~~NOTOC~~
====== Computer Architecture  ======

===== Description  =====

This  course  presents  the  core  concepts  of  computer  architecture  and 
design   ideas   embodied   in   many   machines,   and   emphasizes   a 
quantitative   approach   to   cost/performance   trade-offs.      This   course 
concentrates on uniprocessor systems.  A few machines are studied to 
illustrate  how  these  concepts  are  implemented;  how  various  trade-offs 
that  exist  among  design  choices  are  treated;  and  how  good  designs 
make   efficient   use   of   technology.      Future   trends   in   computer 
architecture    are    also    discussed. 
Topics    covered    may    include fundamentals of computer design; Performance 
and cost; Instruction set design and measurements of use; Pipeline design techniques; Memory
hierarchy design; Input output subsystems; 

===== Course Learning Outcomes  =====

By the end of this course, the student should be able to

  - Design  cache,  memory hierarchy,  and  virtual  memory  using different techniques to improve cost/performance ratio.
  - Demonstrate  how  dynamic  scheduling  and  speculative  execution can  improve  the  system  performance  and  explain  how  it  is implemented in modern processors. 
  - Evaluate different design alternatives and make quantitative/qualitative argument for one design over the other. 
  - Identity the different types of parallelism (data, instruction, thread, transaction) for a given application. 
  - Compare and  evaluate different techniques (such as multithreading, multicore, or vector) to improve CPU performance


===== Lecture Times =====

  * Section T: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00am - 11:30pm, PSE 321