Computer Laboratory > Teaching > Course material 2007–08 > Comparative Architectures

Comparative Architectures
2007–08

Principal lecturer: Dr Robert Mullins
Taken by: Part II
Syllabus
Past exam questions

Introduction

This course is about contemporary microprocessor design. It describes how it has been possible to translate advances in CMOS fabrication technology into spectacular improvements in microprocessor performance. The course investigates and contrasts the key architectural techniques that have been exploited over the past 30 years. We also explore the unique set of challenges industry and academia currently face in attempting to sustain advances at historical rates.

Lectures

Complete set of lecture notes (PDF)

You are not expected to read and understand all the additional material that accompanies each lecture. The hope is that this material may be useful if you are interested to explore further or clarify a particular aspect of the lecture.

Articles discussing a number of commerical processors (inc. superscalar, VLIW, multithreaded and multicore) are also provided. These provide excellent material for discussion during supervisions.

*** Branch predictor competition *** - Rules and branch traces for development

	Lectures	Slides	Add. material	Errata
1	Introduction	PDF	Reading
2	The Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)	PDF	Reading
3	Fundamentals of computer design	PDF	Reading
4	Advanced pipelining - Implementation issues and limits	PDF	Reading	L4 slide 8
5	Advanced pipelining - Branches	PDF	Reading	L5 slide 23
6	Superscalar techniques I	PDF	Reading
7	Superscalar techniques II	PDF	Reading	L7 slide
8	Software approaches to exploiting ILP	PDF	Reading	L8 slides 30-33
9	Multithreaded processors	PDF	Reading
10	The memory hierarchy - Cache memories	PDF	Reading	L10 slides 10 & 20
11	The memory hierarchy - Cache optimisations	PDF+PDF	Reading	L11 slide 25
12	The memory hierarchy - Main memory	PDF	Reading
13	Vector processors	PDF	Reading
14	Chip multiprocessors	PDF	Reading
15	Special-purpose architectures	PDF	Reading
16	Guest Lecture Series (see below)

Lecture notes and additional material from previous years: 2006/07 (Dr. David Greaves) / 2004/05 (Dr. Ian Pratt)

Guest Lectures

2007/08 Krisztián Flautner, Director of R&D at ARM Ltd.

Errata

Please let me know if you spot an error in the lecture notes ([Javascript required])

Student Feedback

The Computer Laboratory's online system for collecting student feedback on lecture courses is available here. Please take some time to complete the appraisal form.

Comparative Architectures2007–08