About 50% of the Final will focus on the material since the last test, and about 50% will focus on the material from tests 1 and 2.
Review topics covered since Test 2 are:
Chapter 15. MIPS Assembly Language
MIPS Instruction Set: logical instructions, shift/rotate instructions
SPIM System Calls: Table 15.10
SPIM Assembler Directives: .data, .text, .word, .asciiz, .ascii, .GLOBL, .align
You should understand the general concept of how the operating system with hardware support provide protection from user programs that:
Chapter 19. Input/Output Organization (Sections 19.1 to 19.4)
I/O Controller role and function
I/O address mapping: Isolated-I/O vs. memory-mapped I/O
I/O Data Transfer: programmed I/O, interrupt-driven I/O, and direct-memory access (DMA)
Chapter 20. Interrupts (Sections 20.1, 20.2, and 20.9)
General interrupt mechanism
Usage of interrupts by the hardware/operating system to restrict a user program's activities