CS/COE 447 Spring 2010
Information for Exam 1
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You can bring the green card (or a copy of it) with you.

No calculators, computers, etc.   

The exam will focus on chapter 2, and what we covered in lecture (in
the slides and on the board) through Wednesday 2/17.  It will also cover
Labs 1-5, Homework 1, and Programming Assignment 1.

For the exam, you won't be responsible for knowing pseudo-ops or
instructions that are not on page 1 of the green card.

Also, the use of the stack will not be covered on this exam.

A sample exam and solution are available on the class schedule.
PLEASE NOTE:  not everything can be on the exam, and obviously yours
will be different.  So, be sure to work on everything, not just the
examples on the sample exam (e.g., be sure you can give the machine
code for all of the instructions we've covered).

Here are the sections in the text covered by Exam 1: 

Chapter 1

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Below Your Program

Chapter 2

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Operations of the Computer Hardware
2.3 Operands of the Computer Hardware
2.5 Representing Instructions in the Computer
2.6 Logical Operations
2.7 Instructions for Making Decisions
2.8 Supporting Procedures in Computer Hardware (only basics of
    calls/returns; nothing about stack)
2.10 MIPS Addressing for 32-Bit Immediates and Addresses

Appendix B

B.43 Little vs. Big Endian
B.44-B.73 MIPS Instructions (only those we've covered)

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All of the questions on the exam will be one of the following types:

  Translate:
    a decimal number to binary
    a binary number to decimal
    a binary number to hex
    a hex number to binary  
    a hex number to decimal (we'll keep this reasonable, given that
        you won't have a calculator)

  Give the machine code for a given assembly language instruction.  

  Given a segment of assembly-language code, trace its execution by
  showing what values are placed in memory and in registers

  Given a short segment of C code (such as those given in the lecture
  notes, labs, and chapter 2), write assembly-language code that does
  the same thing.  (e.g., for loops, while loops, if-then-else
  statements).    The C code will be explained -- we aren't assuming
  that everyone has programmed in C before.

  Write a subroutine to accomplish something, and call it from the
  main program

  Allocate data in main memory (using, e.g., .data, .word, .byte)

  Given something from the Green Card written in Verilog (e.g., in the
  OPERATION column or one of the footnotes), give what this means for
  a specific instructions.  This will only about instructions we have
  covered so far in the course.

===
Hints for studying

  Make sure you understand all of the given code.  Step through code
  in the simulator, predicting which values will go where, and then
  check yourself.   Make sure you understand the contents of memory
  the simulator shows you, and also the entries in the symbol table.

  Calculate the machine code for the given assembly language
  instructions, checking your answers in the simulator.

  Write samples of if-statements, loops, and check yourself by
  stepping through your code in the simulator.