Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering

The University of Texas at Austin

EE 306, Fall 2006
Problem Set 5
Due: Monday November 13th, before class
Instructor: Yale N. Patt
TAs: Aseem Bathla, Cameron Davison, Lisa de la Fuente, Phillip Duran, Jose Joao,
        Jasveen Kaur, Rustam Miftakhutdinov, Veynu Narasiman, Nady Obeid, Poorna Samanta.

Instructions

You are encouraged to work on the problem set in groups and turn in one problem set for the entire group. Remember to put all your names on the solution sheet. Also remember to put the name of the TA in whose discussion section you would like the problem set turned back to you.

Questions

    1. Bob Computer just bought a fancy new graphics display for his LC-3. In order to test out how fast it is, he rewrote the OUT trap handler so it would not check the DSR before outputting. Sadly he discovered that his display was not fast enough to keep up with the speed at which the LC-3 was writing to the DDR. How was he able to tell?

    2. Bob also rewrote the handler for GETC, but when he typed ABCD into the keyboard, the following values were input:

      
      AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
      

      What did Bob do wrong?

  1. The following program does not do anything useful. However, being an “electronic idiot,” the LC-3 will still execute it.

    
            .ORIG x3000
            LD R0, Addr1
            LEA R1, Addr1
            LDI R2, Addr1
            LDR R3, R0, #-5
            LDR R4, R1, #0
            ADD R1, R1, #3
            ST R2, #4
            STR R1, R0, #3
            STI R4, Addr4
    Addr1   .FILL x300A
    Addr2   .FILL x000A
    Addr3   .BLKW 1
    Addr4   .FILL x300C
    Addr5   .FILL x300B
            .END
    

    Without using the simulator, answer the following questions:

    1. What will the values of registers R0 through R4 be after the LC-3 finishes executing the ADD instruction?

    2. What will the values of memory locations Addr1 through Addr5 be after the LC-3 finishes executing the STI instruction?

  2. The LC-3 has just finished executing a large program. A careful examination of each clock cycle reveals that the number of executed store instructions (ST, STR, and STI) is greater than the number of executed load instructions (LD, LDR, and LDI). However, the number of memory write accesses is less than the number of memory read accesses, excluding instruction fetches. How can that be? Be sure to specify which instructions may account for the discrepancy.

  3. Assume that an integer greater than 2 and less than 32,768 is deposited in memory location A by another module before the program below is executed.

    
             .ORIG  x3000
             AND    R4, R4, #0
             LD     R0, A
             NOT    R5, R0
             ADD    R5, R5, #2
             ADD    R1, R4, #2
             ;
     REMOD   JSR    MOD
             BRz    STORE0
             ;
             ADD    R7, R1, R5
             BRz    STORE1
             ADD    R1, R1, #1
             BR     REMOD
             ;
     STORE1  ADD    R4, R4, #1
     STORE0  ST     R4, RESULT
             TRAP   x25
             ;
     MOD     ADD    R2, R0, #0
             NOT    R3, R1
             ADD    R3, R3, #1
     DEC     ADD    R2, R2, R3
             BRp    DEC
             RET
             ;
     A       .BLKW  1
     RESULT  .BLKW  1
             .END 
    

    In 20 words or fewer, what does the above program do?

    Hint: if you do not know what RET does, try the Index at the back of the book. In fact, you might even take care to look at footnotes on the referenced pages, in addition to the body of the page.

    1. Write an LC-3 assembly language subroutine BIN_OUT that prints the value in R0 as a 16-bit binary number.

    2. Write a similar subroutine BIN_GET that puts the zero-extended binary number input by the user into R0. Assume that the user will enter at least one and no more than 16 zeroes and/or ones. The user will then hit the “Enter” key (ASCII code x0A) to indicate the end of the binary number. Make sure to echo the input to the screen.

  4. Assume that you have the following table in your program:

    
    MASKS   .FILL x0001
            .FILL x0002
            .FILL x0004
            .FILL x0008
            .FILL x0010
            .FILL x0020
            .FILL x0040
            .FILL x0080
            .FILL x0100
            .FILL x0200
            .FILL x0400
            .FILL x0800
            .FILL x1000
            .FILL x2000
            .FILL x4000
            .FILL x8000
    
    1. Write a subroutine SET in LC-3 assembly language that sets a bit in R0 using the table above. The index of the bit to set is specified in R1.

    2. Write a similar subroutine CLEAR that clears the specified bit instead of setting it.

  5. (This problem was added on 11/06/06) (Adapted from 7.18) The following LC-3 program compares two character strings of the same length. The source strings are in the .STRINGZ form. The first string starts at memory location x4000, and the second string starts at memory location x4100. If the strings are the same, the program terminates with the value 1 in R5, otherwise the program terminates with the value 0 in R5. Insert instructions at (a), (b), and (c) that will complete the program. There should be only 1 instruction per blank.

    
    	.ORIG  x3000
    	LD     R1, FIRST
    	LD     R2, SECOND
    	AND    R0, R0, #0
    
    LOOP    _________________    ; (a)
    	LDR    R4, R2, #0
    	BRz    NEXT
            ADD    R1, R1, #1
    	ADD    R2, R2, #1
    
    	_________________    ; (b)
    
    	_________________    ; (c)
    	ADD    R3, R3, R4
            BRz    LOOP
    	AND    R5, R5, #0
            BRnzp  DONE
    NEXT    AND    R5, R5, #0
    	ADD    R5, R5, #1
    DONE    TRAP   x25
    FIRST   .FILL  x4000
    SECOND  .FILL  x4100
    	.END
    
  6. Jane Computer (Bob's adoring wife), not to be outdone by her husband, decided to rewrite the TRAP x22 handler at a different place in memory. Consider her implementation below. If a user writes a program that uses this TRAP handler to output an array of characters, how many times is the ADD instruction with label A executed? Assume that the user only calls this TRAP handler once. What is wrong with this TRAP handler? Now add the necessary instructions so the TRAP handler executes properly.

    Hint: RET uses R7 as linkage back to the caller.

    
    ; TRAP handler
    ; Outputs ASCI characters stored in consecutive memory locations.
    ; R0 points to the first ASCI character.
    ; The null character (x00) provides a sentinel that terminates the output sequence.
    
            .ORIG x020F
    START   LDR R1, R0, #0
            BRz DONE
            ST R0, SAVER0
            ADD R0, R1, #0
            TRAP x21
            LD R0, SAVER0
    A       ADD R0, R0, #1
            BRnzp START
    DONE    RET
     
    SAVER0  .BLKW #1
            .END
    
  7. (Adapted from 9.2)
    1. How many TRAP service routines can be implemented in the LC-3? Why?

    2. Why must a RET instruction be used to return from a TRAP routine? Why won't a BRnzp (unconditional BR) instruction work instead?

    3. How many accesses to memory are made during the processing of a TRAP instruction?