created: 07/27/01; small changes: 10/18/02

# CHAPTER 19 — Structured Programming

This chapter discusses two topics of great interest in computer science: What machine instructions are needed in a processor, and How to build programs that work. The SPIM instructions you have looked at so far are more than enough for a processor. The structured programming approach is used to build reliable programs.

#### Chapter Topics:

- Computing power.
- The minimum set of machine instructions.
- Throughput
- Complex instructions sets vs. Reduced instruction sets.
- Structured programming.
- The minimum set of control structures.

Much of the chapter is about the following question, which, oddly, is usually ignored in introductory courses.

### QUESTION 1:

When is one processor more powerful than another?