Department of Computer Science and Technology

Course pages 2018–19

Subsections


Computer Design

Lecturers: Professor S.W. Moore and Dr T.M. Jones

No. of lectures: 18 (plus 4 via a web-based tutor)

Suggested hours of supervisions: 5

Prerequisite course: Digital Electronics

Companion course: Electronic Computer Aided Design (ECAD)

This course is a prerequisite for the Part II course Comparative Architectures.

Aims

The aims of this course are to introduce a hardware description language (SystemVerilog) and computer architecture concepts in order to design computer systems. The parallel ECAD+Arch practical classes will allow students to apply the concepts taught in lectures.

The course starts with a web-based SystemVerilog tutor which is a prerequisite for the ECAD+Arch practical classes. There are then eighteen lectures in three six-lecture parts. Part 1 goes from gates to a simple processor. Part 2 looks at instruction set and computer architecture. Part 3 analyses the architecture of modern systems-on-chip.

Lectures

Part 0 - SystemVerilog Web tutor

  • This web tutor is a prerequisite to starting the ECAD+Arch laboratory sessions [equivalent to approximately 4 lectures]

Part 1 - Gates to processors [lecturer: Simon Moore]

  • Introduction and motivation. [1 lecture] Current technology, technology trends, ECAD trends, challenges.

  • Logic modelling, simulation and synthesis. [1 lecture] Logic value and delay modelling. Discrete event and device simulation. Automatic logic minimization.

  • SystemVerilog FPGA design. [1 lecture] Practicalities of mapping SystemVerilog descriptions of hardware (including a processor) onto an FPGA board. Tips and pitfalls when generating larger modular designs.

  • Chip, board and system testing. [1 lecture] Production testing, fault models, testability, fault coverage, scan path testing, simulation models.

  • Building a simple computer. [2 lectures]

Part 2 - Instruction sets and introduction to computer architecture [lecturer: Simon Moore]

  • Historical perspective on computer architecture. [1 lecture] EDSAC versus Manchester Mark I.

  • RISC machines. [1 lecture] Introduction to ARM and MIPS RISC processor designs.

  • CISC and virtual machines [1 lecture] The Intel x86 instruction set and the Java Virtual Machine (JVM).

  • Memory hierarchy. [1 lecture] Caching, etc.

  • Hardware support for operating systems. [1 lecture] Memory protection, exceptions, interrupts, etc.

  • Pipelining and data paths. [1 lecture]

Part 3 - Systems-on-chip [lecturer: Timothy Jones]

  • Overview of Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) and DRAM. [1 lecture] High-level SoCs, DRAM storage and accessing.

  • Multicore Processors. [2 lectures] Communication, cache coherence, barriers and synchronisation primitives.

  • Graphics processing units (GPUs) [2 lectures] Basic GPU architecture and programming.

  • Future Directions [1 lecture] Where is computer architecture heading?

Objectives

At the end of the course students should

  • be able to read assembler given a guide to the instruction set and be able to write short pieces of assembler if given an instruction set or asked to invent an instruction set;

  • understand the differences between RISC and CISC assembler;

  • understand what facilities a processor provides to support operating systems, from memory management to software interrupts;

  • understand memory hierarchy including different cache structures and coherency needed for multicore systems;

  • understand how to implement a processor in SystemVerilog;

  • appreciate the use of pipelining in processor design;

  • have an appreciation of control structures used in processor design;

  • have an appreciation of system-on-chips and their components;

  • understand how DRAM stores data;

  • understand how multicore processors communicate;

  • understand how GPUs work and have an appreciation of how to program them.

Recommended reading

* Patterson, D.A. & Hennessy, J.L. (2017). Computer organization and design: The hardware/software interface RISC-V edition. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0-12-812275-4.

Recommended further reading:

Harris, D.M. & Harris, S.L. (2012). Digital design and computer architecture. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN 978-0-12-394424-5.
Hennessy, J. & Patterson, D. (2006). Computer architecture: a quantitative approach. Elsevier (4th ed.). ISBN 978-0-12-370490-0. (Older versions of the book are also still generally relevant.)

Pointers to sources of more specialist information are included in the lecture notes and on the associated course web page.