cse141: Introduction to Computer Architecture

HSS 1330
Lectures Tue. & Thu. 9:30am-10:50am (HSS 1330); Disc. Section Wed. 4:00p-4:50p (CENTER 105)
Spring, 2013
Shortcuts: Schedule Homeworks

Instructor

Steven Swanson

Email:

swanson

cs.ucsd.edu

IM (not email): professorswanson@{AIM, Yahoo!, google talk, MS Messenger}
Office: EBU3B 3212
Office Hours: Monday 10-11; Thursday 11-12 (and by appointment)
UCSD homepage

Teaching Assistant

Alice Liang

Email:

ayliang

ucsd.edu

Office: Depends on day, see below.
Office Hours: Tuesday 1-3pm in EBU3B B260A, Wednesday 1:30-3:30pm in EBU3B B275, and by appointment

Course discussion board: Google Groups. Required reading. Get signed up. You should also be subscribed to the Discussion Google Group for the course. If you have any personal queries, you can post to our staff group

Course Description

This course will describe the basics of modern processor operation. Topics include computer system performance, instruction set architectures, pipelining, branch prediction, memory-hierarchy design, and a brief introduction to multiprocessor architecture issues.

This course is taught in tandem with 141L. Unless you have discussed it with you me, you should be in enrolled in both.

Text books

Required: Patterson & Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Patterson & Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann, Revised 4th Edition
Required: Other assigned readings throughout the quarter.
Optional: The History of Computing This a great set of lectures from a course taught at UCSD/UW/Berkeley three years ago. Most of them are by the folks that actually made the history (Steve Wozniak, Ray Ozzie, Gordon Bell, etc.)

Grading

Homework	20%	Homeworks will be assigned throughout the course. They are due on Thursdays
Quiz	20%	Every Thursday there will be a quiz.
Midterm	25%	Self Explanatory
Final	35%	The final will be cumulative.

Additional notes about grades in this course:

Calculating grades I compute grades using an Excel spread sheet. In the interests of transparancy, the current grade sheet (with identifying information removed) is available in XLS and PDF formats. The grade sheet contains all the information about curves and how the grades are computed. It is somewhat complicated, so if you find bugs please bring them to my attention. Please note that some versions of OpenOffice do not perform the calculations properly, and will give incorrect results.

The grading systems is based on a 13 point (F through A+) scale. For each assignment/test/etc, the sheet computes the letter grade (rounding up, when needed) according to a curve for each assignment (specified at the bottom of each assignments column). Your final grade is the weighted average of these grades.

We do our best to record grades accurately, but you should double-check.
Errors in grading If you feel there has been an error in how an assignment or test was graded, you have one week from when the assignment is return to bring it to our attention. You must submit (via email to the instructor and the appropriate TAs) a written description of the problem. Neither I nor the TAs will discuss regrades without receiving an email from you about it first.

For arithmetic errors (adding up points etc.) you do not need to submit anything in writing, but the one week limit still applies.
Final grades If you have a problem with your final grade in the course, send me email and we can set up an appoinment to discuss it. Like you, I generally go on a vacation after the quarter ends, so it may take a little while for me to get back to you and the meeting will likely be the next quarter. If the problem needs to be resolved sooner make that clear in your email (e.g., in the first line).

Schedule

I will post the slides for most lectures. Since the slides contain material I am not allowed to distribute publically, they are password protected. I have posted the username and password to the google group.

Reading should be done before class on the day they are listed. It is essential that you do the readings. I will not cover everything you are responsible for in class.

Date	Topic	Readings	Slides	Due
Tuesday, April 2	Introduction to ISAs & MIPS		00_Introduction.pdf
Thursday, April 4	MIPS	Read: 2.1-2.14	01_ISA-PartI.pdf
Tuesday, April 9	Performance Measurement	Read 1.4-1.5		Assignment 1;
Thursday, April 11	Performance Measurement	Read 1.5-1.9	02_performance.pdf
Tuesday, April 16	Performance Measurement		02_performance.pdf
Thursday, April 18	ISAs Part II	2.16-2.18	../asm_examples, 01_ISA-PartII.pdf	Assignment 2;
Tuesday, April 23	Pipelining	4.1-4.9	03_ImplementingMIPS.pdf
Thursday, April 25	Pipelining and Data hazards		03_ImplementingMIPS.pdf	Assignment 3;
Tuesday, April 30	Pipelining and Control Hazards
Thursday, May 2	Midterm review			Assignment 4;
Tuesday, May 7	Midterm
Thursday, May 9	Pipelining and Data Hazards
Tuesday, May 14	Branch prediction
Thursday, May 16	Branch Prediction			Assignment 5;
Tuesday, May 21	Memory and Caching	5.1-5.3, 5.7, 5.10	09_Cache_intro.pdf, S_MemAndSRAM.pdf, S_DRAM.pdf
Thursday, May 23	Memory and Caching		10_Caches_detail.pdf, 11_Cache_advanced.pdf
Tuesday, May 28	Memory and Caching	TBA
Thursday, May 30	Virtual Memory		12_VirtualMemory.pdf	Assignment 6;
Tuesday, June 4	Out-of-Order Execution/Introduction Multiprocessors	4.10-4.13, 7.1-7.5	14_SuperScalarSMT.pdf, 15_CMPs.pdf
Thursday, June 6	Final review			Assignment 7;

Integrity Policy

Cheating WILL be taken seriously. Doing otherwise is not fair to honest students. It is also not fair to allow the cheater to thing that it is a reasonable alternative in life.
Please review the UCSD student handbook for more details on Academic Integrity.
Anyone copying information or having information copied during a test will receive an F for the class and will not be allowed to drop. They will be reported to their college dean. If you can prove non-cooperative copying took place, your grade may be restored, but you must prove it to the dean--I don't want to be involved. Anyone caught cheating or falsely representing the work of others on the homework will not be allowed to turn in further homework. Your grade will be based exclusively on the tests with a penalty of 25% OR GREATER applied.
We photocopy a random sampling of the exams in order to ensure that students do not modify their tests after they have been returned.
Online solutions, etc.: A solutions manual exists for this text. Using it, or any solutions you may find on the internet elsewhere IS CHEATING and will be dealt with accordingly. We know what the solution manual solutions look like. Homework is a small fraction of your grade, so cheating on it is unproductive.

Homework

Homeworks are due by 9am on the due date unless otherwise noted.
Turn in your printed solutions to the TA's mailbox in the CSE grad student mailroom (2237), unless otherwise noted.
Late assignments will not be accepted.
There is no regrading of written homeworks, except for addition errors. No single problem will have a significant impact on your grade.
Homework must be completed individually.
Studying in groups is definitely encouraged.
Typically, homework assignments may be graded based on a statistical subset of the problems in each assignment.
Homeworks must be typed or clearly handwritten. Illegible/unreadable answers will receive no credit and we will not reconsider or regrade them.

Assignment 1: Secret Username
Assignment 2: Instruction Set Architecture, Performance, Spim, and Other ISAs
Assignment 3: Other ISAs, continued
Assignment 4: Pipelining and Hazards
Assignment 5: Branch Prediction and Intro to Caches
Assignment 6: Caches
Assignment 7: Virtual Memory