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ENCM 369 Winter 2005 Home Page
ENCM 369 Winter 2005 Midterm Information
Author: Steve Norman
Last modified: Mon Feb 21 15:02:57 MST 2005
Contents
Closed-book, no calculators
The test is closed-book--do not not take any books or notes
to your seat.
Use of calculators or computers during the test is
not permitted.
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Test Topics
First, a general principle:
The test will focus mainly on topics that were
heavily emphasized in lectures and labs.
I am not going to make a lot of marks depend on
topics that were given very little coverage in lectures and labs.
The test will cover all material up to and including Lab 6 and
the lectures of Friday, March 4, with the following exceptions:
- You will not have to answer questions about how
to use xspim.
- You will not have to write code using the IA-32-like
calling conventions of Lab 5 Exercise C.
But you might have to read code using
the IA-32-like calling conventions.
There may be a small number of marks associated
with material in the assigned reading from Chapters 1, 2, and 3
that was not covered in lectures.
Let me repeat that the number of marks related to this
material will be either zero or very small.
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Test Format
The test will have a similar format to the midterms from the last four years.
Questions will be of the following types:
- You will have to write SPIM procedures or other short sequences
of SPIM instructions.
You may be asked to translate C functions.
You may also be asked to write code to perform a
specified task without having any C code to work from.
When writing code, you must use only the instructions
and pseudoinstructions listed on the Reference Material sheet.
- You will have to draw diagrams and/or
predict register and memory contents to show that you know how a
given SPIM program works.
- You may have to write some short paragraphs
(roughly two or three sentences) to show that you
understand key terms and concepts from the course.
You will write all of your answers on the question paper,
in spaces provided for answers.
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Reference Material
You will be provided with one or two pages of reference material
along with the question paper.
This material will include:
- A list of all 32 general purpose registers in a MIPS processor.
- Documentation for all of the instructions in a ``Midterm
Instruction Subset''.
Click to view
a draft of the Reference Material.
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Suggestions for preparation
Here are suggestions for review:
- Re-read the assigned sections from the textbook.
Pay particularly close attention to material that
got heavy coverage in lectures and/or labs.
- Review lecture notes and lab handouts carefully.
Many of the `Read This First' sections in lab handouts
contain useful information.
- Re-do lab exercises using pencil and paper,
especially those exercises that you found difficult
when you first did them.
Practice writing complete procedure definitions with
pencil and paper--writing code by hand is a bit different
from typing code in a text editor, and it's obviously
an important skill to develop for tests and exams.
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Midterms from previous years
Please keep in mind that topic coverage has varied from year to year,
because the midterm has not always been at the beginning of
the eight week of the term.
Also, topic order has changed a little in 2005 due to the switch
to the 3rd edition of the textbook.
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Solutions to midterms from previous years
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