ECS4373

Computer systems engineering V

G K Egan

4 points
* 24 lectures and 18 laboratory hours
* First semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: ECS3381

Objectives The student is expected to develop an understanding of a range of interfacing techniques, including disk I/O and interrupt-driven and DMA control, and the ability to design interfaces for a typical bus. The student is also expected to acquire an understanding of the methods of using parallelism in computer organisation and methods of improving reliability.

Synopsis Microprocessor-based systems: CPU, memory, I/O. Interrupt structures, direct memory access (DMA), computer buses. Pipelining and RISC. Computer peripherals and interfacing. Reliability, fault tolerance and error detection. Hardware for fast floating point operations.

Assessment Examination (2 hours): 70%
* Laboratory work: 30%

Prescribed texts

Hennessy J L and Patterson D A Computer organization and design: The hardware/software interface Morgan Kaufmann, 1994