All dates for topics and homeworks are rough predictions; if we actually take more or less time on a topic than I've predicted, the schedule will shift accordingly.
| Date | Assignment | Reading | Subject |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 28 | Introduction, administrivia, why are we studying this stuff? | ||
| Aug 30 | 1.1-1.4 | Basics and terminology | |
| Sep 02 | HW1 | Labor day; no classes | |
| Sep 04 | 1.5-1.10 (1.10 is on CD) | The need for parallelism; history | |
| Sep 06 | C.1-C.2 (on CD);
download LogiSim; LogiSim tutorial |
Gates and logical operations | |
| Sep 09 | C.3 (on CD); Logisim manual | Karnaugh maps and designing combinational circuits | |
| Sep 10 | Last day to add classes | ||
| Sep 11 | HW1 due; HW2 | 2.1-2.4 | Machine language; representation of data |
| Sep 13 | 2.5-2.7 | Logical and control operations | |
| Sep 16 | 2.8-2.9 | Procedures and I/O | |
| Sep 18 | 2.10-2.11 | Addressing and synchronization | |
| Sep 20 | 2.12-2.15 (2.15 is on CD) | Machine language and high-level languages | |
| Sep 23 | 2.16-2.20 | Practicalities, pitfalls, history | |
| Sep 25 | HW2 due; HW3 | Compilation and linking | |
| Sep 25 | Last day to drop classes, change grading option, switch sections, add independent study | ||
| Sep 27 | Compilation and linking | ||
| Sep 30 | 3.1-3.2, C.5-C.6 | Addition; Carry-lookahead addition | |
| Oct 02 | 3.3-3.4 | Multiplication and division | |
| Oct 04 | 3.5 | Floating point representation | |
| Oct 07 | 3.5 | Floating point arithmetic | |
| Oct 09 | 3.6-3.10 (3.10 is on CD) | Practicalities, pitfalls, history | |
| Oct 11 | C.7-C.9 (on CD) | Sequential logic | |
| Oct 14 | HW3 due | C.10 | Finite-state maachines and designing sequential circuits |
| Oct 16 | 4.1-4.3 | Building a processor in hardware | |
| Oct 18 | 4.4 | Building a processor in hardware | |
| Oct 21 | 4.5-4.6 | Pipelining | |
| Oct 23 | 4.7 | Data hazards | |
| Oct 25 | HW4 | 4.8-4.9 | Control hazards; branch prediction |
| Oct 28 | 4.10-4.11 | More forms of parallelism | |
| Oct 30 | 4.13-4.15 (4.15 is on CD) | Practicalities, pitfalls, history | |
| Oct 30 | Last day to withdraw from classes | ||
| Nov 01 | 5.1-5.2 | The memory hierarchy; caches | |
| Nov 04 | 5.3 | Cache performance | |
| Nov 06 | 5.4 | Virtual memory | |
| Nov 08 | 5.5-5.6 | Memory hierarchies and virtualization | |
| Nov 11 | 5.7-5.8 | Cache implementation | |
| Nov 13 | HW4 due; HW5 | 5.10-5.13 | Practicalities, pitfalls, history |
| Nov 15 | I'm away at a conference | ||
| Nov 18 | 6.1-6.4 | Storage | |
| Nov 20 | 6.5-6.8 | I/O interfaces | |
| Nov 22 | 6.9-6.10 | RAID | |
| Nov 25 | 6.11-6.14 (6.11 and 6.14 are on CD) | Practicalities, pitfalls, history | |
| Nov 27 | Thanksgiving: no classes | ||
| Nov 29 | Thanksgiving: no classes | ||
| Dec 02 | HW5 due | 7.1-7.4 | Parallel programming models |
| Dec 04 | 7.5-7.8 | More forms of parallelism | |
| Dec 06 | 7.9-7.14 | Benchmarks, practicalities, pitfalls, history | |
| Dec 09 | Catch up and review | ||
| Dec 11 | Catch up and review | ||
| Dec 16 | CSC 371 Final Exam, 10:30-12:30 | ||