ECS 201A Computer Architecture

Announcements

Course grades are now available here.

Make sure to read the class newsgroup (ucd.class.ecs201a) everyday for announcements! Use the discussion newsgroup for questions (ucd.class.ecs201a.d).

Time: TR 10:30-11:50am
Units: 4
Room: 1062 Bainer
Prerequisites: Course 154B or EEC 170; course 150
Instructor: Prof. Fred Chong office hours: TR 5:10-6pm; Eng II 3031
TA: Archana Bharathidasan office hours: W 3:30-4:30 EUII 3106
Text: Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach (3rd edition), by Hennessey and Patterson, 2002.

Grading

  • Problem Sets 20%
  • 2 In-class exams 50%
  • Project Poster 10%
  • Project Final Report 20%

    Project Information

    Deadlines:
  • 10/8 Project groups and interests by e-mail
  • 10/22 2-page proposals
  • 11/12 Draft of project paper
  • 12/5 Project poster presentations
  • 12/5 Final Paper Due

    Here is an example project paper. The project has two goals:

  • A critique of three related research papers. This is not a book report. Do not just summarize what is in the papers. Point out shortcomings and possible areas for extension.
  • Extension of the area. Address shortcomings or extend the work in the papers. Come up with some ideas and test them with a short project. This can be in the form of some simple analysis, study of application attributes, small machine simulations, or implementation on parallel machines. Remember to pick something that will fit in a quarter.

    Ideally, both goals would be well-addressed in a project. Since we only have a quarter, however, you may emphasize one or the other.

    Project Topics

    The book is a good general source of project topics. The computer architecture research page at Wisconsin is good place to see what are current research topics in the world.

    My interests are currently in novel technologies and embedded processors for DSP applications. Matt Farrens has a list of topics also.

    Lectures

  • Lecture (Th 9/26/02): Review: Pipeline, Performance, Cache, Virtual Memory

    • Reading : Chapter 1

  • Lecture (Tu 10/1/02) Review: Moore's Law, Cost


    • Homework 1: 1.1, 1.8, 1.10, 5.1

    Due 10/15 in class or by e-mail to Archana

  • Lecture (Th 10/3/02): Caches and Memory systems

    • Reading : Chapter 5
  • Lecture (Tu 10/8/02) Guest Lecture: Matt Farrens
  • Lecture (Th 10/10/02): Memory Systems continued

    • Go to Joel Emer's Distinguished Lecture
  • Lecture (Tu 10/15/02) Storage: Disks, Tapes, RAID

    • Homework 2: 5.4, 5.23, 6.12, 6.16, 7.3, 7.7

    Due 10/29 in class or by e-mail to Archana


    Reading : Chapter 6

  • Lecture (Th 10/17/02) Guest Lecture: Dean Copsey. Quantum Computing Architecture

  • Lecture (Tu 10/22/02) Network Architectures

    • Reading : Chapter 7
  • Lecture (Th 10/24/02) Network Examples: Google and Cell Phones
  • Lecture (Tu 10/29/02) Multiprocessors: motivation, classification, apps

    • Reading : Chapter 8
  • Lecture (Th 10/31/02) Multiprocessors: Snooping Protocol, Directory Protocol, Synchronization, Consistency

  • Exam 1 (Tu 11/5/02)
  • Lecture (Th 11/7/02) Multiprocessors: Measurements, Crosscutting Issues, Examples, Fallacies & Pitfalls

    Reading : Chapter 2


    Homework 3: 2.1, 2.6, 2.11, 3.1, 3.6

    Due 11/19 in class or by e-mail to Archana


  • Lecture (Tu 11/12/02): Instruction Sets

    • Reading : Chapter 3
  • Lecture (Th 11/14/02): Dynamic Pipeline: Tomasulo, Reorder Buffers
  • Lecture (Tu 11/19/02) Dynamic Pipeline: Branch prediction, ILP limits

    • Reading : Chapter 4

    Homework 4: 3.16, 4.2, 4.9, 4.18

    Due 12/3 in class or by e-mail to Archana

  • Lecture (Th 11/21/02) Dynamic Wrapup: Examples and SMT

  • Lecture (Tu 11/26/02) Static Pipeline: VLIW, static branch prediction, IA-64
  • Thanksgiving Holiday (Th 11/28/02)
  • Thanksgiving Holiday (F 11/29/02)
  • Exam 2 (Tu 12/3/02)

  • Lecture (Th 12/5/02) Static Pipeline Wrapup: Transmeta and Trimedia

    • Poster Session during Departmental Colloquium
  • No Final
    • Acknowledgements: The materials in the course are heavily based upon those developed by David Patterson. Thanks also to Matt Farrens.
    Last updated September 26, 2002
    chong@cs.ucdavis.edu