To build on the foundation laid by courses on Computer Systems and Hardware; to show the relationship between hardware and software; to focus on the concepts that provide the basis for current computers.


Contents

Introduction: overview.

Instructions: formats, representations, interface with software.

Arithmetic: number representation; hardware for arithmetic operations; Arithmetic Logic Unit.

Performance: cycles per instruction, evaluation.

Datapath and control unit: single-cycle and multiple-cycle implementations; microprogramming; exception handling.

Memory hierarchy: caches, virtual memory.

Pipelining: pipelined datapaths, data and branch hazards, exceptions.

Advanced topics: hardware compilation, parallel architectures, special-purpose processors.

Course text book: Computer Organization and Design (Fourth Edition) by D.A. Patterson and J.L. Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, ISBN 978-0-12-374493-7.