Question: I am on a Mac with Snow Leopard (10.6.3). I hear that the assembly language I work with has to be valid with the chipset that you use. I am completely new to this I have a basic background in C and Objective-C programming and an almost strong background in PHP. I have always wanted to see what assembly is all about. 

The tutorial I'll be looking at is by VTC [[link]](http://www.vtc.com/products/Assembly-Language-Programming-Tutorials.htm).

What I want to know is: are the tutorials that I'm about to do compatible with the assembly version on the Mac that I have?

I am completely new to this language although I do recall studying some of it way, way back in the day. I do have Xcode and what I'm wondering is what kind of document would I open in Xcode to work with assembly and does the Mac have a built in hex editor (when it comes time to needing it)?

Answer: 
The assembly language you use is not dependent on your OS but rather your CPU's instruction set. Judging by your Mac version, I'd say you are using an Intel processor - so you would want to learn x86 or amd64 assembly.
A good way to pick up assembly is to get yourself an embedded device to play with.

TI has some [nice, inexpensive devkits](http://focus.ti.com/mcu/docs/mcuprodmsptoolsw.tsp?sectionId=95&tabId=1203&familyId=342&toolTypeId=1) to play with. I've poked around with the Chronos kit ($50) which has digital watch with a programmable MSP430 microcontroller with a wireless link to your computer. It's pretty sweet. 

**Update:** I forgot to mention the [Arduino](http://www.arduino.cc/). It's a pretty nifty open platform with tons of interesting peripherals and projects online.