Learning objectives
<br />The purpose of the course is to give the students the basic concepts of the modern CPU architectures and computer systems. The course comprises the fundamental knowledge of the programming in language assembly. The concepts are exposed in a general way; when necessary it is made directed reference the architecture of the INTEL CPU family.
Prerequisites
Fondamenti di Informatica B
Course unit content
<br /> Program <br />* Advanced Computer architecture<br />Introduction to the architecture of the modern CPUs. <br />CISC and RISC approaches. <br />Pipeline and superscalar architectures. <br />Control unit. Hardwired control - Introduction to microprogramming. <br /> <br />* Computer System architecture<br />Interconnection Structures, data transfer and bus.<br />Distributed and concentrated arbiter<br />I/O subsystem: interrupt and DMA<br /> <br /> <br />* The Memories: <br />Memory systems hierarchy <br />Electronic and magnetic technologies. Memory technologies such as DRAM, EPROM. <br />Main memory organization: characteristics and performance <br />Latency, cycle time, bandwidth, and interleaving <br />Cache memories (address mapping, line size, replacement and write-back policies) <br />Virtual memory systems.<br /> <br /> <br />* Distributed and parallel architectures<br />Taxonomies: parallel machine models (SIMD, MIMD, SISD, MISD): Flynn’s taxonomy. Amdahl law and performance parameters.<br />Multiprocessors and multi-computers: topology, tightly coupled and loosely coupled architectures <br />Introduction to clusters.<br /> <br />* The logical Architecture of the CPU x86<br />Instruction formats <br />Registers and register files <br />Instruction types and addressing modes <br />Subroutine call and return mechanisms <br />Programming in assembly language <br />I/O techniques and interrupts <br />
Bibliography
<br />· G.Bucci, Architettura e organizzazione dei calcolatori elettronici – Strutture avanzate, McGraw-Hill, 2006.<br />· Randall Hyde, “The art of Assembly Programming”; an online handbook on assembly language: http://www.ce.unipr.it/didattica/calcolatori/docs/aoa.pdf.
