Introduction to 80x86 Assembly Language and Computer Architecture, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1

Representing Data in a Computer

When you program in a high-level language (like Java or C++) you use variables of different types (such as integer, float, or character). Once you have declared variables, you do not have to worry about how the data are represented in the computer. When you deal with a computer at the machine level, however, you must be more concerned with how data are stored. Often you have the job of converting data from one representation to another. This chapter covers some common ways that data are represented in a microcomputer. Chapter 2 gives an overview of microcomputer hardware and software. Chapter 3 illustrates how to write an assembly language program that directly controls execution of the computer’s native ...