Question

Suppose that a new MIPS instruction, called wcp, was designed to copy a block of 32-bit words from one address to another. Assume that this instruction requires that the starting address of the source block be in register $s0 and that the destination address be in $s1. The instruction also requires that the number of words to copy be in $s7 (which is > 0). Furthermore, assume that the values of these registers as well as register $t0 can be destroyed in executing this instruction (so that the registers can be used as temporaries to execute the instruction).

- la $s0, src
- la $s1, dst
- li $s7, count
- wcp

Answer 1

The wcp MIPS instruction is used to copy a block of 32-bit words from one memory address to another, with the source address in register $s0, destination in $s1, and number of words in $s7.

Step-by-step explanation:

The wcp instruction you've described is conceptualized for the MIPS assembly language to copy a block of 32-bit words from a source to a destination address in memory. In MIPS, the la instruction loads an address into a register, while li is used to load an immediate value. The setup for the wcp instruction involves loading the starting address of the source into $s0, the destination address into $s1, and the count of words to copy into $s7.

The instruction then utilizes these registers, along with $t0 as permissible temporary storage, to execute the copy operation. It is important to note that after the operation $s0, $s1, $s7, and $t0 may no longer hold their original values, indicating that they are used in the process of copying the data.