Com Sci 222/322
Computer Architecture
Winter 1999

Department of Computer Science
The University of Chicago

Online discussion using HyperNews

• [24 March] I posted the final grades. (MOD)



• [11 March] I posted information about the final exam, including a fairly precise study guide. (MOD)



• [5 March] Step 4 of the project has been posted. It is due on Friday, 12 March. (MR)



• [5 February] If you need help with Verilog TA will held office hours Tu, Th 18:00-19:00 in Ry257. (MR)

• Taught in winter 1999, MWF 1:30, Ryerson 251.
• Instructor: Michael J. O'Donnell (odonnell@cs.uchicago.edu)
  • Office: Ryerson 257A.
  • Office hours: by appointment. Contact me by email, phone at the office (773-702-1269), or phone at home (847-835-1837 between 9:30 and 5:30 on days that I work at home). You may drop in to the office any time, but you may find me out or busy if you haven't confirmed an appointment. Check my personal schedule before proposing an appointment.
• Assistant: Matei Ripeanu. (matei@cs
)
• Office: Ry257 and Ry403.
• Office hours: Tu, Th 18:00-19:00 Ry257 or by appointment.

Copyright information

Last modified: Thu Mar 11 22:28:45 CST 1999

Catalog Description

Prerequisites

Com Sci 117, or general understanding of computer programming

Description

In Com Sci 222 and 322 we study the principles involved in the design and construction of high-speed digital computers. We look briefly at the principles of digital circuitry, VLSI electronics, and Boolean arithmetic and switching, just to understand how a computer makes sense as a huge circuit. In the remainder of the course, we concentrate on the functional level of design, and how it determines performance. In particular, we study instruction set design and implementation, pipelining, memory hierarchy, and multiprocessing.

Required Text (buy this one)

Computer Architecture A Quantitative Approach, 2nd edition, by John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, 1996, ISBN 1-55860-329-8.

Instead of going to the bookstore, you may wish to order the text from Book Pool ($60.95, the cheapest that I've found so far), the publisher ($79.95), from Barnes & Noble online ($79.95), Amazon ($79.95), or other book vendors.

Variant printings We have had some confusion with variant impressions of the second edition. Errors in early impressions have been corrected in later ones. To discover which impression you have, look on the page of publisher's information: an unnumbered left page on the reverse of the title page, and opposite the dedication. Near the middle is a line beginning ``00 99 98 ...'' The last number printed is the year of your impression. Later impressions have shorter sequences of years, since the printer erases years to indicate the impression. My newest copy has ``00 99 98'' at the beginning of the line, with ``5 4'' toward the middle. This indicates the 4th impression, printed in 1998. The web site for the text has a list of errata.

Supplemental Reading (available to borrow)

The Anatomy of a High-Performance Microprocessor: A Systems Perspective, by Bruce Shriver and Bennett Smith, IEEE Computer Society Press, Los Alamitos CA, 1998, ISBN 0--8186-8400-3.

This book includes a CD-ROM with a PDF hypertext version of the book, some relevant articles and reports, slides from technical talks, video and audio clips of interviews with creative people in computer architecture, and simulator software. This book provides an extended case study of the design and implementation of the AMD K6 3D microprocessor, covering all the topics of the course and several others. But, it assumes a lot of familiarity with concepts and terminology, so it's not suitable for our text. There will probably be short reading assignments from this book, for which you may borrow copies in the MacLab.

Computer Organization & Design, 2nd edition, by David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, 1997, ISBN 1-55860-428-6.

This is a more elementary text. It provides some background on circuitry and VLSI that might be helpful for the early topics in the course. You may choose to use this book on your own initiative for help with the concepts in the early part of the course.

Similar Courses at Other universities

• CSE 322 Computer Architecture at Boston University
• CS320 Computer Architecture at Bucknell University
• CSE 431 Introduction to Computer Architecture at Pennsylvania State University
• CSE 530 Fundamentals of Computer Architecture at Pennsylvania State University
• CS 152 Computer Architecture and Engineering at University of California, Berkeley
• CS 252 Graduate Computer Architecture at University of California, Berkeley
• CMSC 411 at University of Maryland
• CS 314 at University of Oregon
• CIS 501 Computer Architecture at University of Pennsylvania

odonnell@cs.uchicago.edu