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CS 473: Architectural Concepts I (JSON)

Catalog description: Comparison of architectures to illustrate concepts of computer organization; relationships between architectural and software features.

Prerequisites: At least a C- in C S 273 and C S 370.    (Catalog Link)

Credits: 3 (3)

Coordinator: Jonathan Cook

Textbook: Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition: The Hardware Software Interface, Patterson and Hennessey, Morgan Kaufmann, ISBN-13: 978-0128122754, ISBN-10: 0128122757
    (also: online reading)

BS degree role: elective (as of FA2019)

Course Learning Objectives

  1. Explain the concepts in instruction set architecture
  2. Analyze the behavior of pipelined CPU data path and control
  3. Analyze behavior and performance of memory hierarchies with different cache designs
  4. Describe the implementation of binary integer and floating point representation and arithmetic
  5. Identify and analyze performance of instruction level parallelism and multi-core parallelism
  6. Describe virtual memory and architectural support for operating systems
  7. Understand the organization of various kinds of secondary storage devices, and their performance and tradeoffs
  8. Create software that demonstrates performance of architectural features and evaluate the effects of software change

Course Practicum Requirements

  1. C/C++ programming to explore processor performance issues
  2. Use of CPU performance counters (perf tools)
  3. C/C++ programming to simulate cache behavior, or a larger program to deeply understand hardware performance

Course Topics

  1. Integer and floating point representations and arithmetic
  2. Branching and procedure calls
  3. Assembly language review
  4. Pipelined datapath and control
  5. Out of order execution
  6. Caches and caching
  7. Memory hierarchy and virtual memory
  8. Modern processor design

Course Improvement Decisions

(Course improvement decisions or recommendations from past assessments)

  1. 2020: Next course offering will use RISCV textbook edition, may incorporate RISCV simulator
  2. SP15: add assignments for VM and machine prog w/ cache

ABET Outcome Coverage

(Provide Mapping to ABET Student Outcomes)

  1. TBD

Other Notes

(Any important notes or issues to consider)

  1. none