The Design of the Go Assembler

Explore the design principles behind the Go assembler in this 24-minute conference talk from GopherCon 2016. Delve into the historical context of assembly language, starting with the Apollo 11 Guidance Computer, and learn about the common structure of assemblers. Discover the evolution from Plan 9 assemblers to the Go 1.5 Assembler, examining new components and their implementation. Follow along with a practical example of initializing the 386 architecture, and gain insights into the testing and table-driven approach used in the Go assembler's development. Enhance your understanding of low-level programming concepts and the Go language's internal workings through this informative presentation by Rob Pike.

Intro
We still need assembly language
Apollo 11 Guidance Computer
Common structure
The pieces
The Plan 9 assemblers
The new pieces
Go 1.5 Assembler
An example: initializing the 386
Testing
Tables
Conclusion