Welcome to

Computer Organization &

Assembly Language
Mueed Ahmed
Week # 6 [Link]@[Link]

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Course Outline

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Reference Material

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 Grading Policy
Grading Criteria Score
Quizzes + Assignments 20
Projects Presentation for evaluation 10
Class Attendance & Behavior 10

Mid Term Exam 20

Final Exam 40

➢ Attendance Policy

▪ Attendance will be taken regularly.

▪ There will be a 0.5% grade deduction for every unexcused absence.
▪ Late students can attend, but every 3 late records will be assumed to hold marks as one absent.

Computer Organization & Assembly Language Lecture # 1 5

 Today Agenda
In today's lecture, we will explore into the history of computer architecture, exploring
key concepts and advancements. Our primary discussion points will be:

➢ Flags
➢ Types of flags
➢ Instruction affects on flags

Computer Organization & Assembly Language Lecture # 1 6

 The FLAG Register
• We used flags for
• control the operations of the CPU
• Handles the status of operations
• Nine individual bits called as flag are used to represent the 8086 processor state.
• Carry , Parity, Auxiliary, Zero, Sign, Trap, Interrupt, Direction, Overflow
• Flags are placed in FLAG Register.
• Is the register that contains the current state of the processor.
• Used only 9 bits
• Two types of flags:
• Status Flags: Reflects the result of a computation. Located in bits: 0, 2, 4, 6, 7 and
11.
• Control Flags: Used to enable/disable certain operations of the processor. Located in
bits 8, 9 and 10.
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 Flags

Carry flag
Overflow
Direction Parity flag

Interrupt enable Auxiliary flag

Trap Zero
Sign
6 are status flags handle the result
3 are control flag control the operations
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 The Status Flags
1. Carry Flag: (CF)
• Set (CY), Unset (NC)
• The Carry Flag is set to 1 when there is a carry out from MSB on addition
or there is a borrow into the MSB on subtraction. Also affected by shift
and rotate instructions.
• 1: when there is last carry out
• 0: when there is not carry out
• Examples:
• 11111111b + 00000011b = 1 00000010b
1 1 1 1 1 11

11111111
+00000011
00000010

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Contd..
2. Parity Flag: used for validity of data
• Set (PE), Unset (PO)
• PE (Even Parity): If the low byte of a result has an even number of on
bits. For Even parity, PF =1
• PO (Odd Parity): If the low byte of a result has odd number of on bits. For
Odd parity, PO = 0
• 1: when there is even number of bits
• 0: when there is not even number of bits
• Examples: 11111111b + 00000011b = 00000010b(Number of one’s in
result = 1, so PF = 0)
1 1 1 1 1 11

11111111
+00000011
00000010
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Contd..
3. Auxiliary Carry Flag:
• Set (AC), Unset (NA)
• The Auxiliary Carry Flag is set to 1 if there is a carry out from bit 3 on
addition, or a borrow into bit 3 on subtraction.
• Used in Binary Coded Decimal (BCD) Operations.
• 1: when 3rd bit carry exits
• 0: when 3rd bit carry not exits
• Examples: 11111111b + 00000011b = 00000010b
1 1 1 1 1 11

11111111
+00000011
00000010

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Contd..
4. Zero Flag:
• Set (ZR), Unset (NZ)
• Zero Flag is set when the result is zero.
• Zero Flag is unset when result is non zero.
• Examples: 0FFh – 0FFh = 00h

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Contd..
5. Sign Flag:
• Set when MSB of a result is 1; it means the result is negative (signed
interpretation)
1: when result is negative
0: when result is positive
• Examples: 3-7=-4
00000011b – 00000111b = 00000100b

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Contd..
6. Overflow Flag:
• Set (OV), Unset (NV)
• Set if signed overflow occurred, otherwise it is 0.
1: when result is too big to fit in the destination
0: when result is not too big to fit in the destination
• Overflow:
• Range of numbers that can be represented in a computer is limited.
• If the result of an operation falls outside the defined range, Overflow
occurs and the truncated result will be incorrect.
• Four possible outcomes of an arithmetic operation:
• No Overflow
• Only Signed Overflow
• Only Unsigned Overflow
• Both Signed and Unsigned Overflow
How Instructions Affect the Flags
Instructions Affects Flags

MOV/XCHG None

ADD/SUB All

INC/DEC All except CF

NEG Multiply by -1

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Example 5.1
• ADD AX, BX, where AX contains FFFFh, BX contains FFFFh
• Solution:
• Actual Result = 1FFFEh
• Result stored in AX = FFFEh
• Flags:
• SF = 0
• PF = 0 because there are 7 (odd number) of 1 bits in the low byte of
the result. (131070)10 (1 11111111 11111110) 2
• ZF = 0 because nonzero result
• CF = 1 because there is a carry out of the MSB on addition
• OF = 1

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Example 5.2
• ADD AL, BL where AL contains 80h, BL contains 80h
• Solution:
• Actual Result = 100h (256)10 (1 00000000)2
• Result in AL = 00h
• Flags:
• SF = 0 because MSB is 0
• PF = 1 because all bits in result are 0
• ZF = 1 because result is 0
• CF = 1 because there is a carry out from MSB
• OF = 1

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Example 5.3
• MOV AX, -5
• Solution:
• Result in AX = -5
• None of the flags are affected by MOV

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Program
ORG 100h
.CODE
MOV AX, 4000h ; AX = 4000h
ADD AX, AX ; AX = 8000h
SUB AX, 0FFFFh ; AX = -7FFFh
NEG AX ; AX = 7FFFh
INC AX ; AX = 8000h
MOV AH, 4Ch
INT 21H

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Control Flags
1. Direction Flag: Controls the assumed direction used by string processing
instructions. 1=Up, 0=Down
2. Interrupt Flag: Enable/Disable external interrupt.
3. Trap Flag: Determines whether or not CPU will be halted after each
instruction.

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 Home Work / Reading

William Stallings - Computer Organization and Architecture Designing for

Performance (8th Edition)

Chapter # 3:
(related this lecture)
Web Link: [Link]

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