Wed, 13 Nov 2013, 23:40

My students,

Yesterday, one of your classmates sent you email from Blackboard to
point you to a website that has a number of short videos on the LC-3.
I decided to simply ignore the email until after the exam since the
last thing you needed yesterday was a disruption in your studying 
the day before the exam.

 
> Fellow 306 students,


 
> I found the following video series on the LC-3 data paths to be interesting, 
> and thought they might be helpful to some degree: 
> http://www.youtube.com/user/ECE290AMGroup?feature=watch
> 
> In the words of Dr. Patt, "Good luck on the exam."
> 
> <<name withheld here; you have it in your Blackboard eamil>>


Now that the exam is history, and you are free to think about what comes
next, I can talk about the videos.  I went to the web site and played
a few of the videos.  The first one was brilliantly done, covering an
overview of the instruction set, the data path, and the microsequencer.
I highly recommend watching it!

However, when I got into some of the other videos, I found errors that
could end up confusing you.  So, before I recommend the entire set, I need
to be sure what is correct.  And, that will take time.  I also hope to get 
in touch with those who made the videos to see if they can edit them to 
correct the errors.

For example, the video on memory says there are 2^16 memory locations,
each containing 16 bits.  They are confusing memory locations with memory 
address space.  Indeed, an address has 16 bits.  However, you recall from 
lecture that not all addresses correspond to memory locations.  Some addresses
are used for I/O device registers.  That is why we call it "memory-mapped"
I/O, and why we can use load instructions for input and store instructions
for output.  Actual memory locations correspond to addresses x0000 to xFDFF.
For example, there is no memory location whose address is xFE00.  That address
is used for the KBSR.

Also the memory video confuses MIO.EN with MEM.EN.  We discussed that in
detail at the review session on Monday.  The video shows MIO.EN as an input
to the RAMs that make up memory.  What is really going on, as we discussed
in class and in an email Monday night, is that MIO.EN is an input to the
address control logic which outputs MEM.EN if MIO.EN = 1 and the MAR contains
an address that corresponds to a memory location.  If MAR contains an address
of an I/O device register, then memory is not activated, but instead one of
the I/O device registers is read or written.

Bottom line: The videos look very good in general.  However, they do have
mistakes, so be careful if you wish to rely on them.  If you decide to use
them and find any discrepancy between them and what is in the book or what
you have heard from me or one of my TAs, please tell one of the TAs so we
can help you with the discrepancy.

Enjoy the rest of the week.  See you in class on Monday.

Yale Patt