CS 6461: Computer Architecture
Summer 2013
Course Introduction
Instructor: Morris Lancaster
Instructor
• Morris Lancaster
– 703 400 6408
– Lancaster_morris@bah.com
– Web site
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Course Web Site
• URL
– http://www.seas.gwu.edu/~mlancast/CSCI6461AL
– Contains syllabus and schedule
– Is a place for the instructor to post any important
announcements and assignments
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Grading
• Examinations* (in class, closed book, closed
notes)
– Mid Term
– Final
• Homework**
– Problem Sets (4 to 5)
– Programs (two or three simple MIPS assembler
programs
– In Class Participation)
*Absolutely no collaboration on taking the exams. Be sure to visit the Academic Integrity Link
on the syllabus
** Collaboration on homework is allowed
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Course and Self Metrics
• “Never mistake activity for achievement” – John
Wooden
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Resources
• Text Web Page (Elsevier)
• MIT Opencourseware http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
– Computer Systems Architecture
http://csg.csail.mit.edu/6.823/
• Other open courseware (here)
• Patterson’s home page (patterson)
• ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture
• IEEE Technical Committee on Computer Architecture
• Intel Technology Journal (Intel)
• Manufacturer’s sites
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Resources
• UseNet News Groups
– comp.arch
– comp.arch.arithmetic
– comp.arch.storage
– comp.parallel
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Homework
• Collaboration:
– Students may do homework as a group
– Students must write up homework sets independently,
not as part of the group
– As part of the homework completion, the student
should cite (list) individuals who helped them as well as
reference material.
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Homework Citations
• Examples of incorrect/failures in citations that
raise questions in homework (will cause a zero
grade for the homework set)
– Two or more students have identical solution sets (and
possibly with identical errors) but no citations.
– Solutions to problems from text books are provided that
appear to be cut and paste from solutions manuals
without citations.
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Homework 0
• Visit and read carefully the following page:
- GW Code of Academic Integrity
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Course Schedule Page
• Overall schedule of topics
– Daily coverage may vary (hopefully only slightly) as
class environment dictates
• Course notes and background material
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Schedule Page Course Materials
* indicates optionally present
• Lecture coverage – the slides and materials that
are the core of the course – organized similarly to
text
• *Supplemental materials – organized similarly to
text with possibly different perspective on the
material
• *Extended materials – related material to topic
areas. Labeled extended as the scope of the
material, while related, may be broader.
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Course (and text) focus
• The key factors that have made the dramatic
growth in computing performance possible
– Architectural changes and accompanying changes in
compiler
• “The rate of growth has compounded so that by 2001, the
difference between the highest performance
microprocessors and what would have been obtained by
relying solely on technology, including improved circuit
design, was about a factor of 15.”
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Computer Architecture
Course Coverage
• Instruction Set Architecture
• Organization
• Hardware
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Course Strategy/Coverage Area
• Review Introductory Topics and Fundamentals of Computer Design
•
– Course overview, history, other important topics
Review RISC Architecture and Pipelines
– Rationale for RISC
– Pipelines
• Instruction Level Parallelism
– Dynamic
– Static
• Multiprocessors and Issues Related to Multiprocessors
– Connection Architectures
– Cache Coherence Issues
• Storage Systems
• Networks
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