CS211: Advanced Computer Architecture



Professor Bhagi Narahari   |   narahari@gwu.edu
 




Schedule of Topics

The course topics are broken down into three parts: the first part focuses on processor architectures,  the second part focuses on the other components (memory, I/O) and the third part focuses on multi-core and multiprocessors. We expect to spend about 10 weeks on the first two parts. The relevant chapter in the textbook is listed for each topic.

PART 1: Processor Architectures
  • Intro. to computer architectures, models of scalability and performance models. (Chapter 1)
  • Review of Computer Organization, Overview of Instruction Set Design (Appendix B, Notes) - Self study.
  • Instruction-level Parallel Processors (ILP) 
    • Pipelined processors, Pipeline scheduling (Appendix A, Notes, Chap. 3):  A.1 -- A.6
      • Vector Processing (Appendix G) -- Self study.
    • Introduction to Superscalar and VLIW/EPIC Processors
      • Overview of ILP (Notes).
      • Superscalar -- Dynamic scheduling, Branch Prediction (Chapter 2, Notes).
      • VLIW/EPIC processors (Appendix G).
      • Summary of ILP and limits (Chapter 3).
    • MIDTERM Exam
PART 2: Components
  • Memory Design (Appendix C, Chapter 5)
  • I/O System (Chapter 6)
  • Optimizing Compilers -- code scheduling for ILP processors (Notes, Chapter 3, Appendix G).
PART 3: Multiprocessing.
  • Intro to Multiprocessing (Chapter 4).
  • Multicore processors (Notes, Readings).or Architectures: SIMD, MIMD, Shared Memory, Cache Coherence (Chap.6.1)
  • Advanced Topics: time permitting
    • Embedded systems (Appendix D)
    • Reconfigurable architectures (notes)
  • Final Exam - Last Class
    • The Final will focus on materials after the midterm, but will require knowledge of materials before midterm also.


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