Amreen Anbar

[email protected]

Thurs. 11:00-12:00

Zoom: 917 9651 4430 Passcode: 1323

Taabish Jeshani

[email protected]

Fri. 13:00-14:00         Zoom: 938 5640 3957 Passcode: 156783

Haohan Liu

[email protected]

Wed. 9:30-10:30

MC 338

Ruizhi Pu

[email protected]

Tues. 11:00-12:00      Zoom: 932 7917 7338 836676

Class Schedule

Mondays, 9:30 - 11:30, MC 110

Wednesdays, 10:30 - 11:30, SSC 2050

Special Dates

Classes begin: January 9

Reading Week: February 18–26, inclusive

Classes end: April 10                                                                                                                      In the event of a COVID-19 resurgence which requires moving away from in-class teaching, lec- tures will proceed synchronously via Zoom. Details to be announced, if required. The grading scheme will not change. Any remaining assessments will also be conducted online.

Course Materials

Students are required to have access to a commputer with reliable internet connection.  For proctoring, this include also having a working microphone and webcam.

All course materials will be posted to OWL: http://owl.uwo.ca. This includes course notes, sup- plementary materials, and recorded lectures (if online).

Students should check OWL (http://owl.uwo.ca) on a regular basis for news, announcements, and forum posts. This is the primary method by which information will be disseminated to all students in the class. Students are responsible for checking OWL on a regular basis.

There is no required textbook for this course. However, a suggested reading material is Com - puter Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, by Hennessy and Patterson. Another fine textbook is Computer Organization and Design, by Patterson and Hennessy. At least 4th edition of each.

If students need assistance, they can seek support on the OWL Help page. Alternatively, they can contact the Western Technology Services Helpdesk at 519-661-3800.

Forums and Email Contact

Students should post all questions about course content on the OWL site’s forums.  This in- cludes any question about lectures, assignments, or quizzes. Please check existing questions and answers on the forums first before submitting a new question. Emails (from your uwo.ca account) should be used only for personal and private matters only. Ifyour forum question goes

unanswered for a day or two, a friendly email reminder to the TAs or the instructor is okay. Include “CS3350” in your email subject. Otherwise, you may not receive a reply to your email.

Course Topics + Schedule

•  Introductions, Hardware Abstractions (0.5 week)

•  CPU and Memory (3 weeks)

– CPU performance metrics

– Memory hierarchy

– Cache memories

– Impact of cache on CPU performance

•  Stateless Circuits (1 week)

– Simple gates, switches, truth tables

– Functional completeness

– Boolean algebra, simplification, canonical forms

– Combinational logic blocks: multiplexer, ALU, n-bit arithmetic

•  Synchronous Circuits/State Circuits (1 weeks)

– Clocks, signals, and waveforms

– Flip-flops: D, T, SR, JK; Registers

– Finite state machines

•  CPU datapath, Instruction Set Architecture (2 weeks)

– Typical 5-stage datapath

– Single cycle vs Multi-cycle

– MIPS

•  Instruction-level Parallelism (3 weeks)

– Single-cycle vs Multi-cycle

– Pipelining

– Performance metrics

– Multi-issue processors: VLIW, superscalar

– Hazards: data, control, structural

•  Multi-core Processors (2 weeks)

– Parallelism for performance

– Cache coherency, MESI protocol

– Thread-level parallelism and synchronization

– Modern parallel architectures, GPU architectures

Evaluation and Tentative Schedule

Assignment Regulations

• Assignments are due at 23:55 on the due date. Late assignments will be handled as follows. 0-24 hours late: you make the instructor sad,

24-48 hours late: -20%,

48-72 hours late: -50%,

>72 hours late: submissions are no longer accepted, you will receive 0.

• Assignments will be released at least two weeks before the due date. Extensions may be made on due dates depending on progression through course material.

• Assignments are to be submitted on Gradescope. Details available on the OWL site. They should be typeset or legible, scanned copies of hand-written work. If the TA cannot read your handwriting, it will be marked as incorrect.

•  Plagiarism is unacceptable. It is reasonable to assume that students discuss assignments and possible solutions, however all assignments shall be independent.

• Any concerns with assignment marking must be addressed within one week of the as- sessment being returned. No adjustments will be made after this time. Concerns about quizzes may be addressed to the instructor.  Concerns about the assignment should be made through gradescope using the regrade request feature.

Quiz and Exam Regulations

•  Plagiarism is unacceptable.

•  Quizzes and exams are closed book. Any required information, numerical constants, for- mulas, etc. will be given in the quiz/exam/question.

•  No electronic devices other than a simple scientific calculator may be in the possession of students during quizzes and the Final Exam.

• Any concerns with quiz marking must be addressed within one week of the assessment being returned. No adjustments will be made after this time. Concerns about quizzes will be addressed to the instructor.

•  If you miss one quiz, the weight will be re-assigned to the other three quizzes. Contact the instructor to confirm your absence is recorded.

•  If you miss more than one quiz, you must receive academic accommodation from the  Academic Counselling office ofyour Faculty of Registration. Handling of the missed quizzes will be on a case by case basis.

• The Final exam will be scheduled by the office of the registrar at a later date.

•  Ifyou miss the Final Exam, please contact the Academic Counselling office ofyour Faculty of Registration as soon as you are able to do so. They will assess your eligibility to write  the Special Examination (the name given by the University to a makeup Final Exam). You  may also be eligible to write the Special Exam if you are in a“Multiple Exam Situation” (e.g., more than 2 exams in 23-hour period, more than 3 exams in a 47-hour period).

Policies, Accommodation, Accessibility

Physical Health

Students should also note that individual instructors are not permitted to receive documenta- tion directly from a student, whether in support of an application for consideration on medical grounds, or for other reasons. All documentation required for absences must be submitted to the Academic Counselling office of a student’s Home Faculty

For the policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness - Undergraduate Students, see: https: //www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/accommodation_medical.pdf and for the Student Medical Certificate (SMC), see: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/acad emic_policies/appeals/medicalform.pdf

Mental Health

Mental and emotional well-being is highly important and should not be treated lightly. Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer toHealth and Wellness at Westernfor a com- plete list of options about how to obtain help. Students in immediate distress should contact Student Health Services, Campus Police, or Psychological Services whose contact information can be found here.

Religious Accommodation

Students should consult the University’s list of recognized religious holidays, and should give reasonable notice in writing, prior to the holiday, to the Instructor and an Academic Counsellor if their course requirements will be affected by a religious observance. Additional information is given in the Western Multicultural Calendar: https://multiculturalcalendar.com/ecal /index.php?s=c-univwo