FASM (''flat assembler'') is an

assembler Assembler may refer to: Arts and media * Nobukazu Takemura, avant-garde electronic musician, stage name Assembler * Assemblers, a fictional race in the ''Star Wars'' universe * Assemblers, an alternative name of the superhero group Champions of ...

for

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was introd ...

processors. It supports Intel-style

assembly language In computer programming, assembly language (or assembler language, or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as Assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence be ...

on the

IA-32 IA-32 (short for "Intel Architecture, 32-bit", commonly called i386) is the 32-bit version of the x86 instruction set architecture, designed by Intel and first implemented in the 80386 microprocessor in 1985. IA-32 is the first incarnation o ...

and

x86-64 x86-64 (also known as x64, x86_64, AMD64, and Intel 64) is a 64-bit version of the x86 instruction set, first released in 1999. It introduced two new modes of operation, 64-bit mode and compatibility mode, along with a new 4-level paging mod ...

computer architectures. It claims high speed, size optimizations,

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

(OS) portability, and macro abilities. It is a low-level assembler and intentionally uses very few

command-line A command-line interpreter or command-line processor uses a command-line interface (CLI) to receive commands from a user in the form of lines of text. This provides a means of setting parameters for the environment, invoking executables and pro ...

options. It is

free and open-source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is a term used to refer to groups of software consisting of both free software and open-source software where anyone is freely licensed to use, copy, study, and change the software in any way, and the source ...

. All versions of FASM can directly output any of the following: flat "raw"

binary Binary may refer to: Science and technology Mathematics * Binary number, a representation of numbers using only two digits (0 and 1) * Binary function, a function that takes two arguments * Binary operation, a mathematical operation that ta ...

(usable also as MS-DOS COM executable or SYS driver), objects:

Executable and Linkable Format In computing, the Executable and Linkable FormatTool Interface Standard (TIS) Portable Formats SpecificationVersion 1.1'' (October 1993) (ELF, formerly named Extensible Linking Format), is a common standard file format for executable files, obj ...

(ELF) or

Common Object File Format The Common Object File Format (COFF) is a format for executable, object code, and shared library computer files used on Unix systems. It was introduced in Unix System V, replaced the previously used a.out format, and formed the basis for exte ...

(COFF) (classic or MS-specific), or executables in either MZ, ELF, or

Portable Executable The Portable Executable (PE) format is a file format for executables, object code, DLLs and others used in 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows operating systems. The PE format is a data structure that encapsulates the information necessary fo ...

(PE) format (including WDM drivers, allows custom MZ DOS stub). An unofficial port targeting the

ARM architecture ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...

FASMARM
also exists.

History

The project was started in 1999 by Tomasz Grysztar, a.k.a. ''Privalov'', at that time an undergraduate student of mathematics from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It was released publicly in March 2000. FASM is completely written in

and comes with full source. It is self-hosting and has been able to assemble itself since version 0.90 (May 4, 1999). FASM originally ran in 16-bit flat real mode. 32-bit support was added and then supplemented with optional DPMI support. Designed to be easy to port to any operating system with flat 32-bit addressing, it was ported to Windows, then Linux.

Design

FASM does not support as many

high-level High-level and low-level, as technical terms, are used to classify, describe and point to specific goals of a systematic operation; and are applied in a wide range of contexts, such as, for instance, in domains as widely varied as computer scienc ...

statements as

MASM The Microsoft Macro Assembler (MASM) is an x86 assembler that uses the Intel syntax for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. Beginning with MASM 8.0, there are two versions of the assembler: One for 16-bit & 32-bit assembly sources, and another (ML64) ...

TASM Turbo Assembler (sometimes shortened to the name of the executable, TASM) is an assembler for software development published by Borland in 1989. It runs on and produces code for 16- or 32-bit x86 MS-DOS and compatible on Microsoft Windows. It ...

. It provides syntax features and macros, which make it possible to customize or create missing statements. Its memory-addressing syntax is similar to TASM's ideal mode and NASM. Brackets are used to denote memory operands as in both assemblers, but their size is placed outside the brackets, like in NASM. FASM is a multi-pass assembler. It makes extensive code-size optimization and allows unconstrained forward referencing. An unusual FASM construct is defining procedures only if they are used somewhere in the code, something that in most languages is done per-object by the

linker Linker or linkers may refer to: Computing * Linker (computing), a computer program that takes one or more object files generated by a compiler or generated by an assembler and links them with libraries, generating an executable program or shar ...

. FASM is based on the "same source, same output" principle: the contents of the resulting file are not affected by the command line. Such an approach saves FASM sources from compiling problems often present in many assembly projects. On the other hand, it makes it harder to maintain a project that consists of multiple separately compiled source files or mixed-language projects. However, there exists a Win32 wrapper called FA, which mitigates this problem. FASM projects can be built from one source file directly into an executable file without a linking stage.

IDE

Fresh, an internet community supported project started by John Found, is an

integrated development environment An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools a ...

for FASM. Fresh currently supports Microsoft Windows and Linux.

Use

Operating systems written with FASM: *

MenuetOS MenuetOS is an operating system with a monolithic preemptive, real-time kernel written in FASM assembly language. The system also includes video drivers. It runs on 64-bit and 32-bit x86 architecture computers. Its author is Ville M. Turjanma ...

– 32- and

64-bit In computer architecture, 64-bit Integer (computer science), integers, memory addresses, or other Data (computing), data units are those that are 64 bits wide. Also, 64-bit central processing unit, CPUs and arithmetic logic unit, ALUs are those ...

GUI operating systems by Ville Turijanmaa *

KolibriOS KolibriOS, or Kolibri, is a small, open-source x86 operating system written completely in assembly. It was forked from MenuetOS in 2004 and has run under independent development since. In a 2009 review piece on alternative operating systems, ...

Compilers that use FASM as a backend: *

PureBasic PureBasic is a commercially distributed procedural computer programming language and integrated development environment based on BASIC and developed by Fantaisie Software for Windows, Linux, and macOS. An Amiga version is available, although ...

* High Level Assembly (HLA) * BlitzMax

References

External links

* FASM project:
FASMLIB
0.8.0 – portable 32-bit x86 asm lib for FASM/MASM/YASM/NASM/GASM
FASMARM
– FASM for ARM processors, v1.27,
The Fresh IDE
{{X86 assembly topics 2000 software Assemblers DOS software Free software primarily written in assembly language Linux programming tools Programming tools for Windows Self-hosting software Unix programming tools

History

Design

IDE

Use

See also

References

External links