CS441 System Architecture

Course
33405
Section
F01
Credits
3 + 0
Prerequisites:
  • CS321
  • EE341
Instructor
Orion Lawlor
Phone
907-474-7678
Office
Duckering 529
Email
lawlor@alaska.edu
Office Hours
By Appointment
Meeting Time
Room
Chapman 206
Course Website
/courses/cs441/2018-spring/
Required Texts
NO required text. Totally OPTIONAL text: Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Patterson and Hennessy, any edition.

Course Description

By the end of the course, you will be able to understand both the present and future of computer design for performance: parallelism. Specifically, we will cover circuit-level parallelism via circuit simulators; instruction-level transparent parallelism including pipelining, superscalar, and out-of-order execution; vector parallelism including SWAR, SIMD, and GPU programming; as well as coarser-grained parallelism including multicore, multi-thread, and distributed-memory network and cloud computing.

Tentative Schedule

    • First day of instruction; late registration begins

    • Deadline for adding classes and late registration; 5 p.m. in person, midnight at UAOnline

    • Last day for student- and faculty-initiated drops with refund (course does not appear on academic record)

    • Last day for tuition and fee payment; 5 p.m. in person, midnight at UAOnline

    • Deadline to apply for spring 2018 graduation

    • Spring break (no classes)

    • Last day for student- and faculty-initiated withdrawals (W grade appears on academic transcript)

    • Begin fall 2018 priority registration (UAF degree students)

    • SpringFest *(classes are not canceled)*

    • Last day of instruction

    • Final exam: 8-10 a.m.

Grading Policies

Weight Description
5% Class attendance and participation, graded at random intervals throughout the semester
15% Homeworks and machine problems
20% Midterm Exam, held just before Spring Break
20% Final Exam, held 8-10 a.m., Thursday, May 3
20% Project 1, due around Spring Break
20% Project 2, due around the Final Exam

Grades will be assigned based on the following percentage intervals:

A+
[97%, 100%)

A
[93%, 97%)
A-
[90%, 93%)
B+
[87%, 90%)

B
[83%, 87%)
B-
[80%, 83%)
C+
[77%, 80%)

C
[73%, 77%)
C-
[70%, 73%)
D+
[67%, 70%)

D
[63%, 67%)
D-
[60%, 63%)
F
[0%, 60%)

Policies

Students are expected to be at every class meeting on time, and are responsible for all class content, whether present or not. If absence from class is necessary, in-class work (other than quizzes) and homework may be made up only if the instructor is notified as soon as possible; in particular, absences due to scheduled events must be arranged ahead of time. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with according to UAF procedures. Students in this class must pay the CS lab fee.

UAF academic policies http://www.uaf.edu/catalog/current/academics

CS Department policies http://www.cs.uaf.edu/departmental-policies/

Disabilities Services:

The UAF Office of Disability Services implements the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and ensures that UAF students have equal access to the campus and course materials. I will work with the UAF Office of Disability Services (208 WHITAKER BLDG, 474-5655) to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities.

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