Welcome To The ECE 4504 Home Page

Computer Organization

Spring, 2003

INSTRUCTOR:
Michael Hsiao

Office: Durham 355 Phone: (540) 231-9254 Email: mhsiao@vt.edu
CLASS MEETING TIME AND PLACE:
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2:00 - 3:15pm, 129 Randolph
Teaching Assistant: Sriram Vasudevan ( srvasude@vt.edu)
OFFICE HOURS:
- Monday: 10 - 12noon, CEL lab, Sriram Vasudevan
- Monday: 7 - 11pm, CEL Lab, Sriram Vasudevan
- Tuesday: 4 - 5:30 pm, 355 Durham, Michael Hsiao
- Thursday: 5 - 7pm, CEL Lab, Sriram Vasudevan
PREREQUISITES:
1. Intro to Computer Engineering
2. Operating Systems
3. Knowledge of assembly language
4. Some terms you should know already
TEXT:
- Computer Organization and Design: Hardware/Software Interface, 2nd edition, Patterson and Hennessey, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.
- Extra Papers
- LogicWorks 4, Capilano Computing Systems Ltd. 1999.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
To address fundamental issues in computer system design, including processor, memory, and IO. Design and analysis of the main-stream computer architecture will be covered.
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1. Intro and Background
  1. Instruction Sets
  2. Performance measures
  3. Multiplier, divider
  4. Floating point
2. Processor Design
  1. Datapath design
  2. Control unit and control signals
  3. Microprogrammed control design
  4. Multicycle design
3. Pipelined Processor Design
  1. Pipelining
  2. Pipeline hazards and solutions
  3. Exception handling
  4. Branch prediction
4. Advanced Processor Design
  1. Instruction level parallelism
  2. Superscalar, out-of-order execution
  3. VLIW, EPIC
  4. Compiler support for performance improvement
  5. Advanced exception handling
5. Memory System Design
  1. Memory hierarchy
  2. Cache architectures
  3. Main memory
  4. Virtual memory design
  5. Register allocation
6. I/O
  1. Interconnect and bus design
  2. IO system design
7. Multiprocessors
  1. Multiprocessor architectures
  2. Cache coherence
  3. Multiprocessor interconnect and synchronization
PROJECTS:
Several projects are included and divided into several stages.
HOMEWORK:
Homework Link
SYLLABUS:
On-line syllabus (including lectures)
HONOR CODE:
Academic integrity is expected from every student. These include
1. you may discuss homework/project with fellow classmates, BUT
2. cheating in projects (copying project segments), on exams, and homework assignments are all considered violations of the honor code and shall be prosecuted.

Go to the ECE Department