Phil Schielke <Philip.Schielke@concordia.edu>
This module introduces students to the basics of the ARM architecture. Many students are introduced to MIPS or some other real-world architecure during the course of their studies but are never exposed to another CPU. The goal in this module is to introduce students do a different architecture so they can think through how different architectures may function. The benefit of introducing ARM is that many ARM-based devices have several forms of heterogeneity within a single part, including a vector floating point unit, the NEON integer SIMD system, and Thumb mode which forces the programmer to consider speed/codesize/power tradeoffs.
This module is intended for a first course in an undergraduate computer organization course, which is typically taken during freshman or sophomore year. As such, it is expected that students have the following background when taking such a class before the module is presented.
- basic programming experience in a language like C or C++
- basic understanding of at least one hardware ISA, and simple programming at the assembly level.
HC topics covered in this module are listed below. Bloom's classification is shown in brackets
- Alternate ISAs [A]
- Codesize/Speed tradeoffs [C]
- Single-chip Heterogeneity [K]
- SIMD Hardware [K]
Having completed this module, students should be able to:
- Describe some of the differences between the MIPS and ARM ISAs
- Explain the basics of SIMD (NEON and VFP)
- Measure the codesize/speed tradeoff in ARM programs
- Slide Deck: Brief introduction to ISA noting differences with MIPS
- Slide Deck: Introduction to ARM's Thumb mode
- Slide Deck: Introduction to ARM's NEON SIMD coprocessor
- Instructor Notes: Instructor notes for above slide decks.
- Lab: A lab designed to introduce students to the ARM ISA
- Lab: A lab where students can experiment with the tradeoffs between ARM, Thumb1, and Thumb2 code
- Lab: A lab in which students rewrite some assembly code to utilize ARM NEON instructions.
- ARM Cheatsheet: ARM ISA cheatsheet
- MIPS Cheatsheet: MIPS ISA cheatsheet
- Reference Material: additional resources for instructors