Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming

Book excerpt: Gain the fundamentals of x86 64-bit assembly language programming and focus on the updated aspects of the x86 instruction set that are most relevant to application software development. This book covers topics including x86 64-bit programming and Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX) programming. The focus in this second edition is exclusively on 64-bit base programming architecture and AVX programming. Modern X86 Assembly Language Programming’s structure and sample code are designed to help you quickly understand x86 assembly language programming and the computational capabilities of the x86 platform. After reading and using this book, you’ll be able to code performance-enhancing functions and algorithms using x86 64-bit assembly language and the AVX, AVX2 and AVX-512 instruction set extensions. What You Will Learn Discover details of the x86 64-bit platform including its core architecture, data types, registers, memory addressing modes, and the basic instruction set Use the x86 64-bit instruction set to create performance-enhancing functions that are callable from a high-level language (C++) Employ x86 64-bit assembly language to efficiently manipulate common data types and programming constructs including integers, text strings, arrays, and structures Use the AVX instruction set to perform scalar floating-point arithmetic Exploit the AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512 instruction sets to significantly accelerate the performance of computationally-intense algorithms in problem domains such as image processing, computer graphics, mathematics, and statistics Apply various coding strategies and techniques to optimally exploit the x86 64-bit, AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512 instruction sets for maximum possible performance Who This Book Is For Software developers who want to learn how to write code using x86 64-bit assembly language. It’s also ideal for software developers who already have a basic understanding of x86 32-bit or 64-bit assembly language programming and are interested in learning how to exploit the SIMD capabilities of AVX, AVX2 and AVX-512.