Advanced Computer Architectures

Lecturer:

Tutor:

Supervisor:

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Synopsis:

The course extends the student's knowledge in the area of contemporary computer architecture. Main discussed topics are the architecture of contemporary processors exploiting instruction and thread level parallelism, advanced pipelining and its consequences for the compiler, memory and peripheral subsystems and their optimal design. Within the area of multiprocessors the attention is paid to shared memory systems, including the problems of consistency. A quantitative approach is applied to the system description and its evaluation from the point of view of its price and performance.

Requirements:

Students are required to solve semestral project, attend mandatory seminars and pass the exam.

Syllabus of lectures:

1. Introduction to computer architecture, basic terms and trends

2. ISA design for pipelined processing

3. Pipelined RISC processor architecture

4. Superscalar and VLIW processors

5. Compiler code generation and optimization techniques

6. Design of instruction and data cache

7. Main memory subsystem design

8. Multithreaded architectures

9. Symmetrical multiprocessors

10. Architectures with distributed shared memory

11. Peripheral devices and system architecture, interface data transfer

12. Cost vs. throughput, cost optimal peripheral architecture.

13. Data paths sharing, queues, caches in pripheral system, their influence on throughput and latency

14. Spare

Syllabus of tutorials:

1. Introduction - semestral project assignments

2. Compiler use of ISA

3. Simulator of pipelined processor

4. Optimization algorithms for pipelined processors

5. Simulator of superscalar processor

6. Semestral projects: position presentation, discussion

7.- 11. Semestral projects - individual work

12.-13. Semestral projects - final presentation

14. Spare, evaluation, assessment

Study Objective:

Study materials:

1. Hennesy, J. L., Patterson, D. A.: Computer Architecture : A Quantitative Approach, Second Edition, San Francisco, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., 1996

2. Dezso Sima et. al. Advanced Computer Architectures : A Design Space Approach, New York, Addison Wesley Longman Inc. 1997

Note:

Further information:

No time-table has been prepared for this course

The course is a part of the following study plans:

• Electronics - Electronic Systems- structured studies (compulsory elective course)
• Economics and Management in Electrical Engineering- structured studies (compulsory elective course)
• Electronics - Electronics and Photonics- structured studies (compulsory elective course)
• Computer Technology - Designing Digital Systems- structured studies (compulsory course of the branch)