Course Title and Number:
Instructor: Dr. Michela Taufer
Time: Tuesday and Thursday 10:30AM-11:50AM
Room: CS 322
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday 1:30PM-3:00PM or per appointment.
Email Address: taufer AT acm DOT org
Campus Office Number: 6957

Course Description:
The organization and structuring of the major hardware components of computers; the mechanics of information transfer and control within a digital computer system; the fundamentals of logic design; machine instructions; addressing techniques.

Textbooks:
Computer Organization & Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Third Edition by David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy

Tentative Class Schedule:
Week 1: Chapter 1, Computer Abstractions and Technology
Weeks 2 and 3: Chapter 2 and Appendix A, Instructions: Language of the Machine
Weeks 4 and 5: Chapter 3 (partial) and Appendix B, Arithmetic for Computers
Week 6: Chapter 4, Assessing and Understanding Performance
Weeks 7 and 8: Chapter 5 and Appendix C, The Processor: Datapath and Control
Weeks 9 and 10: Chapter 6, Enhancing Performance with Pipelining
Weeks 11 and 12: Chapter 7, Large and Fast: Exploiting Memory Hierarchy
Week 13: Chapters 8, Interfacing Processors and Peripherals
Weeks 14 and 15: Chapter 9, Multiprocessors and Clusters

Important Dates:
First Class Meeting: 23. August 2005
Laboratory Start: 1. September 2005
First Midterm Exam: 4. October (tentative)
Last Day to Drop with a W: 18 October*
Second Midterm Exam: 15. November 2005 (tentative)
Holliday: 24 November 2005
Final Exam: December 8. from 10:00AM . 12:45PM

(*) Beginning the 1997 Fall semester, students or faculty members may initiate a drop with a grade of W until the drop deadline (3/18/2005). After that date, students may be dropped only with a grade of F. After that date, grades of W may only be assigned in exceptional circumstances after a written petition from a student and with the approval of the faculty member and the academic dean.