В 1993-м году было так:
The GNU assembler provides assembly and disassembly for many targets, but different techniques are applied ad hoc to support different architectures [Elsner et al. 1993]. For example, Pentium instructions are recognized by hand-written C code, but MIPS instructions are recognized by selecting a mask and a sample from a table, applying the mask to the word in question, then comparing the result against the sample. On both targets, operands are recognized by short programs written for abstract machines, but a different abstract machine is used for each target. Another set of abstract machines is used to encode instructions during assembly. The implementations of the abstract machines contain magic numbers and hand-written bit operations. The programs interpreted by the abstract machines are represented as strings, and they appear to have been written by hand.
Что поменялось за 31 год?