COMP 311 (Spring 2026)

Monday / Wednesday 1:25-2:40 && 3:35-4:50 in Sitterson 014

A working draft of the syllabus can be found here!

Office Hours

Instructor: Kaki Ryan

Tuesdays: 1-3pm in FB114

TA OH: in SN143

M/W: 10am-1pm; T/Th: 2-5pm; Fridays: 10-5pm

Course Links

Assignments

Gradescope

• Section 1 Enrollment Code: KND577

• Section 2 Enrollment Code: E6E5DZ

miniRISC-V Simulator

miniRISC-V Programming Reading

RISC-V Datapath Guide

Optional Textbooks:

• Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition: The Hardware Software Interface by David Patterson and John Hennessey. PDF
• The RISC-V Reader: An Open Architecture Atlas by David Patterson and Andrew Waterman. PDF

Course Schedule

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Week 1

Wednesday 1/7:

• FDOC!! :)
• Lecture 1: Welcome! Introduction
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 2

Monday 1/12:

• Lecture 2: A High-Level View, What are Instructions, 211 Review
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 1/14:

• Lecture 3: Memory Review, Basic Circuits, Intro to Transistors
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Written Assignment 1 Released. Due 1/26, 11:59pm

Week 3

Wednesday 1/21

• Quiz 1
• Lecture 4: More Transistors, Intro to CMOS Gates
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 4

Wednesday 1/28

• Lecture 5: Logic Gates
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 5

Wednesday 2/4

• Lecture 6: Multiplexers, Gate Minimization Pt. 1
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Lab 1 Released. Due 2/13, 11:59pm
• Written Assignment 2 Released. Due 2/16, 11:59pm

Week 6

Wednesday 2/11

• Quiz 2
• Lecture 7: Gate Minimization Pt. 2
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 7

Monday 2/16

• Lecture 8: Karnaugh Maps (K-Maps!)
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Extra K-Map Definitions and Practice

Wednesday 2/18

• Lecture 9: Circuit Design: A Priority Encoder, Basic Adder Circuits
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Written Assignment 3 Released. Due 2/26, 11:59pm
• Lab 2 Released. Due 3/2, 11:59pm

Week 8

Monday 2/23

• Lecture 10: Arithmetic Circuits (Adder/Subtractors, Shifters), R-Type & I-Type Instructions
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 2/25

• QUIZ 3
• Lecture 11: Introducing the ALU!
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 9

Monday 3/2

• Lecture 12: Building the ALU, The Register File
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 3/4

• Lecture 13: Intro to Timing Analysis
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Written Assignment 4 Released. Due 3/12, 11:59pm

Week 10

Monday 3/9

• Lecture 14: Computer Performance Metrics, More Timing Analysis
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 3/11

• QUIZ 4
• Lab 3 Released. Due 3/26, 11:59pm

Week 11

Monday 3/23

• Lecture 15: Intro to Pipelining
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Written Assignment 5 Released. Due 4/6, 11:59pm

Wednesday 3/25

• Lecture 16: Loads, Stores, Memory
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 12

Monday 3/30

• Lecture 17: More RISC-V Programming, Pipelining a CPU
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Lab 4 Released. Due 4/9, 11:59pm

Wednesday 4/1

• QUIZ 5
• Lecture 18: The 5 Stage RISC-V CPU
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 13

Monday 4/6

• Lecture 19: RISC-V Programming with Procedures
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 4/8

• Lecture 20: More Stack Review and RISC-V Calling Convention
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• WA 6 Released. Due 4/21, 11:59pm

Week 14

Monday 4/13

• Lecture 21: Pipeline Hazards
• Slides
• In-class Practice
• Lab 5 Released. Due 4/27, 11:59pm

Wednesday 4/15

• QUIZ 6
• Lecture 22: Source Bypassing/Forwarding
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Week 15

Monday 4/20

• Lecture 23: Intro to Memory
• Slides
• In-class Practice

Wednesday 4/22

• Lecture 24: Caching
• Slides
• We are completing the lecture 23 WS today!

Week 16

Monday 4/27

• LDOC
• Lecture 25: Speculation, Hardware Security
• Slides
• In-class Practice