PROJECT STATUS
4//15/02
Today was the first official meeting of the group. After thinking about what we actually have to do for a while we decided how to tackle the problem. We decided to implement all the major components first and then try to connect backend and front-end. After everything there would work fine the whole CPU would be tested. We also realized that some of the components are more important than others. IR was unnecessary right away and PC was not that much necessary either. Most of the action was going on at the back end with decoder, register file, shifter, ram and rom. So we decided to give precedence to those major components even though all the components were divided between the members.
4/17/02
Today we had a very quick meeting. IR was already implemented and register file was very well under way. 4x8mux and 2x1demux were already encoded for register file. Decoder was also coming along. There were no major problems in the group yet so we decided to dismiss.
4/22/02
This meeting took a while. Decoder, IR and register file are implemented. There are quite a few problems implementing the PC. We didn’t really understand yet how it worked so we spend some time with the book and notes trying to get it. We made some head way so Mike was capable of going home to work on it.
4/24/02
Today was a good meeting. All of the major components seem to be working fine. We decided to meet on this Saturday to try to implement back and front end. We also decided that everyone should test all of the components one more time to make sure that everything is working fine before full implementation.
4/27/02
This meeting was not all that great. After spending an hour and a half going throughout IIT computer labs we were unable to find computers that have MaxPlus installed. After deliberation we decided to go to one of our group members’ house to work on it. Once we got there problems started with implementation. We had a problem with RAM because of the use of wrong device which we still do not know how to fix. We decided to skip that part and try to implement other stuff together which also did not truly work out. We just called it a day(it seemed it was bad anyway) and decided to continue on Monday.
4/29/02
Today we made some headway. We found the device that works and everything else started then falling in place. We implemented front and back end and they both came out working. We had some weird compiling errors which we will try to make work.
5/01/2
Today we tested it and mostly everything worked out. We had few simple problems with few of the instructions but it was not too bad. Our CPU WORKS!!!