|
COE/CS
1541 Introduction to Computer Architecture Monday & Wednesday, 1:00 PM - 2:15 PM, SENSQ 5129
|
Review session is Thursday, December 6, 8:00pm-9:30pm, Sennott Square 5129. Please come prepared to say what material you want me to review. As we did the previous review, this one will be informal and adapted to your needs. Feel free to come/go as your schedule demands. I expect the session to be about 90 minutes.
I won't have normal office hours during final exam week. I'll be available on Tuesday, December 9, 3-5pm for any help with the exam.
The final exam is Friday, December 12, 12:00pm-1:50pm, Sennott Square 5129 (see course schedule).
An information sheet is available for the final. As noted in class, the final covers all material from the semester.
A new homework (#7) is available. Please see Musfiq's web site!
The review session will start at 8:00pm. We will go over the sample exam and a few other selected problems (esp. with virtual memory). Be prepared with questions about the material!! Feel free to come and/or leave as your schedule permits. I expect the session will be about 90 minutes. The room is tentatively scheduled for Sennott Square 5129 (our normal room). I have requested a room reservation for this time, but I have not heard yet whether the room is available. Please check this web site prior to heading to the review session for the exact room.
A list of sections covered by the exam is available.
Exam #2 is scheduled for Monday, November 10.
During the week of November 3, we'll have a review session, with a special emphasis on virtual memory.
A new homework (#6) will be assigned on Monday, Oct 27.
As announced in class, homework #5 is posted. It is due Oct 27.
There will be an exam review session on 10/03, 3-5pm, room 5129. If you plan to attend the review, please take a look at the sample exams ahead of time and come with your questions.
As announced in class, a new homework is available. This homework is a programming assignment. You will have two weeks to do it. Please see the TA's web site for the assignment.
As announced in class, the exam has been moved to October 6, 2008.
A list of expected sections for the exam is posted. This web page also has links to two example exams.
A new homework (#3) is available. It is due Friday, Sept 26 by 5:00 pm in Musfiq's mailbox (6th floor, Sennott Square). Please check his web site for the homework (to be posted Friday, Sept 19). The next homework will be a programming assignment.
As mentioned in class, homework #2 was posted on the TA's web site on Wed, Sept 10. For your convenience, here's the homework.
Homework #1 is available. It is due Wed, Sept. 10 by 1:00 pm.
Musfiq's web page for homeworks is up and running! All homeworks will appear on this web page, along with solutions and any hints. You are responsible to check this page regularly to get the homeworks.
First class is Monday, August 25.
Course announcements will be put here. It is your responsibility to check the announcements regularly.
Instructor
Dr.
Bruce Childers (childers"at" cs.pitt.edu)
6409 Sennott Square
Phone: 412-624-8421
Office Hours: MW 2:15-3:15pm, 5:15-6:15pm (tentative)
Please come earlier, rather than later, to office hours.
I am also available by appointment only. Please send e-mail to schedule an appointment.
Much of the information on this web page is tentative and subject to change. Watch the schedule and the web page for the latest information.
Quick Links: Schedule, Syllabus (original copy of web site), TA Course Info
Teaching Assistant
Musfiq Niaz Rahman
E-mail: musfiq@cs.pitt.edu
Office: 6404 Sennott Square (tentative)
Hours: M 5-7pm, W 11am-1pm, F 3-5pm
Course info with homework solutions and other helpful stuff
The TA is your first source of information. If you have questions about the homework, exams, class lectures, etc., you should check with him first.
Description
A study of the hardware structure of computer systems and subsystems. Topics include: processor architecture, parallelism and pipelining, cache and main memory organization, I/O controllers and I/O processors, and interconnection structures.
Textbook
Computer Organization and Design - The Hardware/Software Interface, John Hennessy and David Patterson, THIRD EDITION, 2nd printing, Elsevier Science/Morgan Kaufmann.
There will also be supplemental material in some lectures -- you are responsible for all information presented in class.
Requirements and Grading
There will be two mid-term exams and one comprehensive final. There
will also be homeworks including programming projects. No extra credit will be offered.
The grade distribution is: The lowest non-programming homework grade will be dropped. If a homework
has any programming, a low grade will not be dropped. The final exam is comprehensive and covers all material presented
in the course during the semester.
You may ask to have an exam or homework regraded. However, the entire exam or homework will be regraded. This may or may not result in a grade change, either up or down. To have an exam or homework, you must hand in the item with a typewritten paragraph explaining what was not graded correctly. To have something regraded, you must ask for the regrading by the next class period after the homework, project, or exam was returned. There will be no exceptions to this requirement.
Attending class is vital to success in this course. It is very unlikely you will do well in the course unless you attend lectures. You are responsible for all material presented in lecture, including material not directly covered in the textbook. If you must miss a class, you should ask your classmates for course notes. The instructor will not provide course notes.
Homeworks
The homeworks will be posted on the TA's web site on the day that they are assigned. This web site will also have hints about the more difficult problems. A solution will be posted to his web site for each homework, once the one week limit for late work has expired. You are responsible for visiting this web site to get the homeworks, solutions, and hints.
Some homeworks may require that you do programming. You may use C, C++ or Java. More details about requirements (e.g., how to turn in the source code) for programming oriented homeworks will be provided when they are assigned. A programming homework may count as two homeworks, depending on the scope of the programming project.
All homework assignments are to be turned in to the teaching assistant. The assignments are due by 1:00 PM in the TA's mailbox on the due date. Assignments can be turned in at the beginning of class when due on a lecture day. Assignments will not be accepted at the end of class after the 1:00 PM deadline.
Group work, Exams and Late work
On the homeworks, you may work with up to two other students (i.e., a group is at most three students). There are a few requirements for group work. First, you can work together on solving the problems, but the homework write up itself must be an individual effort. Second, on programming assignments, each group member should turn in a write up and the source code. You may collaborate on the programming. Third, you must list all names of people in your group on the homework. Finally, although you worked in a group, everybody should attempt to solve the problems. If you do not follow these requirements, the homework will not be graded and a zero will be recorded as the grade.
Exams are closed book and individual efforts. You may use a simple non-programmable calculator. I strongly recommend the use of calculators: The exams will require computing many values and it will be hard to do so without a calculator. Cheating on an exam will not be tolerated. Any cases of cheating will result in a F in the course and will be reported to the appropriate Dean's office (ECE or FAS).
An assignment may be turned in late with a 20% penalty per day that the
assignment is late. For example, if an assignment is due on a Monday,
and you turn it in on a Wednesday, the assignment is worth at most 60% of
the original score. In some cases, we will suspend this policy and not
accept late homeworks. We will announce when this is the case
on the homework assignment itself. Normally this happens around exam
time when we need to quickly grade and return the homeworks to you. A late assignment with a valid written excuse according to University
rules will be accepted up to one week late without a penalty. There will be no early exams. Make up exams must be pre-approved. No
make up exams will be given that do not meet University rules and have
proper (written) documentation. All make up work (homeworks and exams) must be completed within
one week of the original assignment.
Cell Phones, Laptops, PDAs (& other electronic devices)
Turn off your cell phone, laptop, PDA, etc., before lecture starts. If you want to use a laptop or PDA to take notes, ask the instructor for permission.
Outline and Homeworks
Note for Students
If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accomodation, you are encouraged to contact the Office of Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union (412-648-7890), as soon as possible in the term. They will verify your disability and determine reasonable accomodations for this course.
Please look at the web pages for the joint BS/MS Computer Science program and the co-op program.
There are also many wonderful opportunities for graduate study in computer science. Ask the instructor if you'd like to know more about graduate school. It's a lot of fun!