CSE 378: Machine Organization and Assembly Language

Getting Started With SPIM and XSPIM

  1. Login to your account on an instructional unix server (ceylon, fiji, sumatra or tahiti), and get an xterm up. Ask the lab staff if you're unfamiliar with how to do this. I've been told that there are icons on the desktop for each of those four machines that will connect with ReflectionX and open an xterm. All you should need to do is locate the appropriate icon and double-click on it.
  2. Edit your .cshrc (or your .mycshrc, if you have one) file to include the following line at the end of the file:
    3. source /cse/courses/cse378/CurrentQtr/bin/spim-setup
    You need to make the above changes only once. By including the above line, you will have easy access to spim and xspim, as well as the (scant) man page documentation. Logout and login again so that the changes take effect.
    If you aren't sure how to edit your .cshrc file, or you don't want to logout and back in, you can just type the above command into your xterm and run it.
  3. You are now ready to run xspim which you do by entering:
    4. xspim &
    at the prompt. The & character tells UNIX to run xspim in the background. This allows you to continue using the terminal window from which you started xspim to do other work, read mail, etc...
  4. After starting xspim, you should see a window like this:



    5.  
  5. Notice the 5 distinct segments:
  6. Use the "load" button to load your assembly file.
  7. There are several options to run the program:
    8. Original by dugan@cs.washington.edu, Spring 1997.
    Modified by cary@cs.washington.edu, Winter 2001.