CS 213 Documents, Fall '01

GDB documentation

• GDB Summary sheet (ps, pdf, txt)

Intel IA32 and Pentium III documentation

For this course, we will be using the Gnu GCC compiler to generate code targeted to machines running Intel IA32 (popularly known as ``x86'') programs under Linux. GCC uses an assembler format known as ``GAS'' (for Gnu ASsembler). The documentation on this particular combination of machine and assembler format is a bit spotty. Here are some useful resources:

• Some information extracted from the GCC info pages about GAS format for IA32 (known in the GCC world as ``i386'') in text format. This documentation is helpful if you are either familiar with the Intel/Microsoft assembly format, or if you do much reading of the Intel manuals.

• Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual
  • Volume 1: Basic Architecture (pdf, ps2up.gz). Chapters 3--6 contain useful information. Note that much of this documention is irrelevant---we are only running in ``flat'' addressing mode, and GAS does not support conditional moves, MMX, or SSE instructions. The overall document is 369 pages long. You probably don't want to print it out.
  • Volume 2: Instruction Set Reference (pdf, ps2up.gz). Chapter 3 contains a detailed description of every instruction. Note that they list the operands in the reverse order from their ordering in GAS. This manual is 854 pages long. You definitely don't want to print it out.
  • Volume 3: System Programming (pdf, ps2up.gz). Contains lots of useful information on the interface between the hardware and the operating system, including cache and TLB specs, virtual memory, exceptions and interrupt handling, and processes.

• Microprocessor Report article on the Intel P6 microprocessor. This later became known as the PentiumPro, and was the basis for the Pentium II, Pentium III, and Celeron processors. (ps.gz, pdf)

Additional information on buffer overflow bugs (Class 09)

• Description of AOL's buffer overflow exploit on AIM clients.
• Description of 1988 Internet Worm. (ps)

Supplementary Info on Dynamic Memory Allocation (Classes 21 and 22)

• P. Wilson, M. Johnstone, M. Neely, and D. Boles, "Dynamic Storage Allocation: A Survey and Critical Review", International Workshop on Memory Management, Kinross, Scotland, Sept, 1995. (ps)