CSCI 6461 Section 12 Fall 2026
CRN 52110

Meets in Phillips Hall, 801 22nd St NW Room 108 Wednesdays 6:10 PM - 8:40 PM

Course Outline and Schedule


Course Video Links

Date

Topic

References  Note ** Indicates Supplemental Information

8/26

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)

1.  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.  While you are listening to the speaker, capture the size, performance in MIPS, cost, and power requirements. 
2.  Then build a second table within the same assignment and compare those with the same characteristics as a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W hobbyist board.  This is an individual project and should be fun.

Project Teams 

9/2

 Basic System Design
Assignment 1 Due Midnight 9/4

Lecture 2 Basic System Design

Link to supplemental files

9/9

 Instruction Set Architecture


Term Paper Topic Due Midnight 9/11

Appendix K Survey of Instruction Set Architectures

Lecture 3 Instruction Set Architecture

Link to supplemental files

9/16

 *Project Part 0 (assembler) Due Midnight 9/20
SIMULATOR RESOURCES

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

9/23
I/O System Design
 

Lecture 6 I/O Systems

I/O Video

Link to supplemental files

9/30


Improving Performance

Pipelining,

General Considerations,

Instruction and Arithmetic Pipelines with examples

H&P 3, Appendix A, Appendix H

Lecture 7 Performance Improvements

MIPS Overview

Pipelines
 Dependencies
Compiler Techniques
 More Static Techniques

Link to supplemental files

Link to External Videos Related To Performance Improvements
10/7

Improving Performance

Pipelining,
General Considerations,

Instruction and Arithmetic Pipelines with examples

*Project Part 1 Due Midnight 10/9

 

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

10/14

 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

10/21

High Performance Computing

*Project Part 2 Due Midnight  10/23

Appendix F

 

Lecture 10 High Performance Computing - Multiprocessors

Interconnect Video (view at 20 minutes into video)

Link to supplemental file

10/28

Multiprocessors

Term Paper Due Midnight 10/30

H&P Chapter 4,  Appendix I


Lecture 11 Multiprocessors Cache Coherence

Cache Coherency Snooping Protocol

Cache Coherency Directory Protocol

Link to supplemental files

11/4

Multi core Architectures

 Lecture 11 Multiprocessors Cache Coherence

Lecture 12 Multi core Architectures

Link to supplemental files
11/11

GPU Architectures

H&P Chapter 4

Lecture 13 GPU Architectures

GPU Video

Link to supplemental files
11/18
 FINAL Exam Review

*Project Part 3 Due Midnight 11/20
 Sample Final
Sample Final Coherency Protocol
11/25 Thanksgiving Break - No Class

12/2


FINAL Exam  2- Hours  Timed

*All work  due by 11:59 pm last day of classes 12/8 -  instructor will be grading the Final