cse141: Introduction to Computer Architecture

Warren Lecture Hall 2111
Lectures Tue. & Thu., 11:00-12:20; Disc. section Wed. 2:00-2:50 (Center Hall 214)
Winter, 2008
Shortcuts: Schedule Homeworks

Instructor

Steven Swanson

Email:

swanson

cs.ucsd.edu

IM (not email): professorswanson@{AIM, Yahoo!, google talk, MS Messenger}
Office: EBU3B 3212
Office Hours: Tue. 1:00-2:00; Fri. 10:00-11:00
UCSD homepage

Teaching Assistant

Sat Garcia

Email:

sat

cs.ucsd.edu

IM (not email): CSE Sat@AIM
Office: EBU3B B240A
Office Hours: Monday 1-2, Wednesday 3-4, or by appointment

Course discussion board: cse141. Required reading. Get signed up.

Course Description

This course will describe the basics of modern processor operation. Topics include computer system performance, instruction set architectures, pipelining, branch prediction, memory-hierarchy design, and a brief introduction to multiprocessor architecture issues.

This course is taught in tandem with 141L. Unless you have discussed it with you me, you should be in enrolled in both.

Text books

Required: Patterson & Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Patterson & Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann, 3rd Edition
Required: Other assigned readings throughout the quarter.

Grading

In addition to the contributions below, class participation (speaking up in class, attending office hours, etc.) can raise your grade up to one "notch" (e.g., B to B+).

Homework	15%	Homeworks will be assigned through the course. They are due on Tuesdays.
Quizzes	15%	Every Thursday there will be a quiz.
Midterm	25%	The midterm is on October 25th.
Final	35%	The final is on December 14th at 11:30-2:30. It will be cummulative.
Postings to the class web board	10%	You should post questions and/or answers to the web board at least twice per week.

Additional notes about grades in this course:

Calculating grades I compute grades using an Excel spread sheet. In the interests of transparancy, the current grade sheet (with identifying information removed) is avaiable in either XLS or HTML format. The grade sheet contains all the information about curves and how the grades are computed. It is somewhat sophisticated, if you find bugs please bring them to my attention.

The grading systems is based on a 13 point (F through A+) scale. For each assignment/test/etc, the sheet computes the letter grade (rounding up, when needed) according to a curve for each assignment (specified at the bottom of each assignments column). Your final grade is the weighted average of these grades.

We do our best to record grades accurately, but you should double-check.
Errors in grading If you feel there has been an error in how an assignment or test was graded, you have one week from when the assignment is return to bring it to our attention. You must submit (via email to the instructor and the appropriate TAs) a written description of the problem.

For arithmetic errors (adding up points etc.) you do not need to submit anything in writing, but the one week limit still applies.
Final grades If you have a problem with your final grade in the course, send me email and we can set up an appoinment to discuss it. Like you, I generally go on a vacation after the quarter ends, so it may take a little while for me to get back to you and the meeting will likely be the next quarter. If the problem needs to be resolved sooner make that clear in your email (like in the first line).

Schedule

Items in the schedule more that one week in the future are subject to change. Check back for updates for the assigned readings, etc. The date for the midterm will not change, however. Nor will deadlines for homeworks/projecsts that have been assigned be move earlier.

I will post the slides for most lectures. Since the slides contain material I am not allowed to distribute publically, they are password protected. I have posted the username and password to the web board.

Date	Topic	Readings	Slides	Due	Notes
Tuesday, January 8	Administrivia; Overview of architecture		slides , slides
Thursday, January 10	Technology/ISAs	Chapter 1; Sections 2.1-2.6, 2.9; Review Chapter 3	slides , slides
Tuesday, January 15	ISAs	Chapter 4 - first half	slides	Assignment 1-1; Assignment 1-2;
Thursday, January 17	Performance	Chapter 4 - second half	slides , slides
Tuesday, January 22	Performance/Single cycle processors	Chapter 5: Sections 5.1 - 5.4	slides , slides	Assignment 2-1; Assignment 2-2;
Thursday, January 24	Single cycle processors/multi-cycle processors	Chapter 5: Sections 5.5 - 5.11	slides , slides , slides
Tuesday, January 29	Multi-cycle processors	Chapter 6: Sections 6.1 - 6.6	slides , slides	Assignment 3-1; Assignment 3-2;
Thursday, January 31	Pipelining	Chapter 6: Sections 6.7 - 6.12	slides , slides
Tuesday, February 5	Pipelining		slides
Thursday, February 7	Data Hazards; Midterm review		slides , slides	Assignment 4;
Tuesday, February 12	Midterm			Assignment 5;
Thursday, February 14	Control Hazards		slides
Tuesday, February 19	Midterm recap; control hazards
Thursday, February 21	Branch prediction		slides
Tuesday, February 26	Advanced Pipelining			Assignment 6-1; Assignment 6-2;
Thursday, February 28	Memory systems	7.1-7.3	slides , slides
Tuesday, March 4	No Class	Cache Handout (see slides)	slides
Thursday, March 6	Memory systems	7.4-7.8		Assignment 7-1; Assignment 7-2;
Tuesday, March 11	Virtual Memory
Thursday, March 13	Parallelism/"Real-life Architecture"		slides , slides
Thursday, March 20	Final Exam			Assignment 8;	11:30-2:30

Integrity Policy

Cheating WILL be taken seriously. Doing otherwise is not fair to honest students. It is also not fair to allow the cheater to thing that it is a reasonable alternative in life.
Please review the UCSD student handbook for more details on Academic Integrity.
Anyone copying information or having information copied during a test will receive an F for the class and will not be allowed to drop. They will be reported to their college dean. If you can prove non-cooperative copying took place, your grade may be restored, but you must prove it to the dean--I don't want to be involved. Anyone caught cheating or falsely representing the work of others on the homework will not be allowed to turn in further homework. Your grade will be based exclusively on the tests with a penalty of 25% OR GREATER applied.
We photocopy a random sampling of the exams in order to ensure that students do not modify their tests after they have been returned.
Online solutions, etc.: A solutions manual exists for this text. Using it, or any solutions you may find on the internet elsewhere IS CHEATING and will be dealt with accordingly. We know what the solution manual solutions look like. Homework is a small fraction of your grade.

Homework

Homeworks are due at 11am on the due date unless otherwise noted.
Turn in your printed solutions to Sat's mailbox in the CSE grad student mailroom, unless otherwise noted.
Late assignments will not be accepted.
There is no regrading of written homeworks, except for addition errors. No single problem will have a significant impact on your grade.
Homework must be completed individually.
Studying in groups is definitely encouraged.
Typically, homework assignments may be graded based on a statistical subset of the problems in each assignment.
Homeworks must be typed or clearly handwritten. Illegible/unreadable answers will receive no credit.

Assignment 1: Discussion board and grading administrivia
Assignment 2: ISAs and Performance
Assignment 3: Performance and Datapath & Control
Assignment 4: Multicycle CPU
Assignment 5: Pipelining
Assignment 6: Control Hazards (or "Danger Will Robinson")
Assignment 7: Caches (or "Money, Money, Money!")
Assignment 8: Virtual Memory