ORGANIZATION AND DESIGN MIPS PRACTICE
TEST 2026 EXAM SCRIPT WITH VERIFIED
SOLUTIONS
◉ The size of a register in the MIPS architecture is ______ bits; these
groups occur frequently so that are given the name ______. Answer: 32,
word
◉ Programming languages have simple variables that contain single data
elements, but they also have more complex data structures - arrays and
structures. These complex data structures can contain many more data
elements than there are registers in a computer. How can a computer
represent and access such large structures? Answer: Memory
◉ Arithmetic operations occur only on registers in MIPS instructions;
thus, MIPS must include instructions that transfer data between _______
and _______. Such instructions are known as ________________.
Answer: Memory, registers, data transfer instructions
◉ To access a word in memory, the instruction must supply the memory
________. Answer: Address
, ◉ The data transfer instruction that copies data from memory to a
register is traditionally called ____________. Answer: Load
◉ In MIPS, words must start at addresses that are multiples of
________. This requirement is known as _________________, and
many architectures have it. Answer: 4, alignment restriction
◉ Many programs have more variables than computers have registers.
Consequently, the compiler tries to keep the most frequently used
variables in registers and places the rest in memory, using loads and
stores to move variables between registers and memory. The process of
putting less commonly used variables into memory is called
____________ registers. Answer: Spilling
◉ Registers take _______ to access and have ______ throughput than
memory. Answer: Less, higher
◉ Constant operands occur frequently, and by including constants inside
arithmetic instructions, operations are much _______ and use _______
energy than if constants were loaded from memory. Answer: Faster, less
◉ Registers are the fastest place to hold data in a computer, so we want
to use them as much as possible. MIPS software follows the following
convention for procedure calling in allocating its 32 registers: