Intel 253668-032US User Manual

Page of 806
6-32   Vol. 3
INTERRUPT AND EXCEPTION HANDLING
Interrupt 4—Overflow Exception (#OF)
Exception Class
Trap.
Description
Indicates that an overflow trap occurred when an INTO instruction was executed. The 
INTO instruction checks the state of the OF flag in the EFLAGS register. If the OF flag 
is set, an overflow trap is generated.
Some arithmetic instructions (such as the ADD and SUB) perform both signed and 
unsigned arithmetic. These instructions set the OF and CF flags in the EFLAGS 
register to indicate signed overflow and unsigned overflow, respectively. When 
performing arithmetic on signed operands, the OF flag can be tested directly or the 
INTO instruction can be used. The benefit of using the INTO instruction is that if the 
overflow exception is detected, an exception handler can be called automatically to 
handle the overflow condition.
Exception Error Code
None.
Saved Instruction Pointer
The saved contents of CS and EIP registers point to the instruction following the INTO 
instruction.
Program State Change
Even though the EIP points to the instruction following the INTO instruction, the state 
of the program is essentially unchanged because the INTO instruction does not affect 
any register or memory locations. The program can thus resume normal execution 
upon returning from the overflow exception handler.