Computing Systems Architecture

(3 Credits)

This course provides students with an understanding of computer systems architectures and fundamental computer- performance and capacity-improvement techniques. An assembly language and an instruction set are presented and a uniprocessor computer is built to implement the instruction set. Processor implementation with a data path and hardwired and microprogrammed control is introduced, and pipelining is described as a strategy to improve throughput. Memory-hierarchy alternatives are introduced to improve the capacity of the computing system. The concept of virtual memory and its hardware implementation is introduced. Out-of-order processors, and associated instruction scheduling algorithms and techniques are described and evaluated. Branch prediction is introduced. The main memory system is described and pre-fetching is discussed as a technique to improve main memory access latency. The course concludes with an introduction to single chip multi-core computing technology. Hands-on programming exercises to illustrate the concepts are inter-woven throughout the course. | Prerequisites: Undergraduate degree in EE/CE/CS