This programming diploma course begins by laying out the 8086 processor architecture (x86 processor). We then take you through commonly used assembly instructions and explain the use of stack and related instructions. We establish the role and many capabilities of microprocessors. You will also learn about stack, stack pointer and arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) instructions as we examine examples of different types of compilers like the GNU compiler collection (GCC), Turbo C and MS Visual C models.

The course goes on to break down how to convert C programs to assembly languages in either an optimized or unoptimized manner. We explain that many redundant operations have to be removed to optimize a piece of assembly code. Unless a compiler is used in a particular optimized mode, it may not be possible to always find the most optimized and quickest instruction set at the assembly level. We also teach you how to make use of the ‘PUSH’ and ‘POP’ operations to swap two variables in C.

We then go through the compilation steps in C programming. We study how high-level function calls are translated into low-level assembly instructions using the concepts of ‘prologue’ and ‘epilogue’ and how variables are passed and assessed in C. You will also learn how certain C functions are optimized by exploiting hardware loops. Finally, we show you how to compare the impact of recursion and loops to appreciate the importance of local variables’ security. This diploma course helps you master C programming to take the next step in your career

Prerequisites: This course requires a solid foundation and a good understanding of C programming.