TDTS10 Computer Architecture

Course information

Aim

This course will give students knowledge of how a computer works and an understanding of computer architecture and organization. After completing the course, the students should be able to explain the overall function of a computer system; make a connection between programs and the way they are executed on hardware; evaluate the complexity of modern computer systems; identify the main parameters which impact the quality, performance, and cost of a computer; and understand technical specifications of different computers.

Course organization

The course is organized as a set of lectures and labs.

Course content

Components of a computer, computer performance, instruction set, RISC vs CISC, instruction execution, instruction pipelining, instruction level parallelism, memory hierarchy, cache memory, virtual memory, input/output handling, interconnect structure, superscalar architecture, and parallel computers.

Course syllabus

Please, see LiU Study Guide

Course literature

Stallings, William: Computer Organization and Architecture: Designing for Performance, 11th edition, Pearson Education. (You can use older editions of this book, or any other book covering the same subjects.)

Examination

• Written examination, 3 ECTS.

• Laboratory work, 3 ECTS.

Language

This course is given in English.

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Last updated: 2022-10-26