CS 14 -- Annoucements

• 14-May-2002: It is past 5 pm on the day before the exam, and the window of opportunity for questions is closed. I will not be answering questions between now and tomorrow morning at 9 am, so do not expect answers to your email. Good luck!

• 6-May-2002: Last year's final exam has been posted on the Documents page. It refers to diagrams that are not included, but you should be able to ascertain what those diagrams contained, and thus make progress on the question.

• 30-Apr-2002: The Documents page now contains datasheets for every chip in the lab of which I am aware. Also, a note of warning: Do not confuse the ALU and EEPROM chips. The ALU's are the 74LS181 chips, and have the same shape and number of pins as the EEPROM chips, but they are not at all the same.

• 8-Apr-2002: Note that on last year's mid-term #2, the last two questions datapath diagrams. That is, for the penultimate question, you need a copy of a single-cycle processor diagram so that you can modify it; for the ultimate question, you need to modify a multi-cycle processor diagram. For your own purposes, you may obtain these from Chapter 5 in the book, using the final, most complete versions presented there. Be sure that you know how to work on these problems. I'm less concerned, for studying purposes, that you use the correct diagram and draw the correct modifications to the circuit.

• 6-Apr-2002: You can now find last year's mid-term #2 on the Documents page.

• 25-Feb-2002: There was a typo in the posted instructions on using the cs14-submit command. Go back to that page and try it again.

• 24-Feb-2002: If you find that, when logged into romulus and using the SPIM simulator, you cannot see the entire window, then you need to use a smaller font that you can see it. Specifically, when you try to load a file, errors are displayed on the bottom-most segment of that window, so the window needs to fit in your VNC screen. To get the smaller font, you can do the following to run the SPIM simulator:

  xspim -font 6x10 &

• 21-Feb-2002: Because a handful of students could not be here on Friday, March 1 for the mid-term exam, I have scheduled an alternate time for the exam: Thursday, February 28, 9 am. While this alternative time was planned for those who could not be here, anyone may take the exam on Thursday instead of Friday. If you wish to take the exam one day early, email me.

• 19-Feb-2002: Check the Documents page for information on how to login romulus using VNC, graphical connection software that will allow you to work on SPIM outside of SMudd 112.

• 19-Feb-2002: For this week and next week, Lab will be held in SMudd 112, which is right next to the digital lab. For those who have not shown me a completed lab 2, we will be able to step into SMudd 111 briefly so that you can show me or the TA your work.

• 18-Feb-2002: For those who do not yet have them, there are now more keys to the lab available. Visit Anne Torrey in SMudd 302 to pick one up.

• 13-Feb-2002: An important point of clarification for problem 3 on the homework: The intention is that there is one bit of output on your circuit. That is, 0 should appear in the first clock cycle, and then 1 in the second clock cycle, 1 in the third, 0 in the fourth, 0 in the fifth, 1 in the sixth. On the seventh cycle, the pattern begins again at 0. This pattern should repeat indefinitely.

• 13-Feb-2002: There will be a lab session with a TA tomorrow evening, Thursday, 14 February, 7 pm to 8 pm. If you're not yet done with lab 2, I highly recommend this opportunity to work on it while asking one of the TA's some questions.

• 12-Feb-2002: Homework assignment 1 has been posted on the Assignments page. The initial posting from yesterday afternoon contained an error on the last question: the question stated that the sequence had a period of six, but showed a pattern of seven bits. Be sure to check the assignment again and make sure that you're reading the version that does not contain this error.

• 5-Feb-2002: The book is available. I have been told by someone in the class that the book has arrived at the Jeffery Amherst College Store, so you should be able to pick it up now.

• 29-Jan-2002: The first lab assignment has been posted on the Assignments page, and the datasheets for the chips used in that lab have been posted on Documents page. These materials will be handed out in class, but you should also be sure that you can access them online.

• 21-Jan-2002: Read the Course Information page if you haven't already. It describes the course, the expectations, and the guidelines.