CSCI 6461 Section Spring 2026
CRN 46177

Meets in Room 214 - 1957 E Street NW  Wednesdays 6:10PM-8:40PM

Course Outline and Schedule


Course Video Links

Date

Topic

References  Note ** Indicates Supplemental Information

1/15

Introduction

  • Administrative topics
  • Basic Concepts and History
  • Class Project Discussion

For Next Week

  1. At break and end of class meet with other team members
  2. Review course material and develop questions
  3. If a warm up is assigned be sure to take it

Lecture 0 Administrative

Class Project   Class Project Instruction Set Architecture

Project Grading Rubric

Term Paper Sample Topics   

Lecture 1 Basic Concepts

Assignment 1 - Stretch Computer (IBM Stretch)

Create A Mapping in a two column matrix form with the Computer Architecture features contained in the IBM Stretch Video abo e in the first column assoicated with the Lecture Numbers and Titles below where we will study those concepts.  This is an individual project.

Project Teams 

Recorded Lecture

Passcode: z%G!My51

1/22

 Basic System Design
Assignment 1 Due Midnight 1/24

Lecture 2 Basic System Design

Link to supplemental files

Recorded Lecture

Passcode: z%G!My51

1/29

 Instruction Set Architecture


Term Paper Topic Due Midnight 1/31

Appendix K Survey of Instruction Set Architectures

Lecture 3 Instruction Set Architecture

Link to supplemental files

2/5

 *Project Part 0 (assembler) Due Midnight 2/9

Memory System Design:

  • Multilevel memory
  • Basic cache structure and design
  • Cache performance
  • Replacement policies

H&P Chapter 2, Appendix B (internal to Book)

Lecture 4  Memory System Design

Link to supplemental files

2/12
I/O System Design
 Light Coverage on Final

Lecture 6 I/O Systems

I/O Video

Link to supplemental files

2/19


Improving Performance

Pipelining,

General Considerations,

Instruction and Arithmetic Pipelines with examples

H&P 3, Appendix A, Appendix H

Lecture 7 Performance Improvements

MIPS Overview
Pipelining
 Dependencies
Compiler Techniques
 More Static Technique

Link to supplemental files

Link to External Videos Related To Performance Improvements
2/26

Improving Performance

Pipelining,
General Considerations,

Instruction and Arithmetic Pipelines with examples

*Project Part 1 Due Midnight 2/28

 

Lecture 8 Instruction Level Parallelism

Branch Prediction
Dynamic Scheduling

Hardware Speculation

**SPECTRE HACK

**Meltdown HACK


Link to supplemental files

Link to External Videos Related To Performance Improvements

3/5

 Vector Operations



H&P 4.2, 4.3 Appendix G                 

Lecture 9 Vector Operations


Link to supplemental files

Link to External Videos Related To Performance Improvements
3/12 Spring Break - No Class

3/19

High Performance Computing

*Project Part 2 Due Midnight  13/21

Appendix F

 

Lecture 10 High Performance Computing - Multiprocessors

Interconnect Video (view at 20 minutes into video)

Link to supplemental file

3/26

Multiprocessors

Term Paper Due Midnight 3/28

H&P Chapter 4,  Appendix I


Lecture 11 Multiprocessors

Cache Coherency Snooping Protocol

Cache Coherency Directory Protocol

Link to supplemental files

4/

Multi core Architectures

Lecture 12 Multi core Architectures

Link to supplemental files
4/9

GPU Architectures

H&P Chapter 4

Lecture 13 GPU Architectures

GPU Video

Link to supplemental files
4/16
 FINAL Exam Review

*Project Part 3 Due Midnight 4/18
 Sample Final
Sample Final Coherency Protocol

4/23


FINAL Exam  2- Hours  Timed

*All work  due by 11:59 pm last day of classes 4/27 -  instructor will be grading these