Procedures and Macros

(Modular Programming)

3/11/2024 ROSHAN FERNANDES, DEPT OF CSE 1

Writing and using Procedures

 To avoid writing the sequence of instructions in

the program each time you need them, you can
write the sequence as a separate subprogram
called a procedure

 You use the CALL instruction to send the 8086

to the starting address of the procedure in
memory

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 A RET instruction at the end of the procedure
returns execution to the next instruction in the
main line

 Procedures can even be nested

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 MAINLINE OR CALLING
PROGRAM
PROCEDURE
INSTRUCTIONS

CALL

NEXT MAINLINE
INSTRUCTIONS

RET

Fig. Single Procedure Call

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 Main Line Instructions

Lower level
Procedure Procedure

CALL CALL
Next Main Line
Instructions
RET
RET

Fig. Nested Procedures Call

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8086 CALL and RET Instructions

 A CALL instruction in the mainline program

loads the Instruction Pointer and in some cases
also the code segment register with the starting
address of the procedure

 At the end of the procedure, a RET instruction

sends execution back to the next instruction
after the CALL in the mainline program

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The CALL Instruction Overview

 The 8086 CALL instruction performs 2

operations when it executes

 First, it stores the address of the instruction after

the CALL instruction on the stack

 This address is called the return address

because it is the address that execution will
return to after the procedure executes

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 If the CALL is to a procedure in the same code
segment, then the call is near, and only the
instruction pointer contents will be saved on the
stack

 If the CALL is to a procedure in another code

segment, the call is far ; In this case both the
instruction pointer and the code segment
register contents will be saved on the stack

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 Second operation of the CALL instruction is to
change the contents of the instruction pointer
and, in some cases, the contents of the code
segment register to contain the starting address
of the procedure

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Direct within-segment NEAR CALL
 Tells the 8086 to produce the starting
address of the procedure by adding 16-bit
signed displacement contained in the
instruction to the contents of the instruction
pointer

 The starting address of the procedure can

be anywhere in the range of -32,768 bytes
to +32,767 bytes from the address of the
instruction after the CALL
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Direct within-segment NEAR CALL
format
Opcode DispLow DispHigh

Operation:
IP  IP + Disp16 (SP) Return Link

 Eg: CALL delay

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Indirect within-segment NEAR CALL
 The IP is replaced with a 16-bit value from
a specified register or memory location

Eg: CALL BP;offset is present in BP

register

 The value of BP will be put in the

instruction pointer

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Indirect within-segment NEAR CALL
format
Opcode mod 010 r/m

Operation:
IP  Reg16 (SP)  Return Link
IP  Mem16 (SP)  Return Link

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Direct Inter-Segment FAR CALL
 For this form of call instruction, the new value
for the IP is written in as bytes 2 and 3 of the
instruction code.

 Lower byte of the new IP value is written

before the high byte

 The new value for the CS register is written in

as bytes 4 and 5 of the instruction code

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Direct Inter-Segment FAR CALL
format

Opcode Offset-low Offset-high Seg-low Seg-high

Operation:
CS  SegBase
IP  Offset
 The procedure is in a segment with a different
name from that where the CALL is located

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Indirect Inter-Segment FAR CALL
 This form of CALL instruction replaces the IP
and CS register contents with two 16-bit
values from memory.

 Since two 16-bit values are needed ,the

values cannot come from a register

 The mod-r/m byte in the instruction is used to

specify the addressing mode for the memory
loc there the 8086 goes to get the new values
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Indirect Inter-Segment FAR CALL format

Opcode Mod 011 r/m Mem-low Mem-high

Operation:
CS  SegBase
IP  offset

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 The first word from memory is put in the
instruction pointer and the second word from
memory is put in the code segment register

EX: CALL DWORD PTR[BX]

 Will get a new IP from [BX] and [BX+1] in data

segment and a new value for CS from offsets
[BX+2] and [BX+3] in the data segment

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Writing and Calling near procedures
CODE SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:CODE
:
CALL DELAY
:
:
MOV AH,4CH
INT 21H
DELAY PROC NEAR
:
RET
ENDP
CODE ENDS

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Writing and Calling Far Procedures

 A FAR procedure is one that is located in a

segment which has a different name from the
segment containing the CALL instruction

 To get the starting address of a far procedure,

the 8086 must change the contents of both the
Code Segment register and the Instruction
Pointer

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 At the end of the far procedure, both the
contents of the code segment register and the
contents of the instruction pointer must be
popped off the stack to return to the calling
program

 If a procedure is in a different segment from the

CALL instruction, you must declare it far with the
FAR Assembler Directive

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 CODE SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:CODE
:
CALL MULTYIPLY_32
:
CODE ENDS

PROCEDURES SEGMENT
MULTIPLY_32 PROC FAR
ASSUME CS:PROCEDURES
:
:
RET
MULTIFLY_32 ENDP
PROCEDURES ENDS
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 Also you must put an ASSUME statement in the
procedure to tell the assembler what segment base to
use when calculating the offsets of the instructions in the
procedure

 When the assembler know that the procedure is far by

using the word FAR in the MULTIPLY_32 PROC FAR
statement

 It will automatically code the CALL instruction as an

intersegment call and the RET instruction as an
intersegment return

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 When the assembler finally codes the CALL
instruction ,it will put the value of
PROCEDURES in CS

 The offset of first instruction of the procedure

in PROCEDURES in IP
The 8086 RET Instruction
 A return at the end of the procedure copies the
value from the stack back to the instruction
pointer to return execution to the calling program

 When the 8086 does a near call ,it saves the

instruction pointer value for the instruction after
the CALL on the stack

 A RET instruction at the end of the procedure

copies these values from the stack back into the
IP to return execution to the mainline program
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  When the 8086 does a far call, it saves the
contents of both the instruction pointer and the
code segment register on the stack

 A RET instruction at the end of the procedure

copies these values from the stack back into the
IP and CS register to return execution to the
mainline program

 The within segment (intra segment)form of RET

copies a word from the top of the stack to the
instruction pointer

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RET FROM SUBROUTINE:

Opcode

Operation:

 Intra-segment return

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 The intersegment form of RET instruction is
used to return from far procedures.

 When this form of the RET instruction executes,

it will copy the word from the top of the stack to
IP

 Then it will increment the stack pointer by 2 and

copy the next word from the stack to code
segment register

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 The intersegment adding immediate to SP
form of the instruction also copies a new
value for IP and a new value for CS from the
stack.

 However it adds a 16-bit immediate number

contained in the instruction code to SP

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RETURN AND ADD CONSTANTS TO SP:

Opcode DataL DataH

Operation:

 Intra-segment RET and ADD

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The 8086 Stack
 8086 lets us to set aside entire 64 KB segment of
memory as a stack

 The stack segment register(SS) is used to hold the

upper 16 bits of the starting address you give to the
stack segment

 8086 produces the physical address for a stack

location by adding the offset contained in the SP
register to the stack segment base address
represented by the 16-bit number in the SS register

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 SP register is automatically decremented by 2
before a word is written to the stack (PUSH)

 Word is copied from Stack and SP register is

automatically incremented by 2 (POP)

 This means that at the start of your program you

must initialize the SP register to point to the
top of the memory you set aside as a stack
rather than initializing it to point to the bottom
location
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 When a near RET instruction executes, the IP
value stored in the stack will be copied back to
the IP register and the SP register will be
automatically incremented by 2

 After a CALL-RET sequence, then, the SP

register is again pointing to the initial top-of-
stack location

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 Before a call instruction ,assume that the SS
register contains 7000H and the SP register
contains 0050H.

 The physical address of the current top of the

stack will be 70050H

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STACK_SEG SEGMENT
STACK DW 40 DUP(0)
STACK_TOP LABEL WORD
STACK_SEG ENDS

CODE SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:CODE, SS:STACK_SEG
START:
MOV AX, STACK_SEG
MOV SS, AX
LEA SP, STACK_TOP
.
.
CODE ENDS
END START

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 For this example ,we set a length of 40 words
with the DW 40 DUP(0) statement

 40 words will occupy 80 addresses from

70000h to 7004fh

 The STACK_TOP is associated with address

70050h

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 Memory

70050H Initial top of stack and TOS after RET

7004FH IPH
7004EH IPL Top of stack after near CALL

Stack

70000H Start of stack segment

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 Effect on stack and stack pointer
Instruction sequence:
Multo proc near
SP SP
Pushf
Before CALL 0050 After RET 0050
Push ax
IP high
Push bx
After CALL 004E IP low After popf 004E
Push cx
Flag high
:
After PUSHF 004C Flag low After pop ax 004C
Pop cx
AH
Pop bx
After PUSH AX 004A AL After pop bx 004A
Pop ax
BH
popf
After PUSH BX 0048 BL After pop cx 0048
ret
CH
Multo endp CL
After PUSH CX 0046 Before pop cx

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 REENTRANT PROCEDURES
MAIN LINE MULTIPLY PROCEDURE
INTERRUPT PROCEDURE

CALL MULTIPLY Interrupt

CALL MULTIPLY
Occurs here
Return to Interrupted
Next Main Line
Program
Instruction after call

Return to Calling
Program

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 For the program flow to work correctly ,the
multiply procedure must be written in such a
way that it can be interrupted ,used and
‘reentered’ without losing or writing over
anything

 A procedure which can function this way is

said to be reentrant
 To be reentrant, a procedure must first of all
push the flags and all registers used in the
procedure

 Also, to be reentrant, a program should use only

registers or the stack to pass parameters

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Recursive Procedures

 A recursive procedure is a procedure which calls

itself

 Recursive procedures are often used to work

with complex data structures called trees

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Factorial of a number
 5 factorial is equal to 5x4x3x2x1

 The word factorial is represented by ‘!’

 The basic algorithm is expressed as

If
N=1 then factorial =1
Else
factorial=Nx(factorial of(N-1))
Recursive Procedure Example
 Flow diagram for N=1

MAIN LINE

PROCEDURE FACTO

CALL FACTO

RET WITH 1

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 Flow diagram for N=3
Procedure Procedure Procedure
MAIN LINE
FACTO FACTO FACTO

CALL CALL

CALL FACTO

Next Main Line

RET
Instruction
RET WITH 1 !
RET WITH 2 !
WITH 3 !

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 If we call a procedure with N=3 ,the procedure will
call itself to compute (N-1)! Or 2!

 It will call again to compute the value of the next (N-

1)! Or 1!

 Since 1!=1 ,the procedure return this value to the

program that called it.

 In this case the program called it was a previous

execution of the same procedure that needed this
value to compute 2!
 It computes 2! and return the value to the
program that called it

 The program that called it was a previous

execution of the same procedure that needed 2!
to compute the 3!.

 Given the 2! Value ,call procedure will compute

3! And return to the program that called it

 Here the return now will be to the mainline

program
 PROCEDURE FACTO
IF N = 1
FACTORIAL = 1
RET
ELSE
REPEAT
DECREMENT N
CALL FACTO
UNTIL N=1
MULTIPLY (N-1)! X PREVIOUS N
RET

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DATA SEGMENT
N DB 06H
FACT DW ?
DATA ENDS

CODE SEGMENT
ASSUME CS:CODE, DS:DATA
START:
MOV AX, DATA
MOV DS, AX

MOV AX, 1
MOV BL, N
MOV BH, 0
CALL FACTORIAL

MOV FACT, AX
MOV AH, 4CH
INT 21H

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 FACTORIAL PROC NEAR
CMP BX, 1
JE L1

PUSH BX
DEC BX
CALL FACTORIAL

POP BX
MUL BX

L1:RET
FACTORIAL ENDP

CODE ENDS
END START

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Accessing a Procedure and Data in a
Separate Assembly Module

 The best way to write a large program is to

divide it into a series of modules

 Each module can be individually written,

assembled, tested and debugged

 The object code files for the modules can then

be linked together

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 In the module where a variable or procedure is
declared, you must use the PUBLIC directive to
let the linker know that the variable or procedure
can be accessed from other modules

 The statement PUBLIC DISPLAY, for example,

tells the linker that a procedure or variable
named DISPLAY can be legally accessed from
another assembly module

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 In a module which calls a procedure or accesses
a variable in another module, you must use the
EXTRN directive to let the assembler know that
the procedure or variable is not in this module

 The statement EXTRN DISPLAY:FAR,

SECONDS:BYTE tells the linker that DISPLAY
is a far procedure and SECONDS is a variable
of type byte located in another assembly module

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 To summarize, a procedure or variable
declared PUBLIC in one module will be
declared EXTRN in modules which access
the procedure or variable

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Writing and Using Assembler Macros

Assignment:

 Compare Macro with Procedure

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Defining and Calling a Macro Without
Parameters
Macro Definition:
MACRO-NAME MACRO
; MACRO DEFINITION
;
ENDM
Invoking a Macro:
MACRO-NAME

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Example
Macro Definition:
CLRSCR MACRO
MOV AH, 00H
MOV AL, 02H
INT 10H
ENDM

Macro Invocation:
CLRSCR

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Passing Parameters to Macros
Example:
Macro definition:
SETCURSOR MACRO X, Y
MOV DL, X ;COLUMN
MOV DH, Y ;ROW
MOV BH, 00H
MOV AH, 02H
INT 10H
ENDM
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 If the macro invocation statement is
SETCURSOR 12, 40 then the macro will be
replaced by:

MOV DL, 12
MOV DH, 40
MOV BH, 00H
MOV AH, 02H
INT 10H

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Data Conversions
 ASCII to BCD/HEXA

 BCD/HEXA to ASCII

 2/4 digit(8/16bit) BCD(Decimal) to Binary(Hexa)

 2/4 digit (8/16bit) Binary(Hexa) to BCD(Decimal))

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