A86 (software)
| Developer(s) | Eric Isaacson |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 4.05 |
| Operating system | DOS, Windows |
| Platform | x86 |
| Type | Assembler |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website |
eji |
A86 is a compact commercial assembler developed for the Intel x86 family of microprocessors by Eric Isaacson and initially sold as shareware in the 1980s. The assembler can directly produce an MS-DOS compatible .COM file, or an object file for use with a standard linker. A86 uses a slightly simpler syntax for source code and does not require the extensive use of directives as do contemporaries such as the Microsoft Macro Assembler. Isaacson claims that A86 can assemble 100,000 lines of source per second on a Pentium II or better.[1] It comes with a debugger, D86.[2][3]
A86/D86 target 16-bit x86 platforms. Isaacson added 32-bit support in the mid 1990s in the form of A386 and D386.[2][3]
Isaacson never ported the A86 family of products to Windows, though it is possible to use the object files created by A386 with a Windows linker.[4] The assembler cannot be used to create 64-bit code.
Code fingerprint
The assembler automatically embeds a "fingerprint" into the generated code through a particular choice of functionally equivalent instruction encodings. This makes it is possible to tell if code was assembled with A86, and also to distinguish between registered and unregistered versions of the assembler, although access to the source code is required.[5]
References
- ↑ Isaacson, Eric (2006). "A86/A386 and D86/D386 features".
- 1 2 Isaacson, Eric (2008). "A86/A386 assembler and D86/D386 debugger". Archived from the original on 2 July 2008. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
- 1 2 Randall Hyde. "Which Assembler is the Best?". Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-18.
- ↑ Isaacson, Eric (2006). "A386 and Win32 Programming".
- ↑ El-Khalil, Rakan; Keromyti, Angelos D. (2004). "Hydan: Hiding Information in Program Binaries" (PDF). In Lopez, Javier; Qing, Sihan; Okamoto, Eiji. Information and communications security: 6th International Conference, ICICS 2004, Malaga, Spain, October 27–29, 2004 : Proceedings. Lecture notes in computer science 3269. Springer. p. 190. ISBN 3-540-23563-9.
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