CODE | 72303 |
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ACADEMIC YEAR | 2022/2023 |
CREDITS |
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SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR | ING-INF/01 |
LANGUAGE | Italian |
TEACHING LOCATION |
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SEMESTER | 1° Semester |
MODULES | This unit is a module of: |
TEACHING MATERIALS | AULAWEB |
The progress of computer technologies from 1960 to today has been oustanding. In 1960, a computer was as big as an entire room. Today, a computer is as small as a tablet or a smartphone. In this course, students will study the principles of computer architecture, which played a crucial role in such evolution of computer system.
The course is a study of the evolution of computer architecture and the factors influencing the design of hardware and software elements of computer systems. The course covers the fundamentals of classical and modern processor design: performance and cost issues, instruction sets, pipelining, memory organization.
The design and development of a computer requires one to address specific targets in terms of computational performance, size, cost, and power consumption. Accordingly, both a tablet and a data centre belong to the class of computers; on the other hand, they are definitely different when looking at the four attributes listed above. This module focuses on the design methodologies that allow one to target specific constraints when developing a computer. At the same time, students will be involved in practical classes, where professional tools for the design of digital electronic systems will be utilized. Overall, students will be able to improve their skill on computer architectures and computer systems.
This course includes a combination of lectures and laboratory assignments. Lab assignments will allow students to incrementally design, implement, test, and evaluate digital architectures.
Topics will include: introduction to computer architecture design; analysis of the major design issues: computational performance, power consumption, cost, size; computer arithmetic; instruction set design; processor: datapath and control unit; pipeline and parallelism; memory organization.
Lecture notes
David Patterson, John Hennessy, "Computer Organization and Design", Morgan Kaufmann
David Harris, Sarah Harris, "Digital Design and Computer Architecture", Morgan Kaufmann
Office hours: Phone: 010 3532268 email: paolo.gastaldo@unige.it
PAOLO GASTALDO (President)
EDOARDO RAGUSA
LUCIO MARCENARO (President Substitute)
RODOLFO ZUNINO (President Substitute)
All class schedules are posted on the EasyAcademy portal.
Written exam with multiple choice tests.
The final score will be calculated by taking also into account the outcomes of the lab assignments
The assessment will be based on
Lab assignments. The goal is to evaluate the ability of properly exploiting the theoretical contents introduced in the lessons. In particular, the first assignment deals with computer architecture. The second assignment deals with the design of digital electronic systems.
Written exam. The goal is to evaluate the levels of comprehension of the theoretical contents introduced in the lessons The exam includes both multiple choiche tests and open questions.
Date | Time | Location | Type | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|
10/01/2023 | 10:30 | GENOVA | Scritto | |
07/02/2023 | 10:30 | GENOVA | Scritto | |
13/06/2023 | 10:30 | GENOVA | Scritto | |
12/07/2023 | 10:30 | GENOVA | Scritto | |
05/09/2023 | 10:30 | GENOVA | Scritto |