George Mason University
Computer Science Department

Course Number: CS465

Course Title: Computer System Architecture

Room:  Robinson B104

Instructor: Arun Sood

Office: Engineering 5327

Office Phone: 703-993-1524

Office Hours: Wednesday 2:00 to 2:45 PM.

TA: Kavin Arasu

TA Office Hours: TBD

E-mail: asood (at) gmu (dot) edu.

E-messages must include CS465 as the first 5 characters of the Subject line.  Generally e-mail is good for clarifying or confirming information.   I prefer short and precise messages, and you can expect similar responses. If you find that the reply is too terse, and requires clarification - do not hesitate to see the instructor. If you require more details, a face to face meeting is strongly recommended. E-mail is not a substitute for face to face meetings.

Course Text: Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware / Software Interface by Patterson and Hennessy, Fourth Edition.

Pre-requisites: C or better in CS367. Students not satisfying the prerequisites will be dropped from the class.

Course Content:

This course will follow the text, although supplementary material will be required to cover some of the topics. Some of the earlier chapters and appendices contain review material. We will cover selected parts of other chapters. The focus is on issues and methods involved in designing a computer architecture. The impact of technological and market issues, and the interaction with compiler and operating system design will be explored. Topics include:

Computer system specification
Performance issues
Instruction set selection
ALU design
Architecture design
Datapath selection
Control systems
Single and multiple clocks
Pipelines
Memory hierarchy
I/O architectures.

Course Outcomes:

Students should be able to:

• Explain the organization of the classical von Neumann machine and its major functional components
• Compare performance of simple system configurations and understand the performance implications of architectural choices
• Demonstrate understanding of instruction set content including types of instructions, addressing modes, and instruction formats.
• Explain how programs are executed, including instruction execution and the concept of datapaths and control
• Explain basic instruction level parallelism using pipelining and the major hazards that may occur
• Explain the use of memory hierarchy, the role of cache and virtual memory and the principles of memory management
• Explain the basic I/O implementation and data transfers

Lecture Strategy

Some of the material in the text Chapters has already been covered in the pre-requisite courses. Consequently this material will not be repeated in the class.

Your active participation in the class discussions is encouraged. The instructor is interested in encouraging participation of ALL the students, and any suggestions that will facilitate this effort are solicited.

At the beginning of each class a few minutes will be used to review market and technology trends that have a computer architecture implication. To show the connection between the lectures and existing architectures, students will be required to explore the internet and obtain information about commercial systems.

Homework

All homework must be prepared using a word processor.

Late Policy

Late homework will be accepted with a penalty of 20% per day within 3 days after deadlines and will not be accepted three days after due date, unless under prearranged conditions.

Grade

The grade will be computed on the following basis:

Exam I: 5%; Exam II: 20%; Exam III: 20%; Final: 25%; Quizzes and Homework: 25%, and Class Participation : 5%.

Class Participation is recorded on a daily basis.

Tentative grade cut-offs: A >90%, B > 80%, C >65%, D >50%.

Exam Content

The exams in general will include questions relating to concepts, definitions, analysis and design. You are strongly urged to solve the problems at the end of each chapter. You should not be surprised to find some questions similar to these problems in the various exams.

Exams Schedule (Tentative):

Exam I: August 31; Exam II: October 12; Exam III: November 30; Final: December 19, 1:30 pm – 4:15 pm.

Last Day to Drop a Class with no tuition penalty: September 6.  Last Lecture Class: December 7. Reading Day: December 12.

Columbus Day recess (Monday classes/labs meet Tuesday. Tuesday classes do not meet this week) October 10

School Calendar

Make - up exams are strongly discouraged.

Award of IN grade:

The IN grade policy as indicated in the catalog will be strictly adhered to. You must provide the necessary back-up documentation (e.g. medical certificate) for your application to be considered favorably. In all circumstances the written request, with all the back up documentation, must be received before the final exam week.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Mason is an Honor Code university; please see the University Catalog for a full description of the code and the honor committee process. The principle of academic integrity is taken very seriously and violations are treated gravely. What does academic integrity mean in this course? Essentially this: when you are responsible for a task, you will perform that task. When you rely on someone else’s work in an aspect of the performance of that task, you will give full credit in the proper, accepted form. Another aspect of academic integrity is the free play of ideas. Vigorous discussion and debate are encouraged in this course, with the firm expectation that all aspects of the class will be conducted with civility and respect for differing ideas, perspectives, and traditions. When in doubt (of any kind) please ask for guidance and clarification.

Honor Code
Honor Code procedures will be strictly adhered. Students are required to be familiar with the honor code. You must not utilize unauthorized material or consultation in responding to your tests. Violations of the honor code will be reported. Unless otherwise stated, homework assignments must be based on the student’s own effort.

Please be sure that you are aware of all provisions of the GMU Honor Code
http://www.gmu.edu/catalog/apolicies/honor.html and Computer Science Department Honor Code
http://cs.gmu.edu/wiki/pmwiki.php/HonorCode/CSHonorCodePolicies

MASON EMAIL ACCOUNTS
Students must use their MasonLIVE email account to receive important University information, including messages related to this class. See http://masonlive.gmu.edu for more information.

OFFICE OF DISABILITY SERVICES
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 993-2474. All academic accommodations must be arranged through the ODS. http://ods.gmu.edu

OTHER USEFUL CAMPUS RESOURCES:

WRITING CENTER: A114 Robinson Hall; (703) 993-1200; http://writingcenter.gmu.edu

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES “Ask a Librarian” http://library.gmu.edu/mudge/IM/IMRef.html

COUNSELING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES (CAPS): (703) 993-2380; http://caps.gmu.edu

UNIVERSITY POLICIES
The University Catalog, http://catalog.gmu.edu, is the central resource for university policies affecting student, faculty, and staff conduct in university academic affairs. Other policies are available at http://universitypolicy.gmu.edu/. All members of the university community are responsible for knowing and following established policies.