16.482 / 16.561: Computer Architecture and Design
Instructor: Dr. Michael Geiger
Fall 2014
Course Schedule
This schedule contains a tentative schedule of topics we will cover throughout the term; this schedule is subject to change. As the semester progresses, I will update the schedule to show the actual dates on which we cover material, as well as provide links to the lecture slides and programming assignments. Note that most lectures are associated with some section(s) of the textbook, which I suggest you read prior to class. Additional readings may be assigned from outside sources, for which links will be provided on this page.
Please note that the exam dates are fixed—the midterm exam will be held on Thursday, October 16 in class, and the final exam will be held on Thursday, December 4, from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM. (note the change from the original date/time)
| Week | Date (Thur.) | Lecture Topics | Handouts | Echo360 Recordings |
Reading |
Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
9/4 |
Course overview Computer architecture introduction Instruction set architecture |
Lec. 1 slides | Lecture 1 | Ch. 1, 2 |
HW 1 (due 9/11) |
|
2 |
9/11 |
Digital arithmetic | Lecture 2 | Ch. 3 |
HW 2 (due 9/18) |
|
| 3 | 9/18 |
Datapath
and control Pipelining |
Lecture 3 | Ch. 4.1-4.9, Appendix D |
HW 3 (due 9/25) |
|
| 4 | 9/25 |
Instruction level parallelism Branch prediction |
BHT example soln |
Lecture 4 |
HW 4 (due 10/6) |
|
| 5 | 10/2 |
Dynamic scheduling |
Scheduling example solution |
Lecture 5 | Ch. 4.10-4.14 |
HW 5 (due 1:00 PM, 10/10) |
| 6 | 10/9 |
Speculation Midterm exam preview |
Speculation example solution |
Lecture 6 not available Corresponding lecture from Summer 2014 (also discusses Lec. 7 topics) |
||
| 7 | 10/16 |
MIDTERM EXAM |
Midterm inst. list | |||
| 8 | 10/23 | Multiple issue; multithreading | Lecture 7 | Ch. 5.1-5.9 |
HW 6 (due 10/30) |
|
| 9 | 10/30 | Memory hierarchies and cache basics |
Lecture 8 not available Corresponding lecture from Summer 2014 (also discusses set-associative caches) |
Ch. 5.10-5.14 |
HW 7 (due 11/6) |
|
| 10 | 11/6 |
Set associative caches Virtual memory Cache optimizations |
Lecture 9 |
HW 8 (due 11/13) |
||
| 11 | 11/13 |
Wednesday, 11/12: Last day to withdraw (UG) Storage & Multiprocessors |
Lecture 10 | Ch. 6, 7 |
HW 9 (due 11/20) |
|
| 12 | 11/20 |
Final exam preview |
Lec. 11 slides | Lecture 11 | ||
| 13 | 11/27 |
No lecture--Thanksgiving break |
||||
| 14 | 12/4 |
Wednesday, 12/3: Last day to withdraw (Grad) FINAL EXAM |
Course evaluation--must complete prior to exam | |||
| 15 | 12/11 |
No lecture--classes end Wednesday, 12/10 |
Last updated 05/17/2015 09:39 PM