CMPEN 331 Walkthroughs

In Spring of 2010, I took CMPEN 331 (Computer Organization and Design) at Penn State University (main campus). The course was taught by Dr. Kabekode Bhat, and I quickly found that I was not able to learn from his classroom instruction. I did find the homework assignments to be a useful learning experience, I had to figure out everything on my own. This was a time-consuming and frustrating process. As such, I've decided to place walkthroughs of the assignments I was given, in hopes of aiding future students in this course.

What these walkthroughs contain:

• My explanations of the assignments (What are you being asked to do?)
• Advice on how to approach the problem
• References I found useful
• Explanations of related concepts

What these walkthroughs do NOT contain:

• My answers or sourcecode
• Full language tutorials

I assume that you understand the basics of MIPS assembly and VHDL. Your book (Computer Organization and Design, by Patterson & Hennessy) is a good reference.