| Lecture date | Topics | Reading | Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 16 (W) | About the course; overview and introduction (Notes) | ||
| January 21 (M) | Holiday | ||
| January 23 (W) | Overview/introduction continued; defining and measuring performance (Notes) | 1 (except 1.7, 1.9) | |
| January 28 (M) | Machine-level instructions (Notes) | 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 | |
| January 30 (W) | Machine-level instructions, continued (Notes) | 2.5, 2.6, 2.7 | Homework 1: HTML, PDF |
| February 4 (M) | No class | ||
| February 6 (W) | Machine-level instructions, continued; support for procedures (Notes) | 2.8 | Quiz 1 |
| February 11 (M) | No class; video lecture 2/15 | Homework 2: HTML, PDF | |
| February 13 (W) | Addressing modes; system calls; writing complete programs for SPIM (Notes) | 2.9, A.1, A.2, A.3, A.4, A.5, A.6, A.9, A.10 (introduction), A.11 | |
| February 15 (F) | Miscellaneous review; longer MIPS code example (Video lecture at echo360.org; notes) | ||
| February 18 (M) | No class; video lecture 2/22 | ||
| February 20 (W) | Source to executable revisited (Notes) | Quiz 2; Homework 3: HTML, PDF | |
| February 22 (F) | Assembling and linking revisited, with example(s) (Video lecture at echo360.org; notes) | ||
| February 25 (M) | Miscellaneous review (Notes) | ||
| February 27 (W) | Support for parallelism; more MIPS programming (Notes) | Homework 4: HTML, PDF (accepted without penalty through Friday) | |
| March 4 (M) | Review for Exam 1 (Notes) | ||
| March 6 (W) | Exam 1 | (Review in HTML, PDF) | |
| March 11 (M) | Spring break | ||
| March 13 (W) | Spring break | ||
| March 18 (M) | No class; video lecture 3/22 | ||
| March 20 (W) | Numbers and arithmetic (Notes) | 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 (skim), 3.5 (skim), 3.6 (skim), 3.9, 3.10 | |
| March 22 (F) | Numbers and arithmetic, continued (Video lecture at echo360.org; notes) | ||
| March 25 (M) | Numbers and arithmetic, continued (Video lecture at echo360.org; notes) | ||
| March 27 (W) | Introduction to designing a processor; a little about circuit design (Notes) | 4.1 B.1, B.2, B.3, B.5, B.7, B.8, B.9, B.10, B.13 | Quiz 3 |
| April 1 (M) | More about designing a processor (Notes) | 4.2, 4.3 | Homework 5: HTML, PDF |
| April 3 (W) | Designing a processor, continued (Video lecture at echo360.org; notes) | 4.4 | |
| April 8 (M) | A little about memory hierarchies (Notes) | 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.10, 5.16 (skim all) | Quiz 4; Homework 6: HTML, PDF |
| April 10 (W) | Designing a processor, continued; pipelining (Notes) | 4.5, 4.6 | |
| April 15 (M) | Pipelining, continued; exceptions (Notes) | 4.7 (skim), 4.8 (skim), 4.9, 4.14, 4.15 | Quiz 5; Homework 7: HTML, PDF |
| April 17 (W) | A little more about exceptions; (Notes) | Quiz 6; Homework 8: HTML, PDF | |
| April 22 (M) | Review for Exam 2 (Notes) | ||
| April 24 (W) | Exam 2 | (Review in HTML, PDF) | |
| April 29 (M) | A little more about caching; a little about virtual machines; a little about parallel computing (Notes) | ||
| May 1 (W) | Course wrap-up and evaluations | ||
| May 14 (W) | (Not a class day) | Final deadline for submitting late homework; Homework X (extra credit): HTML, PDF (not accepted late). |