CS465 - DL1: Computer Systems Architecture (Spring 2021)

1 Course Basics

Meeting Time and Location:

Tuesday/Thursday 9-10:15am, Online (Blackboard)

Instructor: Dr. Yutao Zhong

Email: yzhong (at) gmu (dot) edu

Course Outcomes:

Be able to explain the organization of the classical von Neumann machine and its major functional components
Be able to compare performance of simple system configurations and understand the performance implications of architectural choices
Be able to show how instructions are represented at both the machine level and in the context of a symbolic assembler; be able to understand small MIPS programs and write MIPS assembly program segments
Be able to use different formats to represent numerical data and convert numerical data from one format to another
Be able to explain how an instruction is executed and the concept of datapaths and control
Be able to explain basic instruction level parallelism using pipelining and the major hazards that may occur
Be able to explain the effect of memory latency on running time; be able to describe the use of memory hierarchy to reduce the effective memory latency, in particular, the role of cache and virtual memory; be able to understand the principles of memory management

Prerequisite:

C or better in CS 367.

Textbook:

Required - Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface, 5th edition, John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson, Morgan Kaufmann, 2014. Companion Material

Other Useful Resources:

Blackboard: Course schedule, announcements, lecture slides, assignments, and quizzes. Grades release and exercises submission. We will use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra for lectures and office hours.
Piazza: Discussion forum. Follow the link on Blackboard to sign up.
Gradescope: Homework submission. Link will be available from Blackboard.

2 Grading

Category	Percent
Homeworks	40%
Quizzes	10%
Exercises	5%
Midterm	20%
Final exam	25%

2.1 Assessment

Grade cutoff percentages (Cutoffs will be applied without rounding):

A+ (>= 98.0%) A (>= 92.0%) A– (>= 90.0%)
B+ (>= 87.0%) B (>= 81.0%) B– (>= 79.0%)
C+ (>= 76.0%) C (>= 70.0%) C– (>= 68.0%)
D (>= 60.0%)
F (< 60.0%)

2.2 Homework

Homework assignments might require some programming.
Homework assignments must be done on an individual basis unless stated otherwise.
All assignment grades are normalized and each contributes to your final grade evenly.
Incorrect/broken submissions:

Turning in the wrong files or corrupted files will likely result in a zero.
Code that doesn't compile/run will likely get a very low score.

Late Policy:

Up to 48 hours late work accepted. Each day late drops the highest possible score by 25%.
Each student gets two "Emergency Day" tokens, which are automatically used by late submissions to avoid the 25% penalty.
Unused emergency-tokens will be worth 0.25% bonus to a student's overall grade at the semester's end.
Blackboard/Gradescope being unavailable is not an excuse for turning in a late assignment; in the rare situation that the website is somehow unavailable or giving the student an error, the student MUST email their submission to their GTA before the deadline, otherwise it will be considered late.
Catastrophic computer failure will not be cause for an extension. Use a backup service such as DropBox (or any cloud service), emailing yourself, storing to a USB drive, whatever it takes.

2.3 Quizzes

There will be weekly online quizzes on Blackboard for most of the weeks.
The lowest quiz grade will be dropped.
Late Policy: no late submission accepted for quizzes.

2.4 Exercises

There will be in-class/after-class exercises and grading will be based on participation.
The lowest exercise grade will be dropped.
Late Policy: no late submission accepted for exercises.

2.5 Exams

Midterm and final exams will be administered online. Details will be announced ahead of the exams.
Early or Late/Makeup Exams require exceptional circumstances (as judged by the professor) and must be arranged in advance. Vacation plans are not exceptional circumstances.
If you miss an exam due to a university-accepted excused absence (such as an illness or car accident the day and time of the exam), you must notify your professor within 24 hours of your absence to make arrangements for a makeup, and bring approved documentation with you when you take the make-up exam. Failure to follow either of these policies will result in a zero. We may also elect to allow the final exam to count the extra amount to give you a sort of do-over; we also reserve the right to give oral makeup exams in lieu of written.
The final will not be given early. You are starting the course with knowledge of the schedule (see GMU's Final Exam Calendar for the latest schedule, updated as weather events require).

2.6 Discussion board

Students are encouraged to use the discussion board, Piazza, to ask and answer questions.
No sharing answers to homework assignments on the discussion board.
Under no circumstances should your code of assignments be posted publicly to the discussion board. Students can post questions and code privately, although the instructor reserves the right to make any post public, so that other students can see the responses.

2.7 Other

Contested Grades: Contesting of grades on any/all submissions must be requested within one week of receiving the grade. No grade changes will be considered subsequent to that deadline.
There will be no make-up or extra-credit assignments at the end of the semester; your grade should be a measure of your semester-long progress.
IN (Incomplete) 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.

3 Honor Code

All students are expected to abide by the GMU Honor Code. This policy is rigorously enforced. The computer science department has an CS Honor Code Policies that you are subject to particularly for our course. Cheating on any assignment will be prosecuted and result in a notification of the Honor Committee as outlined in the GMU Honor Code. Sharing, collaboration, or looking at any code, algorithm, or solutions of assignments that is not your own (or outside the group for group assignments), including resources from Internet, is considered cheating.

We take the honor code quite seriously. Any attempts at copying or sharing code, algorithms, or other violations of the honor code simply will not be tolerated. We use automated software to flag suspicious cases, and then review them to find the cases that must be submitted to the Office of Academic Integrity. The penalty for cheating will always be far worse than a zero grade, to ensure it's not worth taking the chance. Confirmed cases of cheating almost always translate into course failure.

4 Learning Disabilities

Students with a learning disability or other condition (documented with GMU's Office of Disability Services) that may impact academic performance should contact the professor ASAP to discuss appropriate accommodations.