COM540/640 Advanced Computer System Architecture

Course Description

This course deals with the design and performance evaluation of advanced/highperformance computer systems. The emphasis is on microprocessors, chip-multiprocessors and memory hierarchy design. Data storage and low-power dissipation schemes presented. Special attention is paid to pipelining, ILP (instruction-level parallelism), DLP (data-level parallelism) and TLP (thread-level parallelism) using hardware and/or software techniques to yield high performance. Multicore systems, Multiprocessors, distributed processing. Grid and Cloud computing.

Prerequisites

Computer Organization/Architecture

Course Objectives

Develop a working understanding of the advanced concepts of computer architecture

Course Outcomes

At the end of the course the student should be able to

Demonstrate understanding of RISC and CISC architectures
Demonstrate understanding of memory hierarchy.
Understand the principles of I/O in computer systems, including viable mechanisms for I/O and secondary storage organisation
Understand the organization and operation of current generation parallel computer systems.
Develop systems programming skills in the content of computer system design.

Meetings

Class meets weekly on Mondays 16:00-18:50

Grading Policy

The tentative point distribution is as follows.

Homework assignments/project	50%
Final Exam	50%

Policies

Late assignments will not be accepted unless an agreement is reached with the lecturer.
The class grades will be assigned using the Near East University's grading scale.
I allow students to attend class at their own discretion. If you miss a class however, you are responsible for the materials covered.
Cheating will not be tolerated.
Attacks performed against University/Lecturer resources are expressly prohibited.

Textbooks

David Patterson, Computer Architecture, A Quantitative Approach, 6th Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2017

Companion website

Lecture Slides (from Companion website)

Updated: March 9, 2018