Hello,

I have two older assembly books, one from 1998 and the other from 1999, both on assembly language for the IBM PC/Intel-based computer. Would these still be relevant today? Can they teach me how to program in assembly code for the current crop of x86 and x86_64 processors? How about for the next generation of CPU's or for other chip architectures (i.e., Sun T1)?


Here are the book specifics:

IBM PC Assembly Language and Programming, Fourth Edition
Peter Abel
Prentice Hall, (c)1998
ISBN 0137566107

Assembly Language for Intel-Based Computers, Third Edition
Kip R. Irvine
Prentice Hall, (c)1999
ISBN 0136603904

I would say they're still relevant as Intel-syntax is still usable; NASM is a free assembler that uses the Intel syntax.

GAS, the GNU Assembler comes complete with both Intel and AT&T syntax.

EDIT: Here's the GAS Manual and the NASM manual.

Kip Irvine's book is good. This question has been asked a couple of times now, I think you would be well served to check out the responses to the older threads as well. You won't see anything for x64 in there, but it isn't very different from x86, but different enough that you won't be able to use the examples straight out of the book.

Really not very useful for other architectures, although having learnt assembler for one architecture, learning a second is probably a lot easier than learning your first.

There is also a bit of x86 stuff that will be missing from these books, but its stuff that you probably won't want to use (the recent additions to the instruction sets, for example). On the other hand, some of the more recent changes are 'it looks the same to the programmer, it just works faster' changes.

So, in part, it depends on what you want to achieve. if you are into deterministic real-time programming or gaming, you'll need the latest and greatest. If you are into 'noddy programs, could write in anything', maybe you would want to consider writing in something other than assembler (C, C++, python, perl, ruby).

If, on the other hand, you think its just a worthwhile intellectual achievement to learn assembler, go ahead; you won't be learning everything, but it will still be much better than nothing.