Computer Architecture

Contact Information: Vincent Berk Firstname.Lastname@Dartmouth.EDU Lectures: McLean 132: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 10:00 - 11:05 am, x-hour Thursday 12:00-12:50 pm. Click here for the Syllabus Description: This course is a graduate level introduction covering the broad field of Computer Architecture. The development of the field is studied from the first vacuum tube computers to the newest modern-day computing clusters. Topics will include the fundamental principles of performance, basic architecture and RISC/CISC instruction set design, exploitation of instruction-level paralellism at the hardware and compiler sides, memory hierarchy design, caches, storage systems, multiprocessors, computer networks, and clusters. In addition to the course book, many fundamental and historic papers are reviewed, and a research project has to be completed. The goal of the course is to create a solid understanding of the issues and developments that drive the field of Computer Architecture. Prerequisites: COSC 37 (Computer Organization) or an equivalent course. Contact Vincent Berk if you have any questions related to prerequisites. Textbooks: John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach FOURTH EDITION, 2007 Mark Hill, Gurindar Sohi, and Norm Jouppi Readings in Computer Architecture, 2000 Other books on reserve at Feldberg (i.e. recommended reading): John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach THIRD EDITION, 2003 Carl Hamacher, Zvonko Vranesic, and Safwat Zaky Computer Organization FIFTH EDITION, 2002 John Paul Shen and Mikko H Lipasti Modern Processor Design: Fundamentals of Superscalar Processors, 2003