Pseudo Format for an instruction:

add $t0, $t1, $t2 
add rd, rs, rt
 
lw $t0, 4($s1) 
lw rt, imm(rs) ; imm stands for immediate

What part of your body gives you intructions?

Your brain.

Key Components of a Computer

Input (Keyboard, Mouse)
Output (Monitor, Printer)
Memory(Primary, Split)
Datapath
Control Unit

Datapath + Control Unit = Processor

Classes of Computers

ClassDescription
PersonalGeneral purpose, variety of software
ServerNetwork based, high capacity, reliable, ranges from small servers to building sized
SupercomputerType of server, scientific/engineering calculations, highest capability
EmbeddedHidden as components, stringent power/performance/cost constraints
Mobile devicesSmartphones, tablets, rely on battery

Understanding Performance

What it determines
AlgorithmNumber of operations executed
Programming languageNumber of machine instructions per operation
Processor & Memory SystemHow fast instructions are executed
I/O SystemHow fast I/O operations are executed

Eight Great Ideas

  • Design for Moore’s Law
  • Use abstraction to simplify design
  • Make the common case fast
  • Performance via parallelism
  • Performance via pipelining
  • Performance via prediction
  • Hierarchy of memories
  • Dependability via redundancy

Tip: Make the common case fast.
Thus, MIPS has 32 general purpose registers.

Consider the following code:

CISCRISC
mov $t0, 0add $t0, $0, $0

Both codes do the same thing (storing 0 in $t0), but RISC tries to reuse existing instructions.

Another example:

add $t0, $t1, $t2 ; requires 2 lw instructions
addi $t0, %t1, 69 ; requires 1 lw instruction

To be continued...