The Processor Project

In the winter of 2018, I began taking classes that were more relevant to my major. Of these, the class I enjoyed most was Computer Architecture I, as it was a class that involved both of my majors equally. I learned about computer instruction set architecture, including topics such as instruction formats, addressing modes, different types of datapaths (single cycle, multi-cycle, and pipeline) used for instruction execution. We were introduced to the load-store, accumulator, memory to memory, and stack-based processor architectures.

Using all of this information, our term project was to build a unique processor almost completely from scratch, including designing an instruction set, deciding which procedures to follow, and building the hardware. We worked in teams of five to complete the project, and when the course was over, we presented our processor to the rest of our peers. Below are files that explain the project in greater detail and present our final report and presentation.