CDA 3101—Introduction To Computer Organization
CATALOG DESCRIPTION: Credits: 3; Prereq: COP3504 or COP3503; MAC 2233;
MAC 2311 or MAC 3472
Organization of computing systems. Logical basis of computer structure. Machine
representation of instructions and data, flow of control, and basic machine instructions.
Assembly language programming.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: This introductory course emphasizes essential concepts of a
computer system including the logical basis of computer structure, machine representation of
instructions and data, pipeline structure of data path, memory hierarchy designs, and
assembly language programming. Students will be taught these basic concepts, and there will
be exercises that help the student to learn the basics of assembly language programming. We
also cover detailed pipelined, parallel, and multicore architectures, to acquaint students with
these architectures, the basics of how they function, and what practical problems are
associated with these architectures.
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Textbook:
1. Computer Organization and Design, 4th Ed. Revised Printing (Required)
David A. Patterson , John L. Hennessy
ISBN: 978-0-12-374750-1, Pub. Date: 2012
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
2. Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach 5th Ed. (Recommended)
John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson
ISBN: 978-0-12-383872-8, Pub. Date: 2012
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
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Grading Policy:
Homework (20%)
Programming Assignment (20%)
Midterm Exam I (15%)
Midterm Exam II (15%)
Accumulative Final Exam (30%)
Pop quiz (extra credit)
The letter grade will be based on the distribution of your final accumulated score.
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Outline of Schedule:
Week 1 – Intro to computers, architectures, technology, performance metrics
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Weeks 2-3 – MIPS Instruction Set Architecture (ISA), format, language support
Weeks 4-5 – Number representations and arithmetic
Weeks 6-10 – Processor datapath design and pipelining
Weeks 10-13 – Memory hierarchy designs
Weeks 14-16 – I/O, multicores, multiprocessors, clusters
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Important Notes:
1. There will be two midterm and one final exams. The final exam will be held 7:309:30am on May 1 in Weil 270 according to ISIS schedule. All exams are open-book
and open-notes. Students with a proper excuse of being absent from the examinations
must inform and get a permission from the instructor prior to the time of an
examination. Any students who do not take the examination at the scheduled time
without prior permission will receive a zero score.
2. We plan to have two MIPS programming assignments and four homework for
learning MIPS assembly language and to help understanding material you learn from
the textbook. You will use SPIM simulator to run your MIPS code.
3. All homework and programming assignments must be submitted before 11:55pm on
the due date. A 24-hour grace period with 20% penalty is given to all homework and
programming assignments. NO credit will be given to any late submission beyond
the grace period. Handwritten solution will not be accepted. All assignments will be
announced on the course website as well as from Sakai and submitted through Sakai.
4. All homework, programming assignments, and exams are INDIVIDUAL projects.
Any collaboration, beyond initial exchange ideas to get the technique right, will be
considered cheating. Copying is certainly cheating, and will be punished severely. We
will use proper software to detect any plagiarism.
5. To request a re-grade of homework, programs, and exams, you should attach a short
note stating the reasons that you think a re-grade is necessary and submit to the
instructor within a week from the date that the grading result is available. You must
provide clear and precise as possible in your answers of homework programs and
exams. Correctness of a solution will be determined solely by the answer in the exam
or the homework.
6. Attending lectures and discussion sections is a responsibility of students. All
homework, programs, and exams will be from the material covered in the lectures and
discussion sections. Pop quiz may be given throughout the semester and will be
counted as extra credits. Students are required to behave in the class room. NO
talking, eating, drinking, and cell phone must be silent.
7. All course materials are available at: http://www.cise.ufl.edu/class/cda3101sp13/
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