Course Information

Instructor Contact

Horace Malcom
Work: 443-778-8676
E-mail: Horace.Malcom@jhuapl.edu

Office Hours:

There are no set office hours. However students are encouraged to e-mail questions and meetings can be arranged as needed.

Course Description

This course provides a detailed examination of the internal structure and operation of modern computer systems. Each of the major system components is investigated including the following topics: the design and operation of the ALU, FPU, and CPU; microprogrammed vs. hardwired control, pipelining, and RISC vs. CISC machines; the memory system including caches and virtual memory; parallel and vector processing, multiprocessor systems and interconnection networks; superscalar and super-pipelined designs; and bus structures and the details of low level I/O operation using interrupt mechanisms, device controllers, and DMA. The impact of each of these topics on system performance is also discussed. The instruction set architectures and hardware system architectures of different machines are examined and compared. The classical Von Neumann architecture is also compared and contrasted with alternative approaches such as data flow machines and neural networks.

Course Goals

This course builds upon the knowledge acquired in a typical computer organization course to provide a more in-depth understanding of the internal operation of the control unit, the execution units, memory management, and the I/O and bus systems, as well as multiprocessor systems. Emphasis is placed on the more advanced features such as pipelining, cache memory organization and operation, superscalar and VLIW techniques. An examination of performance metrics will allow the student to better access the effectiveness of the various performance enhancement techniques.

 

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students should be able to:

• Define and explain the hardware/software interface
• Explain the operation and benefits of pipelining and superscalar operation
• Describe the operation and organization of cache memory and virtual memory systems
• Compare hardwired versus microprogammed implementation
• Explain the benefits and complexities associated with the use of multiple processors

Textbook

Required

Patterson. D.A. and Hennessy, J.L., "Computer Organization and Design - The Hardware/Software Interface", Morgan Kaufmann, fourth edition, 2009.

Textbook information for this course is available online through the appropriate bookstore website: For online courses, search the Barnes & Noble Bookstore website at http://johns-hopkins.bkstore.com/.

 

Technical Requirements

PDF Viewer:

You will need the free Adobe PDF viewer software to view PDF files in this course. Go to http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep.html

Zip Software:

You will also need software for "zipping" and "unzipping" (compressing and uncompressing) files. Two popular shareware "zip" programs can be downloaded from the sites linked below:

For Windows - WinZip at http://www.winzip.com/
For Macintosh - ZipIt at http://www.maczipit.com/download.html

Other Requirements

The student should have a basic knowledge of assembly language programming and computer organization. The course includes a brief review of internal data representaion and explains the assembly and machine language of the MIPS processor used as a basis for the course.

Help Desk

EPP Online Help Desk: For assistance with Sakai once logged in, including obtaining and installing a suitable browser, or using any of the Sakai tools, such as the discussions, contact the EPP Online Help Desk. They can be reached 24/7 at (866) 311-6658 or by submitting a help request at http://www.embanet.com/help/JHU. If you have any questions about the content itself, please contact your instructor using the communication methods they have outlined within the course website. If you have any trouble with your JHED ID and Password, or logging in to Sakai, please contact the IT @ Hopkins Help Desk at 410-516-HELP.

Student Requirements

This course will consist of two basic student requirements:

1. Homework - Each student is required to complete all homework assignments to earn a course grade. Homework assignments will be evaluated and graded on a scale of 0 to 100. Homework not submitted will receive a grade of 0, resulting in an incomplete for the course. Late homework assignments will be reduced by a 10 point penalty per week late. Deficient homework will be returned to students for resubmission within 1 week; the final grade for the specific homework assigned will be the average of the two grades. The intent is to ensure that you are successfully learning the concepts taught in this course. Homework assignments will generally involve answering questions or solving problems based on specific concepts covered in each course module. Homework assignments will be uploaded into Sakai and will be accepted in ASCII or Microsoft Word 97(R) (or later) format. Any resubmissions should be sent to the grading instructor* via email.
   *The grading instructor is listed in the Course Outline.
2. Examinations - A mid-term and a final will be given. Each will be graded on a scale of 0 to 100. Exact dates will be announced later during the semester.

   Policies and Guidelines

   All homework is due within one week of its assignment. Late homework will not be accepted without the prior permission of the instructor.

   Students are expected to submit the following to receive a grade for the course:

   10 Homework assignments
   Mid-Term Exam
   Final Exam

   It is assumed that graduate students are adept at writing English and no points will normally be subtracted for English errors; in cases of exceptionally poor English points will be deducted. All external sources of information used to support must be appropriately referenced.

   Services for Students with Disabilities

   Students with disabilities who require reasonable accommodations should contact the disability services coordinator, at 410-540-2962 or at epp@jhu.edu. For questions or concerns regarding University-wide disability issues, contact Peggy Hayeslip, associate director of Disability Services, 410-516-8949, or https://sakai.jhu.edu/access/content/group/7a4ce76e-6ff7-44fc-866b-c9deae9c7431/CourseFiles/CourseInformation/phayeslip@jhu.edu. More information is available at http://catalog.epp.jhu.edu/content.php?catoid=9&navoid=197

   Academic Misconduct Policy

   The University policy on academic integrity is summarized on page 9 of the 2007-2008 Engineering and Applied Science Programs for Professionals catalog It is reproduced here for your information.

   Johns Hopkins faculty and students have a joint responsibility to maintain the academic integrity of the University in all respects. Students must conduct themselves in a manner appropriate to the University's mission as an institution of higher education. Students are obligated to refrain from acts that they know, or under the circumstances have reason to know, impair the academic integrity of the University. Violations of academic integrity include, but are not limited to: cheating, plagiarism, unapproved multiple submissions, knowingly furnishing false information to any agent of the University for inclusion in academic records, and falsification, forgery, alteration, destruction, or misuse of official University documents. Members of the faculty are responsible for announcing the academic requirements of each course, for the conduct of examinations, and for the security of examination papers and teaching laboratories. It is the duty of faculty to report suspected violations of academic integrity to the appropriate program chair. It is the responsibility of each student to report to the instructor any suspected violations of academic integrity.

   The consequences of violations of this policy are also summarized on page 9 of the catalog and detailed on the Whiting School of Engineering's website: http://engineering.jhu.edu/graduate-academic-probation-dismissal/.

   Collaborations and discussions between students are key ingredients to success in a graduate course. You are encouraged to discuss the course material with each other as you sort through concepts that may be difficult to comprehend or controversial. However, the line between collaboration and cheating needs to be carefully delineated. Whenever you turn in work with your name on it to be evaluated, graded and included in your record it must represent an individual effort by you alone. If you include direct quotes from any source in your scenarios, journal/essays, the final exam, or any other submission for which you will receive a grade you must provide attribution. Students using published material without reference, or copying the work of another individual will receive a warning at the first incident. Any further incidents will result in the student receiving a zero on the assignment and the matter will be referred to the Associate Dean. Contact us if you have any questions, no matter how slight, about this policy, or if you have questions about a particular assignment.

   
   

   Grading Scale

   Item	% of Grade
   Homework (10 assignments)	60%
   Mid-term Exam	20%
   Final-Exam	20%