Course Information for CS152: Computer Architecture and Engineering

Spring 2008


Catalog Description: Computer Architecture and Engineering

5 units. Three hours of lecture per week, plus one hour of section per week. Labs. Prerequisites: CS61C.

Class Schedule/Rooms

Lectures: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:00-3:30PM, 320 Soda
Section: Wednesdays, 10:00-11:00AM, 2 Evans
All Quizzes held during lecture times.

Instructor: Krste Asanović, Associate Professor, CS Division, EECS Department
Email: krste at eecs
Office Hours: Mondays 1-3pm, 645 Soda Hall (email to confirm)

TA: Henry Cook
Email: hcook at eecs
Office Hours: 9:30-10:30AM Mondays, 2-3PM Fridays, 511 Soda Hall


Course Grading

20%Problem Sets
40%Quizzes
40%Labs

See also Departmental Grading Guidelines for Undergraduate Courses.

Problem Sets

We will distribute 6 problem sets for you to practice your understanding of the course material. The problem sets also provide essential background material for the quizzes. The problem sets will be graded primarily on an effort basis, but if you do not work through the problem sets you are unlikely to succeed at the quizzes! We will distribute solutions to the problem sets on the day the problem sets are due to give you feedback.

Quizzes

There will be 6 in-class quizzes covering the material learned in labs and problem sets. These will be closed book with no calculators or computers allowed. There is no final exam in this class.

Labs

The labs will provide hands-on experience with the interaction of software and hardware, for a variety of machine designs. We will be making extensive use of the Virtutech Simics full-system machine simulator. Each lab includes a directed component to guide students in learning certain concepts, plus an open-ended assignment to allow students to show their creativity.

Collaboration Policy

The problem sets are intended to help you learn the material, and we encourage you to collaborate with other students and to ask questions in discussion sections and office hours to understand the problems. However, each student must turn in their own solutions to the problems.

Students are encouraged to discuss solutions to the lab assignments with other students, but must run through the directed portion of the lab by themselves and turn in their own lab report. For the open-ended portion of each lab, students can work individually or in groups of two or three. Any open-ended lab assignment completed as a group should be written up and handed in separately. Students are free to take part in different groups for different lab assignments.


Textbooks

The following textbook is required for the course:

TextBook Picture J. L. Hennessy and D. A. Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 4th Edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishing Co., Menlo Park, CA. 2006. 

ISBN: 978-0-12-370490-0
ISBN10: 0-12-370490-1        Book/Paperback

Companion Web site: Click Here
Note that the 4th edition is significantly different than the other editions, and it is not recommended that you attempt to use the earlier editions for this course.

The following textbook is recommended to refresh your background and to provide a simpler introduction to some of the basic concepts.

TextBook Picture D. A. Patterson and J. L. Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, 3rd Edition, Revised Printing, Morgan Kaufmann Publishing Co., Menlo Park, CA., June 2007. 

ISBN13: 978-0-12-370606-5
ISBN10: 0-12-370606-8 Paperback