Xed

XED, short for X86 Encoder-Decoder, is a software library and toolkit developed by Intel that provides facilities to encode x86 and x86-64 instructions into machine code and to decode machine code back into a human-readable form. It supports the full range of x86 execution modes, including 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit operation, and handles instruction prefixes, ModR/M and SIB bytes, immediate operands, and segment overrides. The library also targets modern extensions such as MMX, SSE, AVX, AVX2, and AVX-512. XED is designed to be used by tools that need precise instruction encoding and decoding, such as disassemblers, assemblers, simulators, and dynamic analysis frameworks.

Implementation and distribution: XED provides a C/C++ API and a set of command-line tools for encoding and decoding instructions, as well as sample code and documentation. The project emphasizes a stable, architecture-aware representation of instructions to facilitate accurate translation between binary encodings and mnemonic forms across multiple CPU features.

License and availability: Intel releases XED as open-source software under an Intel-provided license and maintains the project with community contributions. It is distributed as source code with build instructions and binaries for common platforms. The library is used in various tooling ecosystems, including disassemblers and binary analysis suites, and serves as a reference implementation for x86 encoding and decoding.