Computer Architecture

Catalog description

How does a computer program actually turn into the electrons moving inside of your computer? What are the relevant metrics and tradeoffs for designing a computer, and what impact do these tradeoffs have on our software? In this course, we cover computer organization and design, from a software lens. Topics include instruction set architectures, processor design and pipelining, memory hierarchies, program flow optimization, I/O, and emerging applications. Homeworks and final project will use powerful architecture simulators and explore general and specialized hardware for various applications.