CS 2200 Systems and Networking

Prof. Ramachandran & Prof. Daglis

Project 2 - Interrupts

Made by: Samy, Shunzhi, Harriet

Due: February 27th 2023

Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

1 Introduction
We have spent the last few weeks implementing our 32-bit datapath. The simple 32-bit LC-5500 is capable
of performing advanced computational tasks and logical decision making. Now it is time for us to move on
to something more advanced—the upgraded LC-5500a enables the ability for programs to be interrupted.
Your assignment is to fully implement and test interrupts using the provided datapath and CircuitSim. You
will hook up the interrupt and data lines to the new timer device, modify the datapath and microcontroller
to support interrupt operations, and write an interrupt handler to operate this new device. You will also
use the tiny, inexpensive LC-5500a as an embedded system to monitor a kitchen appliance.

2 Requirements
Before you begin, please ensure you have done the following:
• Download the proper version of CircuitSim. A copy of CircuitSim is available under Files on Grade-
scope. You may also download it from the CircuitSim website (https://ra4king.github.io/CircuitSim/).
In order to run CircuitSim, Java must be installed. If you are a Mac user, you may need to right-click
on the JAR file and select “Open” in the menu to bypass Gatekeeper restrictions.
• CircuitSim is still under development and may have unknown bugs. Please back up your work using
some form of version control, such as a local/private git repository or Dropbox. Do not use public
git repositories; it is against the Georgia Tech Honor Code.
• The LC-5500a assembler is written in Python. If you do not have Python 2.6 or newer installed on
your system, you will need to install it before you continue.

3 What We Have Provided

• A reference guide to the LC-5500a is located in Appendix A: LC-5500a Instruction Set Architecture.
Please read this first before you move on! The reference introduces several new instructions that
you will implement for this project.
• A microcode file (microcode.xlsx) that meets the requirements of Project 1; however, feel free to
supply your own. This microcode file has a new configuration with additional bits for the new signals
that will be added in this project
• A timer device that will generate an interrupt signal at regular intervals. The pinout and functionality
of this device are described in Adding an External Timer Device.
• A distance tracker that will generate an interrupt signal at regular intervals, and provides distance
tracker readings. The pinout and functionality of this device are described in Adding a Distance
Tracker.
• An incomplete assembly program prj2.s that you will complete and use to test your interrupt capa-
bilities.
• An assembler with support for the new instructions to assemble the test program.
• A completed LC-5500 datapath circuit (LC-5500a.sim) from Project 1 is provided. Use this as a base
to add the basic interrupt support for the LC-5500a or build off of your own Project 1 datapath, but
you must rename the file to LC-5500a.sim. Most of the work can be easily carried over from one
datapath to another.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

4 Phase 1 - Implementing a Basic Interrupt

Datapath

DrData

DATA

Microcontroller INT

INTA INTA
Timer Device Other Devices

Figure 1: Basic Interrupt Hardware for the LC-5500a Processor

For this assignment, you will add interrupt support to the LC-5500a datapath. Then, you will test your new
capabilities to handle interrupts using an external timer device.
Work in the LC-5500a.sim file. If you wish to use your existing datapath, make a copy with this name,
and add the devices we provided.

4.1 Interrupt Hardware Support

First, you will need to add the hardware support for interrupts.
You must do the following:
1. Our processor needs a way to turn interrupts on and off. Create a new one-bit “Interrupt Enable” (IE)
register. You’ll connect this register to your microcontroller in a later step.
2. Create the INT line. The external device you will create in 4.2 will pull this line high (assert a ’1’)
when they wish to interrupt the processor. Because multiple devices can share a single INT line, only
one device can write to it at once. When a device does not have an interrupt, it neither pulls the
line high nor low. You must accommodate this in your hardware by making sure that the final value
going to the microcontroller always has a value (i.e. not a blue wire in CircuitSim). This can be done
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

by using a specific gate to act like a pull-down resistor so that there is always a value asserted (See
Appendix C for more information)..
3. When a device receives an IntAck signal, it will drive a 32-bit device ID onto the I/O Data Bus. To
prevent devices from interfering with the processor, the I/O Data Bus is attached to the Main Bus
with a tri-state driver. Create this driver and the bus, and attach the microcontroller’s DrDATA
signal to the driver.
4. Modify the datapath so that the PC starts at 0x08 when the processor is reset. Normally the PC
starts at 0x00, however we need to make space for the interrupt vector table (IVT). Therefore, when
you actually load in the test code that you will write, it needs to start at 0x08. Please make sure that
your solution ensures that datapath can never execute from below 0x08 - or in other words, force the
PC to drive the value 0x08 if the PC is pointing in the range of the interrupt vector table.
5. Create hardware to support selecting the register $k0 within the microcode. This is needed by some
interrupt related instructions. Because we need to access $k0 outside of regular instructions, we cannot
use the Rx / Ry / Rz bits. HINT: Use only the register selection bits that the main ROM already
outputs to select $k0. Notice that there is an unused input to the RegSel multiplexer.

4.2 Adding an External Timer Device

Hardware timers are an essential device in any CPU design. They allow the CPU to monitor the passing of
various time intervals, without dedicating CPU instructions to the cause.
The ability of timers to raise interrupts also enables preemptive multitasking, where the operating system
periodically interrupts a running process to let another process take a turn. Timers are also essential to
ensuring a single misbehaving program cannot freeze up your entire computer.
You will connect an external timer device to the datapath. It is internally configured to have a device ID
of 0x0 and interrupt every 2000 clock ticks.
The pinout of the timer device is described below. If you like, you may also examine the internals of the
device in CircuitSim.
• CLK: The clock input to the device. Make sure you connect this to the same clock as the rest of your
circuit.
• INT: The device will begin to assert this line when its time interval has elapsed. It will not be lowered
until the cycle after it receives an INTA signal.
• INTA IN: When the INTA IN line is asserted while the device has asserted the INT line, it will drive
its device ID to the DATA line and lower its INT line on the next clock cycle.
• INTA OUT: When the INTA IN line is asserted while the device does not have an interrupt pending,
its value will be propagated to INTA OUT. This allows for daisy chaining of devices.
• DATA: The device will drive its ID (0x0) to this line after receiving an INTA.
The INT and DATA lines from the timer should be connected to the appropriate buses that you added in
the previous section.

4.3 Microcontroller Interrupt Support

Before beginning this part, be sure you have read through Appendix A: LC-5500a Instruction
Set Architecture and Appendix B: Microcontrol Unit and pay special attention to the new
instructions. However, for this part of the project, you do not need to worry about the
LdDAR signal or the IN instruction.
In this part of the assignment you will modify the microcontroller and the microcode of the LC-5500a to
support interrupts. You will need to do the following:
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

1. Be sure to read the appendix on the microcontroller before starting this section.
2. Modify the microcontroller to support asserting four new signals:
(a) LdEnInt & EnInt to control whether interrupts are enabled/disabled. You will use these 2
signals to control the value of your interrupts enabled register.
(b) IntAck to send an interrupt acknowledge to the device.
(c) DrDATA to drive the value on the I/O Data Bus to the Main Bus.
3. Extend the size of the ROM accordingly.
4. Add the fourth ROM described in Appendix B: Microcontrol Unit to handle onInt.
5. Modify the FETCH macrostate microcode so that we actively check for interrupts. Normally this is
done within the INT macrostate (as described in Chapter 4 of the book and in the lectures) but we
are rolling this functionality in the FETCH macrostate for the sake of simplicity. You can accomplish
this by doing the following:
(a) First check to see if the CPU should be interrupted. To be interrupted, two conditions must be
true: (1) interrupts are enabled (i.e., the IE register must hold a ’1’), and (2), a device must be
asserting a ’1’ on the INT signal line.
(b) If not, continue with FETCH normally.
(c) If the CPU should be interrupted, then perform the following:
i. Save the current PC to the register $k0.
ii. Disable interrupts.
iii. Assert the interrupt acknowledge signal (IntAck). Next, drive the device ID from the I/O
Data Bus and use it to index into the interrupt vector table to retrieve the new PC value.
The device will drive its device ID onto the I/O Data Bus one clock cycle after it receives
the IntAck signal.
iv. This new PC value should then be loaded into the PC.
Note: onInt works in the same manner that CmpOut did in Project 1. The processor
should branch to the appropriate microstate depending on the value of onInt. onInt
should be true when interrupts are enabled AND when there is an interrupt to be
acknowledged. Note: The mode bit mechanism and user/kernel stack separation
discussed in the textbook has been omitted for simplicity.
6. Implement the microcode for three new instructions for supporting interrupts as described in Chapter
4. These are the EI, DI, and RETI instructions. You need to write the microcode in the main ROM
controlling the datapath for these three new instructions. Keep in mind that:
(a) EI sets the IE register to 1.
(b) DI sets the IE register to 0.
(c) RETI loads $k0 into the PC, and enables interrupts.

4.4 Implementing the Timer Interrupt Handler

Our datapath and microcontroller now support receiving interrupts from devices, BUT we must now imple-
ment the interrupt handler timer_handler within the prj2.s file to handle interrupts from the timer device
while also not interfering with the correct operation of any user programs.
In prj2.s, we provide you with a modified version of pow.s that will run while you are waiting for interrupts.
For this part of the project, you need to write the interrupt handler for the timer device (device ID 0x0).
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

You should refer to Chapter 4 of the textbook to see how to write a correct interrupt handler. As detailed
in that chapter, your handler will need to do the following:
1. First save the current value of $k0 (the return address to where you came from to the current handler)
2. Enable interrupts (which should have been disabled implicitly by the processor within the INT macrostate).
3. Save the state of the interrupted program.
4. Implement the actual work to be done in the handler. In the case of this project, we want you to
increment a counter variable in memory, which we have already provided.
5. Restore the state of the original program and return using RETI.
The handler you have written for the timer device should run every time the device’s interrupt is triggered.
Make sure to write the handler such that interrupts can be nested. With that in mind, interrupts should be
disabled for as few instructions as possible within the handlers.
You will need to do the following:
1. Write the interrupt handler (should follow the above instructions or simply refer to Chapter 4 in your
book). In the case of this project, we want the interrupt handler to keep track of time in memory at
the predetermined location: 0xFFFF
2. Load the starting address of the first handler you just implemented in prj2.s into the interrupt vector
table at the appropriate addresses (the table is indexed using the device ID of the interrupting device).
Test your design before moving onto the next section. If it works correctly, you should see the value
at address 0xFFFF in memory increment as the program runs.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

5 Phase 2 - Implementing Interrupts from Input Devices

Datapath

Datapath

DAR LdDAR

DrData

ADDR

DATA

Microcontroller INT

INTA INTA
Timer Device Distance Tracker Other Devices

Figure 2: Interrupt Hardware for the LC-5500a with Basic I/O Support

Eager to put your newfound knowledge of device interrupts from CS2200 to good use, you decide to apply
what you’ve learned to your engineering passion: distance tracker. You are interested to know the maximum
and minimum distance in that area.
You’ve rigged up a device that is able to report the current distance measured to an LC-5500a processor via
an interrupt. There’s only one issue: as of right now, your datapath can detect when an external device is
ready to interrupt the processor, but it cannot retrieve data from external devices.
In this phase of the project, you will add functionality for device-addressed input. You will then make use
of this functionality by adding a device simulating a distance tracker and writing a simple handler for the
device.

5.1 Basic I/O Support

Before adding the distance tracker, you will first need to add support for device addressed I/O. In order to
get input from a device such as a distance tracker, you will write a value to an Address Bus, which instructs
the device with that address (which in this case is the same as the device ID) to write its output data to the
I/O Data Bus.
You must do the following:
1. Create the device address register (DAR) and connect its enable to the LdDAR signal from your
microcontroller. This register gets its input from the Main Bus, and its output will be directly connected
to the Address Bus. It will allow us to assert a value on the Address Bus while using the Main Bus
for other operations.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

2. Modify the microcontroller to support a new control signal, LdDAR. This signal will be used in order
to enable writing to the DAR.
3. Implement the IN instruction in your microcode. This instruction takes a device address an immediate
offset (IR[19:0]), loads it into the DAR, and writes the value on the data bus into a register. When
it is done, it must clear the DAR (since interrupts use the data bus to communicate device IDs).
Examine the format of the IN instruction and consider what signals you might raise in order to write
a constant zero into the DAR.

5.2 Adding a Distance Tracker

You will connect a distance tracker to your datapath that simulates a distance tracker by returning the
current distance. Its internals are similar to the timer device, meaning it asserts interrupts and handles
acknowledgments in the same way. Every 1000 cycles, it will assert an interrupt signaling that a distance
value has been captured. This distance can be fetched as a 32-bit word by writing the device’s address to
the ADDR line.
The distance tracker is internally configured to have a device ID of 0x1.
Place the distance tracker in your datapath circuit. This device will share the INT and DATA lines with
the timer you added previously. However, it should receive its INTA signal from the INTA OUT pin on the
timer device. This ensures that if both the timer and distance tracker raise an interrupt at the same time,
the timer will be acknowledged first, and the distance tracker will be acknowledged after. This is known
as “daisy chaining” devices.

5.3 Implementing the Distance Tracker Handler

Now that your LC-5500a datapath can accept data from your distance tracker, we need to decide what to
do with the data. In this case, we want to keep track of the maximum and minimum distance we have
seen so far in two particular memory locations, 0xFFFD and 0xFFFC. You’ll have to implement this logic
in your handler, which will work similarly to the one you wrote for the timer device. However, instead of
incrementing a timer at a memory location, you will be keeping track of the maximum and minimum
distance we have seen so far. You will also keep track of the range between the maximum and minimum
distances we have seen so far.
In addition to the usual overhead of an interrupt handler, your distance tracker handler must do the following:
1. Use the IN instruction to obtain the most recently captured distance value from the distance tracker.
2. Write the value obtained from the distance tracker to the memory location with the address 0xFFFD
only if the value is greater than the current maximum or the address 0xFFFC only if the
value is less than the current minimum.
3. Calculate the range and store it in address 0xFFFE.
Make sure that you properly install the location of the new handler into the IVT.
The distance tracker hardware is designed to emit a sequence of numbers representing distance readings. If
your design is working properly, you should see the value stored in the memory location 0xFFFD increase
and 0xFFFC decrease after a few thousand clock cycles as it updates when a new distance value is pushed
onto the datapath.
To validate you’re updating the distance expended correctly, you can check the values that the distance
tracker will emit by inspecting the internals of the circuit and checking the values in the ROM labeled ‘Key
Buffer’.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

6 Autograder
Similar to the autograder for Project 1, Project 2 autograder will execute your prj2.s using your datapath
and simulate the interrupt handling process. It will tell you if your handler codes complete their jobs. Your
final grade will not be determined by whether you pass the autograder or not. Feel free to use it as a tool to
help you debug your circuit and assembly code, but you won’t be able to rely on it entirely. You must still
figure out which part of your datapath/microcode/handler code is not functioning as expected. If you want
to use the autograder, you must follow a few rules:
• Don’t rename the components that already exist
• Name your IE register as “IE”
• Name your Interrupt ROM as “INT”
• Use only one clock globally.
• Use only one RAM as memory.
• Don’t change the layout of the microcode Excel sheet
• If you changed the constants in devices for debugging purposes, remember to change them back.
If the autograder fails you, please first double-check if you meet all the rules above and those in Project 1. If
the autograder points you to a device handler, try to load the assembled HEX of your prj2.s program into
your RAM, clock it until the device interrupts, and check state by state to see if any component goes wrong
when handling that interrupt. Sometimes, you may not reproduce the error when that device interrupts for
the first time. In that case, you need to monitor all the following interrupts of that device to locate the
problem.
When you get an error message, please first try to reproduce it locally and think about what you observe.
If you still don’t know how to approach it, come to office hours or make a private post with a detailed
explanation of your attempts of debugging, instead of just a post with the error message and a screenshot
of your datapath. TAs won’t be able to help you solve the problem with that little amount of information.

7 Deliverables
To submit your project, you need to upload the following files to Gradescope:
• CircuitSim datapath file (LC-5500a.sim)
• Microcode file (microcode.xlsx)
• Assembly code (prj2.s)
If you are missing any of those files, you will get a 0, so make sure that you have uploaded all
three of them.
Always re-download your assignment from Gradescope after submitting to ensure that all
necessary files were properly uploaded. If what we download does not work, you will get a 0
regardless of what is on your machine.
This project will be demoed. In order to receive full credit, you must sign up for a demo slot and
complete the demo. We will announce when demo times are released.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8 Appendix A: LC-5500a Instruction Set Architecture

The LC-5500a is a simple, yet capable computer architecture. The LC-5500a combines attributes of both
ARM and the LC-2200 ISA defined in the Ramachandran & Leahy textbook for CS 2200.
The LC-5500a is a word-addressable, 32-bit computer. All addresses refer to words, i.e. the first
word (four bytes) in memory occupies address 0x0, the second word, 0x1, etc.
All memory addresses are truncated to 16 bits on access, discarding the 16 most significant bits if the address
was stored in a 32-bit register. This provides 64 KB of addressable memory.

8.1 Registers
The LC-5500a has 16 general-purpose registers. While there are no hardware-enforced restraints on the uses
of these registers, your code is expected to follow the conventions outlined below.

Table 1: Registers and their Uses

Register Number Name Use Callee Save?
0 $zero Always Zero NA
1 $at Assembler/Target Address NA
2 $v0 Return Value No
3 $a0 Argument 1 No
4 $a1 Argument 2 No
5 $a2 Argument 3 No
6 $t0 Temporary Variable No
7 $t1 Temporary Variable No
8 $t2 Temporary Variable No
9 $s0 Saved Register Yes
10 $s1 Saved Register Yes
11 $s2 Saved Register Yes
12 $k0 Reserved for OS and Traps NA
13 $sp Stack Pointer No
14 $fp Frame Pointer Yes
15 $ra Return Address No

1. Register 0 is always read as zero. Any values written to it are discarded. Note: for the purposes of
this project, you must implement the zero register. Regardless of what is written to this register, it
should always output zero.
2. Register 1 is used to hold the target address of a jump. It may also be used by pseudo-instructions
generated by the assembler.
3. Register 2 is where you should store any returned value from a subroutine call.
4. Registers 3 - 5 are used to store function/subroutine arguments. Note: registers 2 through 8 should
be placed on the stack if the caller wants to retain those values. These registers are fair game for the
callee (subroutine) to trash.
5. Registers 6 - 8 are designated for temporary variables. The caller must save these registers if they
want these values to be retained.
6. Registers 9 - 11 are saved registers. The caller may assume that these registers are never tampered
with by the subroutine. If the subroutine needs these registers, then it should place them on the stack
and restore them before they jump back to the caller.
7. Register 12 is reserved for handling interrupts. While it should be implemented, it otherwise will not
have any special use on this assignment.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8. Register 13 is the everchanging top of the stack stack; it keeps track of the top of the activation
record for a subroutine.
9. Register 14 is the anchor point of the activation frame. It is used to point to the first address on the
activation record for the currently executing process.
10. Register 15 is used to store the address a subroutine should return to when it is finished executing.

8.2 Instruction Overview

The LC-5500a supports a variety of instruction forms, only a few of which we will use for this project. The
instructions we will implement in this project are summarized below.

Table 2: LC-5500a Instruction Set

31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

ADD 0000 DR SR1 unused SR2

NAND 0001 DR SR1 unused SR2
ADDI 0010 DR SR immval20
LW 0011 DR BaseR offset20
SW 0100 SR BaseR offset20
BR 0101 unused offset20
JALR 0110 RA AT unused
HALT 0111 unused
BLT 1000 SR1 SR2 PCoffset20
LEA 1001 DR unused PCoffset20
PUSH 1010 SR $SP offset20 (-1)
POP 1011 DR $SP offset20 (+1)
EI 1100 unused
DI 1101 unused
RETI 1110 unused
IN 1111 DR 0000 addr20
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3 Detailed Instruction Reference

8.3.1 ADD
Assembler Syntax
ADD DR, SR1, SR2

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0000 DR SR1 unused SR2

Operation
DR = SR1 + SR2;

Description
The ADD instruction obtains the first source operand from the SR1 register. The second source operand is
obtained from the SR2 register. The second operand is added to the first source operand, and the result is
stored in DR.

8.3.2 NAND
Assembler Syntax
NAND DR, SR1, SR2

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0001 DR SR1 unused SR2

Operation
DR = ~(SR1 & SR2);

Description
The NAND instruction performs a logical NAND (AND NOT) on the source operands obtained from SR1
and SR2. The result is stored in DR.

HINT: A logical NOT can be achieved by performing a NAND with both source operands the same.
For instance,
NAND DR, SR1, SR1
...achieves the following logical operation: DR ← SR1.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.3 ADDI
Assembler Syntax
ADDI DR, SR, immval20

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0010 DR SR immval20

Operation
DR = SR + SEXT(immval20);

Description
The ADDI instruction obtains the first source operand from the SR register. The second source operand is
obtained by sign-extending the immval20 field to 32 bits. The resulting operand is added to the first source
operand, and the result is stored in DR.

8.3.4 LW
Assembler Syntax
LW DR, offset20(BaseR)

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0011 DR BaseR offset20

Operation
DR = MEM[BaseR + SEXT(offset20)];

Description
An address is computed by sign-extending bits [19:0] to 32 bits and then adding this result to the contents
of the register specified by bits [23:20]. The 32-bit word at this address is loaded into DR.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.5 SW
Assembler Syntax
SW SR, offset20(BaseR)

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0100 SR BaseR offset20

Operation
MEM[BaseR + SEXT(offset20)] = SR;

Description
An address is computed by sign-extending bits [19:0] to 32 bits and then adding this result to the contents
of the register specified by bits [23:20]. The 32-bit word obtained from register SR is then stored at this
address.

8.3.6 BR
Assembler Syntax
BR offset20

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0101 unused offset20

Operation
PC = incrementedPC + offset20

Description
A branch is unconditionally taken. The PC will be set to the sum of the incremented PC (since we have
already undergone fetch) and the sign-extended offset[19:0].
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.7 JALR
Assembler Syntax
JALR RA, AT

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0110 RA AT unused

Operation
RA = PC;
PC = AT;

Description
First, the incremented PC (address of the instruction + 1) is stored into register RA. Next, the PC is loaded
with the value of register AT, and the computer resumes execution at the new PC.

8.3.8 HALT
Assembler Syntax
HALT

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

0111 unused

Description
The machine is brought to a halt and executes no further instructions.

8.3.9 BLT
Assembler Syntax
BLT SR1, SR2

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1000 SR1 SR2 PCoffset20

Operation
if (SR1 < SR2) {
PC = incrementedPC + SEXT(PCoffset20)
}

Description
This is a conditional branch that will be taken only if the value of the register SR1 is less that then value of
the SR2 register. The PC will be set to the sum of the incremented PC (since we have already undergone
fetch) and the sign-extended offset[19:0].
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.10 LEA
Assembler Syntax
LEA DR, label

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1001 DR unused PCoffset20

Operation
DR = PC + SEXT(PCoffset20);

Description
An address is computed by sign-extending bits [19:0] to 32 bits and adding this result to the incremented
PC (address of instruction + 1). It then stores the computed address into register DR.

8.3.11 PUSH
Assembler Syntax
PUSH SR

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1010 SR $SP offset20 (-1)

Operation
X = SR
$SP = $SP - 1
MEM[$SP] = X

Description
Decrements the stack pointer and stores the value of the source register SR at the memory location of the
stack pointer. Note: the operation of the decrement must happen before the store in order to ensure that
the stack pointer always points to the top of the stack, but be sure to take special care when pushing the
stack pointer itself.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.12 POP
Assembler Syntax
POP DR

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1011 DR $SP offset20 (+1)

Operation
X = MEM[$SP]
$SP = $SP + 1
DR = X

Description
Loads the value from memory pointed to by the stack pointer into DR and increments the value of the stack
pointer. Note: the operation of the increment must happen after the load in order to ensure that the stack
pointer always points to the top of the stack.

8.3.13 EI
Assembler Syntax
EI

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1100 unused

Operation
IE = 1;

Description
The Interrupts Enabled register is set to 1, enabling interrupts.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.14 DI
Assembler Syntax
DI

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1101 unused

Operation
IE = 0;

Description
The Interrupts Enabled register is set to 0, disabling interrupts.

8.3.15 RETI
Assembler Syntax
RETI

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1110 unused

Operation
PC = $k0;
IE = 1;

Description
The PC is restored to the return address stored in $k0. The Interrupts Enabled register is set to 1, enabling
interrupts.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

8.3.16 IN
Assembler Syntax
IN DR, DeviceADDR

Encoding
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

1111 DR 0000 addr20

Operation
DAR = addr20;
DR = DeviceData;
DAR = 0;

Description
The value in addr20 is sign-extended to determine the 32-bit device address. This address is then loaded
into the Device Address Register (DAR). The processor then reads a single word value off the device data
bus, and writes this value to the DR register. The DAR is then reset to zero, ending the device bus cycle.
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

9 Appendix B: Microcontrol Unit

You will make a microcontrol unit which will drive all of the control signals to various items on the datapath.
This Finite State Machine (FSM) can be constructed in a variety of ways. You could implement it with
combinational logic and flip flops, or you could hard-wire signals using a single ROM. The single ROM
solution will waste a tremendous amount of space since most of the microstates do not depend on the opcode
or the conditional test to determine which signals to assert. For example, since the condition line is an input
for the address, every microstate would have to have an address for condition = 0 as well as condition = 1,
even though this only matters for one particular microstate.
To solve this problem, we will use a three ROM microcontroller. In this arrangement, we will have three
ROMs:
• the main ROM, which outputs the control signals,
• the sequencer ROM, which helps determine which microstate to go to at the end of the FETCH state,
• and the condition ROM, which helps determine whether or not to skip during BLT instructions.
Examine the following:

Figure 3: Three ROM Microcontrol Unit

Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

As you can see, there are three different locations that the next state can come from: part of the output
from the previous state (main ROM), the sequencer ROM, and the condition ROM. The mux controls which
of these sources gets through to the state register. If the previous state’s “next state” field determines where
to go, neither the OPTest nor ChkCmp signals will be asserted. If the opcode from the IR determines the
next state (such as at the end of the FETCH state), the OPTest signal will be asserted. If the comparison
circuitry determines the next state (such as in the BLT instruction), the ChkCmp signal will be asserted.
Note that these two signals should never be asserted at the same time since nothing is input into the “11”
pin on the MUX.
The sequencer ROM should have one address per instruction, and the condition ROM should have one
address for condition true and one for condition false.
Before getting down to specifics you need to determine the control scheme for the datapath. To do this
examine each instruction, one by one, and construct a finite state bubble diagram showing exactly what
control signals will be set in each state. Also determine what are the conditions necessary to pass from one
state to the next. You can experiment by manually controlling your control signals on the bus you’ve created
in Phase 1 - Implementing a Basic Interrupt to make sure that your logic is sound.
Once the finite state bubble diagram is produced, the next step is to encode the contents of the Control Unit
ROM. Then you must design and build (in CircuitSim) the Control Unit circuit which will contain the three
ROMs, a MUX, and a state register. Your design will be better if it allows you to single step and ensure
that it is working properly. Finally, you will load the Control Unit’s ROMs with the hexadecimal generated
by your filled out microcode.xlsx.
Note that the input address to the ROM uses bit 0 for the lowest bit of the current state and 5 for the
highest bit for the current state.

Table 3: ROM Output Signals

Bit Purpose Bit Purpose Bit Purpose Bit Purpose Bit Purpose
0 NextState[0] 6 DrREG 12 LdIR 18 WrMEM 24 ChkCmp
1 NextState[1] 7 DrMEM 13 LdMAR 19 RegSel[0] 25 LdEnInt
2 NextState[2] 8 DrALU 14 LdA 20 RegSel[1] 26 EnInt
3 NextState[3] 9 DrPC 15 LdB 21 Func[0] 27 IntAck
4 NextState[4] 10 DrOFF 16 LdCmp 22 Func[1] 28 DrData
5 NextState[5] 11 LdPC 17 WrREG 23 OPTest 29 LdDAR

Table 4: Register Selection Map

RegSel[1] RegSel[0] Register
0 0 RX (IR[27:24])
0 1 RY (IR[23:20])
1 0 RZ (IR[3:0])
1 1 unused

Table 5: ALU Function Map

Func[1] Func[0] Function
0 0 ADD
0 1 NAND
1 0 SUB
1 1 A+1
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023

10 Appendix C: Pull Down and Pull Up Resistors

10.1 Intro
In CS 2200 and CS 2110, you’ve built functional logic gates that don’t need to consider the physical variables
of real circuit logic. There is another way that only needs half the number of transistors. This method works
best with discrete components (but our two-transistor style is better with integrated circuits as the transistors
takes less chip space overall).

10.2 How we build our logic gates

We build our gates so that the output is either connected to Vcc or Ground depending on the calculated
output value. What we could do is build the gate so that the output is connected to one side of the power
bus (either Vcc or Ground) when the output should be that value. When the output is the opposite value, we
leave the output floating. This by itself would give us an unpredictable output value, but not if we connect
a small resistor (known as a pull-up or pull down resistor depending on whether it is connected to Vcc or
Ground, respectively) between the gate’s output line and the opposite side of the power bus.
This resistor allows a tiny bit of current to flow; that current is overwhelmed when the output is connected
to Vcc or Ground, but when the output is floating the resistor provides just enough charge to ”pull” the
output to the opposite potential. The downstream device is none the wiser, but this saves us about half the
transistors in each gate. If you look at most other introductory digital logic textbooks, you may see that
the authors build their gates with pull-up and pull-down resistors instead of the ”two- transistor both sides
switched” approach that CircuitSim, Patt et al., and Ramachandran et al. use.
See http://www.cs.unca.edu/brock/classes/Fall2012/csci255/labs/lab05.html for a more thorough
explanation of the different methods for building gates.

10.3 Why are we telling you this?

Because the INT line is one of the very few situations that we can’t handle with our two-transistor logic
style. We need to combine several different signals on the INT line (which are connected by tri-state buffers)
that are either 1 or floating (we can’t allow devices to assert a 0 on the INT line because it will cause a short
circuit when one of our devices asserts a 1 signal to signal an interrupt).
The way we would handle this in a real circuit would be to simply add a pull-down resistor from the INT
line to Ground so that if none of the tri- state buffers are open to assert an interrupt 1 signal, the INT
line will reliably read as 0. The immediate issue is that CircuitSim doesn’t understand pull-up and pull-
down resistors, so it instead has a reality-distorting ”feature” that allows us to implement the interrupt line
without pull-down resistors. The feature is this: A CircuitSim OR gate will consider a floating input line to
be a 0.
This is not guaranteed in real life, but it is in CircuitSim. To implement the INT line, you can connect a
signal line that is either 1 or floating to one side of an OR gate and connect a 0 to the other input. The
output of the OR gate will be 1 if the first input is 1. If the first input is floating (or 0), the output will
definitely be 0. The diagram below shows an implementation of the INT line circuit for 3 devices:
Project 2 CS 2200 - Systems and Networks Spring 2023