Time and Location: Tuesday/Thursday 11:00AM-12:20PM, Integrated Science Center (ISC), 2280
Instructor: Adwait Jog (Personal Website)
Office hours: Tues/Thu 4PM-5:30PM or by appointment, McGl 111
Email: adwait@cs.wm.edu
Teaching Assistant: Mohamed Ibrahim
Office hours: By appointment, McGl 101B
Deadlines: Sept 2 (add/drop deadline) and Oct 21 (withdraw deadline). See the UG calender for more details.
Exam Dates: Oct 13 (Midterm Exam, in-class) and Dec 14 (Final Exam, 2:00 to 5:00 PM in the regular class-room, see Fall 2016 Final Exam Schedule for more details.)
Prerequisite(s): CSCI 304 and either CSCI 301 or CSCI 303
This course will introduce principles of computer design. The students will apply their knowledge of digital logic design to understand the high-level interactions between different computer system hardware components. Specifically, this course will cover various computer architecture aspects related to MIPS ISA, single-cycle data-path design, multiple-cycle design, pipelining, memory hierarchy, and multiprocessor architecture.
Required Textbook: Computer Organization and Design, Patterson & Hennessey (P&H), 5th Edition, see this website for more details.
Optional Textbook: Zybooks (Code: WMCSCI424-524JogFall2016), See this video for more details.
Resources: Some homeworks will also have simulation-based component. Access to a computer with remote access to a lab machine is necessary. See Simulators section for more details.
Materials: Lecture slides, homeworks, and other course materials will be posted on Blackboard. Updates will be posted on this website as well as course announcements/reminders will be delivered via piazza. Please keep checking all forums regularly for the latest information.
Help: It is important to start working on homeworks early, especially the homeworks that have simulation component. If you need help, show up in the office hours or ask questions in or after the class. You are also highly encouraged to use piazza to ask general clarification or conceptual questions regarding homeworks, quizzes, exams etc.
CSCI 424
Homework (40%, around 8). Submit electronically (no hard copies) on Blackboard by 23:00 hrs on the due date in the PDF format. You may use MS-word or Latex to typeset your answers. You can also scan and submit your hand-written HWs, but handwriting should be legible. Some homeworks will have simulation-based component. Some homeworks will carry more points than others.
In-class Midterm Exam (25%)
Final Exam (25%)
Class participation and In-class/Blackboard Quizzes (10%)
Optional: Undergraduate Research Project: Talk to the instructor if you are interested.
CSCI 524
Homework (30%, around 8). Submit electronically (no hard copies) on Blackboard by 23:00 hrs on the due date in the PDF format. You may use MS-word or Latex to typeset your answers. You can also scan and submit your hand-written HWs, but handwriting should be legible. Some homeworks will have simulation-based component. Some homeworks will carry more points than others.
In-class Midterm Exam (20%)
Final Exam (20%)
Class participation and In-class/Blackboard Quizzes (10%)
Research Project (20%) (Two reports due: one on Oct 13th and second one on Dec 14th). Talk to the instructor early to discuss potential project topics.
Final letter grades will be given based on the standard scale used in WM. Grades may be curved at the instructor's discretion.
You are expected to attend all lectures. You are responsible for all materials covered in lectures.
All exams are closed textbook and closed notes. No electronic devices are allowed.
No collaboration whatsoever is allowed on exams and quizzes.
No collaboration is allowed on homework, unless otherwise stated.
Collaboration is encouraged on the research projects.
Submission deadlines are hard. However, we do have a late/miss policy:
Late HWs are accepted with 20% penalty for each day they are late by.
If you miss an exam or quiz, you will get zero on that. The lowest score on the quizzes will be dropped.
Exceptions will be handled case by case and will only be considered under a university-approved condition with written proof.
If you have any grading-related questions, please contact the TA first. If issues are not resolved, then contact the instructor (cc TA).
MARS: A MIPS Simulator. Download and Install V4.5, Aug. 2014 and JAVA SDK. As MARS is a Java program, it should run on any OS. Browse through the software and documentation to familiarize yourself with the software. Here is a good tutorial with lots of screenshots. Read the tutorial first before starting MARS. More documentation can be found here.
SimpleScalar. It is an architecture-level simulator. Refer to these presentation slides and this user guide. Browse through the simulator-software and documentation to familiarize yourself with the environment.
| Week | Date | Agenda | Readings | HW/Quiz | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Aug 25 | Administrativia and Introductions | Quiz 1 is out. | First Day of class. | |
| Week 2 | Aug 30 | Introduction, Abstractions, and Technology | Chapter 1 | Download/install MARS and run sample codes to prepare for upcoming homeworks. | |
| Sep 1 | Introduction, Abstractions, and Technology | HW 1 is out. Quiz 1 is due. | Sep 2 is the add/drop deadline. | ||
| Week 3 | Sep 6 | MIPS ISA | Appendix A | ||
| Sep 8 | MIPS ISA | HW 1 is due. Quiz 2 is out. HW 2 is out. | |||
| Week 4 | Sep 13 | MIPS ISA | Chapter 2 | Quiz 2 is due. | |
| Sep 15 | MIPS ISA | ||||
| Week 5 | Sep 20 | MIPS Datapath Components | Appendix B.1 -- B.3 and B.7--B.9 | HW 2 is due. Quiz 3 and HW 3 are out. | |
| Sep 22 | Single Cycle Datapath Design | Chapter 4.1 -- 4.3 | |||
| Week 6 | Sep 27 | MIPS Review | Quiz 3 is due. HW 3 is due. | Instructor is out of town. Mohamed (TA) will take the class. HW 3 deadline is extended till Friday, Sept 30th | |
| Sep 29 | Single Cycle Datapath Design | Quiz 4 is out. HW 4 is out. | |||
| Week 7 | Oct 04 | Intro to Pipelining | Chapter 4.4 -- 4.7 | Practice exam and solutions are out. | |
| Oct 06 | Mid-term Review | Quiz 4 is due. HW 4 is due. | |||
| Week 8 | Oct 11 | No class (Fall Break) | |||
| Oct 13 | In-class Mid-term Examination. | Mid-term exam will include all the material covered until the Fall break. Exam duration is 75 minutes. | |||
| Week 9 | Oct 18 | Pipelining and Related Issues | Chapter 4.8 | Mid-term Analysis will be discussed in the class. | |
| Oct 20 | Pipelining and Related Issues | Quiz 5 and HW5 are out. | Oct 21 is the withdraw deadline. | ||
| Week 10 | Oct 25 | Memory Hierarchy (Caches) | Chapter 5.1 -- 5.4 | ||
| Oct 27 | Memory Hierarchy (Caches) | Quiz 5 is due. | |||
| Week 11 | Nov 1 | Memory Hierarchy (DRAM) | HW5 is due. | ||
| Nov 3 | Memory Hierarchy (DRAM) | Quiz 6 and HW6 are out. | |||
| Week 12 | Nov 8 | Virtual Memory and TLBs | |||
| Nov 10 | Virtual Memory and TLBs | Chapter 5.6 -- 5.8 | Quiz 6 and HW6 are due. | We discussed new problems on Virtual Memory and Caching | |
| Week 13 | Nov 15 | Disks and I/O | Chapter 5.11 | ||
| Nov 17 | ---- | Class and office hours are cancelled; | |||
| Week 14 | Nov 22 | Multi-processors | Chapter 6.1 -- 6.5 | Quiz 7 and HW 7 are due. | |
| Nov 24 | No class (Thanksgiving Break) | ||||
| Week 15 | Nov 29 | Multi-processors | Appendix C-2 | ||
| Dec 1 | Final-exam review and wrap-up | HW 8 is due on Dec 2 | Course evaluations are due on Dec 2 | ||
| Finals | Dec 14 | Comprehensive Final Exam, 2:00 to 5:00 PM, ISC 2280 | To be held in the Regular Classroom. (Fall 2016 Exam Schedule). Final exam will include all material covered during the semester. |
The university and department policies against academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced.
Students are required to follow the Honor System of the College of William and Mary.
It is the policy of The College of William and Mary to accommodate students with disabilities and qualifying diagnosed conditions in accordance with federal and state laws. Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a learning, psychiatric, physical, or chronic health diagnosis should contact Student Accessibility Services staff at 757-221-2509 or at sas@wm.edu to determine if accommodations are warranted and to obtain an official letter of accommodation. For more information, please click here.
The lecture slides of this course are developed based on the original lecture slides from Mary. J. Irwin (Penn State), which were adapted from Computer Organization and Design, 5th Edition, Patterson & Hennessy (P&H), Morgan Kaufmann. The course staff also acknowledges the contributions of Mary. J. Irwin, Chita Das, Yuan Xie, N. Vijaykrishnan, and other instructors and TAs at Penn State, towards developing the course material over a period of time.