Assembly Language Questions and Answers for Viva

Answer-1: Assembly Language is a low-level programming language that uses symbolic code to represent machine instructions.

Answer-2: Assembly Language uses human-readable mnemonics, while machine language consists of binary code.

Answer-3: It is closely related to machine code and provides minimal abstraction from the hardware.

Answer-4: An assembler is a tool that translates Assembly Language into machine code.

Answer-5: Mnemonics are symbolic names for machine instructions, such as MOV, ADD, or SUB.

Answer-6: Registers are small, fast storage locations in the CPU used to perform operations and store data.

Answer-7: Common registers include accumulator, data register, address register, and stack pointer.

Answer-8: Immediate addressing uses constant values, while direct addressing refers to a memory location.

Answer-9: An opcode (operation code) is the portion of an instruction that specifies the operation to be performed.

Answer-10: Operands are the data or addresses on which an operation is performed.

Answer-11: A label is a symbolic name representing a memory address in the program.

Answer-12: A segment is a division of memory used for storing code, data, and stack information.

Answer-13: It points to the top of the stack in memory.

Answer-14: An interrupt is a signal that temporarily halts the current process to execute a higher-priority task.

Answer-15: Hardware interrupts are generated by devices, while software interrupts are triggered by program instructions.

Answer-16: It stores the address of the next instruction to be executed.

Answer-17: A macro is a sequence of instructions that can be reused by calling its name.

Answer-18: Macros are expanded inline during assembly, while procedures are called during execution.

Answer-19: The MOV instruction transfers data from one location to another.

Answer-20: The ADD instruction performs addition of two operands.

Answer-21: The CMP instruction compares two values and sets the flags accordingly.

Answer-22: The JMP instruction transfers control to a specified label or address.

Answer-23: Conditional jumps depend on flags, while unconditional jumps always execute.

Answer-24: Flag registers store the results of operations, such as zero flag, carry flag, and overflow flag.

Answer-25: CALL transfers control to a procedure, and RET returns control to the calling program.

Answer-26: Little-endian stores the least significant byte first, while big-endian stores the most significant byte first.

Answer-27: PUSH stores a value on the stack, and POP retrieves it.

Answer-28: The INT instruction generates a software interrupt.

Answer-29: The address bus carries the memory addresses of instructions and data.

Answer-30: The data bus transfers actual data between the CPU, memory, and peripherals.

Answer-31: It allows precise control of hardware resources, minimizing overhead and latency.

Answer-32: The NOP instruction performs no operation and is used for timing or alignment.

Answer-33: A hardware register is a physical storage location in a processor used for specific tasks.

Answer-34: The LEA (Load Effective Address) instruction loads the address of an operand into a register.

Answer-35: Directives provide instructions to the assembler, such as defining data or setting alignment.

Answer-36: They define data of different sizes: DB (byte), DW (word), DD (double word).

Answer-37: Inline assembly allows embedding Assembly Language code within high-level language programs.

Answer-38: ORG sets the starting address of the program, and EQU defines constants.

Answer-39: Loops are implemented using conditional or unconditional jumps.

Answer-40: A linker combines multiple object files into a single executable.

Answer-41: An object file is the machine code output of an assembler, not yet linked into an executable.

Answer-42: It uses instructions to allocate, access, and manage memory directly.

Answer-43: An absolute address specifies a fixed memory location.

Answer-44: A relative address is specified as an offset from a base address.

Answer-45: Interrupts handle events such as I/O operations, timers, or system calls.

Answer-46: A stack frame is a section of the stack used for function parameters, local variables, and return addresses.

Answer-47: Recursion is implemented using the stack to store return addresses and local variables.

Answer-48: The HLT instruction halts the CPU until a reset or interrupt occurs.

Answer-49: It provides precise control over hardware and efficient resource usage.

Answer-50: It enhances understanding of computer architecture and helps optimize high-level code.