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x64 Cheat Sheet ... x64 assembly code uses sixteen 64-bit registers. ... Most instructions, like mov, use a suffix to show how large the operands are going ...
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CSCI0330 Intro Computer Systems Doeppner
x64 assembly code uses sixteen 64-bit registers. Additionally, the lower bytes of some of these registers may be accessed independently as 32-, 16- or 8-bit registers. The register names are as follows: 8-byte register Bytes 0-3 Bytes 0-1 Byte 0 %rax %eax %ax %al %rcx %ecx %cx %cl %rdx %edx %dx %dl %rbx %ebx %bx %bl %rsi %esi %si %sil %rdi %edi %di %dil %rsp %esp %sp %spl %rbp %ebp %bp %bpl %r8 %r8d %r8w %r8b %r9 %r9d %r9w %r9b %r10 %r10d %r10w %r10b %r11 %r11d %r11w %r11b %r12 %r12d %r12w %r12b %r13 %r13d %r13w %r13b %r14 %r14d %r14w %r14b %r15 %r15d %r15w %r15b For more details of register usage, see Register Usage, below.
The basic types of operand specifiers are below. In the following table, ● Imm refers to a constant value, e.g. 0x8048d8e or 48 , ● Ex refers to a register, e.g. %rax , ● R[Ex] refers to the value stored in register Ex , and ● M[x] refers to the value stored at memory address x.
Type From Operand Value Name Immediate $Imm Imm Immediate Register Ea R[Ea] Register Memory Imm M[Imm] Absolute Memory (Ea) M[R[Eb]] Absolute Memory Imm(Eb, Ei, s) M[Imm + R[Eb] + (R[Ei] x s)] Scaled indexed More information about operand specifiers can be found on pages 169-170 of the textbook.
mulq S Unsigned full multiply of %rax by S Result stored in %rdx:%rax
idivq S Signed divide %rdx:%rax by S Quotient stored in %rax Remainder stored in %rdx
divq S Unsigned divide %rdx:%rax by S Quotient stored in %rax Remainder stored in %rdx
3.3 Comparison and Test Instructions Comparison instructions also have one suffix. Instruction Description Page # cmp S 2 , S 1 Set condition codes according to S 1 - S 2 185 test S 2 , S 1 Set condition codes according to S 1 & S 2 185 3.4 Accessing Condition Codes None of the following instructions have any suffixes.
Instruction Description Condition Code Page # sete / setz D Set if equal/zero ZF 187 setne / setnz D Set if not equal/nonzero ~ZF 187 sets D Set if negative SF 187 setns D Set if nonnegative ~SF 187 setg / setnle D Set if greater (signed) ~(SF^0F)&~ZF 187 setge / setnl D Set if greater or equal (signed) ~(SF^0F) 187 setl / setnge D Set if less (signed) SF^0F 187 setle / setng D Set if less or equal (SF^OF)|ZF 187 seta / setnbe D Set if above (unsigned) ~CF&~ZF 187 setae / setnb D Set if above or equal (unsigned) ~CF 187 setb / setnae D Set if below (unsigned) CF 187 setbe / setna D Set if below or equal (unsigned) CF|ZF 187
3.4.3 Conditional Move Instructions
Conditional move instructions do not have any suffixes, but their source and destination operands must have the same size.
4.3 Register Usage There are sixteen 64-bit registers in x86-64: %rax , %rbx , %rcx , %rdx , %rdi , %rsi , %rbp , %rsp , and %r8-r15. Of these, %rax , %rcx , %rdx , %rdi , %rsi , %rsp , and %r8-r11 are considered caller-save registers, meaning that they are not necessarily saved across function calls. By convention, %rax is used to store a function’s return value, if it exists and is no more than 64 bits long. (Larger return types like structs are returned using the stack.) Registers %rbx , %rbp , and %r12-r15 are callee-save registers, meaning that they are saved across function calls. Register %rsp is used as the stack pointer , a pointer to the topmost element in the stack. Additionally, %rdi , %rsi , %rdx , %rcx , %r8 , and %r9 are used to pass the first six integer or pointer parameters to called functions. Additional parameters (or large parameters such as structs passed by value) are passed on the stack. In 32-bit x86, the base pointer (formerly %ebp , now %rbp ) was used to keep track of the base of the current stack frame, and a called function would save the base pointer of its caller prior to updating the base pointer to its own stack frame. With the advent of the 64-bit architecture, this has been mostly eliminated, save for a few special cases when the compiler cannot determine ahead of time how much stack space needs to be allocated for a particular function (see Dynamic stack allocation). 4.4 Stack Organization and Function Calls
To call a function, the program should place the first six integer or pointer parameters in the registers %rdi , %rsi , %rdx , %rcx , %r8 , and %r9 ; subsequent parameters (or parameters larger than 64 bits) should be pushed onto the stack, with the first argument topmost. The program should then execute the call instruction, which will push the return address onto the stack and jump to the start of the specified function. Example:
movq $1, %rdi # Move 1 into %rdi Movq $15, %rsi # Move 15 into %rsi call foo # Push return address and jump to label foo If the function has a return value, it will be stored in %rax after the function call.
An x64 program uses a region of memory called the stack to support function calls. As the name suggests, this region is organized as a stack data structure with the “top” of the stack growing towards lower memory addresses. For each function call, new space is created on the stack to store local variables and other data. This is known as a stack frame. To accomplish this, you will need to write some code at the beginning and end of each function to create and destroy the stack frame. Setting Up: When a call instruction is executed, the address of the following instruction is pushed onto the stack as the return address and control passes to the specified function. If the function is going to use any of the callee-save registers ( %rbx , %rbp , or %r12-r15 ), the current value of each should be pushed onto the stack to be restored at the end. For example: Pushq %rbx pushq %r pushq %r Finally, additional space may be allocated on the stack for local variables. While it is possible to make space on the stack as needed in a function body, it is generally more efficient to allocate this space all at once at the beginning of the function. This can be accomplished using the call subq $N, %rsp where N is the size of the callee’s stack frame. For example: subq $0x18, %rsp # Allocate 24 bytes of space on the stack This set-up is called the function prologue. Using the Stack Frame: Once you have set up the stack frame, you can use it to store and access local variables: ● Arguments which cannot fit in registers (e.g. structs) will be pushed onto the stack before the call instruction, and can be accessed relative to %rsp. Keep in mind that you will need to take the size of the stack frame into account when referencing arguments in this manner. ● If the function has more than six integer or pointer arguments, these will be pushed onto the stack as well. ● For any stack arguments, the lower-numbered arguments will be closer to the stack pointer. That is, arguments are pushed on in right-to-left order when applicable. ● Local variables will be stored in the space allocated in the function prologue, when some amount is subtracted from %rsp. The organization of these is up to the programmer. Cleaning Up: After the body of the function is finished and the return value (if any) is placed in %rax , the function must return control to the caller, putting the stack back in the state in which it
movq %rbp, %rsp popq %rbp This can also be done with a single instruction, called leave. The epilogue makes sure that no matter what you do to the stack pointer in the function body, you will always return it to the right place when you return. Note that this means you no longer need to add to the stack pointer in the epilogue. This is an example of a function which allocates between 8-248 bytes of random stack space during its execution: pushq %rbp # Use base pointer movq %rsp, %rbp pushq %rbx # Save registers pushq %r subq $0x18, %rsp # Allocate some stack space ... call rand # Get random number andq $0xF8, %rax # Make sure the value is 8-248 bytes and
subq %rax, %rsp # Allocate space … movq (%rbp), %r12 # Restore registers from base of frame movq 0x8(%rbp), %rbx movq %rbp, %rsp # Reset stack pointer and restore base
popq %rbp ret This sort of behavior can be accessed from C code by calling pseudo-functions like alloca, which allocates stack space according to its argument. More information about the stack frame and function calls can be found on pages 219-232 of the textbook.