Course Details
Course Information Package
Course Unit Title | COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE | ||||||
Course Unit Code | AEEE294 | ||||||
Course Unit Details | |||||||
Number of ECTS credits allocated | 5 | ||||||
Learning Outcomes of the course unit | By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
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Mode of Delivery | Face-to-face | ||||||
Prerequisites | AEEE192 | Co-requisites | NONE | ||||
Recommended optional program components | NONE | ||||||
Course Contents |
CPU Performance: Overview of the history of computer architecture development. Emerging trends and technology drivers. Assessing computer performance based on different metrics (execution time, CPI and other performance parameters).Amdahl’s law.
Introduction to computer organization and architecture: Instruction cycle and flow of information at the register level. Instruction Set Architectures, instruction formats and instruction decoding. Relation between machine language, assembly language and high level languages.
CPU design basics: Datapaths, register files, ALU, shift and rotate circuits. Control unit implementation, hardwired control. Single-cycle and multi-cycle non-pipelined CPU design.
Computer Arithmetic: Implementation of a basic 32-bit ALU. Control signals for the ALU. Multiplication and Division algorithms. Introduction to floating-point numbers. IEEE double precision floating point format.
Memory Hierarchy: The memory locality principle. Cache memory organization and mapping. Cache replacement and write policies. Cache performance metrics. Virtual memory.
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Recommended and/or required reading: | |||||||
Textbooks |
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References |
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Planned learning activities and teaching methods | The taught part of course is delivered to the students by means of lectures, conducted with the help of computer presentations. Lecture notes and presentations are available through the web for students to use in combination with the textbooks. | ||||||
Assessment methods and criteria |
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Language of instruction | English | ||||||
Work placement(s) | NO |