CSEE W3827 Fundamentals of Computer Systems Spring 2012

Lectures

Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:10 - 2:25 PM in 614 Schermerhorn Hall.

Staff

Overview

This course examines how the 1s and 0s that form the foundation of digital computing are organized, structured, and manipulated to produce full-fledged computer systems. In bridging this gap, the course will cover many subjects beginning with binary logic, combinatorial and sequential circuit design, memory structures, instruction set architectures, and, ultimately, basic processor design.

Prerequisites

An introductory programming course, such as COMS 1004 or 1007. You need to understand the basics of imperative, sequential programming to understand the assembly language programming we will discuss.

Schedule

Date	Lecture	Notes	Reading	Due
Jan 18	Representing Numbers		1.4
Jan 23	Boolean Logic		1.5,2.1-2.7
Jan 25
Jan 30	Combinational Logic		2.8,2.9,5.2
Feb 1
Feb 6	Sequential Logic		3.1-3.3,3.5	HW 1 solutions
Feb 8
Feb 13	Finite State Machines		3.4
Feb 15	Transistors, Gates, and ICs		1.7	HW 2 solutions
Feb 20	Memory Elements		5.5
Feb 22
Feb 27	Datapath and Control			HW 3 solutions
Feb 29
Mar 5	Midterm Review
Mar 7	Midterm Exam
Mar 12-16	Spring Break
Mar 19	The MIPS Instruction Set		6.1-6.7
Mar 21
Mar 26
Mar 28
Apr 2	MIPS Microarchitecture		7.1-7.3	HW 4, solutions
Apr 4	A Multicycle MIPS Processor		7.4
Apr 9	Pipelining MIPS		7.5
Apr 11
Apr 16	Caches
Apr 18				HW 5 solutions
Apr 23	Advanced Microarchitectures
Apr 25	Microarchitecture of Modern Primary Memory Systems
Apr 30	Final Review			HW 6 solutions
May 7 (1:10-4pm SCH 614)	Final

X86 Resources

• Intel 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer Manuals
• Intel Processor Evolution

Required Text

David Harris and Sarah Harris. Digital Design and Computer Architecture. Morgan-Kaufmann, 2007. A perfect fit for our class, half of this book is devoted to classical digital logic design; the other half to processor architecture centered on the practical, but teachable, MIPS processor.

Homework

• Each homework assignment is due at at the beginning of lecture on the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted.
• We will drop each student's lowest homework grade when calculating final grades.
• You may discuss homework problems with your classmates, but your work must ultimately be your own.
• Write the names of any collaborators at the top of your submission.

Grading

Academic Honesty Policy

You may discuss homework problems with your classmates, but you must write up your solution independently and understand it. Students turning in copied homeworks will be referred to the dean. See the Columbia CS department academic policies for more details.

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