CISC 3593
Computer Organization
Final Exam Format + Topics
Final Exam Format
+ Final Exam Format
● Two hour exam
○ All ODS time accommodations will be upheld - make sure to schedule your exam with them if you need the time!
● Combination offill in the blank, short answer questions, and direct application of material that we have covered in class - think the HWs.
● Questions will be focused on material from after the midterm exam.
+ Final Exam Format
● While the exam is primarily closed book, there are a few resources that you are allowed to use:
1. Calculator
2. Scratch Paper
3. MIPS Green Sheet
4. MIPS System Calls Sheet
● A Binary/Decimal/Hex chart will also be provided.
Final Exam Topics to Study
+ Pre-Midterm Material
● This exam will focus exclusively on material from after the midterm exam. This is not a cumulative exam.
● However, since we use hex/binary/decimal conversion for MIPS
instruction decoding, you should review that material if you found it difficult during class/homework.
+ MIPS Assembly Language
● MIPS instructions are woven throughout the topics of the exam, such as in instruction decoding and in the data path questions.
● Know how to go from MIPS to C++ (by hand)
○ Writing a RAT to map variables to registers used
○ Arithmetic operations and their results
○ Boolean logic in MIPS vs C++
○ Identifying if/else vs loops
○ Arrays in MIPS - know how data is put into/taken out of them!
○ Knowing how to print out information and identifying its results
○ Writing the equivalent of MIPS code in C++ code
+ MIPS Instruction Decoding
● Hex to Binary/Decimal
● Identifying instruction formats
● Using the Green Sheet to identify instructions
● Register Numbers, Shift Amount, Immediates
● Questions on this topic will be very similar to HW 6.
+ Computer Processor
● Datapath (akin to class examples)
○ Identify which portions ofthe system are used
○ Know what goes through each portion for each instruction
○ Given an instruction, draw the data path (charts will be provided)
● The role of the clock in the computer system.
● von Neumann Bottleneck
● Instruction Pipelining
Components Affecting
Computer Performance
● Multiprocessor vs Multicore Systems
● Main vs Secondary Memory (and their relative speed)
● Caching
● Memory Management Unit
● Virtual Memory and its Benefits
● Pages, Page Table, Translation Lookaside Buffer