I asked a similar question here but I changed assemblers and the question almost entirely changed, so in an effort to avoid question clutter I'm posting an entirely new question. Anyways, long story short, I'm on Windows 7 and I just installed NASM, and I'm trying to assemble a code listing from a book called Zen of Assembly by Michael Abrash. Here's the code for the listing:
;
; *** Listing 2-1 ***
;
; The precision Zen timer (PZTIMER.ASM)
;
; Uses the 8253 timer to time the performance of code that takes
; less than about 54 milliseconds to execute, with a resolution
; of better than 10 microseconds.
;
; By Michael Abrash 4/26/89
;
; Externally callable routines:
;
; ZTimerOn: Starts the Zen timer, with interrupts disabled.
;
; ZTimerOff: Stops the Zen timer, saves the timer count,
; times the overhead code, and restores interrupts to the
; state they were in when ZTimerOn was called.
;
; ZTimerReport: Prints the net time that passed between starting
; and stopping the timer.
;
; Note: If longer than about 54 ms passes between ZTimerOn and
; ZTimerOff calls, the timer turns over and the count is
; inaccurate. When this happens, an error message is displayed
; instead of a count. The long-period Zen timer should be used
; in such cases.
;
; Note: Interrupts *MUST* be left off between calls to ZTimerOn
; and ZTimerOff for accurate timing and for detection of
; timer overflow.
;
; Note: These routines can introduce slight inaccuracies into the
; system clock count for each code section timed even if
; timer 0 doesn't overflow. If timer 0 does overflow, the
; system clock can become slow by virtually any amount of
; time, since the system clock can't advance while the
; precison timer is timing. Consequently, it's a good idea
; to reboot at the end of each timing session. (The
; battery-backed clock, if any, is not affected by the Zen
; timer.)
;
; All registers, and all flags except the interrupt flag, are
; preserved by all routines. Interrupts are enabled and then disabled
; by ZTimerOn, and are restored by ZTimerOff to the state they were
; in when ZTimerOn was called.
;
Code segment word public 'CODE'
assume cs:Code, ds:nothing
public ZTimerOn, ZTimerOff, ZTimerReport
;
; Base address of the 8253 timer chip.
;
BASE_8253 equ 40h
;
; The address of the timer 0 count registers in the 8253.
;
TIMER_0_8253 equ BASE_8253 + 0
;
; The address of the mode register in the 8253.
;
MODE_8253 equ BASE_8253 + 3
;
; The address of Operation Command Word 3 in the 8259 Programmable
; Interrupt Controller (PIC) (write only, and writable only when
; bit 4 of the byte written to this address is 0 and bit 3 is 1).
;
OCW3 equ 20h
;
; The address of the Interrupt Request register in the 8259 PIC
; (read only, and readable only when bit 1 of OCW3 = 1 and bit 0
; of OCW3 = 0).
;
IRR equ 20h
;
; Macro to emulate a POPF instruction in order to fix the bug in some
; 80286 chips which allows interrupts to occur during a POPF even when
; interrupts remain disabled.
;
MPOPF macro
local p1, p2
jmp short p2
p1: iret ;jump to pushed address & pop flags
p2: push cs ;construct far return address to
call p1 ; the next instruction
endm
;
; Macro to delay briefly to ensure that enough time has elapsed
; between successive I/O accesses so that the device being accessed
; can respond to both accesses even on a very fast PC.
;
DELAY macro
jmp $+2
jmp $+2
jmp $+2
endm
OriginalFlags db ? ;storage for upper byte of
; FLAGS register when
; ZTimerOn called
TimedCount dw ? ;timer 0 count when the timer
; is stopped
ReferenceCount dw ? ;number of counts required to
; execute timer overhead code
OverflowFlag db ? ;used to indicate whether the
; timer overflowed during the
; timing interval
;
; String printed to report results.
;
OutputStr label byte
db 0dh, 0ah, 'Timed count: ', 5 dup (?)
ASCIICountEnd label byte
db ' microseconds', 0dh, 0ah
db '$'
;
; String printed to report timer overflow.
;
OverflowStr label byte
db 0dh, 0ah
db '****************************************************'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '* The timer overflowed, so the interval timed was *'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '* too long for the precision timer to measure. *'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '* Please perform the timing test again with the *'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '* long-period timer. *'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '****************************************************'
db 0dh, 0ah
db '$'
;********************************************************************
;* Routine called to start timing. *
;********************************************************************
ZTimerOn proc near
;
; Save the context of the program being timed.
;
push ax
pushf
pop ax ;get flags so we can keep
; interrupts off when leaving
; this routine
mov cs:[OriginalFlags],ah ;remember the state of the
; Interrupt flag
and ah,0fdh ;set pushed interrupt flag
; to 0
push ax
;
; Turn on interrupts, so the timer interrupt can occur if it's
; pending.
;
sti
;
; Set timer 0 of the 8253 to mode 2 (divide-by-N), to cause
; linear counting rather than count-by-two counting. Also
; leaves the 8253 waiting for the initial timer 0 count to
; be loaded.
;
mov al,00110100b ;mode 2
out MODE_8253,al
;
; Set the timer count to 0, so we know we won't get another
; timer interrupt right away.
; Note: this introduces an inaccuracy of up to 54 ms in the system
; clock count each time it is executed.
;
DELAY
sub al,al
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;lsb
DELAY
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;msb
;
; Wait before clearing interrupts to allow the interrupt generated
; when switching from mode 3 to mode 2 to be recognized. The delay
; must be at least 210 ns long to allow time for that interrupt to
; occur. Here, 10 jumps are used for the delay to ensure that the
; delay time will be more than long enough even on a very fast PC.
;
rept 10
jmp $+2
endm
;
; Disable interrupts to get an accurate count.
;
cli
;
; Set the timer count to 0 again to start the timing interval.
;
mov al,00110100b ;set up to load initial
out MODE_8253,al ; timer count
DELAY
sub al,al
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count lsb
DELAY
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count msb
;
; Restore the context and return.
;
MPOPF ;keeps interrupts off
pop ax
ret
ZTimerOn endp
;********************************************************************
;* Routine called to stop timing and get count. *
;********************************************************************
ZTimerOff proc near
;
; Save the context of the program being timed.
;
push ax
push cx
pushf
;
; Latch the count.
;
mov al,00000000b ;latch timer 0
out MODE_8253,al
;
; See if the timer has overflowed by checking the 8259 for a pending
; timer interrupt.
;
mov al,00001010b ;OCW3, set up to read
out OCW3,al ; Interrupt Request register
DELAY
in al,IRR ;read Interrupt Request
; register
and al,1 ;set AL to 1 if IRQ0 (the
; timer interrupt) is pending
mov cs:[OverflowFlag],al ;store the timer overflow
; status
;
; Allow interrupts to happen again.
;
sti
;
; Read out the count we latched earlier.
;
in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;least significant byte
DELAY
mov ah,al
in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;most significant byte
xchg ah,al
neg ax ;convert from countdown
; remaining to elapsed
; count
mov cs:[TimedCount],ax
; Time a zero-length code fragment, to get a reference for how
; much overhead this routine has. Time it 16 times and average it,
; for accuracy, rounding the result.
;
mov cs:[ReferenceCount],0
mov cx,16
cli ;interrupts off to allow a
; precise reference count
RefLoop:
call ReferenceZTimerOn
call ReferenceZTimerOff
loop RefLoop
sti
add cs:[ReferenceCount],8 ;total + (0.5 * 16)
mov cl,4
shr cs:[ReferenceCount],cl ;(total) / 16 + 0.5
;
; Restore original interrupt state.
;
pop ax ;retrieve flags when called
mov ch,cs:[OriginalFlags] ;get back the original upper
; byte of the FLAGS register
and ch,not 0fdh ;only care about original
; interrupt flag...
and ah,0fdh ;...keep all other flags in
; their current condition
or ah,ch ;make flags word with original
; interrupt flag
push ax ;prepare flags to be popped
;
; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
;
MPOPF ;restore the flags with the
; original interrupt state
pop cx
pop ax
ret
ZTimerOff endp
;
; Called by ZTimerOff to start timer for overhead measurements.
;
ReferenceZTimerOn proc near
;
; Save the context of the program being timed.
;
push ax
pushf ;interrupts are already off
;
; Set timer 0 of the 8253 to mode 2 (divide-by-N), to cause
; linear counting rather than count-by-two counting.
;
mov al,00110100b ;set up to load
out MODE_8253,al ; initial timer count
DELAY
;
; Set the timer count to 0.
;
sub al,al
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count lsb
DELAY
out TIMER_0_8253,al ;load count msb
;
; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
;
MPOPF
pop ax
ret
ReferenceZTimerOn endp
;
; Called by ZTimerOff to stop timer and add result to ReferenceCount
; for overhead measurements.
;
ReferenceZTimerOff proc near
;
; Save the context of the program being timed.
;
push ax
push cx
pushf
;
; Latch the count and read it.
;
mov al,00000000b ;latch timer 0
out MODE_8253,al
DELAY
in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;lsb
DELAY
mov ah,al
in al,TIMER_0_8253 ;msb
xchg ah,al
neg ax ;convert from countdown
; remaining to amount
; counted down
add cs:[ReferenceCount],ax
;
; Restore the context of the program being timed and return to it.
;
MPOPF
pop cx
pop ax
ret
ReferenceZTimerOff endp
;********************************************************************
;* Routine called to report timing results. *
;********************************************************************
ZTimerReport proc near
pushf
push ax
push bx
push cx
push dx
push si
push ds
;
push cs ;DOS functions require that DS point
pop ds ; to text to be displayed on the screen
assume ds:Code
;
; Check for timer 0 overflow.
;
cmp [OverflowFlag],0
jz PrintGoodCount
mov dx,offset OverflowStr
mov ah,9
int 21h
jmp short EndZTimerReport
;
; C
