Software → Computer Architecture
Assembly Language
A low-level textual representation of machine instructions.
Motivation
Assembly language solves the problem of giving humans a readable form of machine-level instructions.
Where it fits
Assembly Language belongs to programming languages and computer architecture.
Mental model
Assembly is a textual representation of operations close to what the processor executes.
Common mistakes
- Thinking assembly is portable across CPU architectures.
- Assuming every high-level language maps simply to one assembly instruction.
Related concepts
Assembly Language connects to machine code, compiler, instruction set architecture, register, and CPU.