Quiz submission record for quiz3-1-2 at Sun Jul  4 19:07:13 2004:

Your Answer for Question 1:
No.  Although there are different types of formats like I, R, and J, MIPS instructions have unique bit patterns.  For example, in R-format, instructions take the bit pattern:
op rs rt rd shamt funct
and I-format instructions take this form:
op rs rt rd address
Even though the address in the I-type and shamt funct may be the same, the computer knows which format by having distinct values for the op field.  The machine only sees "1's" and "0's".  If the programmer wants two different instructions, they cannot have the same bit pattern because the computer can't tell the difference.

Your Answer for Question 2:
With PC-relative addressing, we can branch plus or minus 2^15 words away from our current instruction.  So in the above example, the assembler will only have difficulty if for some reason, the "There" label is more than 2^15 (about 32000!) words away from "Here".  Which would mean a huge "...".


Your unique submission ID is quiz3-1-2-cs61c-ck-1088993233-344.