So, I had a perfectly working PRNG in Java like this:

public class WLPRNG {
    
    long seed;
    
    public WLPRNG(long seed) { this.seed = seed; }
    
    public int nextInt() {
        long result = seed + 0x123defca;
        result = Long.rotateLeft(result, 19);
        result += 0xbead6789;
        result *= 0x1234567c;
        
        int temp = (int)result;
        
        result ^= 0x5ecdab73;
        result = Long.rotateLeft(result, 48);
        
        if (temp % 4 == 0) result *= 0x87650027;
        
        result += 13;
        seed = result;
        
        return (int)result;
    }

    public byte nextByte() {
        return (byte)nextInt();
    }
}

And I thought I’d test out the Assembler version like this:

; random number generator to be used in crypto transmission
; of sensitive data over the internet

; WLGfx 2017-Nov-19

        section .text

global  main

extern  printf

srand:  mov     [seed],rax                      ; set random seed
        ret

arand:  mov     rax,[seed]                      ; get seed
        mov     rbx,qword 0x023defca321acfed
        add     rax,rbx                         ; add 64 bit value
        rol     rax,19                          ; rotate bits
        mov     rbx,qword 0xbead6789
        add     rax,rbx                         ; another add
        imul    rax,qword 0x1234567c            ; a multiple this time
        mov     rbx,rax                         ; copy into rbx
        xor     rax,qword 0x5ecdab73            ; flip some bits
        rol     rax,48                          ; rotate bits again
        mov     rcx,rax                         ; copy to rcx
        and     rax,0x3                         ; mask and test with 0
        jnz     .notz                           ; 25% chance of other ops
        mov     rax,rbx
        add     rcx,rax
        mov     rbx,qword 0x87650027
        imul    rax,rbx
        jmp     .cont
.notz   mov     rax,rcx                         ; back into rax
.cont   mov     [seed],rax                      ; store into seed
        and     rax,0xff                        ; return byte value only
        ret

main:   mov     rax,9                           ; set seed
        call    srand

        mov     dword[lc],10                    ; set loop counter

.loop   call    arand                           ; get random byte

        push    rbp                             ; stack frame
        mov     rsi,rax                         ; random number
        mov     rdi,pf_msg                      ; format string
        xor     rax,rax                         ; 0
        call    printf                          ; call printf
        pop     rbp                             ; stack frame

        sub     dword[lc],1                     ; dec loop counter
        jnz     .loop
        
        ret

        section .data

seed    dq      0,0,0,0                         ; random seed value 64 bit
lc      dd      10                              ; loop counter

pf_msg  db      "Number: 0x%02x",10,0

Using the build script:

#!/bin/bash
nasm -f elf64 random.asm
gcc -o random random.o

Gives a sample output of:

 ~/dev/asm/tests $ ./buildrand.sh 
 ~/dev/asm/tests $ ./random 
Number: 0xe0
Number: 0x5b
Number: 0xca
Number: 0x7c
Number: 0xfc
Number: 0x2d
Number: 0x79
Number: 0xa5
Number: 0x62
Number: 0x7f

All I need to do now is to be able to link directly to C and C++ code. I’m currently reading up on threading in assembler, but it looks like the standard pthreads are just the same really.

There’s lot’s of potential for using assembler.

So, I wanted to start playing about with assembler again. Mainly so I could use it for data encryption over the internet. Here’s a simple sample of printing 64 bit numbers as hex.

section .text
global  main

extern  printf

; use printf to print 64 bit hex string

_test:  push    rbp

        mov     rsi,0x1234567890abcdef
        mov     rdi,pf_msg
        xor     rax,rax
        call    printf

        pop     rbp
        
        ret

main:   call    _test
        
        mov     edx,len
        mov     ecx,msg
        mov     eax,4
        int     128
        
        ;mov     eax,1
        ;int     128
        
        xor     rax,rax
        ret

section .data

msg     db      "Hello world!",10
len     equ     $ - msg

; some testing stuff

pf_msg  db      "Register = %016llx", 10, 0

I set up a simple script to build the executable.

#!/bin/bash
nasm -f elf64 test.asm
gcc -o test test.o

And the output is just…

Register = 1234567890abcdef
Hello world!