Academic Course Description
|
San Francisco State University School of Engineering CSC 656 – Computer Organization Fall 2018 semester |
Course (catalog) description:
Instruction set design. Piplelined data path and control. Cache and memory system design Input/output subsystems. Software/hardware interactions. Parallel processing.
Expanded description:
Instruction set architecture
Load/store architecture vs. x86
Simple MIPS datapath/control design
Pipelined datapath and control for integer instructions
Compiler optimizations for pipelines
Exception handling in pipelines
Introduction to multiple instruction issue
Floating point pipelines
Branch prediction and target address delivery
Caches and memory hierarchy
Impact of cache size, block size and associativity on performance
Cache simulations and software interactions
Interactions with virtual memory
Hardware support for operating systems
Input/output subsystem
Interactions with memory system and OS
Performance issues
Course requirement: Required course for Computer Science majors
Credit hours: 3
Classroom/Schedule/Venue: Mon: 4 pm – 6.45 pm, TH 327
|
Instructor |
Course No. |
Office location |
Office phone |
|
Office hours (Consultation) |
| Dr. Vidhyacharan
Bhaskar |
CSC 656 |
SCI 255 |
TBA |
charanvb@sfsu.edu |
Monday (3 pm – 4 pm) (Or by appointment) |
Text books:
Prerequisites by Topic
· A Grade C or better in CSC 415 (may be taken concurrently) or by the consent of the Instructor.
Student Learning Objectives
At the end of this course students will be able to
1. Understand principles of instruction set architecture.
2. Understand and extend simple pipeline implementations.
3. Understand in detail – cache, memory system behavior and design.
4. Estimate performance benefits from compiler optimizations and code transformations.
5. Develop simple trace-driven simulators for functional units.
Course topics:
The objectives of this course includes:
• Teaching principles of instruction set architecture
• Teaching pipelined data path and control design
• Overview of floating point support and branch handling
• Overview interactions between compiler optimizations, OS, and architecture
• Examining cache and memory hierarchy design
• Studying effects of code constructs on memory system behavior and performance
• Overview of common input/output technologies and operations.
Students will work on projects/assignments involving detailed instruction and memory system traces, to develop good understanding of how software constructs consume hardware resources. Students will make simple extensions to functional units to study the effect of design choices on performance. A strong background in computer organization/architecture is the key to doing more advanced work in operating systems and performance modeling/evaluation.
Evaluation methods
Four Handwritten/Computer Projects – 4 x 8 = 32 points
Three Quizzes – 8 + 10 + 10 = 28 points
One midterm exam – 15 points
One Final exam – 20 points
Attendance + Class Participation – 5 points
————-
Total – 100 points
————-
Mid-term and Final exams:
Mid-term exam will be conducted towards the end of October.
Final exam will be conducted as per the SFSU Fall 2018 Final exam schedule
Grading Policy:
|
Points distribution (/100) |
Grade |
Points |
|
100 – 94 |
A |
4.0 |
|
93 – 90 |
A- |
3.7 |
|
89 – 87 |
B+ |
3.3 |
|
86 – 84 |
B |
3.0 |
|
83 – 80 |
B- |
2.7 |
|
79 – 77 |
C+ |
2.3 |
|
76 – 74 |
C |
2.0 |
|
73 – 70 |
C- |
1.7 |
|
69 – 67 |
D+ |
1.3 |
|
66 – 64 |
D |
1.0 |
|
63 – 60 |
D- |
0.7 |
|
Below 60 |
F |
0.0 |
Note: a) Quiz, Mid-term and Final exams are Open Page (1 A4 size sheet is permitted). You may write/type/print related material and bring it to the quiz/exam. There are no make up quizzes or exams.
b) Quizzes could be of 1 hour duration, mid-term exam could be of 2 hour duration, and finale exam could be of 2 hour 30 min duration.
b) Grades IC and WU carry 0 points each.
Homework assignments:
Completed homework assignments are due at the beginning of a class. Start working on assignments early. Late assignments are not accepted. Even if they are accepted for genuine reasons given the student, the homework assignments may or may not be graded for 100% and is left to the discretion of the instructor.
A reasonable amount of cooperation is permitted as long as it assists your learning process. Direct copying is a violation of university policy and will have severe consequences.
Attendance:
I expect you to attend every class. If you have to skip a class, I trust that you have an adequate reason to do so; therefore, no permission or explanation is needed for an occasional absence. However, you are responsible for complying with instructions and announcements made during the class you missed.
Statements required by Academic Senate Policy:
1. Disability access
Students with disabilities who need reasonable accommodations are encouraged to contact the instructor. The Disability Programs and Resource Center (DPRC) is available to facilitate the reasonable accommodations process. The DPRC is located in the Student Service Building and can be reached by telephone (voice/415-338-2472, video phone/415-335-7210) or by email (dprc@sfsu.edu).
2. Student disclosures of sexual violence
SF State fosters a campus free of sexual violence including sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and/or any form of sex or gender discrimination. If you disclose a personal experience as an SF State student, the course instructor is required to notify the Title IX Coordinator by completing the report form available at http://titleix.sfsu.edu, emailing vpsaem@sfsu.edu or calling 338-2032.
To disclose any such violence confidentially, contact:
· The SAFE Place – (415) 338-2208; http://www.sfsu.edu/~safe_plc/
· Counseling and Psychological Services Center – (415) 338-2208; http://psyservs.sfsu.edu/
· For more information on your rights and available resources: http://titleix.sfsu.edu
3. Policy on Observance of Religious Holidays:
If a student wishes to observe religious holidays and such observances require the student to be absent from class activities, it is the responsibility of the student to inform the instructor, in writing, about such holidays during the first two weeks of the class each semester. If such holidays occur during the first two weeks of the semester, the student must notify the instructor, in writing, at least three days before the date that he/she will be absent.
4. Policy on Add, Drop and Withdrawal:
Students are responsible for their class enrollments. Students should check their enrollment records periodically throughout the semester to ensure that the enrollment record is correct. Particularly, all students should check their enrollment record a day or two after any enrollment changes are made and take immediate action if the university record does not reflect the changes. Also make sure to maintain a record of any adds, drops, or withdrawals. First week through fourth week of instruction is the open add/drop period. No late add will be allowed after the deadline.
5. Policies on Academic Dishonesty:
You are expected to be honest and ethical in your academic work. Cheating and plagiarism are serious violations of the academic code of conduct. Students who have been found to be cheating with be notified by the professor. Furthermore, their act will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct (OSC). There is a “zero tolerance” policy in effect for cheating in this class. Any assignment or exam that is the product of cheating will be assigning a zero or “F” for that assignment.
No excuses will be accepted if plagiarism is discovered. Plagiarism is defined as using someone else’s ideas or work as one’s own without giving proper credit to the source. The sources include public (books, journals, magazines, newspapers, internet, etc.) as well as private (unpublished reports, internal documents, personal work, etc.) materials. The instructor will not accept excuses such as “I forgot to give credit to …,” “It’s an oversight,” or “It’s a clerical error.” Students are solely responsible for materials submitted for the course so “My roommate must have done that without my knowledge” is not an acceptable excuse either. If a submitted work is found to contain plagiarized material, the work will receive zero credit and the student may be reported to the Student Judiciary Affairs for disciplinary actions. Disciplinary actions may include disqualification from the university.
