A group of components, in this case digital circuits or blocks, that are integrated together to achieve a certain function.
 digitized information
  Information that are made of discrete units, where each unit is represented by symbols from a finite possible set of symbols. In computers, that set is usually the binary digits, 0 and 1.
 disassembly
  The process of converting machine code to assembly language code
 Emulators
  Programs that ‘emulate’ a hardware by producing its expected outputs in response to a given set of inputs
 executable program
  A machine language program produced by a compiler or an assembler
 EXITM
  The EXITM directive stops any macro expansion or repeat block expansion that is in progress. All remaining statements after EXITM are ignored.
 flags
  Status bits that indicate the status of the CPU
 high-level languages
  Computer programming languages that look like natural language text.
 IF
  The IF directive assembles the then part if the expression evalues to true (nonzero).
 IFB
  The IFB directive assembles the then part if the argument is blank.
 IFDEF
  The IFDEF directive causes the conditional block of statements to be assembled if the symbol is defined.
 IFDIF
  The IFDIF directive causes the condition block of statements to be assembled if the arguments are different character strings (case sensitive).
 IFDIFI
  The IFDIFI directive causes the condition block of statements to be assembled if the arguments are different character strings (case insensitive).
 IFE
  The IFE directive assembles the then part if the expression is false (zero).
 IFIDN
  The IFIDN directive causes the condition block of statements to be assembled if the arguments are identical character strings (case sensitive).
 IFIDNI
  The IFIDNI directive causes the condition block of statements to be assembled if the arguments are identical character strings (case insensitive).
 IFNB
  The IFNB directive assembles the then part if the argument is not blank.
 IFNDEF
  The IFNDEF directive causes the conditional block of statements to be assembled if the symbol is not defined.
 INCLUDE
  The INCLUDE pseudo-op causes the assembler to copy the content of the included file into the program at the position of the INCLUDE statement.
 input devices
  Devices that are used to enter information into the computer.
 instruction
  a command that instructs the computer what to do.
 Instruction Pointer
  Another name for the program counter register.
 Instruction Register
  A register that stores the machine language instruction fetched from the memory.
 instruction set
  The set of all instructions (in binary form) of the computer.
 IRP
  The IRP directive causes the statements in the macro body to be repeated once for each argument.
 IRPC
  The IRPC directive causes the statements in the macro body to be repeated once for each character in the string argument.
 ISA
  (Instruction Set Architecture) The collection of assembly/machine instructions of the machine and the machine resources (memory, general purpose registers, …etc.) that can be managed with these instructions
 Linker
  A program that is used to link together separately assembled/compiled programs into a single executable code.
 Loaders
  Programs that are used to load users machine codes from a PC to development systems
 LOCAL
  The LOCAL directive is provided by the assembler to declare labels in a macro local to that macro.
 Logic analyzers
  Devices that allows the monitoring of logic signals
 logical address
  An address that specifies the location of a word as segment number:offset within the segment
 machine language
  The set of all instructions (in binary form) of the computer.
 Macro
  A macro is a block of text (code, data, etc.) that has been given a name (called a macro name ). When the assembler encounters that name in a program, the block of text associated with the macro name is subsituted.
 main memory
  The main memory device in the computer. Usually implemented by a RAM.
 MAR
  A CPU register that holds the address of the required memory word
 MDR
  A CPU register that holds the data word that is to be written to the memory or that have been fetched from the memory
 memory
  A device that can store binary data and retrieve it for latter use.
 memory segment
  A partition of the main memory
 offsets
  Distances of a variable, label, or instruction from its base segment
 Opcode
  (Operation code) An instruction field that specifies the particular operation that is to be performed by the instruction.
 Operands
  Instruction fields that specify where to get the source and destination operands for the operation specified by the opcode.
 output device
  Devices that are used to output information from the computer.
 overflow
  A condition that occur when the result of adding two signed0numbers is larger than the destination (I.e. outside the range)
 paragraph
  A group of 16 memory words
 paragraph boundary
  Addresses that are divisible by 16
 parity bit
  A an extra bit that is added to the data to make the total number of 1s either even (even parity) or odd (odd parity)
 peripheral devices
  The set of input and output devices of a computer.
 physical address
  The actual address of a word in the main memory. It is a 20-bit address for original x86 processors and 32-bit address for IA32 processors
 POPA
  The POPA instruction popes all registers (SP, BP, DI, SI, DX, CX, BX, and AX) from the stack. It is defined for 80186 or later processors.
 program
  A set of instructions when executed by the computer achieve a specific function/outcome.
 Program Counter
  (PC) A register that holds the address of the next instruction to be fetched from the memory.
 PUSHA
  The PUSHA instruction pushes all registers (AX, BX, CX, DX, SI, DI, BP, and SP) onto the stack. It is defined for 80186 or later processors.
 register files
  A group of registers that are organized into a one-dimensional.
 REPT
  The REPT directive causes the statements in the macro body to be repeated a number of times equivalent to the value of the specified expression.
 RISC
  A reduced instruction set computer (a computer with fewere and simpler instructions)
 Sign-Extension
  Moving a signed-number from one location to another with larger number of bits while keeping both magnitude and sign correct
 stack
  A special memory buffer outside the CPU maintained by the CPU as a temporary holding area for addresses and data. It is organised as Last-in-First-out (LIFO) buffer.
 stack segment
  The memory segment that contains the stack
 status flags
  Reflect the result of executing an instruction
 stored program
  A program that is stored in the memory so that it can be used repeatedly, manipulated, moved, deleted or have more instructions appended to it.
 Substitute operator (&)
  The substitute operator (&) forces the assembler to substitute a parameter with the actual argument.
 TYPE
  The TYPE operator returns the number of bytes reserved for the operand in memory.
 WHILE
  The WHILE directive causes the statments in the macro body to be repeated until the specified expression evaluates to false (zero).