Starting out with Assembly Language

Starting out with Assembly Language

Back in my student days, I was also able to use Turbo Assembler because my course requires it and we studied the assembly language. It is a very long time and I can no longer recall the commands used though I still kept my notes in assembly language. When I was still studying, I can create a program in assembly language that can light up small LEDs.

The LEDs are interfaced in the printer port of the CPU. The printer port has many small holes where the printer cable connects to and we have a code for every small hole. We also created a miniature house as our last school project before graduating. The mini house is installed with several LEDs inside to serve as the light.

It also has a gate where it slides to the side of the wall. The sliding motion of the gate is controlled by a small motor which is originally installed on a micro floppy disk drive. The motor and all the LEDs are interfaced in the printer port and controlled by a program.

Of course, I am the one who personally build and designed the program done in assembly language. I am assigned on building the program and doing all the interfaces on the computer while the rest of the members where all doing the miniature house. Since you want to learn and build a program with assembly language, I guess the best program to use is the Turbo Assembler.

You can download the very last version from Turbo Assembler 5 [TASM]. It also includes the patches so you can upgrade it to Turbo Assembler 5.3. Remember, TASM or Turbo Assembler is no longer supported by Borland and the program is available as is. If you are patient with the assembly language, you can create programs that can access the BIOS.

My schoolmates before were able to create a program that resets the password in the CMOS. I’ve also used it but I lost it later on.