Book excerpt: Praised by experts for its clarity and topical breadth, this visually appealing, one-stop source on PCs uses an easy-to-understand, step-by-step approach to teaching the fundamentals of 80x86 assembly language programming and PC architecture. Offering students a fun, hands-on learning experience, it uses the Debug utility to show what action the instruction performs, then provides a sample program to show its application. Reinforcing concepts with numerous examples and review questions, its oversized pages delve into dozens of related subjects, including DOS memory map, BIOS, microprocessor architecture, supporting chips, buses, interfacing techniques, system programming, memory hierarchy, DOS memory management, tables of instruction timings, hard disk characteristics, and more.* Covers all the x86 microprocessors, from the 8088 to the Pentium Pro. * Combines assembly and C programming early on. * Introduces the x86 instructions with examples of how they are used, and covers 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit programming of x86 microprocessors. * Uses fragments of programs from IBM PC technical reference. * Shows students a real-world approach to programming in assembly. * Ensures a basic un