CMSC 611
Advanced Computer Architecture
Late breaking news

- Final grades for the class are now
available online. The grades won't be turned in until January
1, 1996, so please send me e-mail if you believe I made an
error in calculating your grade.
- Exams have now been graded, but they won't be available on campus
until January 1st.
- Check out the notes page for
WWW resources that might be able to help you with your projects.
This is a graduate class on computer architecture. Students in the
class should have completed CMSC 411 or an equivalent undergraduate
class on computer architecture.
This class provides a broad introduction to advanced topics in
computer architecture. Topics to be covered include memory system
design, pipeline structures, vector and scientific processors,
multiprocessors, and storage systems. The emphasis in each topic is on
fundamental limitations and the tradeoffs involved in designing
computer systems, including memory & processing bandwidth, network
bandwidth & latency, synchronization, and storage system bandwidth
& latency.
Basic stuff
Where: SS 207
When: MW 7:00 - 8:15 PM
Who: Prof.
Ethan Miller
(elm@cs.umbc.edu)
TA:
Prerequisite: CMSC 411 or instructor's permission
Course information
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Syllabus
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Course information
Miscellaneous notes
Term project milestone dates
All of these dates are approximate, and are subject to change. In
particular, the dates marked with a (*) will require a 10 minute
meeting with me to make sure all is going well with your project.
These meetings will be scheduled on a signup sheet which will be
available in class and (afterwards) posted outside my office. Signups
will generally occur the class before the meetings.
Meeting times will generally be either just before or just after
class. If you can't make any of the remaining meeting times, please
see me to schedule one. Also, if you can't make a meeting for a
good reason, please let me know and we'll reschedule.
Because the schedule is tight, though, the rescheduled meeting may not
be on Monday or Wednesday.
-
18 Sep 1995: (*) Group & project selection
- Each group should turn in a single page listing the group members
(with e-mail addresses) and a brief description of the
project.
-
9 Oct 1995: Background research well underway
- Each group should turn in a list of papers on its topic. These
papers will form the basis for your project. You need not
have read every paper by this date, but you should have read
some of them.
-
23 Oct 1995: Preliminary plans & design
- By this time, your group should have its project planned out and
designed. Early results would be welcome, but not required.
-
13 Nov 1995: (*) Progress report
- At this meeting, your group should have some preliminary results, and
any necessary tools (simulators, etc.) should be working.
-
6 Dec & 11 Dec 1995: Project presentations
- One member of the group will present their project in a brief (10
- 15 minute) presentation. This presentation should focus on
quantitative results.
-
11 Dec 1995: Written project report due
- Each group must hand in a written report on the last day of
class. This report should describe the background material,
the project design, and any results. The report should
resemble a conference paper - the only difference should be
the thoroughness of the experiments conducted.
The midterms and final will be open book exams.
-
18 Oct 1995 (in class): Midterm 1 - covers
Chapters 1-3
(answers are now available online)
-
4 Dec 1995 (in class): Midterm 2 - covers
Chapters 4-5 and Appendix B
(answers are now available online)
-
18 Dec 1995 (8:30 - 10:30 PM, SS 207): Final -
covers all material in Chapters 1-6 and Appendix B as well as
other material discussed in class.
Both the due dates and the assignments are subject to change.
If this happens, I'll announce the changes in class well before they
would affect anyone. I'll also post the changes to this WWW page. In
general, homework assignments will be due one week after I finish
covering the necessary material.
IMPORTANT: the homework problems are taken
from the second edition of Hennessy & Patterson's
text. If you use the questions from the first edition, you won't be
doing the right homework.
-
HW 1 due 20 Sep 1995: 1.2, 1.4, 1.6, 1.8, 1.15
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HW 2 due 27 Sep 1995: 2.2, 2.3, 2.11, 2.12
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HW 3 due 11 Oct 1995: 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 3.9, 3.10
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HW 4 due 1 Nov 1995: 4.4, 4.8, 4.10, 4.25, B.2,
B.3 (parts a-e only)
[Solutions]
-
HW 5 due 15 Nov 1995: 5.1, 5.5, 5.8, 5.9
[Solutions]
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HW 6 due 29 Nov 1995: 6.5, 6.7, 6.8, 6.19
[Solutions]
Reading assignments
In general, you should read the book before the class that
covers the material. The dates here will thus correspond
(approximately) to the dates on which we'll start discussing the
material in class. Of course, we won't cover all of the
material on the first day, but you should be well into the chapter by
that date.
11 Sep 1995: Chapter 1
13 Sep 1995: Chapter 2
20 Sep 1995: Chapter 3 (3.1 - 3.5)
27 Sep 1995: Chapter 3 (3.6 - 3.7)
2 Oct 1995: Chapter 3 (3.8 - 3.9)
9 Oct 1995: Chapter 4 (4.1 - 4.2)
25 Oct 1995: Appendix B
30 Oct 1995: Chapter 5 (5.1 - 5.5)
6 Nov 1995: Chapter 5 (5.6 - 5.11)
Other relevant home pages
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CMSC
411 home page
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CMSC
811 home page
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UMBC Computer Science
home page
Ethan Miller (elm@cs.umbc.edu)