MARS MIPS Assembler and Runtime Simulator

An IDE for MIPS Assembly Language Programming

MARS is a lightweight interactive development environment for programming in MIPS assembly language, intended for educational-level use with Patterson and Hennessy's Computer Organization and Design.

MARS is not being actively maintained and is provided “as is.” There may be display issues on Macs due to Java implementation.

Download MARS 4.5 executable software and documentation from Github

• The JAR file contains source code.
• Download resources include screenshot, tutorial materials, and sample MIPS assembly program to run under MARS, Fibonacci.asm.

MARS features overview

• GUI with point-and-click control and integrated editor.
• Easily editable register and memory values, similar to a spreadsheet.
• Display values in hexadecimal or decimal.
• Command line mode for instructors to test and evaluate many programs easily.
• Floating point registers, coprocessor1 and coprocessor2. Standard tool: bit-level view and edit of 32-bit floating point registers (see screenshot).
• Variable-speed single-step execution.
• "Tool" utility for MIPS control of simulated devices.  Standard tool: Cache performance analysis tool.
• Single-step backwards.

For more information

Contact Pete Sanderson PSanderson@Otterbein.edu or Ken Vollmar Ken.Vollmar@Gmail.com.

Note: Both Pete and Ken are retired and response time is variable.