Schedule

Lectures & Discussions

Web login

• Userid: cmsc411
• Password: an acronym :-)

Projects

• Project 1 - Due Tue, Apr 10th
  • Basic Cache Simulator
• Project 2 - Due Thu, May 3rd
  • Full Cache Simulator
• Project 3 - Due Fri, May 11th
  • Cache Simulation Study

Practice problems

• Practice 1
  • Reliability, performance, Amdahl's Law
  • Problems & solutions
• Practice 2
  • Pipelining
  • Problems & solutions
• Practice 3
  • Instruction level parallelism (ILP) 1-3, branch prediction
  • Problems & solutions
• Practice 4
  • Cache organization, cache performance, virtual memory
  • Problems & solutions
• Practice 5
  • ILP 4-7 (dynamic scheduling, speculation, improving CPI, limits of ILP)
  • Problems & solutions
• Practice 6
  • Multiprocessing, networking, storage systems
  • Problems & solutions

Quizzes

• Quiz 1 - Feb 14th
  • Reliability & performance
  • Examples: Fall 09, Spring 11 (solutions)
  • Quiz & solution
• Quiz 2 - Feb 28th
  • Basic Pipelining
  • Examples: Fall 09, Spring 11 (solutions)
  • Quiz & solution
• Quiz 3 - Apr 19th
  • Virtual memory, branch prediction
  • Covers practice problems 3.6, 4.3, 4.4
  • Examples: Fall 09, Spring 11 (solutions)
  • Quiz & solution
• Quiz 4 - May 8th
  • Multiprocessor cache coherence
  • Covers practice problems 6.1
  • Examples: Fall 09 (solutions)
  • Quiz & solution

Tests

• Midterm 1 - Mar 8th
  • Reliability, performance, pipelining, cache organization & performance
  • Covers practice problems 1, 2, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3a-b, and quiz 1&2
  • Examples:
    • Fall 09 - Practice Midterm 1 (solutions), Quiz 3, Midterm 1,
    • Spring 11 - Quiz 3 (solutions), Midterm 1 (solutions)
  • Test & solution
• Midterm 2 - Apr 26th
  • Memory hierarchy, ILP 1-4 (compiler techniques, branch prediction, dynamic scheduling)
  • Covers practice problems 3, 4, 5.1, quiz 3
  • Examples:
    • Fall 09 - Quiz 3, Midterm 2
    • Spring 11 - Quiz 3 (solutions), Midterm 1 (solutions), Midterm 2 (solutions)
  • Test & solution
• Final Exam - May 17th (1:30pm-3:30pm, CSIC 3120)
  • Topics: Covers everything (probably about 30% new material)
  • Sample exam (solution)