x86 Basics

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 20:00:00 +0300

بسم الله

Peace be upon you. In this series we will cover the x86-64 assembly language and work through hands-on exercises. These articles are distilled from the MACC – FLARE Learning Hub course, which I studied recently; I hope God makes them beneficial for you.

1. Assembly and Disassembly

Let us start by defining some terms that will recur constantly throughout this course:

Assembly Code — often referred to simply as Assembly — is the textual representation of the machine code executed by the processor. It is the highest-level representation of a program that can be reliably recovered without access to the original source code. And while every computer architecture (such as x86, ARM, and MIPS) has its own assembly language, the fundamental principles you will learn here while analyzing x86 and its 64-bit extension (x86-64) are universal.

Processor Structure & Functions

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 10:00:00 +0300

بسم الله

In the previous article we talked about computer architecture and organization and the basic parts of a computer. Today, God willing, we dive a little deeper into the processor itself: its components, its functions, and how they work together.

Data Path & Control Unit

The processor consists of fundamental units:

The Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU), which performs arithmetic and logic operations.
The Control Unit (CU), which generates the control signals needed to coordinate the components.
Plus a set of fast-access registers.

These components divide into two main parts:

Registers on P01NT

x86 Basics

1. Assembly and Disassembly

Processor Structure & Functions

Data Path & Control Unit