CS 208: Computer Organization & Architecture

Introduction to machine and assembly instruction sets via MIPS

[Read starting 4/1] Introduction to MIPS. Patterson & Hennessy, Chapter 2. Read starting now (2.1-2.7 contains the basics), and as needed for your homework.
[Read starting 4/1] Supplement section 2.4 of P&H with the Wikipedia entries about two's complement integers, hexadecimal integer representation, and octal integer representation. Read as you see fit. You need to be able to convert numbers between bases, and back and forth between two's complement and base ten.
[By class time, 4/3] Introduce yourself. Nothing to hand in.
[By class time, 4/3] Getting started with MIPS and MARS. Nothing to hand in.
[Due 11:59 PM, 4/8] Implementing multiplication in MIPS. Submit your multiplication.asm file via Moodle.

The system stack and function calling. Digital logic intro.

[Read by 4/12] Patterson & Hennessy's Section 2.8 Supporting Procedures in Computer Hardware for background on how the system stack or call stack is used for function calling. If you want to read more on this topic, you can search for system stack and call stack for more information (e.g. Wikipedia's article on "call stack").
[Due 11:59 PM, 4/15] Implementing function-calling and recursion in MIPS. Submit your functioncalling.asm file via Moodle.

Digital logic

[Read by 4/17]: Patterson and Hennessy, B.1-5, B.7-9. Digital Logic.
[Due 11:59 PM, 4/20] A few digital logic problems.
[Read pretty soon]: Readings on byte order, floating point, and multiplication hardware.

Floating point, byte order, characters

[Due 11:59 PM, 4/25] Problem set on floating point and byte order. Submit via Moodle.
[Due 8:30 AM, 5/1] Takehome exam #1. Submit via Moodle.

Takehome test, intro to C

[LAB in class, 4/29] Intro to the C programming language. Nothing to hand in.
[LAB in class, 5/1] Debugging C, pointers, etc.. Nothing to hand in.
[LAB in class, 5/3] Guest lecture/lab notes from Margo Seltzer. Nothing to hand in. Have fun!

Midterm break, multiplication hardware, designing circuits

[Due 11:59 PM, 5/12] Some digital circuits. Submit as a PDF via Moodle.
[Read by 5/13]: Sections 4.1 through 4.4 of Patterson & Hennessy, 5th edition. Chapter 4 is about Datapaths (i.e. the implementation of a computer processor out of digital logic components).

Datapaths

Caches, virtual memory, and takehome #2

[Due 8:30 AM, 5/24] Takehome exam #2. Submit as exam.pdf via Moodle.
[Read soon]: Sections 5.1-4 and 5.8 (about memory hierarchies in general and caches in particular) of Patterson & Hennessy, 5th edition

Memory hierarchy wrap-up. Concurrency.

More concurrency. Wrap-up

[Due 5:00 PM, 6/10/19] Takehome exam #3. Submit as exam.pdf on Moodle. See the exam for details.
[LAB, in class 6/3] Concurrency in C, part 2
[Read] For your entertainment and potential edification: An ancient rope-and-pulley computer is unearthed in the jungle of Apraphul, A.K. Dewdney, Scientific American, Vol. 258, No. 4 (APRIL 1988), pp. 118-121. (The linked copy is available only on campus.)

Spring 2019