mul $v2,$s3,$t0 == multu $s3,$t0 mflo $v2
The mul
pseudoinstruction makes it look as if MIPS has a
32-bit multiply instruction that places its 32-bit
result in a register without checking for overflow:
mul d,s,t # multiply $s by $t. put the # result in $d # (pseudoinstruction)
There is no overflow checking. The bits of hi are not examined nor saved. There are several other pseudoinstructions that examine hi and perform various actions on overflow. For now we won't use them.
There is a similar instruction for division.
The basic instructions
div s,t
divu s,t
mflo
is used.