The current version of the course web site and syllabus is available at https://cscie93.dce.harvard.edu/fall2021/.  Please refer there for detailed and updated information.

Harvard Extension School CSCI E-93

Computer Architecture (16593)

Fall 2021
Site last revised 2:54 PM 4-Aug-2021

Dr. James L. Frankel

We will be holding our first section meeting on Tuesday, August 31, 2021 at 6:30 PM ET. Note that this section meeting is *before* our first class meeting. Both section and class meetings are live streamed and are also available after class for later viewing and reviewing.

After the upcoming Fall 2021 semester, the next time CSCI E-93 will be offered is in the Spring 2023 semester.

Class Hours and Location:

Tuesdays 7:40-10:15 PM ET via web conference. Students may attend at the scheduled meeting time or watch recorded sessions on demand. The recorded sessions are available within 24 hours of the lecture.

Both section & class are are live streamed and also recorded. Students are encouraged to share their video feed and to ask questions verbally using their audio/video link in Zoom.

Prerequisites:

Knowledge of data structures and programming experience, such as is taught in CSCI E-22 (formerly CSCI E-119) (Data Structures), is required. Some background in boolean/digital logic, such as is taught in ENSC E-123 (Laboratory Electronics: Digital Circuit Design) or equivalents, is preferred, but not required. Students must have sufficient experience to write programming projects of modest size and complexity in C, C++, or Java that utilize a variety of data structures. This course does *not* teach programming.

Brief abstract:

This course is a study of the fundamental concepts in the design and organization of modern computer systems. Topics include computer organization, instruction set design, processor design, memory system design, timing issues, interrupts, microcoding, and various performance-enhancing parallel techniques such as prefetching, pipelining, branch prediction, superscalar execution, and massive-parallel processing. Study of existing architectures using CISC, RISC, vector, data parallel, and VLIW designs. An extensive lab project will be required of all students.

4 credits. Graduate credit.

Overview:

Computer Science E-93 is a comprehensive course in the architecture and organization of modern computers. Students are already expected to be comfortable with designing, coding, and debugging programs of modest complexity while employing good programming style, structured techniques, and employing appropriate data structures as appropriate. In particular, this class is not a programming course, but students will be required to write several significant programs. In addition, some experience with digital logic and gates and with programming in assembler language is preferred.

A significant portion of the class will involve the design and implementation of a major term project. The project will be developed by each student working alone. That project is the core of a new computer's central processing unit including the data path, instruction fetch and decoding unit, and registers implemented using an Altera FPGA. Initially, both the classroom lectures and the section meetings will be covering material important to the design and implementation of the final project. Later in the semester, advanced topics will be covered in class; however, both the class and sections will continue to support students as term projects progress. For the term project, students will continue working on and debugging their projects leading to their complete implementation and a final demonstration.

Because the course includes a required and significant term project involving both programming and hardware implementation, the assignments will be time-consuming; therefore, a significant time commitment to the course is necessary. Although the relevant experience of students in the class is usually quite diverse, depending on background, it is not unusual for students to spend 10-15 hours per week or more completing the readings and homework assignments.

Dr. James L. Frankel ,

• President, Frankel and Associates, Incorporated
• Brief Bio:
  • Prof. Frankel's background includes work in start-ups, academia, and research.
  • He has worked at IBM Research Yorktown Heights, Xerox PARC, Digital Equipment Corporation, Thinking Machines, and Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs.
  • In addition to Frankel and Associates, he has built CommerceTone, Auripay, Incentive Targeting, and has worked with numerous consulting clients.
  • He was the 2019 recipient of the Petra Shattuck Excellence in Teaching Award.
• Office hours:
  • Via phone and/or web conference
  • By appointment

• E-mail address: .  Questions whose answers would be relevant to the whole class should be posed via Ed Discussion. For some appropriate issues (grading questions, etc.), e-mail should be sent to the professor and also to both TAs.
• Phone: +1 617.401.7480