Course content

Computer architecture, trends, and quantitative principles. Instruction-level parallelism, out-of-order execution, and examples. Memory hierarchy design. Multiprocessors, thread-level parallelism, and multithreading. General purpose graphics processor units (GPGPUs) and accelerators. Hardware security and side-channel attacks.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

• The student should have knowledge of current technology trends and their impact on computer architecture design.
• The student should have a detailed understanding of how high-level building blocks like different varieties of processors, caches, interconnects, accelerators, etc. should be assembled into a complete computer system.
• The student should have an understanding of the construction and mode of operation of modern memory systems.
• The student should have an understanding of how multiple processor cores, general-purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), and accelerators can be assembled into parallel computer architectures.
• The student should be familiar with hardware security measures.

Skills:

• The student should be able to evaluate architectural choices using simulation and draw sensible conclusions based on these studies.
• The student should be able to differentiate between general purpose central processing units (CPUs), general purpose graphics processing units (GPGPUs), and application specific accelerators in terms of their specific advantages and disadvantages.

General competence:

• The student should be able to leverage his/her knowledge of computer architecture at all levels of abstraction.

Learning methods and activities

Lectures, exercises, mini-project, report writing, peer-evaluation.

Compulsory assignments

• 2 assignments and 2 peer evaluations

Recommended previous knowledge

The student is expected to have documented knowledge in the construction and functionality of simple processors by, e.g., taken the course TDT4160 Computer Fundamentals, or equivalent.

Course materials

Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, by John L. Hennessy, David A. Patterson. Morgan Kaufmann. Potentially additional text announced at the start of the semester. All teaching materials will be in English.

Credit reductions