CS 4290

Advanced Computer Organization (Summer 2019)


Instructor: Ramyad Hadidi

Email: rhadidi [AT] gatech [DOT] edu
Location: Collage of Computing 52
Times: TTH 2:35 PM -- 4:45 PM
Office: KACB 2337; Office hours: TH 4:45 PM -- 6:00 PM

Course Description

In this course, we will review fundamental structures in modern microprocessor and computer system architecture design. We will cover computer organization, instruction set design, memory system design, pipelining, cache coherence protocols, memory schedulers, power/energy, prefetching and other techniques to explore instruction level parallelism and thread level parallelism. We will also cover system level topics such as storage subsystems, VLIW, GPGPU, and NoC. We will also have case studies as to how modern microprocessors are designed.

Everything in the course is the same as CS 6290/ECE 4100/ECE 6100. Note that beacuse of GaTech rules, you cannot use this course as a cross list since it will be taught by a graduate student.

Course Material

The optional textbook: Fourth Edition of Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach by John Hennessy and David Patterson.
All relevant material will be made available on the course Canvas.

The exams and assignments will be based on the lectures.

Attendance

Attendance is mandatory unless you get explicit permission from the instructor to be absent. Students who face emergency situations outside their control that prevent them from attendance should contact the instructor before the class. If that is impossible, the student should inform the instructor afterwards as soon as possible. The student must provide documentation or other proof of the emergency situation.

In summary, we might not be taking attendance in every lecture, but it will be hard to earn a passing grade without attending lectures.

Evaluation

Students will be evaluated based on the following rubric.

Homeworks 10%
Projects
50%
Midterm 15%
Final 25%

I will use two policies to assign final (letter) grades. Each student's grade will be computed using both policies, and the final grade will be the better of the two grades. The first policy is not curved, with 90% or more of the maximum possible score yielding an A, 80%-90% yielding a B, 70%-90% yielding a C, 60%-70% yielding a D, and <60% yielding an F. The second policy is the traditional curve-based policy, using the average (AVG) and standard deviation (STD) of scores in the class. Earning more than AVG+STD (one standard deviation above the average) will yield an A, earning AVG to AVG+STD will yield a B, earning AVG-STD to AVG will yield a C, earning AVG-2*STD to AVG-STD  will yield a D, and earning less than AVG-2*STD (two standard deviations or more below the class average) will result in an F grade. Since the second policy is based on the average performance of the class, you can only aim for a certain grade if you use the above rubric and get the best grade based on the first policy.

There will not be any make-up assignments. Therefore, if you need a particular grade, plan wisely and perform accordingly on homework, projects, and exams. Regrades are obtained by submitting a written explanation to the instructor within 48 hours of when the work was returned in class. Regrades will only be discussed after submitting the work in this manner. In order for a test to be re-graded, you must neatly state in writing the reason that you would like your test to be re-graded. For the final exam, no re-grades will be possible until final grades are officially released (in OSCAR).

Assignment Submission Rules

You must follow the submission guidelines specified in the assignment description. We will use Canvas. Wrong file names, broken file formats, missing files will lose 20% of grade. For reports, you must turn in a hard copy of your report during the class time.

No Late Assignments

No late assignments will be accepted and no credit will be given for any late submission. All homework sets an project assignments are due on the day specified by the problem set, announced in Canvas. An assignment is only considered submitted when it is submitted through Canvas, and the files that will be graded will be those submitted in Canvas.
Students who face emergency situations outside their control that prevent them from completing an assignment in time should contact the professor before the assignment is due or, if that is impossible, as soon as possible. After receiving an extension, the student must submit the assignment before the extended deadline and will be required to provide documentation or other proof of the emergency situation.

No Collaboration on Exams or Quizzes

Absolutely no collaboration is allowed during exams or quizzes. Copying or receiving any information from another person or from another person's exam, with or without their consent, is unethical and unacceptable. However, you can always ask TAs or the professor for clarification of an exam question during the exam. Cheating during an exam or a quiz is a direct violation of the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code and will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs.

Group Study

We encourage you to study in groups. However, homeworks, examinations, and the work on all programming assignments must be your own individual work. Collaboration with other students or other persons is prohibited. For homeworks you can discuss your solution with your group, but mention their names per question in your homework. Submitting any work other than your own is a violating of the Academic Honor Code. If you are not sure what you can discuss or not, please contact the instructor.

Submitting any work other than your own (including content from the Internet) without proper attribution (specifying the source) will also be reported as Plagiarism, which is also in violation of the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code. Note that this is different from discussing lecture material (such as re-explaining an idea covered in class in a different manner or with a new example, or discussing what is being asked in the project assignment). Helping someone understand what is being asked in a problem is fine. However, giving them hints or helping them actually do what is being asked is not acceptable.

Ambiguities

If you are not sure about anything, ask the professor and/or consult the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code. A violation of the rules will still be considered and treated as a violation of the rules, regardless of whether or not the student understood the rules or interpreted them correctly. If you are not sure that you understand how the rules apply to a particular situation, you must ask.

Academic Honesty

Students are expected to abide by the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code. Honest and ethical behavior is expected at all times. All incidents of suspected dishonesty will be reported to and handled by the office of student affairs. You will have to do all assignments individually unless explicitly told otherwise. You may discuss it with classmates but you may not copy any solution (or any part of a solution).