Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 6th Aug 2012 21:50 UTC, submitted by iseyler
I asked for more of this, and I got it. "There has been much interest in assembly lately (whether the real 6502, or the fictional DCPU-16; I even created my own virtual 8-bit CPU called i808 in 2007), but none of this attention focuses on the architecture that is most popular in today's computers. If you are reading this on a desktop, laptop, or server then your computer is most likely using x86-64 (or x86). x86-64 is the 64-bit superset of the 32-bit x86 architecture and any modern CPU from AMD or Intel supports it. This document will focus on the most used parts of x86-64."
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Member since:2010-03-08
For regular apps and utilities, probably not. Nowadays, I'd say that Assembly snippets only makes sense for low-level code (like OS kernels and drivers), down and dirty security exploits, and software where one really wants to get the most performance out of hardware at all costs (like video codecs).
As an everyday programming language, it just makes it too hard for developers to organize themselves well.
Edited 2012-08-07 09:06 UTC
Member since:2011-01-04
Member since:2010-03-11
I think learning a little Assembly is a good idea. Not because you're likely to use it, but because it gets you thinking about how the machine works, what it is good at and what takes a long time. Once you've coded a few things in Assembly you get a better appreciation for what your (higher level) code is doing. I certainly found learning Assembly got me into a better mindset for writing in other languages, especially C/C++.
Quite often developers, especially high level language developers, will just throw complex or repetitive code at a problem without thinking about how it works, why it will be slow or how it might be improved. Learning Assembly and how it works can help you develop better approaches to your coding elsewhere.
Member since:2011-01-04
I have learned a bit of assembly programming many years back in a school (for some kind of primitive microprocessor) and kind of liked assembly language. And I've owned computers long enough to know a bit about the internals (C64 was my first), so there is probably no good reason to re-learn assembler programming if there's no real advantage over using regular programming languages.
Member since:2005-07-08
Apart from learning more about the internals of the CPU, is there a good reason to learn assembly language at all these days if one just wants to develop regular apps/utilities? In my case for Linux/Ubuntu/Gnome...
If you even plan to develop:
- drivers;
- operating systems utilities;
- games;
- compilers (either ahead-of-time or JIT based);
- audio or video codecs;
- develop applications that need to run in embedded systems
- numeric code for statistics like FFT
- optimization of code compreension
Than knowing Assembly is really a must.
If you spend you time developing code in languages with native code generation (C, C++, FreePascal, D, Go), or using V8, compatible JVM or CLR then Assembly is important to understand how the high-level algorithms influences the generated Assembly.
Because you can ask to see the generated Assembly and then compare it with the algorithm.
Knowing Assembly makes it also easy to know how to manipulate JVM bytecode or MSIL, and with it perform low level meta-programming. This is how Aspects work, for example.
Another example is how Qt 5 will make use of SIMD instructions to do perform encoding conversions,
http://woboq.com/blog/utf-8-processing-using-simd.html
Member since:2011-08-08
If you even plan to develop:
- drivers;
- operating systems utilities;
- games;
- compilers (either ahead-of-time or JIT based);
- audio or video codecs;
- develop applications that need to run in embedded systems
- numeric code for statistics like FFT
- optimization of code compreension
Than knowing Assembly is really a must.
- drivers;
- operating systems utilities;
- games;
- compilers (either ahead-of-time or JIT based);
- audio or video codecs;
- develop applications that need to run in embedded systems
- numeric code for statistics like FFT
- optimization of code compreension
Than knowing Assembly is really a must.
While being well-versed in asm can have advantages, saying it's a must for at least half the things you've listed is absolutely untrue.
Member since:2005-08-18
- drivers;
Depends on the OS and what hardware you develop the driver for.
- operating systems utilities;
I'm not sure exactly what you qualify as os utilities and why they would require assembler.
- games;
Depends on what kind of game. If it's a demanding FPS or something, yes. If not then probably no. No asm needed for using, say, PyGame, some other tookit or iPhone/Android games.
- develop applications that need to run in embedded systems
I doubt assembler is a hard requirement for this.
Features
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/13/13 14:35 UTC
The third and final WWDC product I want to talk about is - of course - OS X 10.9 Mavericks. While iOS 7 was clearly the focus of this year's WWDC, its venerable desktop counterpart certainly wasn't left behind. Apple announced OS X 10.9 Mavericks, the first OS X release not to carry the name of a big cat.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/11/13 17:07 UTC
We already talked about iOS 7 yesterday (after a night of sleep, it's only looking worse and worse - look at this, for Fiona's sake!), so now it's time to talk about the downright stunning and belly flutters-inducing new Mac Pro. As former owner and huge, huge, huge fan of the PowerMac G4 Cube - I haven't been this excited about an Apple product since, well, I would say the iMac G4. This is the Apple I used to love.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/10/13 23:13 UTC
Apple held its big keynote event thing at WWDC earlier this evening, but since I was away with friends I've had to read up on it later in the evening. The company announced iOS 7, OS X 10.9 Mavericks, and they gave a preview of the new Mac Pro. Especially the Mac Pro impressed me, and while iOS 7's new Holo/Metro-inspired theme looks messy and garish to me, I do commend Apple for finally breaking the mold. This news item will focus on iOS 7 - I'll dive into the Mac Pro and OS X 10.9 tomorrow (it's late here now).
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/08/13 14:57 UTC
And yes, the PRISM scandal is far, far from over. More and more information keeps leaking out, and the more gets out, the worse it gets. The companies involved have sent out official statements - often by mouth of their CEOs - and what's interesting is that not only are these official statements eerily similar to each other, using the same terms clearly designed by lawyers, they also directly contradict new reports from The New York Times. So, who is lying?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/07/13 11:40 UTC
This story is getting bigger and bigger. Even though most Americans probably already knew, it is now official: the United States government, through its National Security Agency, is collecting the communications and data of all American citizens, and of non-Americans using American services, through a wide collaboration with the large companies in technology, like Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and so on. Interestingly enough, the NSA itself, as well as the US government, have repeatedly and firmly denied this massive spying on Americans and non-Americans took place at all.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/04/13 12:45 UTC
Ah, patents - the never-ending scourge of the technology industry. Whether wielded by companies who don't actually make any products, or large corporations who abuse them because they can't compete in the market place or because they're simply jerks, they do the industry a huge disservice and are simply plain dangerous. According to The Wall Street Journal (circumvention link), president Obama is about to take several executive actions to address patent trolls - which may seem like a good idea, but I am very worried that all this will do is strengthen the positions of notorious patent system abusers such as Apple and Microsoft.
Linked by nfeske on 05/31/13 10:12 UTC
With version 13.05, the developers of the Genode OS Framework take measures to ensure that Genode continues to scale well with a growing number of users and the steadily broadening platform coverage. Further highlights are the improved SoC support for Exynos 5, OMAP4, Raspberry Pi, i.MX, and new components for realizing headless systems.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/29/13 16:59 UTC
At the D11 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook once again took the stage to be interviewed by Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher. While most of the interview can be replicated by picking and reading 10 random Apple fanblog stories - there were still a number of very interesting things that warrant some closer scrutiny.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/24/13 17:26 UTC
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/21/13 21:38 UTC
At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!More Features »
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Member since:
2011-01-04
I would agree. This seems to be nothing but a (far too rough) overview.
Having said that, are there good real world examples for x64-64-assembly programming? As in: something one can use as a starting point for writing apps?
And the next question: Apart from learning more about the internals of the CPU, is there a good reason to learn assembly language at all these days if one just wants to develop regular apps/utilities? In my case for Linux/Ubuntu/Gnome...