Topics List for Qualifying Examination: Architecture

Uniprocessor Topics

1. Operating System and device support: OS calls, interrupts, context swap, etc.
2. Pipelining: Single and multiple pipelines, hazards, dependencies, optimization, scoreboarding, etc.
3. Virtual Memory: Single and multiple level, inverted page tables, protection, translation lookaside buffers, etc.
4. Cache: translations, associativity, write-through/write-back, etc.
5. IO: Polling, interrupts, DMA, busses

Multiprocessor Topcis

1. Classifications: SIMD, MIMD, etc.
2. Interconnection topologies: Busses, hypercubes, stars, crossbars; static and dynamic
3. Cache coherence: snoopy and directory-based protocols
4. Synchronization: barriers, locks, TSB instructions, etc.
5. Consistency Models
6. Data Integrity (especially error correcting codes)

NOTE: students will be expected to be familiar with representative examples of these concepts.