16.482 / 16.561: Computer Architecture and Design
Instructor: Dr. Michael Geiger
Spring 2015
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 will be held on Thursday, March 5 in class, and the final exam will be held on Thursday, April 30 Thursday, April 23 in class.
| Week | Date (Thur.) | Lecture Topics | Handouts | Echo360 Recordings |
Reading |
Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
1/22 |
Course overview Computer architecture introduction Instruction set architecture |
Lecture 1 | Ch. 1, 2 |
HW 1 (due 1/29) |
|
|
2 |
1/29 |
Digital arithmetic | Lecture 2 | Ch. 3 |
HW 2 (due 2/5) |
|
| 3 | 2/5 |
Datapath
and control Pipelining |
Lecture 3 | Ch. 4.1-4.9, Appendix D |
HW 3 (due 2/12) HW 3 Solution |
|
| 4 | 2/12 |
Instruction level parallelism Branch prediction |
BHT example soln |
Lecture 4 |
HW 4 (due 2/19) HW 4 Solution |
|
| 5 | 2/19 |
Dynamic scheduling |
Scheduling example soln |
Lecture 5 | Ch. 4.10-4.14 |
HW 5
(due 2/26) HW 5 Solution |
| 6 | 2/26 |
Speculation Midterm exam preview |
Lec. 6 slides Lec. 6 questions Speculation example solution (Excel | PDF) |
Lecture 6 | ||
| 7 | 3/5 |
MIDTERM EXAM |
Midterm inst. list | |||
| 8 | 3/12 | Multiple issue; multithreading |
Lec. 7 slides Lec. 7 questions Solution to MT example |
Lecture 7 | Ch. 5.1-5.9 |
HW 6 (due 3/26) HW 6 Solution |
| 9 | 3/19 | No lecture--Spring Break | ||||
| 10 | 3/26 | Memory hierarchies and cache basics |
Lec. 8 slides Lec. 8 questions |
Lecture 8 | Ch. 5.10-5.14 |
HW 7 (due 4/2) HW 7 Solution Poll re: final exam date |
| 11 | 4/2 |
Set associative caches Virtual memory Cache optimizations |
Lec.
9 slides Lec. 9 questions |
Lecture 9 |
HW 8 (due
12:00 PM, 4/10) HW 8 Solution |
|
| 12 | 4/9 |
Wednesday, 4/8: Last day to withdraw (UG) Storage & multiprocessors |
Lec. 10
slides Lec. 10 questions |
Lecture 10 | Ch. 6, 7 |
HW 9 (due 4/16) HW 9 Solution |
| 13 | 4/16 |
Final exam preview |
Lec. 11 slides | Lecture 11 | ||
| 14 | 4/23 |
Friday, 4/24: Last day to withdraw (Grad) FINAL EXAM |
Course evaluation--must complete prior to exam | |||
| 15 | 4/30 |
No lecture--travel |
Last updated 05/17/2015 09:39 PM