CSC 311: Computer Organization and Architecture

Offered Under: B.Sc. in Computer Science (CSC)
Description

Introduction to computer systems, their various components and functions. Topics covered include memory organization and management, computer arithmetic, hardware design algorithms and I/O. Concepts in CPU architecture (RISC, CISC) , instruction cycle, instruction pipelining, control unit design, and multicore processor organization are also covered.



Course Type Major
Credit Hour 3
Lecture Hour 45
Expected Outcome(s):
  • Understand design principles and methods used in contemporary processors and memory systems and apply them to new designs.
  • Evaluate the performance of a modern computer.
  • Determine sources of potential performance bottlenecks in a processor design and determine techniques to address them.
  • Reason about sources of low memory system performance for a workload and determine techniques to address them.
  • Evaluate tradeoffs between hardware and software techniques to achieve a performance goal.

Suggested Books:
  1. Computer Organization & Architecture: Design for Performance by William Stallings
  2. Computer Architecture and Organization by John P. Hays

Grading Policy:

Letter Grade Marks Grade Point
A 90 - 100 4.00
A- 85 - 89 3.70
B+ 80 - 84 3.30
B 75 - 79 3.00
B- 70 - 74 2.70
C+ 65 - 69 2.30
C 60 - 64 2.00
C- 55 - 59 1.70
D+ 50 - 54 1.30
D 45 - 49 1.00
F 00 - 44 0.00