CSE 675: Exams and Homeworks

• In general, the questions will require some type of short discussion answer.
• The most important feature of your answer should be the reasoning behind your actual answer. I have been known to accept both 'YES' and 'NO' answers for the same questions, if the reasons given demonstrate an understanding of the material. I'm not looking for you to regurgitate equations or phrases; I'm looking for you to demonstrate that you have a grasp of the material by being able to use it to explain things. Be forewarned: If you just answer 'YES or 'NO' to a question without giving any reasons, I am apt to give you little or no credit for your answer. Your answer needs to convince me that you understand the material, not that you can guess what the correct answer is.

Midterm I Study Guide

The Midterm will cover Chapters 1-4 and Appendix B. Particular readings include:

• Chapter 2 Instructions: (Sections 2.1-2.6, 2.9, 2.17
• Chapter 3 Arithmetic: (Sections 3.1-3.4, 2.6)
• Chapter 4 Performance: (Sections 4.1-4.7)
• Appendix B Logic Design: (Sections B.1-B.5)
• In particular, the Check Yourself questions are rather interesting
• The homework exercises that were assigned for the class should be studied.
• The lecture notes (of course).

Topics

1. Instruction Set Architectures
   1. Two predominant types of ISA's
      1. CISC
      2. RISC
   2. The three types of instructions in the MIPS ISA
   3. The five addressing modes in the MIPS ISA
   4. Rational for instruction formats
   5. Rational for the particular set of instructions
      1. Why not additional instructions?
      2. Why not fewer?
   6. The difference between assembly instructions and machine instructions.
   7. Updates to the Program Counter (PC)
      1. Applying the instructions
      2. User instructions versus kernel instructions
      3. What are they?
      4. How is this enforced in hardware?
   8. Exceptions
      1. The four types of exceptions
      2. Loading an exception handling routine.
      3. Determining the type of exception.
      4. Returning from the exception handler.
   9. Pseudo-instructions
2. MIPS hardware
   1. MIP data types
   2. Registers
      1. Special constraints, for instance, r0=0
      2. Size
      3. Addressing
   3. The two co-processors
      1. Registers
      2. Instructions associated with each
   4. Memory
      1. Addressing (byte, word, ...)
      2. Maximum size
      3. Instructions for accessing
   5. Data alignment
3. Arithmetic
   1. MIP data types (again)
   2. Twos-complement representation
   3. Integer addition
   4. Integer subtraction
   5. Integer multiplication
   6. Floating point will not be on the exam.
4. Performance
   1. Amdahl's Law
   2. Clock rate
   3. CPI
   4. Throughput versus response time
   5. Various benchmarks
   6. Interpreting benchmarks
5. Logic Design
   1. Boolean algebra
      1. Logic equations
      2. Laws of boolean algebra
      3. Truth tables
      4. Karnough Maps and minimization
      5. Sum of products form
      6. Product of sums form
   2. Basic gates and building blocks
   3. The two universal gates
   4. ALU's
      1. 1-bit ALU
      2. 32-bit ALU
      3. Carry-in / Carry-out
      4. Operations supported
      5. Control
   5. Decoders
   6. Multiplexors

Example problems:

This is incomplete. I will have more exercises in class, but ones from the book would include:

Last Modified: October 24, 2005