x86 Assembly

since 1979 (earliest usage recorded on this site was 1981)

The Intel 8088 and 8086 CPUs were 16-bit CPUs that first had an instruction set that is now commonly referred to as x86, they were an evolution of the previous generation of 8-bit CPUs such as the 8080, inheriting many characteristics and instructions, extended for the 16-bit era. The 8088 and 8086 both used a 20-bit address bus and 16-bit internal registers but whilst the 8086 had a 16-bit data bus, the 8088, intended as a low cost option for embedded applications, had an 8-bit data bus. The x86 assembly language covers the many different versions of CPUs that followed, from Intel; the 80188, 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium as well as non-Intel CPUs from AMD and Cyrix such as the 5x86 and K6 processors. The term x86 applies to any CPU which can run the original assembly language (usually it will run at least some of the extensions too).

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vangale

sceptreofjudah

karmakaze

undoingemptyvoid

AndyC

codewritinfool

fdrake

abtin

boutell

RCARDENES

cloudssanswater

dabeaz

Uche

sfaruque

bittercoder

ndw

greyfade

David

drakkos

givas

enki

mnulli

vvarp

rogerclark

randombit

madewulf

rizumu

ghoseb

eddymul

Josh

quakehead

bkopanja

jtauber

CerealBoy

z3d

daniellindsley

adamcik

cstejerean

Kanru

bibhas

smalltobi

thaostra

cagedmantis

akgerber

NX172

natevw

ranman

alexsuraci

vangale - 9 years

sceptreofjudah - 7 years

karmakaze - 22 years

undoingemptyvoid - 1 years

AndyC - 7 years

codewritinfool - 38 years

fdrake - 10 years

abtin - 38 years

boutell - 1 years

RCARDENES - 37 years

cloudssanswater - 8 years

dl - 18 years

dabeaz - 35 years

Uche - 7 years

sfaruque - 6 years

bittercoder - 10 years

ndw - 1 years

greyfade - 33 years

David - 31 years

drakkos - 29 years

givas - 7 years

enki - 28 years

mnulli - 4 years

vvarp - 1 years

rogerclark - 26 years

randombit - 11 years

madewulf - 24 years

rizumu - 1 years

ghoseb - 3 years

eddymul - 23 years

Josh - 2 years

quakehead - 5 years

bkopanja - 1 years

jtauber - 22 years

CerealBoy - 4 years

z3d - 1 years

daniellindsley - 1 years

adamcik - 1 years

cstejerean - 2 years

Kanru - 19 years

bibhas - 18 years

smalltobi - 2 years

thaostra - 18 years

cagedmantis - 3 years

akgerber - 17 years

NX172 - 17 years

natevw - 16 years

ranman - 16 years

alexsuraci - 15 years

vangale

1981–1989

First used this on the original IBM PC with two floppy disks. Learned it from reading the BIOS source code in the IBM manuals. There weren't any good text editors in these days so I wrote one completely in 8088 assembler. Used edlin to bootstrap it to the point where it could read files, save, insert, and delete. Finished up with 100k+ lines source code, 16k binary size. Did some more in late 80's with multi-tasking code on top of MS-DOS but haven't done any other assemblers since.

sceptreofjudah

1983–1989

I designed a complete upright video game system based on the 8088. After getting the board in production, coding was done in assembler on an Intel MDS. Higher-level routines were later done in 'C' using a PC with Xenix. Games: Casino Blackjack, Wild Arrow, Golden Arrow, Jokers Wild (first Joker Poker ever made), Stud Poker, Jacks 'A' Pair, etc... (Nevada Gaming).

undoingemptyvoid

1985

During college bought the FIG source listing for FORTH and typed it all in, x86 assembler. Then added a new function to position the cursor on the screen. Still liked Motorola better.

karmakaze

1985–2006

AndyC

1987–1993

Used it to speed up some routines in a IBM PC program. Also low level routines on the PC for serial communication and interrupt handling

fdrake

1987–1996

The first language I installed tools for on the first computer I owned, just 'cause I wanted to learn more.

abtin

1987–

codewritinfool

1987–

boutell

1988

I wrote a replacement INT14h driver for the serial port. Anything to get your BBS to stop dropping characters...

RCARDENES

1988–

Mainly through MS-DOS' "debug" tool. I had a x86 as first computer :(, and the programming possibilities on it (for me) back then were not that many, but I still tried to get the hang of assembly

cloudssanswater

1989–1996

dabeaz

1990–

Wrote a high performance SVGA graphics device driver library entirely in x86 assembler wrapped with an interface that allowed it to be called from Modula-2. Still sometimes dive into it for debugging and other low-level hacking.

1990–2007

useful for bringing python up on bare metal. cf http://en.literateprograms.org/Hello_World_(IBM_PC_bootstrap)

Uche

1990–1996

bittercoder

1991–2000

I mostly did "inline assembler" within C++ dialects. But also did a little MASM while studying. My love affair with assembler began after getting into the demo scene in the early 90's, where squeezing every last bit of performance out of line and texture blitting operations was important :)

sfaruque

1991–1996

This language introduced me into the world of programming.

greyfade

1992–

Got bored with QBasic, and accidentally stumbled on the "debug" command. Immediately went on a search at the library for 8086 programming books. Peter Norton's Programmer's Guide was as a Bible to me.

ndw

1992

David

1994–

drakkos

1996–

Learned in univeristy, plus I used to teach it a bit.

givas

1997–2003

Not full-time. Just boot loaders and other tools for fun and testing.

enki

1997–

vvarp

1998

Brief romance (just for shit and giggles)

mnulli

1998–2001

Oddly, I skipped from 8008 assembly in 1972 to "boot and get into protected mode" code for a Pentium equivalent in 1998, with only one instance of x86 assembly between, fixing a bug in the ESIX select() library call, circa 1990.

rogerclark

1999–

randombit

2000–2010

madewulf

2001–

I taught it for 7 years. It allowed me to understand how this recursion thing really works.

rizumu

2001

Took one semester of Assembly, really enjoyed the low level programming.

ghoseb

2002–2004