1. ECOM 6301: Advanced Computer Architectures
Computer Engineering Department
Islamic University of Gaza
ECOM 6301: Advanced Computer Architectures
(Graduate Course)
Fall
Prof. Dr. Eng. Mohammad A. Mikki

2. Syllabus and Course Overview
Lecture 1
Syllabus and Course Overview

3. Instructor’s Info. Mohammad A. Mikki
Professor of Computer Engineering Computer Engineering Department The Islamic University of Gaza, Gaza, Palestine Tel Ext. 2876
Mail         Homepage   Skype ID  mohammad.mikki

4. Where to find the instructor
Office:
Building: IT bldg
Room: I215

5. Instructor’s Office Hours
TBA and
by appointment

6. Teaching Assistants
None

7. Course Information ECOM 6301 Course Code
Advanced Computer Architectures (Graduate Course)
Course Name 3
Number of credits

8. Course Description
Computer architects have been striving to improve performance since the first stored program computer was designed half a century ago. Superscalar execution is a key technique towards this aim. Superscalar processors issue more than one instruction per cycle. Most modern microprocessors from the latest smartphone ARM processors to IBM’s latest Power7 employ superscalar issue and other instruction-level parallelism techniques to enhance their performance. This course examines the tradeoffs and design considerations in the design of superscalar or instruction level parallel (ILP) microprocessors. The course will also explore other current architectural approaches to improve performance.

9. Course Objectives
Teach the fundamentals of state of the art microprocessors
Give the student experience in state of the art computer architecture tools
Give the student exposure to computer architecture research
Give the student experience in technical writing
Give the student experience in project presentations

10. Course Topics Fundamentals of Computer Architecture
Instruction Level Parallelism (ILP) and Its Exploitation
Advanced Techniques for Exploiting Instruction-Level Parallelism and Their Limits
Multiprocessors and Thread-Level Parallelism
Multiprocessors and Multicore, cache coherence
Pipelining, Performance
Memory Hierarchy Design
Caches
Virtual Memory
Dynamic Execution
SIMD and GPU

11. Course Outcomes/Objectives
At completion of the course students should be able to:
Measure and report computer performance using appropriate, quantitative analysis.
Describe the main architectural approaches to improve computer performance, analyze the pros and cons of approaches, and decide when to employ different architectural ideas for different applications.
Identify which factors affect the performance and power consumption of a computer system, and evaluate and compare how various architectural-level features impact power/performance.
Explain how multi-core hardware can impact software performance (for better and for worse), and how to target software development for multi-core systems.
Summarize and explain research results from various computer architecture centric journals and conferences.

12. Course Prerequisites
- This is a core course in the master’s program - No graduate course prerequisite

13. Course Website The common syllabus is posted on the course webpage at
Please check this webpage at least once a week for:
lecture notes
Assignments, quizzes, and exams
Assignments, quizzes, and exams solutions
Useful links
Supplementary material, and
Announcements
Your instructor will provide and/or post a revised version of the course syllabus with additional information stating his policies for the course, such as attendance policy, labs and assignments submission policy, quizzes policy, and others. Please check with your instructor.

14. Class Information 101 Section Wed. Days 02:00 pm - 05:00 pm Time M108
Location

15. Required Textbook and Material
We will cover selected chapters/sections from: Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach 5th Ed. John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Architecture and Design,2011, ISBN: ISBN:

16. Additional Required Material
A Collection of Papers from conferences and journals
See class weekly schedule for details (below)

17. References (Purchase not required)
Superscalar Microprocessor Design, by Mike Johnson, Prentice Hall Publishers
Computer Organization and Design, Fourth Edition, Fourth Edition: The Hardware/Software Interface, by Patterson and Hennessy, Morgan Kaufman
Parallel Computer Architecture: A Hardware/Software Approach by David Culler, J.P. Singh, and Anoop Gupta, Morgan Kaufman
Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks by W. J. Dally and B. Towles, Morgan Kaufman

18. Class Expectations Class attendance
Text and assigned research papers reading in advance
Class participation
Working hard

19. Working Schedule Week Topic Required Material Presenter Assignments1
Introduction
Syllabus
Introduction to the course
Introduction to course research project
Ch. 1: Introduction (textbook)
Instructor
Read appendix A (textbook) 2
Ch. 1: Introduction (textbook)
Course project suggested topics handed out 3
Submit research project proposal
Quiz 1 on Ch. 1 4
Future trends in computer architecture
The future of microprocessors, 2011
21st century computer architecture, 2012
حمودة شملخ
احمد سكيك
Quiz 2 on Future Trends in Computer Arch.

20. Working Schedule Week Topic Required Material Presenter Assignments 5
5 Oct.
ISA- RISC and CISC
RISC vs. CISC: The Post-RISC Era "A historical approach to the debate“, 1999
Power Struggles: Revisiting the RISC vs. CISC Debate on Contemporary ARM and x86 Architectures, 2013
محمود ابوغوش
حسن المصرى
Quiz 3 on ISA- RISC and CISC 6
12 Oct.
Amdahl’s law
USES AND ABUSES OF AMDAHL'S LAW, 2001
Amdahl law in the multicore era
Amdahl's Law in the Era of Process Variation, 2013
محمد شبير
حنين التلى
فاطمه الرباعي
Quiz 4 on Amdahl’s law 7
19 Oct.
Single chip multiprocessor
A Single-Chip Multiprocessor, 1997
The Case for a Single-Chip Multiprocessor, 1996
Dark Silicon and the End of Multicore Scaling, 2011
حمودة شملخ
احمد سكيك
Quiz 5 on Single chip multiprocessor 8
26 Oct.
Tomasulo’s Algorithm
Optimality of Tomasulo’s Algorithm
NSTRUCTION ISSUE LOGIC FOR HIGH-PERFORMANCE, INTERRUPTABLE P1PELINED PROCESSORS, 1987
Submit first research project report
Quiz 6 on Tomasulo’s Algorithm

21. Working Schedule Week Topic Required Material Presenter Assignments 9
2 Nov.
Shared Memory Consistency
Shared Memory Consistency- MPs should support simple memory consistency models-1998
Shared Memory Consistency- Shared memory consistency models: A tutorial, 1996
حنين التلى
فاطمه الرباعي
Quiz 7 on Shared Memory Consistency 10
9 Nov.
Project presentation
Second research project report presentation
Submit second research project report 11
16 Nov.
Superscalar microprocessor
The Microarchitecture of Superscalar Processors, 1995
Chapter 3: Superscalar Processors, John Shen, McGraw-Hill, 2000
حمودة شملخ
احمد سكيك
Quiz 8 on Superscalar microprocessor 12
23 Nov.
SIMD
Vector Processors
SIMD- Architecture of SIMD type vector processor pg
Vector Architectures-Past, Present, and Future
حسن المصرى
محمود ابوغوش
محمد شبير
Quiz 9 on SIMD

22. Working Schedule Week Topic Required Material Presenter Assignments 13
GPU-Vector processing
GPGPU PROCESSING IN CUDA ARCHITECTURE, 2012
History and Evolution of GPU Architecture, 2010
The GPU computing Era, 2010
حنين التلى
محمود ابوغوش
حمودة شملخ
Quiz 10 on GPU-Vector processing 14
Power constraint
Power: A First-Class Design Constraint, 2001
POWER-AWARE Microarchitecture: Design and Modeling Challenges for Next-Generation Microprocessors, 2000
احمد سكيك
فاطمه الرباعي
Quiz 11 on Power constraint 15
Project presentation
Final research project report presentation
Submit final research project report
Last day of classes

23. Grading Scheme Research project 40% Research paper presentations 20%
Quizzes
30%
Class participation (attendance, discussion, forums and wikis through moodle)
10%

24. Quizzes
11 quizzes
Roughly one quiz per week
Each quiz on a new topic

25. Attendance
Class attendance is required and very important for successful completion of the course. Students are expected to attend and participate in every class which is interpreted as the entire class period and lab period. Excused absences must be planned for, when possible, and justified with documentation. The student is responsible for making up missed class/lab sessions. Late arrival that causes disruption, early departure that causes disruption, excessive conversation among students, and other actions that disrupt the classroom are unacceptable.

26. Use of Laptops
Use of laptops/PDAs/Tablets and other electronic devices during the class is not allowed.

27. Mobile Phones
In order to minimize the level of distraction, all mobile phones must be on quiet mode during class meeting times.

28. ?
?Questions?