Division Operators "/" with .186, .286, and .386

• Microsoft Macro Assembler for MS-DOS, versions 5.0 and 5.1
• Microsoft Macro Assembler for OS/2, version 5.1

SUMMARY

To use calculation operators on constant values larger than 17 bits, ".386" has to be enabled. Otherwise, the assembler may generate error "A2029 : Division by 0 or overflow."

Please refer to Page 174 of the "Microsoft Macro Assembler Programmer's Guide" in the section "Using Operators" for more specific information. The program below demonstrates this information.

This while MASM 5.0, 5.1, and 5.1a were designed with this limitation, MASM 6.0, 6.0a and 6.0b can perform these calculations.

MORE INFORMATION

When 80386 is enabled by using .386, the program will be assembled without any error message. Then the program has to run on a 80386 machine.

The following is the sample program:

    ; sample program
    .186
    .model small
    .data
    dd  989680h/4h          ; the constant value is more than 17 bits.
    .code
    end

test.ASM(7): error A2029: Division by 0 or overflow

  23918 Bytes symbol space free

      0 Warning Errors
      1 Severe  Errors