Customer Reviews (1)

Good for beginners, adequate for reference
The majority of this book is composed of examples for tasks commonly involved in embedded programming.The feeling I get reading over them is that they were translated from a similar book for a different processor.This section of the book wasn't very useful for me, since the book adheres to a non-relocatable standard for programs but I am targeting a platform where position-independent code is important.

The instruction set reference in the back of the book is good.It has diagrams for effective address calculation that are at times better than Motorola's official documentation.Both are on my frequent reference shelf. ... Read more

Product Description
Introduces the SPARC assembly language and provides understanding of the complexity and cost of using various data and control structures in high-level languages.Includes the latest material on the new Ultra SPARC architecture. Softcover. DLC: Reduced instruction set computers. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

Straight Forward SPARC
I needed this as backup for an assembly programming course and it was a great help. It's pretty straight forward and basic, but it could go more in-depth and may not serve all that well as your only source for assembly language programming.

Dated but remains an excellent source of reference
This book is excellent considering the time it was produced and definitely an superb piece of work.

But an update is needed as technologies have progressed much over the last 8-9 years; e.g. Sun Microsystems have incorporated the GCC compiler into their latest architectures like the x86-Opteron; to compare and offer new perspectives on the subject maybe advances in compiler technology, if any etc would be terrific.

Confusing
I picked up this book to familiarize myself with the SPARC architecture for an upcoming project and I was extremely disappointed in the presentation of the material, both grammatically and intuitively.

First, when learning assembly language, the last thing a reader or student needs is the code to be obfuscated by a preprocessing tool such as m4. Hiding address offsets and variable alignments in nearly impossible to decipher macros is NOT helpful. This does not make it easier to learn assembly. I found myself learning more about a tool that I'll never use after finishing this book than about SPARC assembly.

Second, whoever edited the manuscript for this book should be fired. I found myself editing the book as I read so I could understand what the author was trying to say. I also found the language to be a bit obtuse in a few, unfortunately important, places.

Third, the diagrams in the book need some serious help as well. They were almost useless. Many of them made the topic being discussed more confusing. I found myself using Wikipedia or the Sparc V8 manual more than once.

All that said, the book does try to cover the important aspects of the SPARC architecture. I did get the needed information from the book, but it could have been organized and presented much better.

The book could be a great SPARC reference and tutorial book if these problems were addressed in a future edition.

Terrible!
I'm sorry, this book is an abomination! It makes a simple thing difficult. Students, prepare to suffer. This is one of the only SPARC books out there.

very clear, down-to-earth style
This is one the best books I've read on computing. The presentation is down to earth, as in "here's how a computer do such and such, it's not thaat difficult, see?' which i like very much. It's a complete contrast to Hennesy & Patterson's 'Computer Architecture', which spends most of its pages surveying grand technologies this and that without really getting down to details. If you like to understand & build things yourself rather than admiring other peoples 'technologies', I think you'd like this book. For me, it's also a great place to learn how to write a compiler, because the approach is clear & simple, not overfed with formal-language theory that's the norm in compiler design texts. ... Read more

Product Description
The author has a gift for conveying highly complex, technical information in an exceptionally clear and readable manner with a very student oriented writing style. In this book he stresses the basics of 68000 assembly Language (ASL) while also covering the more recent members of the 68000 family. He excels at explanations by analogy, explaining unfamiliar concepts through comparison with related topics the student has already learned. Moreover, the book does not simply introduce assembly language it covers the design of assembly language programs. Also this book provides an introduction to the 68000 ASL, it does not neglect the more complex instructions such as LINK and UNLK. The author's ties with Motorola and his exacting standards have resulted in an extremely accurate presentation. The examples and problems have been class tested, and technical staff of Motorola have worked with the author on the production of this book. This wealth of reference material for 68000 ALS ensures that the reader gets a solid grounding in 68000 assembly language together with materials not readily available in Motorola's manuals, including an annotated instruction set. The cross-assembler/simulator software (3.5 DOS disk) is bound with the book, allowing readers to use their IBM PCs or compatibles as a laboratory on which to test their ASL code for the 68000 processor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Good buy.
Good book, a little dry though. Does teach whats necessary, at least the concept. Quite a bit outdated, but once again a good stepping stone for learning. Do not use the compiler given, instead use Easy68K. Download it online, its got slightly different syntax, but most will not notice it.

Decent book on boring,outdated subject
Like many of you looking at this book, I was required to take an assembly language course for my degree. For those of you new to assembly language, it is a horribly frustrating way to write simple programs. This book does a mediocre job at introducing the language, with emphasis on theory rather than implementation. If you're going to actually write assembly language programs, you'll definitely need more help than this book offers.

not as advertised
this book came in pretty crappy condition, binding is very weak and feels like the book is about to fall apart. not a very honest seller. FIRST BAD EXPERIENCE ON AMAZON, will never buy from this seller again.

still germane for an important family of chips
Clements demonstrates that the 68000 assembler language is a very logical and clean one. With none of that segmented memory nonsense of the 1980s Intel architecture. Having a flat address space makes your coding far simpler. Perhaps you might not appreciate this from a reading of Clements, if you have never had any experience with the other chip set. But those who have will certainly thank Motorola.

As this review is written in 2005, the 68000 family is still selling well. It has a heavy presence in embedded microcontrollers and real time systems, for example. So if your company wants you to code in the 68000, the book is still germane.

me interesa adquirir este libro con fines de aplicacion
deseo saber mas sobre estos procesadore ... Read more

Product Description
/*4204Q-9, 0-13-142044-5, Britton, Robert, MIPS Assembly Language Programming, 1/E*/ Users of this book will gain an understanding of the fundamental concepts of contemporary computer architecture, starting with a Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC).An understanding of computer architecture needs to begin with the basics of modern computer organization.The MIPS architecture embodies the fundamental design principles of all contemporary RISC architectures.This book provides an understanding of how the functional components of modern computers are put together and how a computer works at the machine-language level. Well-written and clearly organized, this book covers the basics of MIPS architecture, including algorithm development, number systems, function calls, reentrant functions, memory-mapped I/O, exceptions and interrupts, and floating-point instructions. For employees in the field of systems, systems development, systems analysis, and systems maintenance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

MIPS Assembly Lanaguage Programming
This is meant for a college course.A little too high level for someone who knows assembly language already and wants MIPS specifics.

Great reference
I hope you never have to program in assembly language.Actually, I hope I never have to do it again, but if I do, you can bet I'll refer to this book.It's a very good tool, and it got me through my computer org class.

Extremely useful reference
It has a lot of examples and lists of commands. You can learn MIPS straight out from this single book. No need to look elsewhere, this is the only book you'll ever need.

Excellent for Assembly Language beginners
This book in an excellent introduction to Assembly language. What I thought to be very difficult programming language isn't actually such a monster after all.

Just a "warning," the assembly language instruction set here is smaller and the processor architecture is less complex than, say, an Intel x86 processor. However, if you want to get a feel of how Assembly language is, this is definitely a good book.

The book isn't monstrous in pages so that's a plus. What I like about this fact is, I can actually reread the chapter if I don't think I understood it enough.

I gave it 5 stars because although it is not perfect, it suits my needs for information beyond enough. ... Read more

Product Description
(Pearson Education) A guide for learning assembly language programming for IBM personal computers. Explains the elements of both the hardware and the language, providing the technical details needed to get the reader started. Offers new information on video components and video programming as well as several other subjects. Previous edition: c1998. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Not Good Enough For Beginners
This book is a required text in an undergrad class on Assembly Language that I was taking. I found this book to be too difficult for a beginner simply, not because of the sophisticated concepts introduced here but because of the errors and lack of explanation. The latter half of the book is essentially like a reference and provided no explanation most of the time. Even for the example programs given in the text, there was not sufficient explanation. I also found that most of the programs (particularly in the latter half) do not work at all. I could fix a few bugs in some programs to make them work, however, this is a time consuming effort. Unless you have a really good instructor who can help you with the bugs and explanation of the code, I will not recommend this book. While I struggled with this book and managed to get an 'A' grade, I would look elsewhere if I had to do it all over again!

Too concise for a college textbook
First, please understand that I purchased this book for a college class in assembly, but I am also a programmer with 15 years professional experience, and some of material is not new to me.I have read a great number of programming books, and with that said, this book has little value beyond reference.It makes brief mention of advanced concepts I am trying to learn, and then jumps elsewhere.The examples are hard to follow, and often to not provide instructions on recreating them.I am purchasing another book to supplement this class, as I will never learn the material from this book.

An Excellent Overview of Assembly Language
While not perfect for the beginning x86 assembly language programmer, Abel's text is an excellent overview of the basic and intermediate concepts of x86 assembly. This text covers many of the commands of the x86 instruction set and is an excellent introduction to learning about various BIOS and DOS interrupts.Herein lies a slight problem with the text.Relying too heavily on the "old world" of DOS and Windows 95/98 (and possibly - depending on your system - Windows 2000), this text often takes for granted that you are running on an older Microsoft-based x86 system.As long as you can overcome this compatibility "hurdle", this text is an excellent source for learning about x86 assembly.It covers the topic of machine code, which is of prime importance for those who are interested in writing assembler and compilers (and for writing succinct assembly), and also has copious notes on all the instructions taught in the text.

a reference book...
This book is not recommended to anyone who just started learning assembly, as they're very hard to understand.
For beginners, I would highly recommend "80x86 IBM PC AND COMPATIBLE COMPUTERS (Volumes I & II)" by Muhammad Ali Mazidi, which also covers the subject thoroughly.

Seriously Flawed
As a computer science student with 20 years of programming experience, I encountered Peter Abel's book (Fifth Ed.) published by Prentice Hall while taking an Assembly Language programming class.

It is, bar none, the single worst computer language and programming resource I have ever had the misfortune to encounter.Not only does it lack critical details about methodology, it fails to include comprehensible explanations about the examples already provided. If it were simply that it was incomprehensible it might still be acceptable as a resource later on when clearer and more concise means of learning the subject are used.But this book contains more out and out flaws than the Beta release of Windows XP.Many of the programs included as examples of a concept in action DO NOT WORK.In fact, there are serious operative flaws in them.Further, several of the questions do not match the terminology found in the text, there are more typos and omissions in this book than in the average High School newspaper and actually learning anything useful and productive from this book alone would take an IQ higher than 180.

If someone has years of programming experience IN ASSEMBLY, then it would probably make sense.As an aid to teaching the subject, not only does Mr. Abel miss the mark, he doesn't even aim in the right direction.For a student, this book is the academic equivalent of a twenty car freeway pile-up.Avoid it at all costs. ... Read more

Product Description

Processor designs can be broadly divided into CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computers) and RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computers). The dominant processor in the PC market, Pentium, belongs to the CISC category, and Linux is fast becoming the number one threat to Microsoft’s Windows in the server market. This unique guidebook provides comprehensive coverage of the key elements of Assembly language programming, specifically targeting professionals and students who would like to learn Assembly and intend or expect to move to the Linux operating system.

The book instructs users on how to install Linux on existing Windows machines, providing DVDs containing the complete Fedora Core 3 Linux distribution. Readers are introduced to Linux and its commands, and will gain insights into the NASM assembler (installation and usage). This highly useful guidebook comes complete with all the necessary software (Linux, NASM, debugger), making it an extremely valuable resource tool for all those who want to learn Assembly programming and Linux.

Customer Reviews (2)

Just bought it
I just got this book in the mail so have no had a chance to go through the entire thing, but looking at the contents, I can tell at least a few chapters are wasted on topics such as:

Installing Linux: pgs 79 - 114
Using Linux: pgs 115 - 149

I can forgive a dozen pages devoted to getting, installing and using NASM since that info might be needed by a real novice. IMO, if you are looking to do assembly-level programming on Linux, and you don't know anything about Linux and don't even have it installed.... better learn something easier first.... there are entire volumes dedicated to using Linux... no need to waste space in an ASM level programming book.

Otherwise, this book looks very good. Much better than "Linux Assembly Language Programming". Don't get that book; I own both and this book has proven more useful in 2 days than the other one in 2 years.

Easy way to learn Assambly language, and implement in Linux
This book begin with a good introduction of what assembly language is and who can be implemented, give you step by step all information you need to learn and use this language, if you use Linux on intel X86 based machines and you are interested in learn assembly, this book will be very helpful. ... Read more

Product Description
The authors provide a comprehensive guide to Assembly language for the Intel 8086 family through to 80386. The programmer reading this book will be able to write efficient assembly programs, understand extended and protected mode, and be familiar with Microsoft's Macro Assembler. ... Read more

Product Description
This updated textbook introduces readers to assembly and its evolving role in computer programming and design. The author concentrates the revised edition on protected-mode Pentium programming, MIPS assembly language programming, and use of the NASM and SPIM assemblers for a Linux orientation. The focus is on providing students with a firm grasp of the main features of assembly programming, and how it can be used to improve a computer's performance. All of the main features are covered in depth, and the book is equally viable for DOS or Linux, MIPS (RISC) or CISC (Pentium). The book is based on a successful course given by the author and includes numerous hands-on exercises. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

good skill to cultivate, for any programmer
The Pentium chip dominates the desktop, and this book reflects that. It teaches you the ideas in assembly programming, with a clear emphasis on doing so for the Pentium.

Dandamudi also provides a concise summary of the history of the Pentium, going way back to the 8085 and 8080, around 1982. From these sprang the x86 family. All the way to the 486. But AMD's pesky nipping at the heels caused Intel to lose copyright to "586"; from which Pentium was chosen as the new copyrightable label. Alas, Intel never pushed "Sextium" but instead used "Pentium Pro".

The book has copious examples of assembly code. These are extensively documented inline, to an extent that you will rarely see in most real code. The pedagogy should be clear to most readers. Who are also encouraged to try the problems provided in each chapter. Assembly programming is very different from coding in a higher language like C or Java, and it is a worthy skill to cultivate. And one that is independent of the actual processor family that you code in. If nothing else, the text gives you an underlying qualitative understanding of how higher languages are ultimately expressed in binary executables.

I suppose I should say that there is also some coverage of alternative chip families in the book. Notably some RISC processors. These form a conceptually distinct approach to designing a microprocessor.

Great book on Assembly Language
Previously the books on Assembly I have read have been either 100 percent Intel syntax or have been based on DOS Debug, which is pretty antiquated. Reading this book introduced a number of new concepts and was for the most part an enjoyable read. First thing though, this book is designed as a textbook. While the book does cover the basic syntax in Assembly, I feel that it would be a difficult to read for a beginner who has not at least wet their feet in some form of assembly. It is definitely meant to be a book used in a classroom with an experienced facilitator covering the material. Being that it is a textbook, it does have nice exercises at the end of each chapter, if you can get passed the mental block of doing "homework", which are very helpful in understanding the material. The content of the book is very good. A detailed explanation of the different memory models used in the x86-programming model was very informative. I unfortunately did not get passed the Pentium processor programming, but I look forward to going over the MIPS processor when I get a chance and something to develop on. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Ford & Topp 68000 Assembly Language
Ford and Topps work is well structured,organised and clear. For
students and professional engineers wishing to master Motorola's
68000 and its siblings' assembly language this is an excellent text. The sections abound with examples and in pointing out how the orthogonal architecture of this processor and its rich addressing modes ease I/O programming as also for data structures.. linked lists, decision trees and so forth. The weakness if any is in the programming of the more sophisticated the second generation interface graphic, memory management chips which work in the asynchronous mode as also some discussion on the assembler vs high level block structured languages like C or C++. I hope to see this corrected in future editions. ... Read more

Product Description
This book provides an introduction to assembly language programming and computer architecture in an easy to understand manner, focusing on the popular Intel 8086 and Motorola 68000 microprocessors. With the accompanying disk, the reader is encouraged to run the programs and experiment with them. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Good Introduction, Joe! Where is the next?
Like many people, I came to Assembly from C++. Most Assembly books were hard for me because I needed a book that addresses Assembly for those who know C/C++. This book does exactly that. It shows clearly the differences and parallels between both languages. Using this book from your knowledge of C/C++, you would be able to learn Assembly. All programs that I have tested so far finely assemble in TASM. I wish Joe would write a second edition and address other issues he left because this is just an introductory small book. It is really wonderful.

An excellent book, I even wrote Joe Carthy a thank you note!
If you still have unanswered questions about the addressing modes,relationship between C and Assembly, this small book will simplify it foryou.I wish there would be more computer books by Joe Carthy.It was ajoy to read this one! ... Read more

Product Description
As the best way to gain an understanding of how a computer processor works at the lower levels, assembly language programming is essential background for every computer science and electronic engineering student. It is, however, often considered an arcane and complex discipline, because many first encounter it through the daunting instructions and registers of the Intel 8086 family.

Programming in a simple RISC architecture is very different due to the elegant and compact instruction set. Students of this text who have never programmed before and who study it simultaneously with a course on a higher-level language report that it is easier and more logical to program in assembly!

Introduction to RISC Assembly Language Programming:
is based around the MIPS RISC processor, a simple, clean RISC processor whose architecture and assembly language is easy to learn and understand
speeds up the learning process by enabling the reader to start writing simple assembly language programs early, while assuming no prior knowledge of computer programming
links with an automatic program testing system, allowing a lecturer to set programming questions and mark the assignments automatically, or a reader to test a MIPS assembly language program against numerous test inputs
uses the SPIM simulator, a freely available virtual machine that allows users to write and simulate running MIPS R2000/R3000 assembly language programs on PC, Macintosh or UNIX platforms. with excellent source-level debugging tools contains a large number of example programs and programming questions
is supported by related software freely available via the Web http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~jwaldron ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Fair book
This book is really not worth the price. It is not that helpful other than finding out what commands are available. You can do that using Google for free.

Great for learning MIPS Assembly Language
Great to learn about assembly language programming in general and MIPS computer RISC architecture in particular.Very readable with many good, understandable examples and good reference tables for the beginning assembly language programmer.

I recommend althought the book seems somewhat over priced for its size and content.

Overly terse and oblique coverage of difficult concepts
This book is designed to be an introductory primer into Assembly language programing, in particular, on the MIPS processor.Assembly language programming is a subject that can a bit difficult for a reader to wrap his/her head around, even if programming in a higher level language is in his/her background.Not surprisingly, a good book on this subject takes its time to go over the subject in detail, and explain exactly what is happening.By contrast, this book seems to take an overly brusque approach to the whole subject, and the reader is often left guessing about the precise meaning of individual commands.Typos are not uncommon throughout the book, and the organization is not useful.The information, such as it is, appears to be correct for the most part (typos excluded) which keeps this from being a 1 star rating.But when a reader is new to the subject, and still confident that they could write a better book...well, it's a very bad sign.

I would suggest looking at "See MIPS Run", by Dominic Sweetman...I've not read it myself, but there are good reviews on Amazon, and I've heard good things about it from others, as well.

Great Book to learn Mips Assembly Language
I enjoyed this book, I learn how to program Mips platforms with Assembly language, If you want to learn how to program in assembly language for the Mips this is the book to start, Very understandable book, nice teaching, Nice work John Waldron!. ... Read more

Product Description
The revised edition to cover the most recent releases of both Microsoft's Macros Assembler and Borland's Turbo Assembler. Written from a programmer's perspective, this power-packed text explains how to use the most popular assemblers, linkers, and debuggers. Includes a comprehensive reference section. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Useful collection of information
This book contains a useful collection of information for assembly language programmers. A good tutorial, with lots of examples for implementation using either Microsoft or Borland Assemblers. All of the DOSand BIOS routines are here, along with examples on incorporating assemblylanguage sub-routines into high level languages. Even though I abandonedTASM for the Isaacson Assembler, my copy of this book is very well thumbed. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This is the best book of assembly language there is
This is the best book I've read about assembly language.It even has apart on boolean algebra and it describes very thoroughly the languageitself ... Read more

Product Description
This textbook introduces the reader to assembly languageprogramming and its role in computer programming and design. Theauthor concentrates on covering the 8086 family of processors up toand including the Pentium. The focus is on providing students with afirm grasp of the main features of assembly programming, and how itcan be used to improve a computer's performance. All of the mainfeatures are covered in depth: stacks, addressing modes, arithmetic,selection and iteration, and bit manipulation; and amongst theadvanced topics covered are: string processing, macros, interrupts andinput/output handling, and interfacing with higher-level languagessuch as C. A particular strength is the discussion of the improvementsin performance that can be achieved using assembly programming whereappropriate. The book is based on several years of a successful courseoffered by the author and includes numerous hands-on exercises forstudents to undertake. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Easy to Learn Assembly Programming
I found this book easy to read and learned a great deal from it.My background is a C/C++ programmer, who needs to do a little assembly programming at times.This is the best book I have found.My search was not exhaustive, but I did read chapters from a half-dozen other books and found them unacceptable.On the downside, there are more grammatical errors than the average programming book has, but this did not detract from its ability to teach the subject.There is also some repetition, but I found this helpful because it presented the more complex topics from a different angle and reinforced what I was trying to learn.Overall, I was very impressed with the clear and thorough explanations.

Free assembler
I am the author of the book. The book's home page has detailed instructions to download free Microsoft assembler (MASM). You can also download the source code of all the programs used in the book. Forinstructors and students, viewgraph slides are available for all thechapters.

Good for undergraduate courses
This book can be a good choice for Computer Architecture introductory courses using IA32 as ISA reference. It can be useful for students as a general reference. However, complementary classic texts are also needed tocover a course, because the text of Dandamudi refers only to IA32, lacks adesiderable formal approach, and covers poorly (or does not cover) sometypical issues (floating-point, DMA).

Readers beware!
Good introductory books on assembly language are hard to come by, especially for the Intel platform. This is an attempt to fill the gap, and looking through the topics covered, it looks promising. Unfortunately, thelanguage is so poor that the book is virtually unreadable. Almost everypiece of information is repeated 2 or 3 times, sometimes resulting in analmost comical effect.

So, better luck with another book... ... Read more

Product Description
Explains all the key features of c86 assembly language in the context of Linux operating system and the C language. Uses a step-by-step, one-concept-at-a-time coverage to help the user master essentials skills. CD-ROM includes the Open Source assembler NASM, edinas, and sample device drivers from the text. Softcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

It may have you losing your interests in reading...
This book was written in very poor style. "Discussions" are very obscure and I've found myself hard to keep up with the author's ideas. I cannot call it a hardware text, neither a software one. It is just a mixed in which many relating ideas are cursorily represented in a style of listing rather than discussion; itconfuses rather than clarifies. Many occasions, you will find yourself in a desperate situation to understand what the author talks about. The book slows you down from reading due to its obscurity and disorganized representation. For beginners ??? no, forget about it...

Not much specific about Linux. May be good for beginners
As other reviewers already mentioned, there's little about this book that is specific to Linux, besides brief mentions about system calls and how the Linux kernel manages memory using paging and doesn't use segmentation (although it did in earlier versions). The syntax used is also that of NASM, which is similar to MASM (Microsoft Assembler) and thus very different from the AT&T syntax used by the GNU tools such as GAS (the GNU Assembler). So don't get it expecting to see a lot of consideration about specific quirks to assembly programming under Linux.

But this would not fit into the book, anyway. It is clearly geared towards beginners: the material is quite basic and superficial, and assumes no previous knowledge of assembly, only a basic C programming background. The second chapter begins by describing the typical fetch-execute cycle of a CPU; this is very superficial and does not take account of pipelining, superscalar execution and other effects present in current processors. But it does give an idea about how the hardware works. Then there are chapters about arithmetic in different bases and binary signed arithmetic, a basic introduction to assembly, machine language, dealing with memory, the stack, and interrupts. Then there is a strange chapter in a book about Linux assembly language programming: DOS programs. It seems that the book was being prepared for DOS but then it became obsolete and the material was reworked to cater to Linux programmers.

Nevertheless, though quite basic and not enough about Linux, it can serve as a quick introduction to assembly programming for beginners. The organization could be better too, but I don't think it's that confusing. A beginner would have to look for other books after this, though, and an experienced programmer would be better off skipping it altogether.

Skip it
I didn't really find this book useful at all. I mean for one, it's titled as a Linux ASM book, but an entire chapter is focused on DOS assembly.

It's a very disorganized book and I wasn't able to write a single working assembly program using this book. I picked up the following book to get a grasp of assembly:

Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers

Not Linux specific; examples might not even work in Linux but the book is awesome at explaining the ops, registers and give short examples.

Also jump on comp.lang.asm.x86... very helpful people.

Beginners only?
I'll admit, the title is more than a bit misleading. The book is written for an introductory course in assembly language programming, and that's what it does. All the assembly is in intel syntax, no AT&T, which is what is predominantly used in linux programming. However, it is good at what it is meant for. It teaches the reader about assembly language, and how the operating system works. I found it to be an extremely easy introduction, and I believe knowledge I've gained from it will allow me to move on toward more extensive programming. I've used C and assembly for many years on my own, and I found things in here which made much more clear the reasons behind some of the 'fluff' in my open source programming projects.

Have to agree with other reviewers...
This book is disappointing to say the least.... No reference on AT&T syntax etc. The information presented is rather disparate & lacks coherency, very confusing & difficult to excogitate. As a neophyte, I would like to be able to access all references in a central location, where I can check the assembly command; see it's syntax; look up the CPU instruction; check it's syntax & see how it relates to the register in question, whilst at the same time I want a brief description of the register; what it's name means & what it does; have a list of system call numbers; their descriptions & functions etc. Kernel internals were briefly discussed but left much wanting. Free documentation served me much better. If you know what you want it's all availible online. ... Read more