| Date | Topics | Reading | Due dates |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 11 (W) | About the course (Notes) | ||
| January 16 (M) | Holiday | ||
| January 18 (W) | Overview/introduction; defining and measuring performance (Notes) | 1 (except 1.7, 1.9) | |
| January 23 (M) | Overview and performance, continued (Notes) | ||
| January 25 (W) | Machine-level instructions (Notes) | 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 | |
| January 30 (M) | Machine-level instructions, continued (Notes) | 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 | Homework 1: PDF, HTML |
| February 1 (W) | Machine-level instructions, continued; support for procedures (Notes) | 2.8 | Quiz 1 |
| February 6 (M) | Addressing modes; system calls; more about assembler and SPIM (Notes) | 2.9, A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, A.5, A.6, A.9, A.10 (introduction), A.11 | |
| February 8 (W) | Miscellaneous review; source to executable revisited (Notes) | 2.12, 2.13, 2.14, 2.15, 2.19, 2.20, 2.21 | Homework 2: PDF, HTML |
| February 13 (M) | Source to executable, continued (Notes) | Quiz 2 | |
| February 15 (W) | No class | ||
| February 20 (M) | More about linking and loading; a little about support for parallelism (Notes) | 2.11 (skim) | |
| February 22 (W) | Numbers and arithmetic (Notes) | 3.1, 3.2, 3.5 | Homework 3 (written problems): PDF, HTML |
| February 27 (M) | Numbers and arithmetic, continued (Notes) | 3.3, 3.4, 3.9, 3.10 | Homework 3 (programming problems): PDF, HTML |
| March 1 (W) | A little more about floating point; introduction to designing a processor (Notes) | 4.1 | Quiz 3 |
| March 6 (M) | Review for Exam 1 (Notes) | Homework 4: PDF, HTML | |
| March 8 (W) | Exam 1 | (Review in HTML, PDF) | |
| March 13 (M) | Spring break | ||
| March 15 (W) | Spring break | ||
| March 20 (M) | A little about circuit design (Notes) | B.1, B.2, B.3, B.5, B.7, B.8, B.9, B.10, B.13 | |
| March 22 (W) | Circuit design, continued; designing a processor (Notes) | 4.2, 4.3 | |
| March 27 (M) | (No real class) (Notes) | ||
| March 29 (W) | Designing a processor, continued (Notes) | 4.4 | Quiz 4; Homework 5: PDF, HTML |
| April 3 (M) | Designing a processor, continued (Notes) | 4,5, 4.6, 4.9, 4.14, 4.15 | |
| April 5 (W) | Designing a processor, continued | (Notes) | |
| April 10 (M) | Homework 6 review; a little about memory hierarchies (Notes) | (skim) 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.7, 5.8, 5.10,5.16 | Quiz 5; Homework 6: PDF, HTML |
| April 12 (W) | A little more about memory hierarchies and virtual machines (Notes) | (skim) 5.6 | |
| April 17 (M) | A little about parallelism (Notes) | (skim) 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.13, 6.14 | |
| April 19 (W) | Review for Exam 2 (Notes) | Quiz 6 | |
| April 24 (M) | Exam 2 | (Review in HTML, PDF) | |
| April 26 (W) | Course wrap-up and evaluations (Notes) | ||
| May 10 (W) at 6pm | (Not a class day) | Homework X1 (optional): PDF, HTML; Homework X2 (optional): PDF, HTML |