Microprocessor Assignment

Submitted to - Submitted by -
Gunjun Maam Shubham Sharma (W-1230)
B.Sc(H) CS 5 sem

Q) What are Program Invisible Registers ? What is their significance in protected mode ?
A) The global and local descriptor tables are found in the memory system. In order to access and
specify the address of these tables, the 80286Core2 contain program-invisible registers. The
program invisible registers are not directly addressed by software so they are given this name.These
registers control the microprocessor when operated in protected mode. Program Invisible Registers
are the cache portions of the segment registers and GDTR and IDTR
The global descriptor table register (GDTR) and interrupt descriptor table register (IDTR) has the
base addresses of the descriptor table and its boundary. The limit of all descriptor tables is 16 bits
since the maximum table length is 64 Kbytes. The addresses of the GDT and IDT and their limits
(up to 64K bytes) are loaded in special registers, GDTR and IDTR, before switching to Protected
Mode is possible.

Q) For a core2 descriptor that contains a base address of 00280000H, a limit of 00010H, and G=1,
what starting and ending locations are addressed by this descriptor?
A) Start = Base = 00280000H
G=1
Since G = 1 , the value of the limit is multiplied by 4K bytes (appended with FFFH)
End = Base + Limit = 00280000H + 00010FFFH= 00290FFFH

Q) In the real mode, show the starting and ending addresses of each segment located by the
following segment register values:
(i) 2300H
(ii) E000H
A)
Segment Register Start Address End Address = Start + Offset
(Append 0H at end) (Offset=FFFFH)
2300H 23000H 23000H + FFFFH = 32FFFH
E000H E0000H E0000H + FFFFH = EFFFFH

Q) If the DS register contains 0020H in a protected mode system, which global descriptor table
entry is accessed?
A) In the DS register, so
DS= 0020H or
DS= 0000 0000 0010 0000
Here the 2 rightmost bits corresponds to RPL(Request Privelege Level). RPL=00(Highest)
The next bit in the right is 0 which shows that it accesses the Global Descriptor Table(GDT).
The Selector has the remaining 13 bits i.e. 0000 0000 0010 0 or Selector = 4 (in hexadecimal).
Thus 4 is accessed in GDT.

Q) Determine the memory location addressed by the following real mode Core2 register
combinations:
(i) DS = 2000H and EAX = 00003000H
(ii) DS = 1A00H and ECX = 00002000H
A)
Segment Register Segment Address The Memory Location {Add Content of register to
{Append 0H at end} Segment Register Address}
2000H 20000H 20000H + 00003000H = 000023000H
1A00H 1A000H 1A000H + 00002000H = 00001C000H