CMP and the Zero Flag

Part of the Arithmetic and Control Flow section of Coddy's Assembly journey. Lesson 6 of 28.

cmp left, right sets status flags as if it subtracted the right operand from the left, but stores no numeric result. The zero flag is set when the operands are equal. A later conditional jump reads those flags.

mov rax, 12
mov rbx, 12
cmp rax, rbx

The operands are equal, so the zero flag is set. cmp leaves rax at 12.

cmp changes flags and leaves its operands unchanged.

Use these instruction excerpts inside the supplied solve routine; the challenge provides the input and output code.

Challenge

Easy

Compare the signed test inputs in r8 and r9 with cmp, leaving its flags unchanged until the supplied ret. Both inputs are between -100 and 100.

Edit only the calculation inside solve: in solution.asm. The locked main.asm supplies the inputs. After your code returns, the harness prints the zero flag as 1 for equality or 0 for inequality, followed by a newline. Do not print output yourself. Keep cmp as your final calculation instruction; ret does not change its flags.

Try it yourself

bits 64
section .bss
    input_buffer resb 256
    output_buffer resb 32
    values resq 4
section .text
    global _start
    global values
    extern solve
_start:
    xor eax, eax
    xor edi, edi
    mov rsi, input_buffer
    mov edx, 255
    syscall
    test rax, rax
    jle .loaded
    mov rsi, input_buffer
    lea rdi, [input_buffer + rax]
    xor ecx, ecx
.scan:
    cmp rsi, rdi
    jae .loaded
    cmp ecx, 4
    jae .loaded
    movzx eax, byte [rsi]
    cmp al, 32
    jbe .space
    mov r10, 1
    cmp al, '-'
    jne .number
    mov r10, -1
    inc rsi
.number:
    xor rax, rax
.digit:
    cmp rsi, rdi
    jae .store
    movzx edx, byte [rsi]
    cmp dl, '0'
    jb .store
    cmp dl, '9'
    ja .store
    imul rax, rax, 10
    sub edx, '0'
    add rax, rdx
    inc rsi
    jmp .digit
.store:
    imul rax, r10
    mov [values + rcx * 8], rax
    inc ecx
.space:
    inc rsi
    jmp .scan
.loaded:
    mov r8, [values]
    mov r9, [values + 8]
    mov r10, [values + 16]
    mov r11, [values + 24]
    xor eax, eax
    call solve
    mov rax, 0
    sete al
    lea rsi, [output_buffer + 31]
    mov byte [rsi], 10
    mov ecx, 1
    xor r8d, r8d
    test rax, rax
    jns .positive
    mov r8d, 1
    neg rax
.positive:
    mov ebx, 10
.convert:
    xor edx, edx
    div rbx
    add dl, '0'
    dec rsi
    mov [rsi], dl
    inc ecx
    test rax, rax
    jnz .convert
    test r8d, r8d
    jz .write
    dec rsi
    mov byte [rsi], '-'
    inc ecx
.write:
    mov edx, ecx
    mov eax, 1
    mov edi, 1
    syscall
    mov eax, 60
    xor edi, edi
    syscall