Computer Laboratory > Teaching > Course material 2009–10 > Comparative Architectures

Comparative Architectures
2009–10

Principal lecturer: Dr Robert Mullins
Taken by: Part II
Syllabus
Past exam questions
Information for supervisors (contact lecturer for access permission)

Lecture Notes

Complete set of lecture notes (PDF) (or each lecture 1up)
Supervision Worksheet (PDF)

Reading

Lectures 1-3: I suggest you read the first Chapter of Hennessy and Patterson. Appendix B. may also be useful (this is Chapter 2 in the 3rd Edition).

Lectures 4-7: Chapter 2 of Hennessy and Patterson. Chapter 3. will probably also be useful.

Lecture 7: Appendex G in Hennessy and Patterson (this is covered in Chapter 4 in the 3rd Edition)

Lecture 8: Finish reading Chapter 3.

Lecture 9 and 10: Appendix C and Chapter 5.

Lecture 11: If you need further explanations read Appendix F (on CD).

Lecture 12 and 13: Chapter 4.

Lecture 14: "Principles and Practices of Interconnection Networks", Dally/Towles is an excellent book if you want to go into more detail or clarify any particular areas.

Additional Material

I have provided additional material for each lecture on the course wiki to help you go beyond the basic material. These papers and reports may clarify elements of the course or simply help you explore aspects that you find particularly interesting. It is certainly not a requirement for you to read and understand the additional material.

Link to course wiki. This will be updated as the course progresses, last year's additional material can be found here.

Branch Prediction Competition

See competition wiki page

Errata

Lecture 4, Slide 28 "2-bits of branch address" at the bottom of the left column of the slide should read "4-bits of branch address".

Comparative Architectures2009–10