Hacker News with Generative AI: Assembly Language

Why do Windows functions all begin with a MOV EDI, EDI instruction? (2011) (microsoft.com)
If you look at the disassembly of functions inside Windows DLLs, you’ll find that they begin with the seemingly pointless instruction MOV EDI, EDI. This instruction copies a register to itself and updates no flags; it is completely meaningless. So why is it there?
Windows, Assembly Language, Reverse Engineering
21 points by Tomte 3 days ago | 3 comments
6502 Illegal Opcodes in the Siemens PC 100 Assembly Manual (pagetable.com)
The 6502’s “illegal” opcodes were of intense interest to home computer enthusiasts, and analyses were published in various magazines. But one would have never expected a company like Siemens to document illegal opcodes in a programming manual from 1980.
Computer History, Assembly Language, 6502 Processor
45 points by ingve 15 days ago | 1 comments
Show HN: OSle – A 510 bytes OS in x86 assembly (github.com/shikaan)
OSle is a real-mode OS that fits in a boot sector.
Operating Systems, Assembly Language, Programming, Open Source, Show HN
160 points by shikaan 21 days ago | 32 comments
The Art of Assembly Language (2010) (plantation-productions.com)
"The Art of Assembly Language Programming" is now hard. This text is now available in published form from "No Starch Press" (http://www.nostarch.com). Please check out their website for more details.
Programming, Assembly Language, Computer Science, Books
129 points by ibobev 34 days ago | 20 comments
Calypsi: A series of C compiler and assembly language cross compiler tool chains (github.com/hth313)
Calypsi is a series of C compiler and assembly language cross compiler tool chains.
C Compilers, Assembly Language, Cross Compilers, Programming Tools
24 points by doener 37 days ago | 4 comments
INT 10h (int10h.org)
Programming, Operating Systems, Computer Architecture, Assembly Language
3 points by thunderbong 37 days ago | 0 comments
Show HN: Torque – A lightweight meta-assembler for any processor (benbridle.com)
Torque is a lightweight meta-assembler that provides the tools necessary to write programs for any processor architecture.
Programming, Assembly Language, Tools, Software
79 points by benbridle 38 days ago | 31 comments
Learning Assembly for Fun, Performance and Profit (thechipletter.substack.com)
Low-level languages have been in the news recently. Use of Nvidia’s ptx has been revealed as part of DeepSeek’s ‘secret sauce’. And there is still plenty of interest in learning assembly language. A recent Substack post advocating learning assembly language for the venerable, but well loved, 6502 as a first step garnered over 240 ‘upvotes’ and more than 290 comments on Hacker News.
Assembly Language, Programming, Performance, Computer Architecture, Hardware
78 points by klelatti 43 days ago | 15 comments
Undocumented 8086 instructions, explained by the microcode (righto.com)
What happens if you give the Intel 8086 processor an instruction that doesn't exist?
Computer Architecture, Assembly Language, Microcode
14 points by birdculture 52 days ago | 3 comments
Glider for Apple II (colino.net)
A lot of people my age that touched Macintoshes in the nineties know that game, Glider, written by John Calhoun. I recently started wanting to try and program a game for the Apple II as it is something I never attempted before, and I wanted to see if I got good enough at 6502 assembly for that.
Retro Gaming, Apple II, Assembly Language, Programming
114 points by rbanffy 57 days ago | 23 comments
Converting C to ASM to specs and then to a working Z/80 Speccy tape (ghuntley.com)
Can a LLM convert C, to ASM to specs and then to a working Z/80 Speccy tape? Yes.
Programming, Retro Computing, Assembly Language, Z80, Emulation
80 points by ghuntley 67 days ago | 73 comments
Smallest Hello World in Various Languages and Compilers (drewdevault.com)
Let’s say you ask your programming language to do the simplest possible task: print out “hello world”. Generally this takes two syscalls: write and exit. The following assembly program is the ideal Linux x86_64 program for this purpose. A perfect compiler would emit this hello world program for any language.
Programming, Assembly Language, Compiler Optimization, Linux, Hello World
5 points by mofosyne 76 days ago | 2 comments
FFmpeg School of Assembly Language (github.com/FFmpeg)
Welcome to the FFmpeg School of Assembly Language. You have taken the first step on the most interesting, challenging, and rewarding journey in programming. These lessons will give you a grounding in the way assembly language is written in FFmpeg and open your eyes to what's actually going on in your computer..
Assembly Language, Programming, FFmpeg, Open Source
869 points by davikr 90 days ago | 220 comments
How do modern compilers choose which variables to put in registers? (stackexchange.com)
How do modern compilers choose which variables to put in registers?
Compilers, Programming, Optimization, Computer Science, Assembly Language
400 points by azeemba 98 days ago | 65 comments
Getting started with bare-metal assembly (johv.dk)
Seeing a program you wrote running directly on the bare metal is deeply satisfying to anyone who enjoys writing software. And it turns out that creating such a program from scratch is easier than it sounds. The hardest part is figuring out where to start. In this tutorial, I'll show you how to write, build and run the classic "Hello, World!" in pure assembly.
Assembly Language, Programming, Tutorials
6 points by Anon84 99 days ago | 0 comments
Easy 6502 (skilldrick.github.io)
In this tiny ebook I’m going to show you how to get started writing 6502 assembly language.
Assembly Language, Programming, 6502 Processor
151 points by ibobev 106 days ago | 20 comments
I believe 6502 instruction set is a good first assembly language (nemanjatrifunovic.substack.com)
Deciding where to start is one of the hardest things about learning assembly programming. Unlike high-level languages, assembly is tightly connected to the hardware and deciding which CPU to use is an important first step.
Assembly Language, Programming Languages, Computer Architecture
247 points by whobre 107 days ago | 289 comments
Minor 387 Documentation Mystery (os2museum.com)
So here I am, writing a bit of test code to figure out the behavior of x87 FPUs with regard to saving and loading the FPU state (FSTENV/FLDENV and FSAVE/FRSTOR instructions in different modes and formats).
Operating Systems, Assembly Language, Computer Architecture
20 points by userbinator 109 days ago | 0 comments
Elite on the 6502: The original 6502 assembly source, heavily commented (bbcelite.com)
This site contains the original 1980s source code for the classic space game Elite, with every single line documented and (for the most part) explained. It is literally the original 6502 assembly source code, just heavily commented.
Retro Gaming, Programming, Assembly Language, 6502, Source Code
212 points by CharlesW 112 days ago | 59 comments
Snowdrop OS – a homebrew operating system from scratch, in assembly language (sebastianmihai.com)
Snowdrop OS was born of my childhood curiosity around what happens when a PC is turned on, the mysteries of bootable disks, and the hidden aspects of operating systems.
Operating Systems, Assembly Language, Programming, DIY Projects
308 points by ksec 119 days ago | 81 comments
Customasm – An assembler for custom, user-defined instruction sets (github.com/hlorenzi)
customasm is an assembler that allows you to provide your own custom instruction sets to assemble your source files!
Assembly Language, Programming, Tools, Computer Architecture
73 points by zdw 131 days ago | 17 comments
Agner Fog's Software Optimization Resources (agner.org)
This series of five manuals describes everything you need to know about optimizing code for x86 and x86-64 family microprocessors, including optimization advices for C++ and assembly language, details about the microarchitecture and instruction timings of most Intel, AMD and VIA processors, and details about different compilers and calling conventions.
Software Optimization, C++, Assembly Language, Microprocessors, Intel, AMD, VIA
4 points by davikr 140 days ago | 1 comments
Write Your Own Virtual Machine (2022) (jmeiners.com)
In this tutorial, I will teach you how to write your own virtual machine (VM) that can run assembly language programs, such as my friend’s 2048 or my Roguelike.
Virtual Machines, Programming, Tutorials, Assembly Language
338 points by sebg 148 days ago | 97 comments
Bit Vectors and my first steps into assembly (smidt.dev)
I’ve recently started reading “Writing an Interpreter in Go” as part of my journey to sharpen my programming skills.
Programming, Assembly Language, Learning Resources
114 points by thunderbong 153 days ago | 43 comments
Rules to avoid common extended inline assembly mistakes (nullprogram.com)
GCC and Clang inline assembly is an interface between high and low level programming languages. It is subtle and treacherous. Many are ensnared in its traps, usually unknowingly. As such, the asm keyword is essentially the unsafe keyword of C and C++. Nearly every inline assembly tutorial, including the awful ibilio page at the top of search engines for decades, propagate fundamental, serious mistakes, and most examples are incorrect. The dangerous part is that the examples usually produce the expected results!
Programming, Assembly Language, GCC, Clang, Software Engineering
79 points by ingve 154 days ago | 19 comments
Bit-permuting 16 u32s at once with AVX-512 (blogspot.com)
The basic trick to apply the same bit-permutation to each of the u32s is to view them as matrix of 16 rows by 32 columns, transpose it into a 32 u16s, permute those u16s in the same way that we wanted to permute the bits of the u32s [1], then transpose back to 16 u32s. Easy:
Computer Architecture, Optimization, Assembly Language
24 points by mfiguiere 163 days ago | 1 comments
BareMetal OS (github.com/ReturnInfinity)
BareMetal OS is an exokernel-based operating system crafted entirely in x86-64 assembly and is designed to provide unparalleled levels of flexibility and efficiency.
Operating Systems, Assembly Language, Exokernels
138 points by tosh 164 days ago | 47 comments
Writing assembly language subroutines for Extended Color BASIC (conman.org)
The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”
Programming, Assembly Language, BASIC, Subroutines, Retrocomputing
20 points by ingve 177 days ago | 5 comments
AI Models for Decompiling Assembly Code (reveng.ai)
The challenge of converting low-level assembly code back into human-readable source code is a cornerstone problem in reverse engineering.
Reverse Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Programming, Software, Assembly Language
9 points by rrampage 187 days ago | 0 comments
Assembly Optimization Tips by Mark Larson (2004) (masm32.com)
The most important thing to remember is to TIME your code. Trying different tricks might or might not speed up your code. So it is very important to time your code to see if you do get a speedup as you try each trick.
Assembly Language, Optimization, Programming, Performance, Software Development
48 points by htfy96 194 days ago | 19 comments