This is a course in Computer Architecture
The course runs over 12 weeks in Semester 1 with 2 lectures per week.
A tentative outline for the course content is as follows:
Full semesterisation is scheduled for September 8, 2014. To allow for efficient delivery and examination of CS4617, a multiple-choice question (MCQ) format will be used in all assessments and examinations.
This module is offered to fourth year Computer Science (CK401) students at University College Cork. It may also be taken by visiting students at UCC who have an appropriate background.
It is assumed that students on this course have already taken courses in logic design and in computer organisation.
The final mark for this course is a combination of a year's work mark and a mark obtained from an end-of-semester examination.
Class tests are worth 20% of the overall mark for this subject. The other 80% is associated with a final examination paper, which you must answer within a 1.5-hour interval.
Three MCQ-based assessments will measure continuous learning for this module. This allows students to become accustomed to the MCQ examination format. For each student, the best two of the three results will be combined to give a continuous assessment mark with a maximum value of 20% for the module.
You MUST bring a HB pencil to the assessments and examinations, as you will use it to select your answer on the Optical Mark Reader (OMR) forms that are used to automate the correction process.
In 2014, assessment MCQ tests are scheduled for Monday 29th September, Wednesday 22nd October and Monday 24th November. They will be held in the usual class time slot on those days.
The final examination for CS4617 will also be MCQ-based. This examination will take place at the end of Semester 1, by which time students will be familiar with the examination format.
A guide to completing the OMR form in a multiple-choice examination is available here.
The essential text for this course is:
Hennessy, J., Patterson, D., Computer Architecture: a Quantitative Approach (5th Edition).
You may also wish to consult:
Patterson, D., Hennessy, J., Computer Organization and Design: the Hardware/Software Interface, (5th Edition).
Tanenbaum, A.S., Austin, T., Structured Computer Organization (6th Edition).
The lectures will be held during Period 1 in the Western Gateway Building (old Cork Greyhound Track), on Mondays in WGB-G18 at 12.00 noon and on Wednesdays in WGB-G18 at 12.00 noon.
You are strongly advised to attend and take notes at all lectures. Links to previous lecture slides based on the essential text are given below. You can add your own notes to these in class. You are strongly advised to purchase the essential Hennessy and Patterson text.
| Lecture 1 | Lecture 2 | Lecture 2a | Lecture 3 | Lecture 4 | Lecture 5 | Lecture 6 |
| Lecture 7 | Lecture 7a | Lecture 8 | Lecture 8a | Lecture 9 | Lecture 10 |
RISC materials can be seen here:
| Moore's Law 1 | Moore's Law 2 | Patterson's case for RISC | |||
Computer architecture simulators include: