Copies the value from the I/O port specified with the second operand (source operand) to the destination operand (first operand). The source operand can be a byte-immediate or the DX register; the destination operand can be register AL, AX, or EAX, depending on the size of the port being accessed (8, 16, or 32 bits, respectively). Using the DX register as a source operand allows I/O port addresses from 0 to 65,535 to be accessed; using a byte immediate allows I/O port addresses 0 to 255 to be accessed.

When accessing an 8-bit I/O port, the opcode determines the port size; when accessing a 16- and 32-bit I/O port, the operand-size attribute determines the port size.

At the machine code level, I/O instructions are shorter when accessing 8-bit I/O ports. Here, the upper eight bits of the port address will be 0.

This instruction is only useful for accessing I/O ports located in the processor's I/O address space. See Chapter 13, Input/Output, in the IA-32 Intel Architecture Software Developer's Manual, Volume 1, for more information on accessing I/O ports in the I/O address space.

if(PE == 1 && CPL > IOPL || VM == 1) { //Protected mode with CPL > IOPL or virtual-8086 mode
	if(AnyPermissionBitSet(CurrentIOPort())) Exception(GP(0)); //If any I/O Permission Bit for I/O port being accessed == 1 the I/O operation is not allowed
	else Destination = Source; //I/O operation is allowed; Reads from selected I/O port
}
else Destination = Source; //Real Mode or Protected Mode with CPL <= IOPL; Reads from selected I/O port