preface xix 1 basic concepts 1.1 welcome to assembly language 1.2 virtual machine concept 1.3 data representation 1.4 boolean operations 1.5 chapter summary 1.6 exercises 2 x86 processor architecture 2.1 general concepts 2.2 x86 architecture details 2.3 x86 memory management 2.4 components of atypical x86 computer 2.5 input-output system 2.6 chapter summary