Hariri Canadian University

School of Engineering

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

 

Computer Architecture – Course Guide         

CCEE 213                                                                                                                                                           

 

Announcements

 

  
 
1. Course Details: 
 

Course Title:

Computer Architecture

Level

Graduates

Course Reference

CCEE 213

Lectures

MWF 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Laboratory

TBA
Office Hours TBA

Student Study Hours Per Week

9

Contact Hours Per Week

3

Private Study Hours Per Week

6

Year and Semester

2005 - 2006 Fall

Lecturer

Dr. I. Damaj

Contact Details

damajiw[@]hariricanadian.edu.lb - Remove the brackets [ ]

Summary of Assessment Method

2 Quizzes, Lab Assignments, Project, and a Final

 

 

Textbook

David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface, Third Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2004.

 

 

References

Computer Architecture: From Microprocessors to Supercomputers, Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-515455-X

 

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, Third Edition, Hennessy and Patterson, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers (Elsevier), 2002.

 

Carl Hamacher, Zvonko Vranesic, and Safwat Zaky, Computer Organization, Fifth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2002.

 

J. Bhasker, A VHDL Primer, Third Edition, Prentice-Hall, 1999.

 

Advanced Computer Architecture: Parallelism, Scalability, and Programmability.  K. Hwang, McGraw-Hill Computer Science Series, 1993.

 

Introduction to Parallel Processing: Algorithms and Architectures. Behrooz Parhami, Plenum 1999.

 

D. Sima, T. Fountain, P. Kacsuk, "Advanced Computer Architectures: A Design Space Approach", Addison Wesley, 1997.

 

Software Packages

C++/Visual C++, SPIM Simulator, and VHDL.

 
 
2. Aims of the Course:

 

This course covers the organization of modern computer systems. In addition to learning how to program computers at the assembly level, students learn how to design the main components of a von Neumann computer system, including its instruction set architecture, datapath, control unit, memory system, input/output interfaces, and system buses. To consolidate the material presented in class, students work on assembly-language programming and datapath design assignments, and a major computer interfacing project.

 

3. Short Description:

 

A course on the organization of modern computer systems. Basic hardware and software components of von Neumann computers. Machine instruction sets and assembly language programming. Fixed- and floating-point computer arithmetic. Processor datapath and control unit design. Instruction pipelining. The memory system. Input/output interfacing techniques. System buses.

 

4. Schedule:

 

Details:

Topic

Chapter No.

Assessment

Weeks 1 – 2

Computer Abstractions:

Basic Organization of Computer Systems (ISA, Datapath, Control, Memory, I/O, Operating Systems, Compilers, Assemblers, Linkers, Loaders). A Brief History of Computers

 

1

  

Weeks 3 – 5

Machine Instructions and Programs:

Part I: Instruction Sets and Machine Programming Models

Part II: Memory Locations, Addresses, and Operations

Part III: Assembly Language Programming (MIPS)

Part IV: The MIPS Instruction Set Architecture

 

2

  
Weeks 6 – 7

Arithmetic for Computers:

Part I: Fixed-Point Arithmetic and Numerical Precision

Part II: Floating-Point Arithmetic and the IEEE-754 Standard

Part III: Floating-Point Operations: addition, multiplication, and division

 

 3  
Weeks 8 – 10

The Processor:

Part I: Execution Performance

Part II:  Introduction to  Datapath

Part III: Datapath and Control Unit Design

 

4

 
Weeks 11 – 12

Pipelining:

Part I: Instruction Pipelining

Part II: Pipelined Datapaths; Data Forwarding; Hazard Detection; Exceptions

Part III: Hazards of Pipelining Revisited

 

5

 
Weeks 13 – 14

Memory Hierarchy:

Part I: The Memory Hierarchy

Part II: Cache Memory

Part III: Virtual Memory

 

 6  
Week 15

Computer Interfacing Revisited:

Part I: Introduction - Buses and I/O

Part II: Bus Arbitration

Part III: I/O Devices Revisited

Part IV: Interrupts Revisited

 

 7   
 
5. Assessment of the Course:
 

Quiz I

20%
Quiz II 20%
Assignments 20%

Project

10%

Final

30%

 

Announcements

[Apr 9, 2006] Labs will be open for consultation with the instructor each Wednesday from 11:00 a.m. till 1:30 p.m. If you couldn’t get the required consultation at these times in the lab for any reason, you are welcome to directly contact me.

[Apr 9, 2006] Modified project (.pdf) details are now posted with its supporting files (.zip). Each group need to prepare for a presentation to show their findings during the last lab session.

[Apr 9, 2006] Chapters 6 and 7 are posted.

[Mar 25, 2006] Chapter 5 is posted.

[Mar 3, 2006] There will be no classes next week. Extra sessions' dates will be announced later. Labs are running normally.

[Feb 26, 2006] Assignment II is posted.

[Feb 26, 2006] Chapter 4 is posted.

[Jan 31, 2006] Chapter 3 and some solved exercises are posted.

[Jan 31, 2006] No problems are assigned from Chapters 1 and 2.

[Jan 8, 2006] Chapters 1 and 2 are posted.

[Jan 8, 2006] Assignment I: The required section from the textbook  Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals are 3-3, 3-4, 4-7, 5-7, 6-7, 7-4, 7-10, and 8-5. Your first assessment will include creating VHDL models similar to those presented in these sections with their test benches, so prepare your self for this. (Download samples)

[Jan 7, 2006] If you want to use VHDLSimili from Symphony EDA, from the Symphony EDA Licensing Wizard (Start -> All Programs -> Symphony EDA -> VHDL Simili 2.3 -> License Management) you should activate your free license online. Please note that after installing the package, you must replace the file: symphony.lic, in the directory: C:\Program Files\Symphony EDA\VHDL Simili 2.3\Bin with the file: freelic.txt. In other words, delete the existing symphony.lic, and rename freelic.txt to symphony.lic; make sure the new file is not called symphony.lic.txt!

[Jan 7, 2006] Peter J. Ashenden, VHDL Tutorial, Elsevier Science, 2004.

[Jan 7, 2006] Every student should install QUARTUS+II from Altera (www.altera.com),  VHDLSimili (From Symphony EDA), and Xilinx ISE 4.2i (Available with the book:Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals, 3rd edition updated, M. Morris Mano and Charles R. Kime, Prentice Hall, 2004).

[Jan 7, 2006] Welcome to the course website!