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Intel and their instruction sets

R

RancidWAnnaRIot

EspantaPajaros
Joined
Feb 19, 2004
Messages
11,033
Hello,

I know this would be impractical.. but i'm just gonna ask this because i'm curious.

Is it posible to get a hold of all the instruction sets for any intel processor? along with all the nessesary information (like number of registers, how large they are.. etc) about the processor to be able to do some assembly level stuff?.. i know it's impractical as you can probably get any ol processor that's way way way cheaper and do the same thing.. i'm just curious.. is it actually possible?
 
ahh.
they moved them on me. Guess it's time to update the bookmarks.
But they're all
availible free online in pdf format.

You can get them on cd or hardcopy if you need, not sure what the cost is for those options though.
 
cool.. thanks for the replies.. i'm not goning to do anything.. but i was just wondering.. cause i'm taking a micro processors class.. and just wondered if you could do the same thing that we're doing in the class, but with an intel or AMD chip.... we're using a motorola 64HC12

It can be used as a micro controller.. but we are treating it like a micro processor in this class...
 
Odds are that motorola chip is far more pleasant CPU to program assembly on than x86; the x86 instruction set is kinda scary - especially when you're forced to deal with the segmented memory you get in 16-bit mode.
 
Doing a little assembly language programming is a *fantastic*
way to learn more about how computers work. I had the good
fortune to be able to do a little hacking on an old minicomputer
with a full front panel (lights & switches), so I could halt
the processor, see exactly what was going on, modify something,
execute the next instruction, etc. But even in a modern
environment, a little assembler will do you a world of good.
 
heheh.. actually, before this micro processors class i'm taking, i took a digital logic course, and we actually designed and built a crude CPU. It was cool. We had to use switches and stuff to load instructions, and then clock it by hand using a debounced switch.. good stuff..

the CPU only had 8 instructions (we designed our CPUs with a 3-bit instruction register).

None the less good stuff...
 
about half a year ago intel had a link on their website where they would send you a couple of books about the x86 architecture for free .. those books include an instruction set reference
 
this thread is interesting, a good vein of thought, also for reference....
I nominate this thread for a sticky
 
W1zzard said:
about half a year ago intel had a link on their website where they would send you a couple of books about the x86 architecture for free .. those books include an instruction set reference
Click to expand...

That's so cool.. i guess they don't do it anymore??
 
I was just looking at some of the stuff on the intel site... hummm

when a processor can address 4 Gigs of mem.. it really isn't 4 gigs of RAM right??? cause doesn't the BIOS take up a small amount from the memory map of the CPU??

then again.. once the BIOS is accessed it never has to go back.. so the memory map space that was used for the BIOS can now be used for RAM??

hehe.. can anyone clear this up for me?? :)
 
RancidWAnnaRIot said:
I was just looking at some of the stuff on the intel site... hummm

when a processor can address 4 Gigs of mem.. it really isn't 4 gigs of RAM right???
Click to expand...

4gb of RAM. (in IA32 the virtual addresses are limited to 4gb as well)
64gb if you use the 36 bit PAE addressing. (PAE does not affect virtual addresses).

cause doesn't the BIOS take up a small amount from the memory map of the CPU??

then again.. once the BIOS is accessed it never has to go back.. so the memory map space that was used for the BIOS can now be used for RAM??

hehe.. can anyone clear this up for me?? :)
Click to expand...

bytes 0-1023 in RAM store the BIOS interupt vectors (addresses of the functions put more simply).
The interupt handlers themselves are loading into RAM before the BIOS turns control over to the OS. When an interupt occurs (or is called from software), the CPU looks up the appropriate handler and jumps to that code segment to take care of the interupt.
So yes, a small amount of memory is reserved for the BIOS (and DOS) interupt handlers and control, it's still addressable and usable (in fact vital) to the CPU, just as if you had loaded say MS word into it.
 
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