Yes. (And it can do floating point arithmetic as well).
Integers are represented with bit patterns, so integer operations are bit manipulation operations. Some very small, very fast processors provide no data manipulation instructions other than bit pattern manipulation. Adding two integers is done by implementing the Binary Addition Algorithm (see Chapter 8) with these bit instructions.
Luckily, MIPS has instructions that perform integer arithmetic. The normal size of an integer is 32 bits (the same as the size of a register). Longer or shorter integer arithmetic is done using bit manipulation instructions in combination with 32-bit arithmetic instructions.
The MIPS addu instruction performs the
Binary Addition Algorithm on two 32-bit patterns held in two 32-bit registers
(details in a few pages.)
What integer representation method can be used with the addu instruction?