Learning Assembly

Hi, can someone tell me what can be done with Assembly and where can I learn it?

Thanks

Anything can be done in assembly.

You can learn it from some of the links posted here: http://forums.devshed.com/other-pro...ist-349687.html (scroll down)

I found some books but the titles are:

Windows 32-bit edition
Linux 32-bit edition
DOS 16-bit edition

I use Mac OS X, what tutorials should I look for?

If its a Power Mac, you need some stuff on IBM's Power PC chips.

Lots of info and links at this IBM site

It's not a Power Mac, it's an Intel iMac.

You should first learn a very traditional RISC instruction set, and once you feel comfortable move to a modern RISC or CISC instruction set. The reason is that modern RISC processors have become more complex, while the traditional ones were extremely simple. All CISC processors (like Intel x86) are complex, as well as most VLIW processors (which are largely only in embedded systems).

In your place, I would learn MIPS (see the SPIM simulator). Two excellent books based on MIPS, which focus on processor architecture rather than pure programming, is of course Computer Organization and Design and the lesser known See MIPS Run.

Once you're ready you'll probably find good books on Intel x86, PowerPC, MC68000, and SPARC (pick your poison!). If you choose the ISA on your desktop, be warned that certain instructions will be off-limits by modern operating systems and you'll need to drop down to a less restrictive mode (e.g. DOS). By this, I'm refering to superuser/kernal/ring-0 mode operations.

After you've gotten this far, if you're up for it, you can then look into an advanced assembly programming text which will focus purely on programming. This assumes that you are already familar with microprocessor design (and that family of chips), which is a prereq for any assembly programming.