Syllabus and general information for MCS-284: Computer Organization (Fall 2009)

Overview

MCS-284 will cover the architecture and organization of computer hardware. We will look at the MIPS architecture as a representative modern RISC architecture and do some assembly language programming for that architecture. We'll see how numbers are represented within a computer and how arithmetic operations are performed. With a high-level overview of digital logic design to support us, we'll look at how the datapaths and control circuits of processors are designed, and in particular we'll look in some depth at pipelined processor design, which is the key organizational principle at work in most present-day processors. We'll examine the use of memory hierarchy (cache memory and virtual memory) to provide the illusion of a large fast memory from the reality of limited fast memory plus a larger but slower memory. We'll look at input/output devices and buses, networking, and parallel computers. Throughout the course there will be an emphasis on the quantitative performance characteristics of computer systems; we'll look at the influence of architecture and organization on performance, and take an introductory look at the empirical and analytical tools appropriate to the study of performance. Performance measurement will be one of the main themes reinforced through the lab assignments; the other will be assembly language programming.

Office hours

I will be available in my office (OHS 303) from 10:30-11:20 on Tuesdays through Fridays, as well as by appointment. Or try your luck: just stop by and see whether my door is open. You may send me electronic mail at max@gustavus.edu or call me at extension 7466. I'll try to put any updates to my office hours on my web page, so check there if in doubt.

World Wide Web

All course materials will be available through my World Wide Web page. The URL for this course is http://gustavus.edu/+max/courses/F2009/MCS-284/. After this syllabus I will give hardcopy handouts only to those students who want them.

Text

Our text will be the fourth edition of Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface by David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy, published by Morgan Kaufmann.

Labs

Lab days, when we will meet in OHS 326, are marked in the syllabus. Attendance is expected for all lab days. (If you turn in a lab report early, you are excused from the remaining days devoted to that lab.) I will excuse up to two absences per student, for any reason. Use yours wisely. If you exceed this allowance, I may reduce your course grade by one letter grade.

Homework assignment policy

I will assign a collection of homework problems for each chapter. You may turn in any individual homework problem whenever you think you have it solved. I will return it to you as quickly as I can, but normally with only an indication of whether it is acceptable or needs more work. The reason why I won't write much on the work I turn back to you is because I would like to talk with you face-to-face. If a problem needs more work, you should treat that as an invitation to come talk with me about it. Once you've done the additional work, you may turn the problem in again, attached to (or clearly marked on) the original. In fact, you may turn each problem in as many times as you like, until it is marked as acceptable. Your grade for the homework portion of the course will be based on the fraction of homework problems that you eventually did acceptably.

The final deadline for rewrites of homework problems is 1:30pm on October 13th for chapters 1-3 and appendix C, 1:30pm on November 12th for chapters 4-5, and 1:30pm on December 15th for chapters 6-7.

Unless I indicate that a particular problem must be done individually, you may work on any problem in a group of two or three students. One copy of the solution produced by the team should be turned in, with all team members' names on it. Write “we all contributed fairly to this solution” and have all team members sign under that statement.

You must show your work; a numerical answer is not an acceptable solution to a homework problem.

Tests

There will be two intra-term tests as shown on the syllabus below and a final exam as scheduled by the registrar. If you have a conflict with a testing time, please contact me as soon as possible to make an alternative arrangement.

Exams will be closed-book and mostly closed-notes. You may, however, use a single 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper with hand-written notes for reference. (Both sides of the sheet are OK.)

Honor

Students are encouraged to discuss the course, including issues raised by the assignments. However, the solutions to assignments should be individual original work unless otherwise specified. If an assignment makes you realize you don't understand the material, ask a fellow student a question designed to improve your understanding, not one designed to get the assignment done. To do otherwise is to cheat yourself out of understanding, as well as to be intolerably dishonorable.

Any substantive contribution to your solution by another person or taken from a publication should be properly acknowledged in writing. Failure to do so is plagiarism and will necessitate disciplinary action.

The same standards regarding plagiarism apply to team projects as to the work of individuals, except that the author is now the entire team rather than an individual. Anything taken from a source outside the team should be be properly cited.

One additional issue that arises from the team authorship of project reports is that all team members must stand behind all reports bearing their names. All team members have quality assurance responsibility for the entire project. If there is irreconcilable disagreement within the team it is necessary to indicate as much in the report; this can be in the form of a “minority opinion” or “dissenting opinion” section where appropriate.

You are expected to be familiar with the college academic honesty honor code policy and to comply with that policy. If you have any questions about it, please ask.

Late lab assignments

All lab assignments are due at the beginning of class on the day indicated. Late assignments will be penalized by one “grade notch” (such as A to A- or A- to B+) for each weekday late or fraction thereof. However, no late assignments will be accepted after graded assignments are handed back.

If you are too sick to complete an assignment on time, you will not be penalized. Simply write “late due to illness” at the top of the assignment, sign your name and hand it in. Other circumstances will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Grade changes

Please point out any arithmetic or clerical error I make in grading, and I will gladly fix it. You may also request reconsideration if I have been especially unjust.

Grading

The course components will contribute to your grade in the following proportion:

Test 1: 15%
Test 2: 15%
Final exam: 20%
Homework: 26% (based on fraction done: see above)
Labs: 24% (4 @ 6% each)

However, I reserve the right to subjectively adjust your final grade. Please see me if you have any question how you stand. Class participation is not graded; however, it allows you to find and repair the gaps in your understanding before doing the assignments, and thus can dramatically improve your grade. You are responsible for all course material, whether or not you are present when it was covered or distributed.

Style guidelines

All assignments should be readily readable, and should not presuppose that I already know what you are trying to say. Use full English sentences where appropriate (namely almost everywhere) and clear diagrams, programs, etc. Remember that your goal is to communicate clearly, and that the appearance of these technical items plays a role in this communication process. Be sure your assignments are always stapled together and that your name is always on them.

Accessibility

If you have a learning, psychological, or physical disability for which a reasonable accommodation can be made, I would be happy to refer you to the college's disability services coordinator and to cooperate in the accommodation process. It is generally best if this can be done as soon as possible.

Syllabus

Sections shown in italics are on the CD-ROM accompanying the textbook.

Date	Reading	Topic	Due
9/8		Introduction
9/9	1.1-1.3	Computer abstractions and technology
9/10	1.4-1.9	Performance
9/11	2.1-2.4	Instructions, especially arithmetic

9/14	2.5-2.7	More instructions
9/15	2.8-2.9	Procedures and strings in assembly
9/16	2.10-2.12	More on assembly programming
9/17	B.1-B.6,B.9	Assembly programming tools
9/18	2.13-2.14	Assembly programming examples

9/21		Lab 1: Elementary assembly programming
9/22	2.16-2.19	Yet more on assembly language
9/23		Lab 1 (continued)
9/24	3.1-3.3	Arithmetic
9/25		Lab 1 (continued)

9/28	3.5-3.6	Floating point arithmetic
9/29		Numerals: cross-cultural perspective	Lab 1
9/30		Lab 2: More advanced assembly programming
10/1	C.1-C.3	Combinational logic
10/2		Lab 2 (continued)

10/5	C.7-C.11	Sequential logic
10/6		No class (attend Nobel Conference)
10/7		No class (attend Nobel Conference)
10/8		Extra office hour
10/9		Lab 2 (continued)

10/12		Lab 2 (continued)
10/13		Review; catch-up	HW rewrites (1-3,C)
10/14		Intra-term test 1
10/15	4.1-4.3	A simple datapath
10/16	4.4	A single-cycle processor

10/19		Lab 2 (continued)
10/20	4.5	Pipelining
10/21		Lab 2 (continued)
10/22	4.6-p.358	A pipelined datapath
10/23	4.6	Pipelined control	Lab 2

10/26		No class (reading day)
10/27		No class (reading day)
10/28	4.7-p.371	Forwarding
10/29	4.7	Stalls
10/30	4.8	Control hazards

11/2	4.10-4.11	Advanced instruction-level parallelism
11/3	5.1-5.2	Caches
11/4	5.3	Cache performance
11/5	5.4	Virtual memory
11/6		Lab 3: Memory system performance

11/9	5.5-5.6	Memory hierarchies and virtual machines
11/10	5.8,5.10-5.12	Cache coherence
11/11		Lab 3 (continued)
11/12		Review; catch-up	HW rewrites (4-5)
11/13		Intra-term test 2

11/16	7.1-7.5	Multiprocessors and multithreading
11/17	7.6-7.7	SIMD, vector, and graphics processors
11/18		Lab 3 (continued)
11/19	A.1-A.7	Graphics processing units
11/20	A.8-A.10	Programming GPUs

11/23		Lab 3 (continued)
11/24		No class	Lab 3
11/25		No class (Thanksgiving)
11/26		No class (Thanksgiving)
11/27		No class (Thanksgiving)

11/30		Lab 4: Multiprocessor performance
12/1	7.10-7.13	Roofline performance model
12/2	6.1-6.4,6.9	Storage
12/3	6.5	Interconnects
12/4		Lab 4 (continued)

12/7		Lab 4 (continued)
12/8	6.6	Interfacing input/output
12/9		Lab 4 (continued)
12/10	6.10	An example I/O system
12/11	6.11	Networks	Lab 4

12/14		More on networks
12/15		Review; catch-up; evaluation	HW rewrites (6-7)

Course web site: http://gustavus.edu/+max/courses/F2009/MCS-284/
Instructor: Max Hailperin <max@gustavus.edu>