Undergraduate - UnitFIT2069 - Computer architecture

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2013 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

print version

6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

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Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Information Technology
Offered	Clayton First semester 2013 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit covers the internal mechanism of computers and how they are organised and programmed. Topics include combinatorial and sequential logic, Boolean Algebra, Karnaugh maps, counters, ripple adders, tree adders, memory/addressing, busses, speed, DMA, data representation, machine arithmetic, microprogramming, caches and cache architectures, virtual memory and translation look-aside buffers, vectored interrupts, polled interrupts, pipelined architecture, superscalar architecture, data dependency, hazards, CISC, RISC, VLIW machine architectures.

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will have -

A knowledge and understanding of:

combinatorial and sequential logic, Boolean Algebra, Karnaugh maps, and hazards;
counters, ripple adders, tree adders, memory/addressing, computer busses, logic and bus speed, and Direct Memory Access;
data representation for integers and floating point operands;
machine arithmetic, microprogramming;
storage herarchies, caches and cache architectures, performance impact of caching;
virtual memory and translation look-aside buffers, performance impact of TLB caching;
vectored and polled interrupt handling;
pipelined architecture, superscalar architecture, data dependency, and hazards;
CISC, RISC, VLIW machine architectures.

Developed the skills to:

model combinatorial and sequential logic circuits using a simulator tool;
perform programming tasks in assembly code.

Assessment

Examination (3 hours): 60%; In-semester assessment: 40%

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Carlo Kopp

Contact hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 3 hr laboratory/fortnight, 2 hr tutorial/fortnight

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Software engineering
Systems development

Prerequisites

FIT1031 or FIT1001 and FIT1008 or FIT1015

Additional information on this unit is available from the faculty at:

http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/units/fit2069.html