CSC 34200 Computer Organization

This course provides computer science and computer engineering students with an in-depth look at computer architecture and the hardware/software interface. The major topics are: computer abstractions and technology; the role of performance and measuring performance; SPEC. computer arithmetic; machine language: a comparative analysis of instruction sets of current processors using debuggers, simulators and by the partial reverse engineering of executables. The processor: datapath and control; RISC versus CISC; design, implementation (using VHDL), and verification (in simulation) of a simplified RISC processor using CAD tools. Enhancing performance with pipelining. Memory hierarchy, cache, virtual memory, performance issues. interfacing processors and peripherals; PCI chipset. Overview of multiprocessors, grid computing.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

CSC 21100 or (CSC 21000 and EE 21000).

Corequisite

CSC 34300.

Contact Hours

3 hr./wk.