Homework 5
CSE240 - Introduction to Computer Architecture
Autumn 2004
Due: Wednesday, Oct 27
This assignment is the first in which you will be actually writing
code in the LC-3 assembly language. The first part of this document
describes the questions; the second part of this document describes
the logistics of writing the code, running the simulator, and turning
in the assignment. Be sure to start early, because learning how to
use the LC-3 tools will take some time.
Questions
Problem 0 (a warmup)
Write the LC-3 code to add 1 to the value in R0 and place the result
in R5. This one is so easy, we'll give you the code. You shouldn't
turn it in, but try it out in the simulator and test it with the
provided test scripts (as described in the "logistics" section below).
Problem 1
Write the LC-3 code to subtract the value in R1 from the value in R0
and place the result in R5. That is, write the assembly code for R5
:= R0 - R1.
Problem 2
Write the LC-3 assembly code to determine the maximum of two values.
The two input values are in R0 and R1, and the code should place the
greater of these two numbers into register R5. Hint: you may
find calculating R0 - R1 useful.
Problem 3
Now that you've written code to determine the greater of two numbers,
write the LC-3 assembly code for finding the maximum of a list of
positive numbers in memory. R0 contains the location in memory of the
start of the list, and the end of the list of numbers is signified by
a zero or negative number. The code should place the greatest of the
values in the list into register R5. If the first number of the list
is zero or negative, R5 should contain zero.
For example, if R0 contains the value x4000, and the memory contains
the following values:
x4000: 10
x4001: 20
x4002: 15
x4003: -1
In this case, the code should put the value 20 in register
R5. Hint: the example on pages 139-141 of the textbook may
help you.
Problem 4
Write the LC-3 assembly code to count the number of "1" bits in
register R0 and place the result in register R5. For example, if R0
contains "0000 0001 0010 1100" a result of 4 should be stored in R5.
Hint: the example on pages 170-171 of the textbook may help you.
Logistics
Three Notes:
- Unfortunately, this document is not comprehensive. For those of
you that have no experience using Linux, you may need more instruction
than what is include in this brief tutorial. Please talk to the
course instructors and TAs if you're having any difficulty getting
started.
- In addition to this document, there is a much more comprehensive tutorial on
using the LC-3 tools (linked from the course web site).
- For more information on using Unix commands, please see the CSE120
Unix Primer (also linked from the course web site).
Getting Ready for the Homework #5
We'll be using the Linux machines in the Moore 100 lab for these
assignments (see the map of CETS
labs for the location of this lab). Some of you may choose to
work remotely, but we'll leave those students most interested to
figure out how to do that.
Log into one of the machines in the Moore 100 lab by typing your name
and password into the login window (this name and password is the same
as for your "eniac" and your @seas.upenn.edu e-mail account). When
you're done using the computer, don't forget to logout of the
computer.
After logging in, you'll need to start a "terminal" session. A
terminal session allows you to type commands for the computer to
execute. To do this, simply click on Applications near the top
left of the screen and run X Terminal. We'll begin by making a
directory (or folder) in which you will store the files for this
assignment. Type the following command into the terminal window:
mkdir cse240hw5
Now, enter this directory and copy all the provided HW5 code and
scripts into this directory:
cd cse240hw5
cp /mnt/eniac/home1/c/cse240/project/hw/hw5/* . (Yes, you actually need to type that dot.)
If you want to see what files are present in this directory, type "ls"
to get a listing of all the files.
In order to use the LC3 tools, the directory that holds them must be
in your search "path" (that is, the set of directories that the
computer searches looking for programs). To temporarily add the
correct directory to your path, run the following command:
export PATH=$PATH:/home1/c/cse240/project/bin/
You will need to run this command to set the path every time you log
into the machine.
Writing Your Programs
You can use any of the text editors on the Linux machines to code in
assembly. For example, emacs is commonly-used text editor on
Unix systems. You can run it by typing emacs with the name of your file.
Let's just call it p1.asm. So, type:
emacs p1.asm &
Once emacs has loaded, you can start entering text and writing code.
Some useful commands include:
Ctrl-x-s (Hold Ctrl and type x, then s): Save
Ctrl-x-c (Hold Ctrl and type x, then c): Exit
Feel free to try out different commands and consult the help page for
more help. If you're working on the Linux machines in Moore 100, you
should be able to use the pull-down menus to use emacs's features as
well. If you don't like emacs, alternatives
include gedit, kwrite, and kate. To try
these out, just type the name of the program and the filename. For
example, "gedit p1.asm &"
Structuring Your Programs
Each program should be placed in it's own .asm file. For
example, for homework #5, you will submit a total of four files. The
files should be
entitled p1.asm, p2.asm, p3.asm,
and p4.asm, named according to the problem for which they
were created. Each program should begin in memory at address x3000.
This is accomplished via the .ORIG directive, which should be
the first line in each file. The end of the program should consist of
two lines: the penultimate line should contain the HALT
instruction, and the last line in the file should contain
the .END directive to inform the assembler that this is the
end of the program. In summary, all of your submitted files should be
of the following form.
.ORIG x3000
...
your code goes here
...
HALT
.END
Please see p0.asm for an example program. This file is one
of the files copied into your directory above, and it contains the
solution to problem 0.
Running Your Programs
Running your programs has two steps. The first step is running the
LC-3 assembler. For example, to assemble the file p0.asm,
type:
lc3as p0.asm
If the assembler reports any errors, you must fix them and try again.
Once the assembler reports no errors, you can launch the graphical
version of the LC-3 simulator by typing:
lc3sim-tk &
After the LC-3 simulator has loaded, type the name of the file in
"File to Load" box and hit enter. This will load the file into the
simulator and set the program counter (PC) to the start of the file.
For more information on running and using the LC-3 simulator, please
see the LC-3 tutorial linked from
the course web page.
Testing Your Programs
We will provide testing scripts to help test and debug each program.
We will not provide an exhaustive set of testing scripts, so you will
also need to do your own testing to confirm that your code works.
Each of the exercises has a corresponding testing script. To check
your code with this script, assemble your program and run the testing
script:
lc3as p0.asm
lc3sim -s p0.key
The script contains commands to (1) load the binary file into the
simulator, (2) set some initial values of registers and/or memory, (3)
run your code, and (4) check that the output values are as expected.
If any of these checks fail, the output of the simulator reports an
error. The end of the output summarizes if your code passed or failed
the test.
Submitting Your Programs
Please submit all four programs using the online turnin facility on
Eniac. Note that turnin is only available on
eniac.seas.upenn.edu (and thus not directly accessible to the
Moore 100 lab machines), so you will need to use the ssh
program to remotely log in to eniac.seas.upenn.edu to turn in
your solutions (as explained below). Turnin requires that you specify
course number, homework number, and all the files you want to turn in.
Below are the commands you will need to submit your programs from the
Moore 100 lab machines.
ssh eniac.seas.upenn.edu
If prompted, enter your eniac password. Continue by typing:
cd cse240hw5
turnin -c cse240 -p HW5 p1.asm p2.asm p3.asm p4.asm
exit
Please don't turn in the whole directory or include extraneous files.
Also make sure your files are named correctly (e.g., P1.ASM
is not the same as p1.asm), because our grading scripts will
not be able to process your programs.
You may turn in the assignment as many times as you like. However,
only the last version will be retained for grading. This ability is
useful in testing whether you have any problems getting turnin to work
before the last minute.
Start Early!!
Again, please start early! Although the coding is not complex, using
the tools, scripts, and turnin facility are far from trivial.