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Prerequisites

Approach

Typical Text

Course Outline

Prerequisites
COMP 740 or equivalent: assembly-language programming and elementary machine organization. COMP 523 or other experience in software.

Approach
This will be a lecture course, surveying the architecture of computer systems from an advanced point of view, that of the architecture-hardware-operating system designer. Current controversies will be treated, but most attention will be devoted to fundamentals.

The subject is two-dimensional: one must look at various aspects of computer design. Likewise, one must look at whole systems to see how design decisions in one aspect affect those in another.

We will scan in both directions simultaneously. Each week we will spend one class on machines. We will spend the other class each week on a design aspect.

Design projects: Teams of one or two students will each design the architecture of a special-purpose computer system, in a term-long project. The final product will be a sketch of a computer manual.

Grading weights:

Design Project 30%
Exercises 20%
Quiz 15%
Exam 30%
Discretion 5%

Typical Text
Texts: Blaauw and Brooks, Computer Architecture (Get from Copytron; Volume 1A is around $20. It's okay to use old editions acquired from graduate students.) and (optional)
Hennessy and Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (Morgan Kaufmann, 1990).

Course Outline

Jan 10	Architecture, Implementation, Realization	12	Consolidation Chapter 1
Jan 17	650	19	APL
Jan 24	Chap 2	26	Chap 2
Jan 31	IAS, 701, 704	2	Chap 3
Feb 7	705, 1401	9	Chap 4
Feb 14	360	16	360
Feb 21	Stretch, Harvest	21	Quiz
Feb 28	Chapter 5	M 2
Spring Break	Need Vol 2B
Mar 14	Chap 6	16	Chap 7
Mar 21	Chap 7	23	B5500
Mar 28	U 1103A	31	Supers: Cyber 205
Apr 4	Minis: PDP-8, PDP-11, VAX	6	6600, Cray 1
Apr 11	Micros: M68000, Intel 8080A, M6800	13	H&P Standard, IBM 6150
Apr 18	Nuechterlein & Rinaldi	20	Wrap-Up Review