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CS401 - Short Notes Chapter 10

The document summarizes key points from CS401 chapter 10 on assembly language and programming. It discusses three flags not used for mathematical operations: the direction flag, interrupt flag, and trap flag. If the trap flag is set, a single step interrupt is generated after every instruction, allowing debugging. INT 1 executes one instruction then returns control, displaying registers and waiting for input. INT 3 can replace any instruction as a breakpoint. PUSHF and POPF push and pop the flags stack, enabling changing the trap flag to trigger single step interrupts after returning from an interrupt handler.

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171 views1 page

CS401 - Short Notes Chapter 10

The document summarizes key points from CS401 chapter 10 on assembly language and programming. It discusses three flags not used for mathematical operations: the direction flag, interrupt flag, and trap flag. If the trap flag is set, a single step interrupt is generated after every instruction, allowing debugging. INT 1 executes one instruction then returns control, displaying registers and waiting for input. INT 3 can replace any instruction as a breakpoint. PUSHF and POPF push and pop the flags stack, enabling changing the trap flag to trigger single step interrupts after returning from an interrupt handler.

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malik
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SUPERSTARWEBTECH.BLOGSPOT.

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CS401-ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE AND PROGRAMMING
CS401 CHAPTER NO 10 (LECTURE 28-29)
PREPARED BY: HTTPS://SUPERSTARWEBTECH.BLOGSPOT.COM/

Short Notes Chapter 10 (Lecture 28-29):


The three flags not used for mathematical operations are:
1. the direction flag,
2. the interrupt flag and
3. the trap flags
If the trap flag is set, the after every instruction a type 1 interrupt will be automatically
generated. This is named as the single step interrupt. This is like the divide by zero interrupt
which was never explicitly invoked but it came itself. The debugger is made using this interrupt.
INT 1 function: It allows one instruction to be executed and then return control to us. It has its
display code and its code to wait for the key in the INT 1 handler. Therefore, after every
instruction the values of all registers are shown and the debugger waits for a key.
Another interrupt used by the debugger is the break point interrupt INT 3.
INT 3 has a single byte opcode so it can replace any instruction. To put a breakpoint the
instruction is replaced with INT 3 opcode and restored in the INT 3 handler. The INT 3 opcode is
placed again by a single step interrupt that is set up for this purpose after the replaced
instruction has been executed.

Note: There is no instruction to set or clear the trap flag like there are instructions for the
interrupt and direction flags.
PUSHF and POPF:
We use two special instructions PUSHF and POPF to push and pop the flag from the stack.
We use PUSHF to place flags on the stack, change TF in this image on the stack and then reload
into the flags register with POPF. The single step interrupt will come after the first instruction
after POPF.
The interrupt mechanism automatically clears IF and TF otherwise there would an infinite
recursion of the single step interrupt.
The TF is set in the flags on the stack so another interrupt will come after one more instruction
is executed after the return of the interrupt.

👉 Also Recommended: CS401 SHORT NOTES CHAPTER 1-7 Midterm

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