Lab 2 : Pseudo Instructions and Memory Access

Name:
Kevin Bradshaw

Sign the following statement:

On my honor, as an Aggie, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid
on this academic work
Kevin Bradshaw

Objective

The objective of this lab is to make you more familiar with MIPS pseudo instructions as
well as using memory.

Pre-requisite

Before starting with this lab, you are required to know what pseudo-instructions are, as
well as how MIPS accesses memory.

Basic Memory Access

1. Type the following program into QtSpim (save it as lab2a.s) and use it to answer the
questions below
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Computer Architecture and Design, Lab 2

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. data
msg1 :
. a s c i i z A 17 byte message
msg2 :
. a s c i i z Another message o f 27 b y t e s
num1 :
. byte 45
num2 :
. h a l f 654
num3 :
. word 0 x c a f e b a b e
num4 :
. word 0 x f e e d f a c e
. text
. globl main
main :
addu $s0 , $ra , $0
#s a v e t h e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
l i $v0 , 4
#s y s t e m c a l l f o r p r i n t s t r
l a $a0 , msg1
#a d d r e s s o f s t r i n g t o p r i n t
syscall
l a $a0 , msg2
#a d d r e s s o f s t r i n g t o p r i n t
syscall
lb $t0 , num1
#l o a d num1 i n t o $ t 0
l h $t1 , num2
#l o a d num2 i n t o $ t 1
lw $t2 , num3
#l o a d num3 i n t o $ t 2
lw $t3 , num4
#l o a d num4 i n t o $ t 3
addu $ra , $s0 , $0
#r e s t o r e t h e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
jr $ra
#r e t u r n from main

(a) What are the machine instructions for the pseudo instruction la $a0, msg2?
[00400034] 3c011001

(b) What is the address for each of the following items?

Object
Data Segment
Text Segment
msg1
msg2
num1
num2
num3
num4

Address
[10000000]..[10040000]
[00400000]..[00440000]

[0040002c] 3c041001
[00400034] 3c011001

[00400040] 3c011001

[00400048] 3c011001
[00400050] 3c011001

[00400058] 3c011001

Computer Architecture and Design, Lab 2

(c) Why does msg2 start 18 bytes after msg1 when msg1 is only 17 bytes long?
There needs to be an offset of 1 byte.

(d) Why are there unused bytes between num1, num2, and num3, but num4 start
immediately after num3?
It's the beginning of a new word (4 bytes).

Computer Architecture and Design, Lab 2

2. Type the following program into SPIM (save as lab2b.s):

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. data
msg1 :
. word 0 : 2 4
. text
. globl main
main :
addu $s0 , $0 , $ r a
#s a v e t h e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
l i $v0 , 8
#s y s c a l l f o r r e a d s t r
l a $a0 , msg1
#l o a d a d d r e s s o f msg1 t o s t o r e s t r i n g
l i $a1 , 100
#msg1 i s 100 b y t e s
syscall
lb $t0 , 5 ( $a0 ) #l o a d t h e c h a r a c t e r i n t o $ t 0
l i $t1 , a
#g e t v a l u e o f a
b l t $t0 , $t1 , nomodify #do n o t h i n g i f l e t t e r i s l e s s than a
l i $t1 , z
#g e t v a l u e o f z
bgt $t0 , $t1 , nomodify #do n o t h i n g i f l e t t e r i s g r e a t e r than z
addi $t0 , $t0 , 0x20
#encap t h e l e t t e r
sb $t0 , 5 ( $a0 ) #s t o r e t h e new l e t t e r
nomodify :
l i $v0 , 4
#s y s c a l l f o r p r i n t s t r
syscall
addu $ra , $s0 , $0
#r e s t o r e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
j r $ r a #r e t u r n from main

Specify the operation performed by the program:

This program takes in a string and outputs the same string on the console.

3. Write a program that reads a string from the user and outputs the number of lowercase letters in the string. Save your program as lab2c.s, and run it to make sure it
works correctly. Demonstrate your progress to the TA. .
4. Type the following program into SPIM (save your program as lab2d.s):
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. data
hextable :
. a s c i i 0123456789 a b c d e f
msg1 :
. a s c i i z Your number i n Hex i s :
. text
. globl main
main :
addu $s0 , $0 , $ r a
#s a v e t h e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
l i $v0 , 5
#s y s c a l l f o r r e a d i n t
syscall
add $s1 , $v0 , $0
l i $v0 , 4
#s y s c a l l f o r p r i n t s t r
l a $a0 , msg1

Computer Architecture and Design, Lab 2

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syscall
l a $a1 , h e x t a b l e
srl
$t0 , $s1 , 4
add $a2 , $a1 , $ t 0
lb $a0 , 0 ( $a2 )
l i $v0 , 11
syscall
andi $t0 , $s1 , 0 x f
add $a2 , $a1 , $ t 0
lb $a0 , 0 ( $a2 )
l i $v0 , 11
syscall
addu $ra , $s0 , $0
jr $ra

#g e t upper 4 b i t s
#g e t a d d r e s s i n h e x t a b l e
#g e t c h a r a c t e r
#s y s c a l l f o r p r i n t c h a r
#g e t l o w e r 4 b i t s
#g e t a d d r e s s i n h e x t a b l e
#g e t c h a r a c t e r
#s y s c a l l f o r p r i n t s t r
#r e s t o r e r e t u r n a d d r e s s
#r e t u r n from main

Specify the operation performed by the program:

The operation takes in a number in decimal and outputs the equivalent hexadecimal form.

5. Write a program that reads a number x from the user, and prints the first x letters
of the alphabet (in lower case). You do not need to check whether the number is
positive.
Save your program as lab2f.s, and run it to make sure it works correctly. Demonstrate
your progress to the TA. .

Deliverables
Submit completed copy of this lab manual.
Include the following in a compressed file (.zip format) to your TA:
The source code for all .s files.
All log files.