CENTRAL PROCESSING UNIT (CPU) ARCHITECTURES

Catalog description

(Slashed with CS 55102 ) This course explores CPU architectures and concepts, focusing mostly on general purpose CPUs. It begins by examining the x86 architecture, the origins of reduced instruction set computers, and how those diverse concepts were reconciled. It looks at superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, branch prediction, and speculative execution, and their use in the Intel Pentium Pro and Pentium II. Finally, it concludes by exploring some contemporary CPU architectures such as embedded processors, graphics processors, and the open-source RISC-V architecture.