pavas23 / CS-F342

My work for the Computer Architecture course

CS-F342

3-1, Computer Architecture course at BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus

Topics Covered

• Computer Abstractions and Technology
• MIPS Architecture & Instruction Set
• Arithmetic for computers - floating point arithmetic
• Role of Performance, pipelining – design issues
• Pipelined data path and control
• Various types of hazards
• Branch prediction techniques
• Exploiting memory hierarchy
• Cache Memory Organization
• Measuring and improving cache performance, cache optimization
• Main Memory and Interleaving
• Virtual Memory and Virtual Machines
• I/O performance measures, Redundant Array of Independent Disks

MIPS Assembly Language

• Using QtSpim, this course studied MIPS assembly language. Topics included initialising variables, accepting user input, addition, and a rudimentary understanding of binary analysis of MIPS architecture instructions. Logic and shift operations, branch and jump instructions, and floating point instructions were also discussed.

• Additionally, we discussed loops, arrays, load/store instructions, and string manipulation. We looked into functions and recursion in MIPS further. We also comprehended memory allocation using system calls and the mapping of structures.

• Then, we used MIPS to implement several sorting algorithms, including bubble sort, merge sort, heap sort, etc. Additionally, we wrote MIPS Assembly language code for graph algorithms like bfs and dfs.

Important Notes

Functions

$a0,$a1,$a2 // are used for passing parameters to functions
$v0 $v1 // are used to return values
$sp // is stack pointer

Structure in MIPS

typedef struct node{
  int val; //value of this node
  struct node * left; //pointer to left child
  struct node* right; //pointer to right child
} nodeType;

C equivalent

// a, b, c, ptr are analogous to values of $s0, $s1, $s2, $v0 respectively.

node* ptr = (node*)malloc(sizeof(node));

ptr->val = a; // $s0 has the value
ptr->left = b; // $s1 has left pointer
ptr->right = c; // $s2 has right pointer

a = ptr->val;
b = ptr->left;
c = ptr->right;

MIPS assembly

// After syscall, $v0 points to 12 bytes of free memory (newly allocated)

li $a0,12 //bytes to be allocated
li $v0,9 //sbrk code is 9
syscall //now $v0 holds the address of first byte of 12 bytes of free memory

sw $s0, 0($v0)
sw $s1, 4($v0)
sw $s2, 8($v0)

lw $s0, 0($v0)
lw $s1, 4($v0)
lw $s2, 8($v0)

Lab Summary

Lab	Topic	Lab Sheet	Date
1	Installation and execution of QTSPIM software for MIPS	Lab 1	18 Aug 2023
2	The basic program in MIPS (initializing variable, take input from user, addition)	Lab 2	25 Aug 2023
3	Storing and loading to and from memory, Use of mfhi and mflo registers, and arithmetic instructions	Lab 3	01 Sep 2023
4	Explore floating point instructions	Lab 4	08 Sep 2023
5	Branch instructions, jump instructions and logical and shift operations	Lab 5	22 Sep 2023
6	Loops, arrays and string manipulations	Lab 6	29 Sep 2023
7	Explore basics of functions and recursion	Lab 7	07 Oct 2023
8	Exception mechanism in MIPS	Lab 8	14 Oct 2023
9	Understanding the pipelining in MIPS	Lab 9	21 Oct 2023
10	Memory allocation using system calls	Lab 10	10 Nov 2023
11	Exploring sorting techniques using MIPS	Lab 11	17 Nov 2023
12	Graph Algorithms using MIPS	Lab 12	24 Nov 2023