1 CS37: Computer Architecture Spring Term, 2004 Instructor: Kate Forbes Riley Teaching Assistant:

2 CS37: Lecture 1 Administrivia Overview of CS 37: Inside the Computer Introduction to Binary Numbers

3 Schedule Lectures: Sudikoff 115, MWF, 11:15 am – 12:20 pm Office Hours –Kate: MWF, 12:20 pm – 4:00 pm ( for appointments) Xxx sudikoff –TA:

4 Resources CS37, 2004S WEBPAGE: My lecture slides Required Textbooks: –PH: Patterson and Hennessey, 2 nd Edition: Computer Organization and Design. Wheelock Books –X86: X86 assembly language page, Dr. Paul Carter’s book. Computer Labs: Linux workstations in Sudikoff 001 and 005 –Access Policy: no meals in the lab –Access Card (1-2 days to activate): Sudikoff office: M-F 8:30 am – 12:00 pm and 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Dartmouth ID and a $20 cash deposit (refunded) Recommended Reading: –Introduction to UNIX, by Chris McDonald. Online (PS and PDF)

5 Grading Homework: 50% –Reading assignments in textbook –6 written assignments (available in class and online) –Due on due date at start of class. Late assignments accepted up to start of next class with 30% penalty. –1 free late assignment (if handed in at start of next class). –Special arrangements for emergency (documented illness) –For non-emergencies, hand in early Midterm Exam: 25% –Take-home exam covering 1 st half of course material Final Exam: 25% –In-class exam focusing heavily on 2 nd half of course material

6 HONOR CODE The Dartmouth Honor Code applies to your conduct in this course. If you have questions about the Code, talk to me: –HOMEWORK: All written work submitted must be your own Do not read or copy another student’s submissions Do not look at solutions from prior terms Do discuss lectures, example problems, assignment problems, debug code, etc, with classmates, Kate, TA –EXAMS: Do not give or receive assistance from anyone other than Kate, TAs Violations of the Honor Code will be treated seriously.

7 Disabilities ANY STUDENT WITH A DOCUMENTED DISABILITY NEEDING ACADEMIC ADJUSTMENTS OR ACCOMMODATIONS IS REQUESTED TO SPEAK WITH ME BY THE END OF THE 2 nd WEEK OF THE TERM ALL DISCUSSIONS WILL BE CONFIDENTIAL STOP BY THE ACADEMIC SKILLS CENTER iin 301 COLLIS CENTER TO REGISTER FOR SUPPORT SERVICES

8 You and Me in 60 seconds Me: born, Dartmouth, M.S.E. and UPenn, my specialty = computational linguistics (I basically work with logics and languages) You: Name? Home? Major? Career plans?

9 Overview of CS37: Introduction Things you’ll be learning: –how computers work, a basic foundation –how to analyze their performance (or how not to!) –issues affecting modern processors (caches, pipelines) Why learn this stuff? –you want to call yourself a “computer scientist” –you want to build software people use (need performance) –you need to make a purchasing decision or offer “expert” advice

10 Introduction Rapidly changing field: –vacuum tube -> transistor -> IC -> VLSI (see section 1.4) –doubling every 1.5 years: memory capacity processor speed ( Due to advances in technology and organization)

11 What is a computer? Components: –input (mouse, keyboard) –output (display, printer) –memory (disk drives, DRAM, SRAM, CD) –network Our primary focus: the processor (datapath and control) –implemented using millions of transistors –Impossible to understand by looking at each transistor –We need...

12 Abstraction Delving into the depths reveals more information An abstraction omits unneeded detail, helps us cope with complexity What are some of the details that appear in these familiar abstractions?

13 Instruction Set Architecture A very important abstraction –interface between hardware and low-level software –standardizes instructions, machine language bit patterns, etc. –advantage: different implementations of the same architecture –disadvantage: sometimes prevents using new innovations True or False: Binary compatibility is extraordinarily important? Modern instruction set architectures: –80x86/Pentium/K6, PowerPC, DEC Alpha, MIPS, SPARC, HP

14 Where we are headed Performance issues (Chapter 2) vocabulary and motivation A specific instruction set architecture (Chapter 3) Arithmetic and how to build an ALU (Chapter 4) Constructing a processor to execute our instructions (Chapter 5) Pipelining to improve performance (Chapter 6) Memory: caches and virtual memory (Chapter 7) I/O (Chapter 8) Key to a good grade: reading the book!

15 Assignment Reading: skim PH Sections 1.1 – 1.8