Target machine model in Compiler Design - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Understanding the Target Machine Model

📖 Scenario: You are learning about how compilers translate programs into instructions that a computer can understand. To do this, the compiler uses a target machine model which describes the computer's features.Imagine you are designing a simple description of a computer's capabilities so a compiler can generate the right instructions.

🎯 Goal: Create a simple description of a target machine model using a dictionary. Then add configuration details, write the main logic to summarize the model, and finally complete the description with a summary statement.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a dictionary called target_machine with keys: 'registers', 'memory_size', and 'instruction_set' with exact values

Add a variable called max_registers set to 8

Write code to create a list called supported_instructions containing only instructions with names longer than 3 characters

Add a final summary string called summary describing the target machine model

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Compilers need to know the target machine's features to generate correct machine code that runs efficiently on that computer.

💼 Career

Understanding target machine models is important for compiler developers, systems programmers, and anyone working on low-level software optimization.

1

Create the target machine dictionary

Create a dictionary called target_machine with these exact entries: 'registers': 16, 'memory_size': 65536, and 'instruction_set': ['LOAD', 'STORE', 'ADD', 'SUB', 'JMP'].

Compiler Design

# Create the target_machine dictionary with registers, memory_size, and instruction_set
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary. Keys are strings and values are numbers or lists.

2

Add max_registers configuration

Add a variable called max_registers and set it to 8.

Compiler Design

target_machine = {
    'registers': 16,
    'memory_size': 65536,
    'instruction_set': ['LOAD', 'STORE', 'ADD', 'SUB', 'JMP']
}
# Add max_registers variable below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Just write max_registers = 8 on a new line.

3

Filter supported instructions

Create a list called supported_instructions that contains only the instructions from target_machine['instruction_set'] whose names have more than 3 characters.

Compiler Design

target_machine = {
    'registers': 16,
    'memory_size': 65536,
    'instruction_set': ['LOAD', 'STORE', 'ADD', 'SUB', 'JMP']
}
max_registers = 8
# Create supported_instructions list below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use a list comprehension to filter instructions by length.

4

Add summary description

Add a string variable called summary that describes the target machine model as: 'Target machine has 16 registers, 65536 memory size, and supports 2 instructions longer than 3 characters.'

Compiler Design

target_machine = {
    'registers': 16,
    'memory_size': 65536,
    'instruction_set': ['LOAD', 'STORE', 'ADD', 'SUB', 'JMP']
}
max_registers = 8
supported_instructions = [instr for instr in target_machine['instruction_set'] if len(instr) > 3]
# Add summary string below
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Write the exact string inside single quotes and assign it to summary.