Assembly Language for Intel-Based
Computers, 4th Edition
Kip R. Irvine
Unpacked and Packed Integers
Slides prepared by Kip R. Irvine
Revision date: 07/11/2002
Modified 2006, Dr. Nikolay Metodiev Sirakov
• Chapter corrections (Web) Assembly language sources (Web)
(c) Pearson Education, 2002. All rights reserved. You may modify and copy this slide show for your personal use, or
for use in the classroom, as long as this copyright statement, the author's name, and the title are not changed.
ASCII and Packed Decimal Arithmetic
• Unpacked BCD
• ASCII Decimal
• AAA Instruction
• AAS Instruction
• AAM Instruction
• AAD Instruction
• Packed Decimal Integers
• DAA Instruction
• DAS Instruction
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 2
Unpacked BCD
• Binary-coded decimal (BCD) numbers use 4 binary
bits to represent each decimal digit
• A number using unpacked BCD representation stores
a decimal digit in the lower four bits of each byte
• For example, 5,678 is stored as the following sequence
of hexadecimal bytes:
05 06 07 08
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 3
ASCII Decimal
• A number using ASCII Decimal representation stores
a single ASCII digit in each byte
• For example, 5,678 is stored as the following sequence
of hexadecimal bytes:
35 36 37 38
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 4
AAA Instruction
• The AAA (ASCII adjust after addition) instruction
adjusts the binary result of an ADD or ADC
instruction. It makes the result in AL consistent with
ASCII digit representation.
• The Carry value, if any ends up in AH
• Example: Add '8' and '2'
mov ah,0
mov al,'8' ; AX = 0038h
add al,'2' ; AX = 006Ah
aaa ; AX = 0100h (adjust result)
or ax,3030h ; AX = 3130h = '10'
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 5
AAS Instruction
• The AAS (ASCII adjust after subtraction) instruction
adjusts the binary result of an SUB or SBB instruction.
It makes the result in AL consistent with ASCII digit
representation.
• It places the Carry value, if any, in AH
• Example: Subtract '9' from '8'
mov ah,0
mov al,'8' ; AX = 0038h
sub al,'9' ; AX = 00FFh
aas ; AX = FF09h (adjust result)
pushf ; save Carry flag
or al,30h ; AX = FF39h (AL = '9')
popf ; restore Carry flag
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 6
AAM Instruction
• The AAM (ASCII adjust after multiplication) instruction
adjusts the binary result of a MUL instruction. The
multiplication must have been performed on unpacked
decimal numbers.
mov bl,05h ; first operand
mov al,06h ; second operand
mul bl ; AX = 001Eh
aam ; AX = 0300h
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 7
AAD Instruction
• The AAD (ASCII adjust before division) instruction
adjusts the unpacked decimal dividend in AX before
a division operation
.data
quotient BYTE ?
remainder BYTE ?
.code
mov ax,0307h ; dividend
aad ; AX = 0025h
mov bl,5 ; divisor
div bl ; AX = 0207h
mov quotient,al
mov remainder,ah
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 8
Packed Decimal Integers
• Packed BCD stores two decimal digits per byte
• For example, 12,345,678 can be stored as the
following sequence of hexadecimal bytes:
12 34 56 78
There is no limit on the number of bytes you can use to store a
BCD number. Financial values are frequently stored in BCD
format, to permit high precision when performing calculations.
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 9
DAA Instruction
• The DAA (decimal adjust after addition) instruction
converts the binary result of an ADD or ADC
operation to packed decimal format.
• The value to be adjusted must be in AL
• Example: calculate BCD 35 + 48
mov al,35h
add al,48h ; AL = 7Dh
daa ; AL = 83h (adjusted)
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 10
DAS Instruction
• The DAS (decimal adjust after subtraction) instruction
converts the binary result of a SUB or SBB operation
to packed decimal format.
• The value must be in AL
• Example: subtract BCD 48 from 85
mov al,85h
sub al,48h ; AL = 3Dh
das ; AL = 37h (adjusted)
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 11
The End
Irvine, Kip R. Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, 2003. Web site Examples 12