Fall 2014 SPO600 Assembly Language Presentation

This is a draft only!
It is still under construction and content may change. Do not rely on this information.

Topics

Topic	Question/Topic Description	Student
x86 Registers	What are the names and sizes of all of the x86_64 registers?
Aarch64 Registers	What are the names and sizes of all of the Aarch64 registers?
NASM Syntax	What is NASM, and what are the basic rules of NASM syntax?
GNU x86_64 gas Syntax	What are the basic rules of GNU Assembler (gas) syntax for x86_64 platforms?
GNU aarch64 Syntax	What are the basic rules of GNU Assembler (gas) syntax for aarch64 platforms?
Argument storage on x86_64	When a function/procedure is called on an x86_64 Linux system, where are the arguments stored?
Argument storage on aarch64	When a function/procedure is called on an aarch64 system, where are the arguments stored?
System call numbers on x86_64	What are the system call numbers on an x86_64 Linux system?
System call numbers on aarch64	What are the system call numbers on an aarch64 Linux system?
PLT	What is a PLT and how is it used?
Static and dynamic linking	What are the differences between static and dynamic linking? Advantages of each?
Copy-on-write	What is copy-on-write (when referring to memory in a Linux system)? When is it used?
Assembling using gas	How do you use the GNU assembler (gas) to compile an assembly-language program?
The Mysterious XOR	x86 and x86_64 code often contains instructions that XOR a register with itself (e.g., xor %eax,%eax). What does this do and why is it used?