maximum.s

	#PURPOSE:  This program finds the maximum number of a
	#          set of data items.
	#

	#VARIABLES: The registers have the following uses:
	#
	# %edi - Holds the index of the data item being examined 
	# %ebx - Largest data item found
	# %eax - Current data item
	#
	# The following memory locations are used:
	#
	# data_items - contains the item data.  A 0 is used
	#              to terminate the data
	#

	.section .data

data_items:                       #These are the data items
	.long 3,67,34,222,45,75,54,34,44,33,22,11,66,0

	.section .text

	.globl _start
_start:
	movl $0, %edi             # move 0 into the index register
	movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax # load the first byte of data
	movl %eax, %ebx           # since this is the first item, %eax is
	                          # the biggest

start_loop:	                  # start loop
	cmpl $0, %eax             # check to see if we've hit the end
	je loop_exit
	incl %edi                 # load next value
	movl data_items(,%edi,4), %eax 
	cmpl %ebx, %eax           # compare values
	jle start_loop            # jump to loop beginning if the new 
	                          # one isn't bigger
	movl %eax, %ebx           # move the value as the largest 
	jmp start_loop            # jump to loop beginning

loop_exit:
	# %ebx is the status code for the exit system call
	# and it already has the maximum number
        movl $1, %eax             #1 is the exit() syscall
        int  $0x80