Required
Text:Computer
Architecture, A Quantitative Approach
by Patterson and Hennessy,
2nd Edition,
Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.
Recommended
Text:Computer
Organization & Design: The Hardware/Software Interface
by Hennessey and Patterson, 2nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.
(This text covers the preliminaries required for this course, and should
be used for reviews of ideas/concepts/techniques that need reminding or
need to be cleared up.)
Other
Readings:As
required.
Workload:This
course requires a lot of reading. The text, for one thing, is over 700
pages long. Reading technical papers for the term paper is also a must.
Other reading material may also be provided. Hence, expect lots of reading.
The bright side is that no programming is required.
1.Homework
(5%)
2.Midterms
(40%:
20% each; tentatively scheduled for Oct. 10 and Nov. 19)
3.Term
Paper(10%)
4.Final
Exam (45%)
1.Home
works
will be randomly, if ever, graded. However, they must be submitted; submission
is the main criteria for the 5% allotted to this part of the grade. The
point of the homework is to review the ideas/concepts and make you think
on your own.
2.No
makeup
exams will be given. If you, for some emergency, have to miss the
exam I must be informed prior to the start of the exam, and the reason
must be for some real emergency that can be verified.
3.Academic
Honesty:
All work in the exams and the term paper is to be wholly your own. Plagiarism
and dishonesty of any kind regarding material related to your overall grade
will not be tolerated, and will be considered a violation of the academic
honor code. Violations will result in a grade of F for the course.
The
term paper will be a
paper on an aspect of the computer architecture that is covered
in the text (note that you may have to read/skim ahead a little to find
a topic that may interest you).
It
should cover:
(1)Technology,
(2)Where
it has been,
and
(3)Where
it is today.
Note
that the text was published in 1996, so some time has passed since then.
So, much of (1) will (can) be based on the text. However, for (2) and (3),
you will need to do some research. Much of the grading for the term paper
will be focused on (2) and (3), with emphasis on (3).
The
completed paper is expected to be 5-8 pages long using typesetting software
such as MS-Word or Latex, with 11-font letter sizes and 1.5 line spacing.
Papers exceeding this page limit should expect unfavorable grading.
·Topic
-September
26,2001
·Outline
-October
17,2001
·Draft
-November14, 2001
·Completed
Paper -December
10, 2001
Preliminaries:
For
the term paper:I
expect you to know how to write a research report. This means finding,
reading, summarizing papers on advanced topics, and including these as
references to the writing. Clear-cut, concise writing is expected. Long
dreary writing will have negative effects on your grades.
2.Some
assembly language
3.Concepts
of sequential execution
4.Instruction
loops, index registers,
5.Fetches,
stores, branches, add, subtract
6.Data
types (integers, reals, characters, strings) and their representation in
some machines
7.Addressing
modes
8.Condition
codes
9.Procedure
call / return and parameter passing
10.
Basic I/O principles
11.
Differences between sequential / random I/O
12.
Binary versus textual I/O
1
lecture on overview of the course
2-3
lectures on Chapter One
2-3
lectures on Chapter Two
2-3
lectures on Chapter Three
6-7
lectures on Chapter Four
4-5
lectures on Chapter Five
2-3
lectures on Chapter Six
1-2
lectures on Chapter Seven
1-2
lectures on Chapter Eight
2
midterms