APPENDIX A — Downloading and Installing SPIM

This on-line course uses SPIM. SPIM is a simulator for the MIPS32 processor instruction set architecture (ISA). All you need for this course is SPIM and a text editor. SPIM is free, available at:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~larus/spim.html

You will need a text editor. The text editor that comes with Microsoft operating systems, Notepad, will work, but just barely. A better text editor is much more convenient. If you are already using a text editor that came with a programming environment it will work fine. Sometimes these editors are called "program editors." The editor that comes with Visual Basic will not work. A "word processor" such as Word or WordPad will not work well, either.

For a text editor I recommend Crimson. It is freeware, works well with many programming languages, and is easy to download and to install: http://www.crimsoneditor.com/.

If you are familiar with downloading and installing programs, download and install SPIM and skip the rest of this appendix. If (as happens all too often) SPIM has moved to a new location, look for it with a search engine. It is used by many schools and is downloadable from several locations.

Appendix Topics:

• Downloading SPIM
• Installing SPIM
• Testing SPIM
• Usage Notes
• Additional Resources