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======Part 2======

=====Entries=====
====Entry 5: March 7, 2012====
Today's Computer Organization class was actually a little weird. We were missing a good chunk of our class inexplicably! We still continued on with class, naturally. We started to talk about the different types of registers that different processors will implement, and how many they use. We took a look at the instruction sets for our given research processors. After a few class-wide side-tracking discussions, I was able to find out that my research processor (PowerPC) has 32 general purpose registers and 32 floating-point registers. Unfortunately, we did not get much father than this for the class.

As for HPC II, I started a new project. I'm writing a guide on updating the kernel of a Linux system. It covers the basic, easy way, and (more importantly) the difficult, manual way of doing it, which involves compiling the kernel yourself and manipulating some boot directories. Fun stuff, after you get past the "learning how to do it" part!
====Entry 6: March 14, 2012====
Today's class was a sort of recap and reinvestigation of topics touched on in the class before. Basically, we were discussing the idea of instructions and the bits and bytes used to call them. In our specific example we were running off of, our instructions used 4 bytes. We determined that in a so-called Greatly Reduced Instruction Set Computer (or, GRISC), we needed only a handful of commands to ultimately execute all of the actions that we need in an emulator. These included the logic operators (AND, OR, NOT) and a few others (I need to check on the board and do a bit more research, evidently!). Joe also mentioned that there should be separate versions of some of these instructions that deal with either memory or a register.
====Entry 7: March 27, 2012====

This will serve as a back entry for recent classes, considering a slight lack of activity. Recently, we've been discussing the instructions contained within the instruction set, and how we'd be able to represent and use them. This led to some nice diagrams on the board that highlighted how we would use 4 bytes for each instruction, and how each bit of each byte would be used. For clarity, our chosen instructions included AND, OR, NOT, BRANCH, etc. For an example of how we would use some of the bits within the given bytes, we decided that the first three bits of the first byte would represent the instruction for identification. Afterwards, for example, in the AND instruction, the next two pairs of bits would represent the register being drawn upon, with a misc. bit at the end. The first two bits of the next byte would be for the output register of the AND instruction. That would be a brief explanation of the subject which we've recently started to discuss.
====Entry 8: March 30, 2012====

Classes lately have been more about independent study than anything else, which is okay. There are projects, programs and opuses to be worked on. As far as relevant in class discussion goes, more time has been dedicated to discussing the properties of the instructions included with our computer simulator. Understanding these of course is important when it comes to creating a solid base to start from. The instructions seem pretty simple in a very general sense, but implementing them isn't as easy. Not necessarily difficult, but not as easy as understanding what AND does in a general sense.
=====Keywords=====

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=====Experiments=====
====Experiment 4====

===Question===
What is the question you'd like to pose for experimentation? State it here.

===Resources===
Collect information and resources (such as URLs of web resources), and comment on knowledge obtained that you think will provide useful background information to aid in performing the experiment.

===Hypothesis===
Based on what you've read with respect to your original posed question, what do you think will be the result of your experiment (ie an educated guess based on the facts known). This is done before actually performing the experiment.

State your rationale.

===Experiment===
How are you going to test your hypothesis? What is the structure of your experiment?

===Data===
Perform your experiment, and collect/document the results here.

===Analysis===
Based on the data collected:

  * Was your hypothesis correct?
  * Was your hypothesis not applicable?
  * Is there more going on than you originally thought? (shortcomings in hypothesis)
  * What shortcomings might there be in your experiment?
  * What shortcomings might there be in your data?

===Conclusions===
What can you ascertain based on the experiment performed and data collected? Document your findings here; make a statement as to any discoveries you've made.

====Experiment 5====

===Question===
What is the question you'd like to pose for experimentation? State it here.

===Resources===
Collect information and resources (such as URLs of web resources), and comment on knowledge obtained that you think will provide useful background information to aid in performing the experiment.

===Hypothesis===
Based on what you've read with respect to your original posed question, what do you think will be the result of your experiment (ie an educated guess based on the facts known). This is done before actually performing the experiment.

State your rationale.

===Experiment===
How are you going to test your hypothesis? What is the structure of your experiment?

===Data===
Perform your experiment, and collect/document the results here.

===Analysis===
Based on the data collected:

  * Was your hypothesis correct?
  * Was your hypothesis not applicable?
  * Is there more going on than you originally thought? (shortcomings in hypothesis)
  * What shortcomings might there be in your experiment?
  * What shortcomings might there be in your data?

===Conclusions===
What can you ascertain based on the experiment performed and data collected? Document your findings here; make a statement as to any discoveries you've made.

====Retest 2====
Perform the following steps:

===State Experiment===
Whose existing experiment are you going to retest? Provide the URL, note the author, and restate their question.

===Resources===
Evaluate their resources and commentary. Answer the following questions:

  * Do you feel the given resources are adequate in providing sufficient background information?
  * Are there additional resources you've found that you can add to the resources list?
  * Does the original experimenter appear to have obtained a necessary fundamental understanding of the concepts leading up to their stated experiment?
  * If you find a deviation in opinion, state why you think this might exist.

===Hypothesis===
State their experiment's hypothesis. Answer the following questions:

  * Do you feel their hypothesis is adequate in capturing the essence of what they're trying to discover?
  * What improvements could you make to their hypothesis, if any?

===Experiment===
Follow the steps given to recreate the original experiment. Answer the following questions:

  * Are the instructions correct in successfully achieving the results?
  * Is there room for improvement in the experiment instructions/description? What suggestions would you make?
  * Would you make any alterations to the structure of the experiment to yield better results? What, and why?

===Data===
Publish the data you have gained from your performing of the experiment here.

===Analysis===
Answer the following:

  * Does the data seem in-line with the published data from the original author?
  * Can you explain any deviations?
  * How about any sources of error?
  * Is the stated hypothesis adequate?

===Conclusions===
Answer the following:

  * What conclusions can you make based on performing the experiment?
  * Do you feel the experiment was adequate in obtaining a further understanding of a concept?
  * Does the original author appear to have gotten some value out of performing the experiment?
  * Any suggestions or observations that could improve this particular process (in general, or specifically you, or specifically for the original author).
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