1. CMSC 611 Advanced Computer Arch.
Getting Started
Some material adapted from Mohamed Younis, UMBC CMSC 611 Spr 2003 course slides
Some material adapted from David Culler, UC Berkeley CS252, Spr 2002 course slides, © 2002 UC Berkeley
Some material adapted from Hennessy & Patterson / © 2003 Elsevier Science

2. Overview Resources, syllabus, work load Grade structure and policy
Expected background
An introduction to computer architecture
Why study computer architecture?
Organization and anatomy of computers
Impact of microelectronics technology on computers
The evolution of the computer industry and generations

3. Course Resources Instructor: Marc Olano / ITE 354 TA: Yao Yao
Office Hours: TuTh 4:00 – 5:00
TA: Yao Yao
Office Hours: MW 4:00-5:30
Web Page:
Piazza: piazza.com/umbc/spring2018/cmsc611
Book
Hennessy and Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 3rd, 4th, or 5th Edition

4. Syllabus Quantitative Design Principles Instruction Set Principles
Pipelining and Instruction Parallelism
Memory Hierarchy Design
Storage and I/O
Multiprocessor Systems
Interconnection Networks

5. Workload Assignments Exams Project
Approximately 2 hours, every other week
Exams
Midterm in class, Thursday, March 29th
Final Thursday, May 17th, 10:30 – 12:30
Project

6. Project Teams of 3-4 You choose application area
Best to choose your own research area
Design architecture for your application
Final written report / architecture manual

7. Grades Breakdown Homework policy 30% Homework (5% each) 30% Project
20% Midterm
20% Final
Homework policy
Due in class, ZERO if late
Exceptions allowed for documented work or conference travel, approved in advance

8. Grades A ≥ 93 A- ≥ 90 B+ ≥ 87 B ≥ 83 B- ≥ 80 C+ ≥ 77 C ≥ 73 C- ≥ 70
F < 60
No curving
Not even half a point
Expect some extra credit assignments
At least several %
Get more practice to get a better grade

9. Expected Background CMSC 411: Computer Architecture
Design of computer systems
Information representation
Floating point arithmetic
Hardwired & micro programmed control
Pipelining
Cache
Bus control & timing
I/O mechanisms
Parallel processing
411 focus on design and implementation (how)
We focus on design decisions (why)

10. Introduction & Motivation
Even if you don’t want to do computer architecture, this class will
Help you understand the limits & capabilities CPUs
Help you understand why
Help you understand how to write better code
Extreme importance of cache coherence
Importance of branch predictability, or avoiding branching
Folly of micro-optimization that the CPU will undo
How to prioritize optimization work in hardware or software
Tools of computer architecture apply everywhere!