2021 Faculty Courses School of Engineering Major courses
Topics in Computer Architecture (School of Engineering)
- Academic unit or major
- Major courses
- Instructor(s)
- Shmuel Wimer
- Class Format
- Lecture
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 3-4 Thu
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- XEG.S406
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2021
- Offered quarter
- 3Q
- Syllabus updated
- Jul 10, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
The course will focus on the basic and essential components of computing systems. From their memory and storage, through instruction-level parallelism, up to multi-processing and multi-threading. It will provide the students with a knowledge of the "big picture" of computer systems, their capabilities and limitations, together with design practice based on tradeoffs and constraints.
Course description and aims
The outcome of this course is in an understanding and acquisition for the basic and essential components of computing systems.
Keywords
MIPS, Instruction Set Architecture, Memory, Pipelining, Speculation, Multi-threading, Multi Processors
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Frontal lectures in the classroom. There will home assignments of solving problems (though not checked, solutions will be published) and reading articles.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | MIPS Overview | Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), pipelining, hazards, Operating System (OS) interaction. |
| Class 2 | Memory Hierarchy | Locality, cache design, associativity, multi-level caching. |
| Class 3 | Virtual Memory | Address space, pages and frames, swap-space, TLB, OS interaction. |
| Class 4 | Instruction-level Parallelism (ILP1) | Software techniques, static scheduling, branch, prediction. |
| Class 5 | Instruction-level Parallelism (ILP2) | Pipeline extensions, dynamic scheduling, out-of-order execution. |
| Class 6 | Instruction-level Parallelism (ILP3) | Speculations, multiple-issue. |
| Class 7 | High-level Parallelism | Multi-threading, multi processors, shared and distributed memory. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.
Textbook(s)
None
Reference books, course materials, etc.
J. L. Hennessy and D. A. Patterson, Computer Architecture, 4nd Edition, Morgan Kaufmann.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Learning achievement is evaluated by Final exam: 100%;
Related courses
- XEG.S404 ： Graph Theory with Engineering Application
- XEG.S607 ： Advanced Topics in Computer Architecture (School of Engineering)
Prerequisites
Knowledge of Digital Logic Systems, Logic Design, and Computers Introduction