Description

This course focuses on the architecture and organization of modern computing systems, including the function and design of the various components that make up a computer. Emphasis will be placed on the major component subsystems of high performance computers: pipelining, instruction level parallelism, memory hierarchies, input/output, and network-oriented interconnections.

Course Grading

Homework 50% - ~10 assignments, 10 pts each

Participation 10pts.

Exams 50% - Quizzes 2 x 10pts

Mid-term 30pts

Final 50pts

Scheduled Topics by Week

8/25 – 8/29 Introduction and historical overview (chapter 1).

9/1 – 9/12 Data representation: integers, floating point, and character codes (chapter 2).

9/15 – 9/26 Basic digital logic and circuitry (chapter 3).

Quiz 1.

9/29– 10/10 Basic computer organization: fundamental components and functions (chapter 4).

10/13 – 10/17 Instruction set architecture (chapter 5).

Mid-term.

10/20 – 10/31 The Memory Hierarchy (chapter 6).

11/3 –11/7 Peripheral Devices and I/O (chapter 7).

Quiz 2.

11/10 – 11/14 Alternative Architectures (chapter 9).

11/17 – 11/21 Performance analysis (chapter 10).

11/24 – 11/28 Networking (chapter 11).

12/1 – 11/5 Sumary and review.