Machine Organization and Assembly Language programming
Tentative outline (subject to change) -- Spring 2005

• Introduction to architecture and organization (Chapter 1)
• Signed and unsigned numbers (Chapter 3. Sections 3.1 to 3.3). Review done in sections.
• Instruction set and assembly language (Chapter 2 Sections 2.1 through 2.9, 2.16 and Appendix A Sections A.1, A.2, A.6, and A.10) )
  • General computer structure
  • Overview of MIPS: registers, data types, addressing. Introduction to SPIM
  • Arithmetic-logic,load-store, branch instructions
  • Instruction encoding; addressing revisited
  • Procedures and stacks
  • RISC vs. CISC
• Performance metrics (Chapter 4)
  • CPU execution time. CPI
  • Benchmarks
• Processor implementation. Single cycle implementation (Chapter 5 Sections 5.1 through 5.4)
  • Data path
  • Control
• Processor implementation. Multiple cycle implementation. (Chapter 5 Sectio ns 5.5 and 5.6)
  • Data path
  • Control unit
  • Exceptions
• Processor implementation. Pipelining (Chapter 6 Sections 6.1 through 6.6 a nd 6.8)
  • Data path
  • Data hazards. Forwarding
  • Control hazards and exceptions.
• Memory Hierarchy. Caches (Chapter 7 Sections 7.1 through 7.3)
  • Cache organization.
  • Cache parameters for performance
  • Write policies
• Memory Hierarchy. Virtual Memory (Chapter 7 Sections 7.4 and 7.5)
  • Paging systems
  • TLB's
• Input-Output (Chapter 8 Sections 8.1, 8.2, 8.4 and 8.5)
  • Disks
  • Buses
• One or more of the following topics
  • EPIC (or VLIW) ISA -- Itanium.
  • Networks
  • Floating-point. Arithmetic and functional units
  • Parallel computers