8
for class on Tuesday Oct. 8, 1996
Please read Section 5.3 of the Patterson & Hennessy text, and be prepared to discuss the following issue:
The control for the single-cycle MIPS datapath involves mapping bits from the opcode (always) and bits from the function field (sometimes) into control signals for the various multiplexors, the ALU, the memory, etc. The text presents this design in bits and pieces, focusing first on the control of the integer ALU, and then moving on to the other control signals. During this class we will explore the text's control design and extend it to cover some instructions not in the subset used in this chapter. Are there (non-floating point) MIPS instructions that might not fit well into this design? Perhaps this control design should be unified into some single coherent structure that could be naturally extended to include the rest of the instructions. You might want to look at Appendix A, especially Figure A.18, as part of your preparation.