Exam 2 Guidelines (will be updated once after spring break and before the exam date):

1. It will be a close-book examination. However, you can bring a double-sided, letter-sized cheat sheet.
2. There are about 10 short questions and 2-3 long questions. The short questions are like the ones in quiz 1 and short questions in homework. The long ones are like the long questions in homework.
3. How to prepare: go through slides, read book, and review your homework questions
4. You will get a sheet of MIPS operations, MIPS assembly language, MIPS machine language, and instruction formats. (There is no need to memorize them.)

Coverage: Ch 4.6 - 4.8, Ch 5.

Note: You will have photocopies of the single-cycle diagram, multi-cycle diagram, RTL description table, control signal tables, and finite state diagram. However, you may want to be very familiar with them.

Arithmetic:

• Booth's algorithm
• Basic understanding of integer division
• IEEE 754 floating point formats (for common numbers)
• Implementation schemes of floating point add, subtraction, multiplication, and division (brief understanding).
• MIPS supports for integer multiplication and division, an floating point operations

Single-cycle processor implementation

• Understanding of the control and data path approach
• Understanding the difference between combinational and sequential (state) elements
• Clocking methodology
• Basic components of data path
• Instructions execution steps on single-cycle implementations
• The use of multiplexors and the collection of control signals
• The designs of main control and ALU control
• Drawbacks of single-cycle implementation

Multi-cycle processor implementation

• General idea and motivation
• Instruction execution steps
• The reuse of memory and ALU, and the use of intermediate registers
• Determining control signals
• The design of control as finite state machine (FSM)
• Describing FSM by graphical representation
• FSM implementation using ROM or PLA, estimating implementation complexity
• Simplifying the implementation of next-state function

Microprogramming

• Motivation (useful for complex controls in real design)
• Microinstruction format
• Microprogram implementation and execution

Exceptions

• Two types of exceptions
• MIPS control and data path extensions for handling exceptions

Other stuff (self-reading)

• Understanding the control design techniques used in Pentium Pro processors (5.7)
• Pitfalls and fallacies (5.8)

Exceptions

• Difference between interrupt and exception in MIPS
• How to handle exception