Schedule (Spring 2023)

Lectures

• Introduction to CSC 411
• Number Systems, Bitwise Operations
• Computer Systems Basics
• Performance, Benchmarks, Amdahl's Law
• ISAs and RISC-V Basics
• Memory Organization, Byte Ordering, Load/Store Instructions
• Executing Instructions: Fetch/Decode/Execute
• Integer Representation, Casting, Sign Extension
• RISC-V Instruction Formats
• Branch Instructions, Conditionals, Loops
• Procedures/Functions
• Compiling/Interpreting Programs, Linking
• Hardware for Arithmetic Operations
• Floating Point Representation, Addition, Multiplication
• Basics of Logic Design, Adders, ALUs
• Latches, Flip-Flops
• Basic CPU Design, Datapath
• Pipelining
• Hazards, Branch Prediction
• Locality, Memory Hierarchy, Cache Organization

Homework Assignments

• Assignment 1, due Feb 9th, 11:59pm
• Assignment 2, due Feb 22nd, 11:59pm
• Assignment 3, due Mar 6th, 11:59pm
• Assignment 4, due Mar 10th, 11:59pm
• Assignment 5, due Apr 24th, 11:59pm
• Assignment 6, (optional)

Exams

• Midterm Exam, Mar 9, 5:30-7pm (Lectures 1 to 11)
• Final Exam, May 9, 6:30-8:30pm (Lectures 12 to 20)