Jump to navigation

The University of Arizona Wordmark Line Logo White
College of Engineering
Home
  • Home
  • Give Today
  • Contact Us

Search form

  • About
    • Welcome
    • Advisory Board
    • Contact Us
  • Undergrad Programs
    • Admissions
    • Degrees
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • Scholarships & Financial Aid
    • Research & Internships
    • Student Clubs & Organizations
    • ABET Accreditation
  • Grad Programs
    • Admissions
    • On-Campus Degrees
    • Online Degrees
    • Courses
    • Advising
    • Research Focus Areas
    • Funding
  • Research
    • Focus Areas
    • Centers
    • Inventions
  • Faculty & Staff
    • Faculty Directory
    • Staff Directory
    • Faculty Videos
    • Employee Resources
    • Open Positions
  • Alumni
    • Give Today
  • News & Events
    • ECE News Archive
    • Events
Undergraduate Programs
Home / Undergraduate Programs / Courses / Fundamentals of Computer Organization

ECE 369A

Fundamentals of Computer Organization

Fall
Required Course:
No

Course Level

Undergraduate

Units

4

Prerequisite(s)

ECE 175 and ECE 274A

Course Texts

Patterson, D.A., and J.L. Hennessy. Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface. 4th ed. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2011.

Schedule

150 minutes lecture, 150 minutes laboratory per week

Course Description

Computer architecture is the science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create a computer that meets functional, performance and cost goals. This course qualitatively and quantitatively examines computer design trade-offs and teaches the fundamentals of computer architecture and organization, including CPU, memory, registers, arithmetic unit, control unit, and input/output components. Topics include reduced instruction set computer architectures (RISC), using the MIPS central processor as an example, interface between assembly and high-level programming constructs and hardware, instruction and memory cache systems, performance evaluation, benchmarks, and use of the SPIM/WinDLX/Verilog simulators for the MIPS architecture. For students who continue in computer architecture, it lays the foundation of the latest techniques implemented in current and future high-performance computing platforms. For students not continuing in computer architecture, it gives an overview of the techniques used in today's microprocessors.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, the student will be able to:

  1. Understand the fundamentals of computer architecture
  2. Explore the computer architecture field on their own
  3. Articulate the design issues involved in computer architecture at theoretical and application levels
  4. Design and implement single-cycle and pipelined datapaths for a given instruction set architecture
  5. Evaluate the close relation between instruction set architecture design, datapath design, and algorithm design
  6. Understand the performance trade-offs involved in designing the memory subsystem, including cache, main memory and virtual memory
  7. Discuss the modern multicore architectures, such as the NVIDIA graphics processing unit
  8. Evaluate analytically the performance of a hypothetical architecture

Course Topics

  • Computer abstractions and technology (4 lectures)
  • Arithmetic for computers (4 lectures)
  • Instruction sets and software systems (7 lectures)
  • MIPS CPU and control unit organization (8 lectures)
  • Pipelining in MIPS CPU (6 lectures)
  • Exploiting memory hierarchy (6 lectures)
  • Storage and I/O (2 lectures)
  • Multicores, multiprocessors and clusters (4 lectures)

Relationship to Student Outcomes

ECE 369A contributes directly to the following specific electrical and computer engineering student outcomes of the ECE department:

  • Ability to apply knowledge of mathematics, science and engineering (medium)
  • Ability to design and conduct experiments, as well as to analyze and interpret data (high)
  • Ability to design a system, component or process to meet desired needs within realistic constraints, such as economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability and sustainability (high)
  • Ability to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems (high)
  • Ability to communicate effectively (medium)
  • Recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in, life-long learning (low)
  • Knowledge of contemporary issues (medium)
  • Ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools necessary for engineering practice (high)

Syllabus Prepared By

Ali Akoglu, 03/07/16
Contact Us
Contact Us
Loading...
  • UNDERGRAD PROGRAMS
  • Admissions
  • Degrees
  • Courses
  • Advising
  • Scholarships & Financial Aid
  • Research & Internships
  • Student Clubs & Organizations
  • ABET Accreditation
undergradadvisor@ece.arizona.edu
  • Cadence University Program Member
  • Employee Resources
The University of Arizona
Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering
1230 E. Speedway Blvd.
P.O. Box 210104
Tucson, AZ 85721-0104
520.621.6193

Facebook LinkedIn


University Privacy Statement

© 2021 The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of The University of Arizona.