EITF20 Computer Architecture

2012/2013 Ht2

Course code: EITF20   Credits: 7.5   Activity term: HT1, Teacher (lectures): Anders Ardö, Anders.Ardo(at)eit.lth.se Assistant (labs): Michal Stala Course litterature (see the 'Course Material' page): David Patterson & John Hennessy, “Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach”, 4th edition, Kaufmann, 2006, ISBN 978-0-12-370490-0. Articles:  Peter Varhol, "GPU vs. CPU Computing"; Jason Patterson, "Modern Microprocessors - A 90 Minute Guide" Course notes and labs: Lab manual, Exercises Lectures: 10 x 2 hours; First lecture Thursday 2012-11-01 in E:B (CHANGED!) Laborations: 4 x 4 hours; First lab 2012-11-13 or 2012-11-16, E:4115,4116

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Course related questions:

How can Gene Amdahl help you decide which enhancement is the best?
Is a larger cache better than higher clock frequency?
What is a superscalar CPU?
What is the difference between a direct mapped cache and a set associative?
How come a TLB is essential to virtual memory efficiency?
What is pipelining?
Is out-of-order execution really possible?
How can the hardware rearrange your program?
Why is pipelinng faster than combinatorics?
Different levels of caches - why?
Snooping on busses?
Is the ARM ISA a RISC?
How much memory bandwidth does a modern CPU need?