CS-343 Assignment 6

For this assignment, you are to calculate the performance of a processor using various parameter values.

Substitute the following values for the propagation times of the various elements of the MIPS datapath in place of the ones given on page 315 of the textbook:

• Memory units: 250 ps
• ALU and adders: 75 ps
• Register file (read or write): 45ps

Use the following instruction mix in place of the values used on page 315: 30% loads, 7% stores, 43% ALU instructions, 17% branches, and 3% jumps.

1. Compute the minimum-allowed and average clock cycle periods for the single-cycle and adjustable clock designs.
2. Compare the performance ratio of the two designs with the values computed in the textbook. State which design is faster and by how much for the fixed and variable period clocks.
3. Would the new paremeters given here increase or decrease the clock speed attainable in the multicycle design to be developed in the second part of Chapter 5? And how much faster would the clock be using the values from the book compared to the ones given here? Remember, in the multi-cycle design, the clock period has to be long enough to accommodate the slowest part of the datapath: the memory units.

Write your answers as plain text in the body of an email message.

No word processing, HTML, or PDF documents; no attachments.

Send your email to me by midnight of the due date. My email address is: vickery at babbage.cs.qc.edu.

You must use exactly this Subject line for your email to be sure I actually receive it: CS-343 Assignment 6.
Include the "CS-343" part in the subject line of all messages you send to me this semester.

If you do not receive an “OK, I’ll check it out!” reply from me within a day or two of submitting the assignment, it means I did not receive it. But I will be sending that acknowledgement manually, so don’t resubmit the assignment until I have had a chance to reply to the first one.