EEL 5764: Computer Architecture - Fall 2009

General Information   Course Schedule   Course Description   Prerequisites  
Textbook and Materials   Grading   Academic Integrity and Collaboration Policy
Attendance and Expectations   Accommodation for Students with Disabilities
UC Counselling Services   Software Use

General Information

Time: Tues 1:55-2:45 pm and Thursday 1:55-3:50 pm
Location: NEB 100
Instructor: Ann Gordon-Ross
Email:
Office: 221 Larsen Hall
Office Hours: Tues 8:30-9:30 am and 2:45-3:45 pm
Visit the discussion group at E-Learning.

Course Description

This course covers topics on advanced computer architecture and is appropriate for both advanced undergraduates and graduate students. Building on introductory classes which showed how a basic computer functions, this course examines techniques for improving computer performance and useability. Topics convered include pipelining, instruction level parallelism, virtual memory, caches (memory hierarchies), multiprocessors, and advanced storage systems. And hopefully you will have a bit of fun =)

Prerequisites

It is assumed that you are familiar with the material covered in EEL 4712C, EEL 4744C or equivalents. Other skills and background that are required for this course are:

Textbook and Materials

Required textbook for the course:


   Computer Architecture A Quantitative Approach
Fourth Edition John Hennessy and David Patterson
ISBN # 978-0-12-370490-0

Optional Materials:

You will also be doing a fair amount of C++ programming in this course. If you do not own any programming books, I suggest the following:

Grading

The course is divided into two graded components, combined as a weighted sum to total 100%: Note: In addition, you will have homework assignments. However, these assignments will not be graded, nor will you turn them in, and it will be your responsibility to complete the homework assignments before the due date. These questions will help you TREMENDOUSLY on the midterms and you are only hurting yourself if you do not take them seriously. I will post the solutions after the due date.

Letter grades will be assigned roughly according to the standard 90/80/70/60 scale out of 100 percentage points overall, with a 90 and above corresponding to an A, 80 and above to a B, 70 and above to a C, 60 and above to a D, and less than 60 to an F. +/- grades will also be given. Students are not competing against one another, but rather against this scale -- all students can get good grades if all do well. I may scale ("curve") an individual item ONLY if it HELPS the class and I feel that scaling is appropriate given the cirmcumstances.

Absolutely no late work is accepted. Regrades must be submitted within one week of returned materials.

Academic Integrity and Collaboration Policy

All students admitted to the University of Florida have signed a statement of academic honesty committing themselves to be honest in all academic work and understanding that failure to comply with this commitment will result in disciplinary action. This statement is a reminder to uphold your obligation as a UF student and to be honest in all work submitted and exams taken in this course and all others.

Attendance and Expectations

Attendance

Attendance is not mandatory and I will not be taking roll. You are expected to be responsible enough to determine whether or not you need to come to class. I have collected data in past courses I have taught and based on the chart shown here, you can see that grade is highly correlated to attendance. Choose wisely! Even though I am providing the lecture slides on line, I will augment the slides with information that I present in class. If you don't come, you will miss it.

Cell phones

Please remember to turn your phones off during lecture. Absolutely no phone conversations can take place during lecture. It is distracting to both the students and to me.

Communication with the instructor and/or TAs

When sending email to the instructors and/or TAs, please remember that many students have the same name, and instructors/TAs may be involved in more than one course. So please use your full name, preferably including your student ID number, and be as specific as you can (list the course, section, etc. -- whatever is relevant to your communication). Please try to be professional and use reasonable grammer and formatting. Also, please include the course number in brackets in your subject (i.e. [EEL5764]) so that I can sort my email.

Make-up Exam Policy

Missed exams cannot be made up except in the case of a documented medical emergency.

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Students requesting classroom accommodation must first register with the Dean of Students Office. That office will provide the student with documentation that he/she must provide to the course instructor when requesting accommodation

UF Counseling Services

Resources are available on-campus for students having personal problems or lacking clear career and academic goals. The resources include:

Software Use

All faculty, staff and students of the University are required and expected to obey the laws and legal agreements governing software use. Failure to do so can lead to monetary damages and/or criminal penalties for the individual violator. Because such violations are against University policies and rules, disciplinary action will be taken as appropriate. We, the members of the University of Florida community, pledge to uphold ourselves and our peers to the highest standards of honesty and integrity