176k views
3 votes
Can you do memory-memory transfer with a single mov instruction?

User Plastique
by
8.6k points

1 Answer

2 votes

Final answer:

Direct memory-to-memory transfers with a single mov instruction are typically not possible in Assembly language programming. Instead, a register must be used as an intermediary to perform the transfer in two steps.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Assembly language programming, the mov instruction is used to copy data from one location to another. However, it's important to note that the mov instruction typically only supports specific types of transfers such as register to register, memory to register, register to memory, and immediate to register/memory. A memory-to-memory transfer directly using a single mov instruction is not possible in most instruction sets because this would require the instruction to use two memory operands at the same time, which is generally not supported due to the complexity of addressing and the potential for increased execution time.

To move data from one memory location to another, you would usually need to use a register as an intermediary. For example, first you mov the data from the source memory location to a register, then you transfer the data from the register to the destination memory location with another mov instruction.

User Josephdpurcell
by
7.0k points