Editing Netwide Assembler (section)

== Features ==
NASM can output several binary formats, including [[COFF]], OMF, [[a.out (file format)|a.out]], [[Executable and Linkable Format]] (ELF), [[Mach-O]] and [[binary file]] (.bin, binary disk image, used to compile [[operating system]]s), though [[position-independent code]] is supported only for ELF [[object file]]s. It also has its own binary format called RDOFF.<ref name="Manual">{{Cite web|url=http://alien.dowling.edu/~rohit/nasmdoc0.html|title=NASM Manual|access-date=2009-08-15|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090223104837/http://alien.dowling.edu/~rohit/nasmdoc0.html|archive-date=23 February 2009}}</ref>

The variety of output formats allows [[retargeting]] programs to virtually any x86 operating system (OS). It can also create [[flat binary file]]s, usable to write [[Booting|boot loaders]], [[read-only memory]] (ROM) images, and in various facets of OS development.<ref name="Manual"/> It can run on non-x86 platforms as a [[Assembly language#Cross assembler|cross assembler]], such as [[PowerPC]] and [[SPARC]], though it cannot generate programs usable by those machines.

NASM uses a variant of [[Intel assembly syntax]] instead of [[AT&T syntax]].<ref name="Hyde">{{Cite web|url=http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/AsmTools/NASM/|title=NASM: The Netwide Assembler|access-date=2008-06-27|author=Randall Hyde|author-link=Randall Hyde|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100912172954/http://webster.cs.ucr.edu/AsmTools/NASM/|archive-date=12 September 2010}}</ref> It also avoids features such as automatic generation of [[x86 memory segmentation|segment]] overrides (and the related ASSUME directive) used by [[MASM]] and compatible assemblers.<ref name="Manual"/>