x64 summary sheet

Registers

64-bit 32-bit 16-bit 8-bit
%rax %eax %ax %al Often used for function return value
%rbx %ebx %bx %bl callee-saved
%rcx %ecx %cx %cl arg4
%rdx %edx %dx %dl arg3
%rsi %esi %si %sil "index" register, arg2
%rdi %edi %di %dil arg1; see BOH p 245
%rbp %ebp %bp %bpl "base pointer", not always needed; callee-saved
%rsp %esp %sp %spl stack pointer; some special hardware implications
%r8 %r8d %r8w %r8b arg5; r8-r15 were added with x86-64
%r9 %r9d %r9w %r9b arg6
%r10 %r10d %r10w %r10b
%r11 %r11d %r11w %r11b
%r12 %r12d %r12w %r12b callee-saved
%r13 %r13d %r13w %r13b callee-saved
%r14 %r14d %r14w %r14b callee-saved
%r15 %r15d %r15w %r15b callee-saved
%rip


the instruction pointer; not directly available

callee-saved register: if P calls Q, and Q wants to modify the register, Q is responsible for saving it on entry and restoring it on exit.
caller-saved register: if P calls Q, and P has something in the register it will need later, then P must save it first. Q is not responsible.

Operand formats

Move instructions (and most others) must have at least one operand be a register; memory-to-memory moves are disallowed.
First operand is the source, second operand is the destination

immediate movl    $13, %eax move decimal 13 into eax
hex immediate operands use $0xdeadbeef format
immediate src, indirect dest movl    0x25,(%rdi) move 37 to address pointed to by %rdi
memory absolute movl  $0xdeadbeef,%eax seldom used, except to probe certain fixed addresses
memory indirect movl  (%rbx), %rax copy memory pointed to by %rbx to %rax
base+displacement movl 100(%rbx),%rax copy memory 100 bytes past where %rbx points
copy to %rax
indexed movl (%rbx,%rdi),%rax memory at address %rbx+%rdi
indexed with displacement movl 16(%rbx,%rdi), %rax
 memory at address %rbx+%rdi + 16
scaled indirect movl (,%rdi,4),%rax memory address at 4*%rdi. Rare. Note comma.
scaled indexed movl (%rbx,%rdi, 4),%rax memory address at %rbx + 4*%rdi.
Common with arrays.
scaled indirect with displacement

scaled indexed with displacement

Move instructions

movb/movw/movl/movq: move data from source to destination of the same size

movzbw, movzbl, movzwl, movzbq, movzwq: move from shorter to longer (b = 8 bit, w=16bit, l=32bit, q=64 bit), extending with zeros movs does the same but with sign-extension.

pushq S    Push 64-bit value S onto the stack; decrement %rsp by 8
popq D     Pop 64-bit value from stack and place into D; increment %rsp by 8
ret            Pop return address from stack and jump there

Arithmetic instructions

Unary:    inc D,  dec D: increment and decrement

leaq S,D:     Load effective address of S into D
add S,D:      Add S to D
sub S,D:      Subtract S from D
imul S,D:     Multiply D by S; 64-bit result  (there is no 64-bit-source divide instruction)
xor S,D:       D is assigned S xor D
or  S,D:        D is the logical or of S and D
and S,D        likewise

sal k,D         left shift D by k bits; same as shl
sar k,D        right shift D by k bits, adding copies of the sign bit at left
shr k,D         right shift D by k bits, adding zero bits at left

Condition codes, set by add and sub (but not lea)

Compare instructions

cmpb, cmpw, cmpl, cmpq. cmpq S,D asks "how does D compare to S", as if it computed D-S. See jg and jl below.

Jump instructions