School of Engineering and Technology, (SET)  
 
Semester Offering: InterSem
 
AT70.9003 : Selected Topic: Computer Organization and Architecture  2(3-0) [Elective course]
Course objectives:

To provide an understanding of the components of computer hardware and their interactions, as well as the technological principles driving development in computer hardware. To provide practical experience in actual design of computer systems.

 
Learning Outcomes:

Introduction to Computer Architecture, Central Processing Unit,  Instruction Sets and Assembly, Computer Logic and Arithmetic.Single-cycleDatapaths, Multicycling.Pipelining, Memory Systems, Microprogramming, Parallelism, Case Studies of Modern Computer Architectures, Simulator Laboratory:Assembly Programming and Hardware Design. Selection of Advanced Topics.

 
Pre-requisite(s):

None

 
Course Outline:

I.          Introduction to Computer Architecture
1.     History and Evolution of Computer Systems
2.     Fundamentals of Design
3.     Performance Metrics
4.     Case Study: SPEC benchmark suites

II.        Instruction Sets
1.     Hardware Operations Basics
2.     Registers and Operands
3.     Instruction Sets and Representation
4.     Assembly
5.     Case Study: MIPS

III.       Computer Logic and Arithmetic
1.     Logical Operations
2.     Arithmetic Operations
3.     Floating Point Computation
4.     Case Study: MIPS and Verilog Implementation of MIPS
        
IV.       CPU: Data and Control
1.     Datapaths
2.     Multiprogramming
3.     Multicycling
4.     Pipelining
5.     Data Hazards, Forward and Stalls
6.     Case Study: MIPS and Verilog Implementations of MIPS

V.        Memory Systems
1.     Memory Hierarchy and Organization
2.     Virtual Memory
3.     Cache and High-Speed Memory
4.     Case Study: Pentium Pro, PowerPC 604

VI.       Special Topics (selective)
1.     Instruction-level Parallelism
2.     Memory Hierarchy Design
3.     Thread-level Parallelism
4.     Current Topics

 
Learning Resources:

Textbook:
D.A. Patterson and J.L. Hennessy (1998): Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface (2nd edition), Morgan Kaufmann.

 
Reference Books:
J.D. Carpinelli (2000): Computer Systems Organization & Architecture, Addison-Wesley.

J. L. Hennessy and D.A. Patterson (2003):  Computer Architecture : A Quantitative Approach (3rd Edition), Morgan Kaufmann.

A.S. Tanenbaum (1998): Structured Computer Organization (4th Edition), Prentice-Hall.

R. Williams (2001): Computer Systems Architecture: A Networking Approach, Addison-Wesley.

 
Evaluation Scheme:
The final grade will be computed according to the following weightdistribution:

Mid-Term Exam 25-40%;
Final Exam 25-40%;
Assignments/Projects/Presentations 20-50%.