Computer Architecture

Course Description

Computer Architecture builds on the digital logic foundation from CSC108 into a full picture of how a modern processor and memory system deliver performance, and where that performance breaks down. Students come away able to explain why two functionally identical programs can run at very different speeds.

Learning Outcomes

Explain the major components of a processor and how they interact during execution.
Describe the memory hierarchy and its effect on real program performance.
Reason about pipelining and the hazards that limit its benefit.
Connect architectural concepts to observed performance in real code.

Weekly Topics

Examines processor fundamentals review from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.

Builds directly on the previous week to extend instruction-level parallelism, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.

Combines a short lecture on pipelining with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.

Focuses on common mistakes and misconceptions around pipeline hazards, using student work from the previous assignment as material.

Introduces cache fundamentals and immediately puts it to use in a small design or implementation task.

Situates cache performance within the broader arc of the course, showing how it connects to what comes next.

Uses a guest dataset or scenario to explore mid-semester review in a setting closer to professional practice.

Introduces virtual memory through short lectures and worked examples, building the vocabulary the rest of the course relies on.

Works through storage systems in a lab-driven session, with guided exercises students complete and discuss in small groups.

Covers i/o & interrupts in depth, connecting the underlying theory to a concrete example the class builds together.

Examines parallel architectures from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.

Builds directly on the previous week to extend performance case studies, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.

Combines a short lecture on revision with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.

Assessment

Assignments — 20%

Practical Work — 20%

Mid-Semester — 20%

Final Examination — 40%

Prerequisite Map

Related Courses

Core100 Level

CSC108

Digital Logic & Computer Organization

Digital Logic & Computer Organization takes students from Boolean logic gates up to a working mental model of how a simple processor executes instructions. Weekly labs build circuits — first on paper, then in a simulator — so the material stays concrete rather than purely diagrammatic.

Rafael Dominguez 3 cr

Core200 Level

CSC206

Operating Systems

Operating Systems explains how a computer runs many programs at once, safely and (mostly) fairly. The course covers processes, memory management, and file systems through the lens of the trade-offs an operating system designer has to make.

Daniel Osei 4 cr