CS 241 - Definitions

In CS 241 we’re using 32-bit MIPS

Definitions §

Definitions I learned in the class, not a comprehensive list

• Nibble - 4 bits, such as 1011
• Word - Machine-specific grouping of bytes. In CS 241 a word is 4 bytes (32 bits)
• Most Significant Bit (MSB) - Leftmost bit
• Least Significant Bit (LSB) - Rightmost bit

Memory of many kinds (Fastest -> Slowest)

• CPU/Registers (Fastest)
• L1 Cache
• L2 Cache
• RAM
• Disk
• Network Memory - Not on your local machine (Slowest)

Fun Facts §

Bytes represent:

• Numbers
• Characters
• Garbage in memory
• CPU instructions
• Audio, videos, etc.

Context matters to interpret binary data - Seems like a point that’s emphasized in the slides a lot