Lecture Notes

The course material is divided into five modules, each covering a set of related topics. This section contains the lecture notes for the course.

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(A): Session taught by Professor Arvind
(J): Session taught by Dr. Joel Emer

SES # TOPICS
Module 1
L1 History of Calculation and Computer Architecture (A) (PDF)
L2 Influence of Technology and Software on Instruction Sets: Up to the dawn of IBM 360 (A) (PDF)
L3 Complex Instruction Set Evolution in the Sixties: Stack and GPR Architectures (A) (PDF)
L4 Microprogramming (A) (PDF)
L5 Simple Instruction Pipelining (A) (PDF)
L6 Pipeline Hazards (A) (This resource may not render correctly in a screen reader.PDF)
Module 2
L7 Multilevel Memories - Technology (J) (PDF)
L8 Cache (Memory) Performance Optimization (J) (PDF)
L9 Virtual Memory Basics (J) (PDF)
L10 Virtual Memory: Part Deux (A) (PDF)
Module 3
L11 Complex Pipelining (A) (PDF)
L12 Out of Order Execution and Register Renaming (A) (PDF)
L13 Branch Prediction and Speculative Execution (A) (PDF)
L14 Advanced Superscalar Architectures (J) (PDF)
L15 Microprocessor Evolution: 4004 to Pentium 4 (J) (PDF)
Module 4
L16 Synchronization and Sequential Consistency (A) (PDF)
L17 Cache Coherence (A) (PDF)
L18 Cache Coherence (Implementation) (A) (PDF)
L19 Snoopy Protocols (A) (PDF)
L20 Relaxed Memory Models (A) (PDF)
Module 5
L21 VLIW/EPIC: Statically Scheduled ILP (J) (PDF)
L22 Vector Computers (J) (PDF)
L23 Multithreaded Processors (J) (PDF)
L24 Reliable Architectures (J) (PDF)
L25 Virtual Machines (J) (PDF)