Syllabus: CS 361 - Introduction to Computer Architecture

Course Description:

This course introduces fundamental concepts of computer architecture. It covers processor design, memory systems, performance messurament, and assembely programming. Students will gain practical experience by working on a semester-long project in C/C++ programming, which involves creating software that simulates architectural features and behaviour for performance evaluation.

Prerequisites:

At least C in CS/EET 122

Textbook:

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

Course Learning Objectives:

• Understand the structure of computer systems.
• Explain the concepts in instruction set architecture.
• Describe the organization and function of each element of a memory hirerachy, and their performance and tradeoffs.
• Analyze the behavior of pipelined CPU data path and control.
• Analyze behavior and performance of memory hierarchies with different cache designs.
• Create software that demonstrates hardware behaviour and performance (e.g. processor and cache memory) and evaluate the effects of software change.

Course Topics:

• Operations of the Computer Hardware
• Operands of the Computer Hardware
• Pipelined datapath and control
• Out of order execution
• The basic of caches
• Memory hierarchy and virtual memory
• Modern processor design

Course Grading

Project	60%
Labs/Quizzes/Homeworks	15%
Exams	25%