1. 1 Cpt_S 260: Lecture 1: Introduction This week’s topics:  logistics  information technology trends (new applications)  why computer architecture?  modern trends affecting processor design  assessing computer performance

2. 2 Logistics See class web-page http://eecs.wsu.edu/~hassan/cs260 TA: –Yuchen Hou (houych@gmail.com)houych@gmail.com –Office: Sloan 330 –Office hours: Tuesday & Thursday 12:50pm to 2:50pm Textbook: Computer Organization – HW/SW Interface, Patterson and Hennessy, 4 rd edition

3. 3 Course Organization Grading 15% midterm1 (late September) 20% midterm2 (late October) 30% final 35% assignments See class web site for tests exact date/location ~10 assignments – assignments due at the start of class (either paper or electronic) Co-operation policy: you may discuss – you may not see someone else’s written matter when writing your solution

4. 4 Computer Revolution Smart phones Smart watches Smart cars Smart homes Google glass Wearable sensor networks Genome sequencing Internet Search Engines Future glass technologies –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZkHpNnXLB0

5. 5 Embedded Processors Evolution 91% of adults have a cell phone today! (according to PEW project survey) Embedded processors are becoming part of our everyday life

6. 6 Why Computer Architecture? Yes, I know, required class…

7. 7 Why Computer Organization Embarrassing if you are a BS in CS and can’t make sense of the following terms: DRAM, pipelining, cache hierarchies, I/O, virtual memory Embarrassing if you are a BS in CS and can’t decide which processor to buy: 3 GHz P4 or 2.5 GHz Athlon (helps us reason about performance/power) Obvious first step for chip designers, compiler/OS writers Will knowledge of the hardware help me write better programs?

8. 8 Must a Programmer Care About Hardware? Memory management: if we understand how/where data is placed, we can help ensure that relevant data is nearby Thread management: if we understand how threads interact, we can write smarter multi-threaded programs  Why do we care about multi-threaded programs?