EEC-70 / Fall 2013

SPIM and SPIMSAL Information

We will be using the SPIM/SAL simulator for Simple Abstract Language (SAL), MIPS Assembly Language (MAL), and True Assembly Language (TAL) described in the text book, A Programmer's View of Computer Architecture, by James Goodmand and Karen Miller. SPIM/SAL is derived from Jim Laru's MIPS simulator, SPIM. SPIM is a self-contained simulator that will run MIPS32 assembly language programs. It reads and executes assembly language programs written for this processor. XSPIM is a X-Windows based graphical user interface to SPIM. Scott Kempf extended the simulator to include SAL and to handle the complete MAL instruction set.

You are also welcome to use MARS (MIPS Assembler and Runtime Simulator). One of the fellow students of EEC70 has written up a nice tutorial on how to use MARS.

Instructions for Programming Assignments

You can access SPIM/SAL simulator using the computers in 2107 Kemper. All lab programs you submitted should be abnle to run on the command line using the ECE machines.

Documentation

Downloading

Other Tips

You should note the following detail about the operation of SPIMSAL. The simulator interprets each line. It however will not interpret a line unless that line is terminated with a carriage return. For example, this means that after the last line of your program (e.g., after the 'done' directive) you will need to position the input point so that it is at the beginning of the next line:

done

^_______ (input point is here after carriage return )

Known Bugs