Tue, 24 Sep 2013, 11:10

My students in EE 306,

It is always a good idea, when possible, to read in the book the stuff
I am planning to talk about in class.  Since tomorrow's class is going
to make use of Chapters 4,5,6 and Appendix A, rather than just cover 
in order the next several pages of the book, I thought I would give you
this heads up.

I am hoping to finish the instruction cycle and talk about the state machine
that controls the processing of instructions.  Figure 4.4 is an important part
of that discussion.

I am hoping to have us write our first program together in class.  The first 
three pages of Chapter 6, which introduces structured programming will be 
helpful.

We will not need all the LC-3 instructions for our first program.  The LD, 
ADD, NOT, BRn, and TRAP instructions should be enough.  I do not expect you 
to study the details of each of these ahead of time.  However, you should 
be aware that each instruction is described completely in Appendix A of 
the textbook, and will be a good reference for you throughout the rest of
the semester.

Also, I plan to show you how the "data path" processes each instruction 
that we use.  Fig. 3.33 (redrawn as Fig 5.18) shows the data path.  I do 
not expect you to study the data path ahead of time.  But I do want you 
to be aware of it, so you can use it when necessary to understand what 
the computer actually does in processing each instruction. 

See you in class tomorrow.

Yale Patt