Assembly Language for Beginners

1.24. STRUCTURES

( S—sign )

#include <stdio.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <memory.h>

struct float_as_struct
{
unsigned int fraction : 23; // fractional part
unsigned int exponent : 8; // exponent + 0x3FF
unsigned int sign : 1; // sign bit
};

float f(float _in)
{
float f=_in;
struct float_as_struct t;

assert (sizeof (struct float_as_struct) == sizeof (float));

memcpy (&t, &f, sizeof (float));

t.sign=1; // set negative sign

t.exponent=t.exponent+2; // multiply d by 2 n(n here is 2)

memcpy (&f, &t, sizeof (float));

return f;
};

int main()
{
printf ("%f\n", f(1.234));
};

Thefloat_as_structstructure occupies the same amount of memory asfloat, i.e., 4 bytes or 32 bits.

Now we are setting the negative sign in the input value and also, by adding 2 to the exponent, we thereby
multiply the whole number by 22 , i.e., by 4.

Let’s compile in MSVC 2008 without optimization turned on:

Listing 1.353: Non-optimizing MSVC 2008

_t$ = -8 ; size = 4
_f$ = -4 ; size = 4
__in$ = 8 ; size = 4
?f@@YAMM@Z PROC ; f
push ebp
mov ebp, esp
sub esp, 8

fld DWORD PTR __in$[ebp]

fstp DWORD PTR _f$[ebp]

push 4

lea eax, DWORD PTR _f$[ebp]

push eax

lea ecx, DWORD PTR _t$[ebp]

push ecx

call _memcpy

add esp, 12

mov edx, DWORD PTR _t$[ebp]

or edx, -2147483648 ; 80000000H - set minus sign

mov DWORD PTR _t$[ebp], edx

mov eax, DWORD PTR _t$[ebp]

shr eax, 23 ; 00000017H - drop significand

and eax, 255 ; 000000ffH - leave here only exponent