Computer Architecture

CPSC 321, Course Information, Fall 2004

This course gives an introduction to the basic hard- and software components of a computer. It features an introduction to the MIPS assembly language. It covers the design of the basic components of a computer, including I/O modules, memory, control unit and arithmetic-logic unit.

Textbook D. Patterson, J. Hennessy: Computer Organization: The Hardware-Software Interface, Morgan Kaufman Publishers, 1997
Instructor Dr. Andreas Klappenecker, Office HRBB 509B, Office hours TW 10:15am-11:15am or by appointment.
Class meets TR 12:45pm-2:00pm in Zachry 105B

Teaching Assistant

Praveen Bhojwani,

General Information

Lecture Notes

Assignments

Read Chapter 1-9, Appendix A
Skim through von Neumann's report on EDVAC
Lab1 Lab2 Lab3 Lab4 Project 1
Lab5 Lab6 Project 2 proj2 source files
Project 3
Confused about the due dates? Attend your lab!

Assembly Language

SPIM a MIPS R2000/R3000 simulator by James Larus
Appendix A by James Larus from the Patterson and Hennessy textbook.
An elementary introduction to MIPS assembly language by Bradley Kjell
Class notes on MIPS programming by Lin Jensen
An introduction to RISC assembly language programming by John Waldron

Verilog

Chapter on the Verilog Hardware Description Language by Mark G. Arnold
Short Manual by S. Chauhan and G.M. Blair
Verilog Quick Reference Guide by Sutherland HDL.
Quick Reference for Verilog HDL by Rajeev Madhavan

Lectures

T Aug 31: Introduction, History, Five Components
R Sep 02: History, Performance, Assembly Language
T Sep 07: Assembly language
R Sep 09: Assembly language
T Sep 14: The Arithmetic-Logic Unit
R Sep 16: The Arithmetic-Logic Unit
T Sep 21: Addition, Multiplication, Floating Point Numbers
R Sep 23: Division, Floating Point Arithmetic
T Sep 28: MIPS Processor
R Sep 30: MIPS Processor
T Oct 05: Multicycle Processor
R Oct 07: Review
T Oct 12: Midterm Exam
R Oct 14: Multicycle Processor, Verilog
T Oct 19: Discussion of Exam
R Oct 21: Verilog
T Oct 26: Verilog, Microprogramming, Pipelined Processors
T Nov 02: The Pentium 4
R Nov 04: The Memory Hierarchy
T Nov 09: Caches, Virtual Memory
R Nov 11: Cache Performance, Virtual Memory, Interfacing, Multiprocessors
T Nov 16: Multithreading and Dataflow Architectures

To probe further:

The following references are bedtime musings for computer scientists. They are not necessary for this course, but you might enjoy reading some of them:

ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer by Scott McCartney.
Enigma by Robert Harris, Ballantine Books, 1996.