Z80 Assembly - Instructions: Working With Data

The notation op8 denotes either A, B, C, D, E, H, L, IXH, IXL, IYH, IYL, (HL), (IX+n), (IY+n) or a 8-bit immediate (constant).

Arithmetic operations

This section includes all the instructions that perform basic mathematical operations.

ADD

Syntax: add a,op8 (8 bits) or add reg16,reg16 (16 bits), where you can use the following combinations (the first operand is on the left column):

The value of the two operands is added together, and the result is written back to the first one. In the case of 8-bit additions the N flag is reset, P/V is interpreted as overflow. The rest of the flags is modified by definition. On the other hand, 16-bit additions preserve the S, Z and P/V flags, and H is undefined. For example, if the result is out of the range (8 or 16 bits depending on the first operand), the carry flag is set.

SUB

Syntax: sub op8

The value of the operand is subtracted from A, and the result is also written back to A. The N flag is set, P/V is interpreted as overflow. The rest of the flags is modified by definition. There is no 16-bit version.

ADC

Syntax: adc a,op8 (8 bits) or adc hl,reg16 (16 bits, reg16 can be BC, DE, HL or SP)

The sum of the two operands plus the carry flag (0 or 1) is calculated, and the result is written back into the first operand. The N flag is reset, P/V is interpreted as overflow. The rest of the flags is modified by definition. In the case of 16-bit addition the H flag is undefined.

SBC

Syntax: sbc a,op8 (8 bits) or sbc hl,reg16 (16 bits, reg16 can be BC, DE, HL or SP)

The sum of the second operand and the carry flag (0 or 1) is subtracted from the first operand, where the final result is written back as well. The N flag is set, P/V is interpreted as overflow. The rest of the flags is modified by definition. In the case of 16-bit subtraction the H flag is undefined.

INC

Syntax: inc op8 (immediate values are of course invalid) or inc reg16 (reg16: BC, DE, HL, IX, IY or SP)

Increments the value of the operand by one. 8-bit increments preserve the C flag, reset N, treat P/V as overflow and modify the others by definition. 16-bit increments do not alter any of the flags.

DEC

Syntax: dec op8 (immediate values are of course invalid) or dec reg16 (reg16: BC, DE, HL, IX, IY or SP)

Decrements the value of the operand by one. 8-bit decrements preserve the C flag, set N, treat P/V as overflow and modify the others by definition. 16-bit decrements do not alter any of the flags.

NEG

This instruction has no operands. When it is executed, the value in A is multiplied by -1 (two's complement). The N flag is set, P/V is interpreted as overflow. The rest of the flags is modified by definition. This instruction is completely equivalent to cpl a followed by inc a (both in execution time and in size).

DAA

Decimal Adjust Accumulator; no operands are needed. When this instruction is executed, the A register is BCD corrected using the contents of the flags. The exact process is the following: if the least significant four bits of A contain a non-BCD digit (i. e. it is greater than 9) or the H flag is set, then $06 is added to the register. Then the four most significant bits are checked. If this more significant digit also happens to be greater than 9 or the C flag is set, then $60 is added. If this second addition was needed, the C flag is set after execution, otherwise it is reset. The N flag is preserved, P/V is parity and the others are altered by definition.

Logical operations

These are the instructions that perform bit-level manipulation.

OR

Syntax: or op8

Performs bit-wise OR between A and the operand, and writes the result back to A. The C and N flags are cleared, P/V is parity, and the others are altered by definition. An example:

        %00101110
        %10011101  i. e. only two zeroes give zero, all the other combinations result in one
        ---------
        %10111111 (result)

AND

Syntax: and op8

Performs bit-wise AND between A and the operand, and writes the result back to A. The C and N flags are cleared, P/V is parity, and the others are altered by definition. An example:

        %00101110
        %10011101  i. e. only two ones give one, all the other combinations result in zero
        ---------
        %00001100 (result)

XOR

Syntax: xor op8

Performs bit-wise XOR (exclusive or) between A and the operand, and writes the result back to A. The C and N flags are cleared, P/V is parity, and the others are altered by definition. An example:

        %00101110
        %10011101  i. e. inequality gives one, while equality gives zero as a result
        ---------
        %10110011 (result)

CPL

This instruction has no operands. It gives the one's complement of A, i. e. all the bits of A are reversed individually. It sets the H and N flags, and leaves the others intact.

SET

Syntax: set n,op8 (n is a number between 0 and 7, op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

As its name suggests, this instruction sets the n^th bit of the operand given. The flags are preserved.

RES

Syntax: res n,op8 (n is a number between 0 and 7, op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

The instruction resets the n^th bit of the operand given. Again, the flags are preserved.

SCF

This is the "Set Carry Flag"instruction, which simply alters the flags. Besides setting the C flag, it clears H and N as well.

CCF

"Complement Carry Flag”, i. e. negating the C flag. Besides, N is cleared and H holds an undefined value after execution.

Shift operations

This set of instructions does binary shifting, which is equivalent to multiplications and divisions with (powers of) 2. Rotations also belong to this group.

SLA

Syntax: sla op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

The bits of the operand are shifted leftwards, bit 0 (the least significant bit) is reset. The bit leaving the operand on the left appears in the carry. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

SRA

Syntax: sra op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

The bits of the operand are shifted rightwards, except for bit 7 (the most significant bit), whose value is left intact (the sign is preserved). The bit leaving the operand on the right appears in the carry. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

SLL (SL1)

Syntax: sll op8 or sl1 op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

This instruction is undocumented, and incompatible with the subsequent generations of the CPU (e. g. the Z380 does not support it), therefore you should avoid using it. However, it should work on every Z80 processor. The bits of the operand are shifted leftwards, bit 0 is set to one. The bit leaving the operand on the left is lost. The C, H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

SRL

Syntax: srl op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

The bits of the operand are shifted rightwards, bit 7 is reset. The bit leaving the operand on the right appears in the carry. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

RL

Syntax: rl op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

9-bit rotation to the left. The bit leaving on the left is copied into the carry, while the old value of the carry appears in bit 0 of the operand. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

RR

Syntax: rr op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

9-bit rotation to the right. The bit leaving on the right is copied into the carry, while the old value of the carry appears in bit 7 of the operand. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

RLA

There are no operands to this instruction. It is the same as rl a except that it is faster and does not change the S, Z and P/V flags.

RRA

There are no operands to this instruction. It is the same as rr a except that it is faster and does not change the S, Z and P/V flags.

RLC

Syntax: rlc op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

8-bit rotation to the left. The bit leaving on the left is copied into the carry, and to bit 0 of the operand as well. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

RRC

Syntax: rrc op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

8-bit rotation to the right. The bit leaving on the right is copied into the carry, and to bit 7 of the operand as well. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition.

RLCA

There are no operands to this instruction. It is the same as rlc a except that it is faster and preserves the S, Z and P/V flags.

RRCA

There are no operands to this instruction. It is the same as rrc a except that it is faster and preserves the S, Z and P/V flags.

RLD

This instruction has no operands. It is a 4-bit leftward rotation of the 12-bit number whose 4 most significant bits are the 4 least significant bits of A, and its 8 least significant bits are in (HL). I. e. if A contains %aaaaxxxx and (HL) is %yyyyzzzz initially, their final values will be A=%aaaayyyy and (HL)=%zzzzxxxx. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition. The carry flag is preserved.

RRD

This instruction has no operands. It is a 4-bit rightward rotation of the 12-bit number whose 4 most significant bits are the 4 least significant bits of A, and its 8 least significant bits are in (HL). I. e. if A contains %aaaaxxxx and (HL) is %yyyyzzzz initially, their final values will be A=%aaaazzzz and (HL)=%xxxxyyyy. The H and N flags are reset, P/V is parity, S and Z are modified by definition. The carry flag is preserved.

Test operations

The following instructions are used to verify data and store the results in the flags.

CP

Syntax: cp op8

This is a virtual subtraction from A, without writing back the result. You can regard it as a sub op8 that affects only the flags. The most important examples: if A = op8 then the C flag is reset, and Z is set. If A < op8, C is set and Z is reset. If A > op8 then both C and Z are reset.

BIT

Syntax: bit n,op8 (op8 cannot be immediate, IXH, IXL, IYH or IYL)

The opposite of the n^th bit of the second operand is written into the Z flag. The carry is left intact, N is reset, H is set, while S and P/V are undefined.

CPI

There are no operands. This is a cp (hl); inc hl; dec bc combined in one instruction. The carry is preserved, N is set and all the other flags are affected as defined. P/V denotes the overflowing of BC, while the Z flag is set if A=(HL) at the time of the comparison.

CPD

The same as cpi but with HL being decremented.

CPIR

Simply cpi repeated until either BC becomes zero or A is equal to (HL).

CPDR

The only difference from cpir is that HL is decremented during each iteration.

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