Welcome to 18-447, Introduction to Computer Architecture.

• There is no lecture on Jan 16, due to Martin Luther King Day. The first lecture will be held on Jan 18. (See our lecture schedule for more details.)
• There is no lab session on Jan 17. Lab sessions start on Jan 19.
• Lab 1 and Homeworks 0, 1 posted
• Homework 2 posted (due February 13)
• Lab 2 is released (due February 17)

Computer architecture is the science and art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components and designing the hardware/software interface to create a computer that meets functional, performance, energy consumption, cost, and other specific goals. This course introduces the basic hardware structure of a modern programmable computer, including the basic laws underlying performance evaluation. We will learn, for example, how to design the control and data path hardware for a MIPS-like processor, how to make machine instructions execute simultaneously through pipelining and simple superscalar execution, and how to design fast memory and storage systems. The principles presented in the lecture are reinforced in the laboratory through the design and simulation of a register transfer level (RTL) implementation of a MIPS-like pipelined processor in Verilog. In addition, we will develop a cycle-accurate simulator of this processor in C, and we will use this simulator to explore processor design options.

Prerequisites: 18-240 and (15-213 or 18-243) and (18340 or 18341 or 18348 or 18349 or 18320)

• Lecture: MW 12:30pm – 2:20pm, HH-B103
• Lab Section A: Tues 10:30am – 1:20pm, HH-1112 (TA: Chris)
• Lab Section B: Thurs 1:30pm – 4:20pm, HH-1112 (TA: Lavanya)
• Lab Section C: Fri 6:30pm – 9:20pm, HH-1112 (TA: Abeer)

• Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Fourth Edition by Patterson and Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann/Elsvier. (Required)
• HDL Compiler for Verilog Reference Manual by Synopsys, Inc. /afs/ece/class/ece447/docs/synopsys/top.pdf.

• Introduction to Computing Systems: From Bits and Gates to C and Beyond, Second Edition by Patt and Patel, McGraw-Hill.
• Computer Organization by Hamacher, Vranesic, and Zaky, McGraw-Hill.
• Computer Architecture and Implementation by Harvey Cragon, Cambridge University Press.
• Structured Computer Organization by Andrew Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall.

Note: you may email the course instructor and TAs at 447-instructors@ece.cmu.edu.