project_1.txt

   1 Ian Sutton
   2 CSE 381
   3 Fall 2014
   4
   5 Project 1 - MIPS Matrix Multiplier
   6
   7         My approach to this project was to use my existing skills with
   8 relatively higher-architecture operating system/kernel to better
   9 understand the relatively lower-level CPU operations: 'top-down' rather
  10 than 'bottom-up'. I started by writing an equivalent program in C along
  11 with a makefile that specifies a compilation routine that results in a
  12 rather unoptimized binary, important for later reasons. I compiled on an
  13 intel i386 single-core 32-bit pentium chip (on an old thinkpad) in order
  14 to get the least complicated instructions. I stripped the ELF
  15 headers/footers and translated the sequence of opcodes into readable x86
  16 ASM.
  17
  18 This is where I started to get a feel for how this program was working
  19 on the instruction level. I then changed the compilation options to
  20 instead cross-compile and target an older Longsoon 32-bit MIPS platform,
  21 suitable for this course. After adjusting the optimization settings, I
  22 was able to come up with an instruction file suitable for this
  23 assignment (specifically, it did not use any MIPS64, multithreaded, or
  24 pseudo-instructions prohibited by the handout). I then ran it through
  25 MARS to guarantee operability on the professor's end.