CSE 141L
Frequently Asked Questions For Lab 1

Fall 2003

1. Can the ISA be modified in later labs if necessary?

You can modify the ISA until the end of Lab 2, where you will test it. Based on your ISS feedback, you may tune your ISA if you wish.

2. In the Lab 1 specs there are three items listed under what must be turned in. Can you clarify what is needed for the last item (instruction and data files for the three programs)?

You must turn in an assembly file that has the hand assembled code along with the other fields: PC, label, instruction mnemonic, operands and any comments.
The hex file only contains the machine code for instructions.

3. How should the students be testing their assembly program code?

For Lab 1, you will test the code by inspection. TA's will not read it for accuracy. In Lab 2 the code for all 3 programs must work on your ISS.

4. What would be considered reasonable for the static and dynamic instruction counts? How much emphasis should be placed on this?

You should not worry too much about the instruction counts. Students with the lowest instruction counts in the class are generally given bonus points. As long as the programs work, no one is penalized for large instruction counts.

5. I don't understand how to access the memory.

You may want to review LW, ST, LB, SB instructions for MIPS.

6. Also, with respect to the load and store instructions, I am worried that my algorithms have too many of those instructions. I am wondering if this should be a factor in determining my dynamic count.

You need to go through an iterative process of designing the ISA, coding the programs and, based on the coding experience, tuning the ISA.

7. Do we need to round up our answer for the Median problem, or can we simply truncate in the case of an even number of elements?

You need to round to the nearest integer for both the Median and Mean problems. This means that if the fractional part of your answer is greater than or equal to one-half you should round up to the next whole integer. If the fractional part of your answer is less than one-half then you should truncate, or round down, the result.

Last Modified: October 13, 2003