Lab exercise - 4
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                       Design and Simulation of a CPU
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The project consists of three parts.

Part 1: Design an Instruction set
Part 2: Design Hardware to implement this instruction set
Part 3: Simulate the hardware design to verify it

Part 1: Instruction set
-----------------------

Choose a suitable subset of instructions of a real processor other than
MIPS. You are free to modify the architecture/instructions or add your own
instructions. Include instructions for each of the following:

* arithmetic operation
* logical operations
* comparison
* memory access
* conditional and unconditional branch/jump
* subroutine call/return

The instruction set should be sufficient to write a program to sort an
integer array, including a procedure to swap two words (refer to example
3.10 in the text book).

Part 2: Hardware Design
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Design a data path and a controller to implement the instruction set
designed in part 1. Use building blocks similar to those used for MIPS
design. A more detailed description of the available building blocks will be
provided shortly.

Calculate the clock frequency at which  your CPU can operate.

Part 3: Simulation
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In this part, you are required to develop a simulator for your processor
which will allow programs witten in your instruction set to be executed.
Your simulator would differ from SPIM in a fundamental way. SPIM is an
instruction level simulator, whereas your simulator will be a hardware
level simulator. The purpose of the former is to allow execution of
assembly/machine language programs in absence of real machine (say for
learning). On the other hand, the purpose of the latter is to verify a
hardware design.

The method for developing such a simulator will be described here shortly.

Submission
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Part 1: Preliminary report (choice of the base processor and
        tentative choice of instruction subset) - 15th Oct, 1999
        Revised report (instruction set description with example)
        - 25th Oct, 1999
Part 2: Hardware design (block diagram on paper and design description in
        simulator format) - 1st Nov. 1999
Part 3: Simulator - 12th Nov. 1999