Description
Pipelining in MIPS
Homework Specifications
For this individual homework assignment, you will work on a mixture of textbook problems and C
code.
First, start with some “warm-up” exercises, which you will not submit as part of this assignment.
In other words, do these “warm-up” exercises as practice and to prepare to work on the actual
problems you will submit for credit.
Warm-Up Exercises (for Practice)
1. Textbook Problem 4.1 (all sub-parts)
2. Textbook Problem 4.2 (all sub-parts)
3. Textbook Problem 4.5 (all sub-parts)
Homework Problems (to Submit for Credit)
Use whatever software you like to write your answers to the textbook problems below. You must
produce a PDF to submit for this assignment. Please name your PDF hw5.pdf. These will be
manually graded by our TAs.
1. Textbook Problem 4.3 (all sub-parts)
2. Textbook Problem 4.4 (all sub-parts)
3. Textbook Problem 4.7 (all sub-parts)
4. Textbook Problem 4.8 (sub-parts 4.8.1 – 4.8.5)
Coding Problem (to Submit for Credit)
You will use C to implement a simulation of MIPS pipelining. As we’ve covered in lecture, there
are five stages to the pipeline, i.e., IF, ID, EX, MEM, and WB.
For your simulation, you are required to support the add, addi, sub, and, andi, or, ori, lw,
and sw instructions. More specifically, you must simulate (and output) how a given sequence of
instructions would be pipelined in a five-stage MIPS implementation.
Do not implement forwarding in your simulation.
You can assume that each given instruction will be syntactically correct. You can also assume
that there is a single space character between the instruction and its parameters. Further, each
parameter is delimited by a comma or parentheses. Below are a few example instructions that you
must support:
add $t0,$s2,$s3
addi $t1,$t3,73
or $s0,$s0,$t3
lw $a0,12($sp)
sw $t6,32($a1)
Required Command-Line Argument
Your program must accept one command-line argument as input. This argument (i.e., argv[1])
specifies the input file containing MIPS code to simulate. You may assume that no more than five
instructions are given in the input file. And note that each instruction will end with a newline
character (i.e., ‘\n’, ASCII code 0xa).
Required Output
For your output, you must show each cycle of program execution. Each cycle will correspond to
a column of output. Initially, each column is empty, indicated by a period (i.e., ‘.’). Use TAB
characters (i.e., ‘\t’) to delimit each column. And assume that you will have no more than nine
cycles to simulate.
Recall that a data hazard describes a situation in which the next instruction cannot be executed
in the next cycle until a previous instruction is complete. Your code should be able to detect when
it is necessary to insert one or more “bubbles” (see Section 4.7 of the textbook and corresponding
lecture notes for more details).
More specifically, you will need to properly handle data hazards by adding nop instructions as
necessary. Show these cases by indicating an asterisk (i.e., ‘*’) in the appropriate columns and
adding the required number of nop instructions. To ensure proper formatting, add an extra TAB
character after the nop.
On the next few pages, we present a few example runs of your program that you should use to
better understand how your program should work, how you can test your code, and what output
formatting to use for Submitty.
2 Pipelining in MIPS
The first example (i.e., ex01.s) includes no data hazards.
START OF SIMULATION
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF . . . . . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . . . . . . . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID . . . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF . . . . . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX . . . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF ID . . . . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . IF . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM . . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF ID EX . . . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . IF ID . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF ID EX MEM . . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . IF ID EX . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF ID EX MEM WB . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . IF ID EX MEM . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $s1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
add $t2,$s0,$s5 . IF ID EX MEM WB . . .
addi $t4,$s3,70 . . IF ID EX MEM WB . .
END OF SIMULATION
3 Pipelining in MIPS
The second example (i.e., ex02.s) includes a dependency on register $t1.
START OF SIMULATION
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF . . . . . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . . . . . . . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID . . . . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF . . . . . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX . . . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID . . . . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM . . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID EX . . . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF ID . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID EX MEM . . . .
nop . . IF ID * . . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF ID ID . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID EX MEM WB . . .
nop . . IF ID * * . . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF ID ID EX . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID EX MEM WB . . .
nop . . IF ID * * * . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF ID ID EX MEM . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
add $t1,$s0,$s0 IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
addi $t2,$s0,42 . IF ID EX MEM WB . . .
nop . . IF ID * * * . .
addi $t4,$t1,70 . . IF ID ID EX MEM WB .
END OF SIMULATION
4 Pipelining in MIPS
The third example (i.e., ex03.s) includes two dependencies on register $t2.
START OF SIMULATION
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF . . . . . . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . . . . . . . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID . . . . . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF . . . . . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . . . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX . . . . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID . . . . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF . . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM . . . . .
nop . IF ID * . . . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID . . . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF . . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
nop . IF ID * * . . . .
nop . IF ID ID * . . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID ID . . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF IF . . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
nop . IF ID * * * . . .
nop . IF ID ID * * . . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID ID EX . . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF IF ID . . .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
nop . IF ID * * * . . .
nop . IF ID ID * * * . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID ID EX MEM . .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF IF ID EX . .
5 Pipelining in MIPS
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
nop . IF ID * * * . . .
nop . IF ID ID * * * . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID ID EX MEM WB .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF IF ID EX MEM .
CPU Cycles ===> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
lw $t2,20($a0) IF ID EX MEM WB . . . .
nop . IF ID * * * . . .
nop . IF ID ID * * * . .
and $t4,$t2,$t5 . IF ID ID ID EX MEM WB .
or $t8,$t2,$t6 . . IF IF IF ID EX MEM WB
END OF SIMULATION
Assumptions
Given the complexity of this assignment, you can make the following assumptions:
Assume all input files are valid.
Assume the length of argv[1] is at most 128 characters.
Assume the maximum number of cycles to be 9. As shown in the examples, always output 9
cycles/columns, regardless of the fact that fewer may be required.
Submission Instructions
For this assignment, you will submit both your code and your PDF (i.e., hw5.pdf) with your
answers to the textbook problems to submit.
Before you submit your code, be sure that you have clearly commented your code (this should not
be an after-thought). Further, your code should have a clear and logical organization.
To submit your assignment (and also perform final testing of your code), please use Submitty. Note
that the test cases for this assignment will be available on Submitty a minimum of three days before
the due date and will include hidden test cases.
Also as a reminder, your code must successfully execute on Submitty to obtain credit for this
assignment.
6 Pipelining in MIPS
