Principles of Microcomputers and Assembly Language Programming

Author: Zhao Guoxiang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: The three parts of Microcomputer Principles, Assembly Language Programming, and Interface Technology are core courses for majors such as Computer Science and Technology, Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Automation. In the previous teaching system, most universities divided them into three separate courses: "Microcomputer Principles and Applications," "Microcomputer Interface Technology," and "Assembly Language Programming." With the rapid development of integrated circuit technology, mature technologies from large and supercomputers have gradually been migrated to microcomputers, driving their rapid advancement. This has brought about two issues: First, the structure of microcomputers is becoming increasingly complex, making the three parts of Microcomputer Principles, Assembly Language Programming, and Interface Technology more closely related and interwoven. Second, the continuous addition of new courses and content has reduced the teaching hours for each course, making it difficult to eliminate outdated content while incorporating new material, resulting in a serious disconnect between teaching content and practical reality. Home microcomputers have long used the Pentium microprocessor, yet classrooms still focus on the Intel 8088/8086 microprocessor. If these three parts are still taught as separate courses, it will inevitably lead to conflicting content, forcing students to learn some material multiple times, and sometimes even causing a lack of thorough understanding of certain concepts or principles. Therefore, reforming the current teaching system for microcomputer courses by integrating Microcomputer Principles, Assembly Language, and Interface Technology is imperative. This book organically combines the content of "Microcomputer Principles," "Microcomputer Interface Technology," and "Assembly Language Programming." The two books, "Microcomputer Principles and Assembly Language Programming" and "Microcomputer Principles and Interface Technology," are used consecutively in the same course. They were revised and organized based on three teaching practices of combining the three courses into one (i.e., "Microcomputer Principles, Assembly, and Interface Technology") and essentially represent our decades of teaching experience in these three courses. The book takes the real mode and protected mode of the Pentium as the main thread, replacing the content of Intel 8086 with Pentium real-mode implementation technology (currently popular based on Intel 8086); by analyzing Pentium's protected mode, it showcases the representative new designs, technologies, ideas, and trends in the modern microcomputer field to readers; it also includes a number of I/O interface hardware and programming examples, helping to establish a holistic concept of microcomputer systems, deepen understanding of microcomputer operation processes, and enable students to develop preliminary software and hardware development capabilities for microcomputer systems.
"Microcomputer Principles and Assembly Language Programming" is divided into 8 chapters. Chapter 1 primarily introduces the development history of microprocessors, covering the basic structures and functional features of the first to fourth-generation microprocessors Intel 8008, Zilog's Z80, Intel 8086, and Intel 80386. Chapter 2 focuses on the programming structure and functions of Pentium to Pentium IV microprocessors, discussing the bus interface, prefetch buffer, integer pipeline, floating-point pipeline, cache components, instruction decoding components, control components, segmentation components, and paging components. It also covers superpipelined and superscalar pipeline structures, instruction decoding operations, register renaming technology, out-of-order execution technology, pipeline exit operations, saturated arithmetic, fused multiply-add operations, and dynamic execution technology. The pin functions of the Pentium microprocessor, as well as its basic timing (non-pipelined read/write cycles, burst read/write bus cycles, pipelined read/write bus cycles) are also explained. Chapter 3 covers the instruction formats, addressing modes, and instruction sets of 16-bit and 32-bit modes. Chapter 4 discusses assembly language program formats, pseudo-instructions, and the assembly language compilation process. Chapter 5 covers the structure, methods, and multi-level loops of double-branch, multi-branch, and loop programming. Chapter 6 covers the structure of subroutines, parameter passing methods, nested and recursive subroutines, and examples of subroutine design. Chapter 7 covers macro assembly, repetitive assembly, conditional assembly, and modular program design. Chapter 8 discusses the classification and performance indicators of semiconductor memory, ROM and RAM memory chips, Pentium's memory interface, Pentium's high-speed buffer memory (Cache), and the relationship between secondary and primary caches.
"Microcomputer Principles and Interface Technology" consists of 10 chapters. Chapter 1 primarily introduces virtual memory, Pentium's segmented memory management, and paging memory management. Chapter 2 explains why interface circuits are used, the general programming structure of I/O interfaces, and the control methods for data transmission between the CPU and peripherals (programmed I/O, interrupt-driven I/O, DMA, I/O processor). It also covers the DMA controller 8237A and its applications. Chapter 3 discusses the basic concepts of interrupts, interrupt interface circuits, interrupt processing processes, Pentium's interrupt mechanism, real-mode interrupt processing, protected-mode interrupt operations, and the programmable interrupt controller 8259A. Chapter 4 covers the concept and classification of buses, ISA bus, and PCI bus. Chapter 5 discusses the programmable parallel input/output interface chip 8255A, examples of various working modes of 8255A, the programmable counter/timer 8253 and its applications in counting and real-time frequency measurement systems. Chapter 6 covers the model of digital serial communication systems, the RS-232-C serial communication interface bus, a brief introduction to USB, the programmable serial communication interface chip 8251A, and examples of serial communication systems. Chapter 7 primarily introduces the hardware structure of real-time microcomputer control systems, sensors, analog-to-digital converters, digital-to-analog converters, power switching devices, and interfaces. Chapter 8 discusses the structure of keyboards, key recognition (row scanning and row inversion methods), microcomputer keyboard interfaces, BIOS keyboard interrupts, and DOS keyboard function calls. Chapter 9 covers the working principles of CRT displays, the basic principles of black-and-white character displays, CRT controllers, display systems of IBM PC series (MDA adapter, CGA adapter, VGA adapter), and programming for displays. Chapter 10 discusses the basic principles of data magnetic recording, types of hard disk storage, the distribution of information on hard disks, hard disk drives, hard disk controllers, hard disk interfaces, and disk file access technology (DOS disk file access by file name, BIOS disk file access).
Due to the authors' limited expertise, errors and inaccuracies may inevitably exist in this book. We sincerely welcome criticism and corrections from readers and expert peers.
This book organically combines the content of "Microcomputer Principles," "Microcomputer Interface Technology," and "Assembly Language Programming." The two books, "Microcomputer Principles and Assembly Language Programming" and "Microcomputer Principles and Interface Technology," are used consecutively in the same course. The book takes the real mode and protected mode of the Pentium as the main thread, replacing the content of Intel 8086 with Pentium real-mode implementation technology (currently popular based on Intel 8086); by analyzing Pentium's protected mode, it showcases the representative new designs, technologies, ideas, and trends in the modern microcomputer field to readers; it also includes a number of I/O interface hardware and programming examples, helping to establish a holistic concept of microcomputer systems, deepen understanding of microcomputer operation processes, and enable students to develop preliminary software and hardware development capabilities for microcomputer systems.
This book consists of 8 chapters, covering: the basic structures and functional features of the first to fourth-generation microprocessors Intel 8008, Zilog's Z80, Intel 8086, and Intel 80386; the basic structures and functions of Pentium to Pentium IV microprocessors, Pentium's programming structure, pin functions, and timing; the 16-bit and 32-bit modes of Pentium microprocessors, instruction formats, addressing modes, and instruction sets; assembly language program formats and pseudo-instructions; branch and loop programming methods; subroutine design; advanced assembly language techniques; Pentium's memory interface, Pentium's high-speed buffer memory (Cache), and the relationship between secondary and primary caches.
This book can serve as a textbook for universities and colleges in majors such as Computer Science and Technology, Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering, and Automation, as well as a reference for engineering technicians engaged in computer applications and self-learners.