Computer Architecture - ECE56500
Computer architecture is the science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create a computer that meets functional, performance and cost goals. This course qualitatively and quantitatively examines uniprocessor computer design trade-offs. We will learn, for example, how uniprocessors execute many instructions concurrently and why state-of-the-art memory systems are nearly as complex as processors.
Topics Covered:
Fundamentals of computer design Instruction set architecture (ISA) Pipelining Instruction-level parallelism Vector and GPU Baby caches Memory hierarchy Multicores Additional topics to be determined
Prerequisites:
Know basic 5-stage pipeline, basic caches, and basic virtual memory, or Undergrad compilers and OS, or have had assembly programming (last option is BARE MINIMUM)
Applied / Theory:
50 / 50
Homework:
Combination of written homework and programming assignments
Projects:
Options: Simulator - will involve significant C++ programming If you have not written 1000+ lines in ONE previous project, 565 project will be all but impossible.
Exams:
2 exams, midterm and final
Textbooks:
Required:
Computer Architecture - A Quantitative Approach, 6th Edition, D. Patterson and J. Hennessy, Elsevier Science, 2017, ISBN No. 978-0128119051.
Recommended:
Readings in Computer Architecture, Mark Hill, Norman Jouppi and Gurindar Sohi, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.