Computer Organization II

581365
5
Networking and Services
Intermediate studies
Course introduces students to lower level computer organization structures, e.g., to machine language structure, pipelined instruction execution as well as the implementation of processors and memory hierarchy. Prerequisites: Computer Organization I. Text book: Stallings W.: Computer Organization and Architecture (9th ed.), Pearson, 2013.

Exam

15.10.2013 16.00 CK112
Year Semester Date Period Language In charge
2013 autumn 02.09-09.10. 1-1 English Teemu Kerola

Lectures

Time Room Lecturer Date
Mon 14-16 C222 Teemu Kerola 02.09.2013-09.10.2013
Wed 12-14 C222 Teemu Kerola 02.09.2013-09.10.2013

Exercise groups

Group: 1
Time Room Instructor Date Observe
Tue 14-16 B222 Teemu Kerola 09.09.2013—11.10.2013

Information for international students

Lectures are in principle in English. However, they may be in Finnish if everyone present understands Finnish.

Practice sessions are bilingual, in English and in Finnish.

Everybody needs the text book.

General

Course is elective intermediate course. The target audience for the course are the 2nd-4th year students. Basically, you can take this course any time after taking Computer Organization I.

Prerequisites: Course Computer Organization I, or good knowledge on its topics.

Notices and Remarks

All noticies during the lecture course will be published here. 

16.9.2013 I added a new column to the schedule for those students using the 8th ed. of the text book [Sta10]. That edition has one online chapter (Ch20), which is also available via direct link.  

Completing the course

This lecture course has the following components:

  1. Lectures: 6 weeks, 4h/wk
  2. Practice sessions: 5 weeks, 2h/wk
  3. Course exam: Tue 15.10.2013

Grading is based on the following guidelines:

Course component Available points toward grade Minimum points needed to pass
Practice sessions (homeworks, attendance) 6 1
Course exam 30 15
     
Total 36 18

So, in order to pass the course you need to at least have minimum attendance to practice sessions, get at least 50% of the exam points, and have at least 18 grade points total. 

Literature and material

The course (Spring 2012) is based on textbook William Stallings, Computer Organization and Architecture - Designing for Performance, 9th Ed., Pearson, 2013. The course covers Chapters 3-4 and 8-20. There is an (student) online support website for this text book. Chapters 1-2, 5-7, as well as many parts of other chapters and appendixes have been covered in earlier courses, mostly in Computer Organization I. Get ready for this course and obtain your own copy of the text book early.

The text book can be found in bookstores and in university libraries. Amazon UK sells it for £59 (August 2013). Digital copies can be obtained from CourseSmart (£33 for 360 day rental in August 2013).

There is a small set of simple practice problems designed for this course. Most of them are (so far) only in Finnish. Please use them for self evaluation on how well you have learned any given topic. A good time to do the practice problems is after you have studied the given chapter and done the homeworks for it. There is no bookkeeping on how you use the practice problems and their use does not affect your grade.

Stallings' online support website has a nice set of a little bit more challenging practice problems with model solutions. These problems are similar to homework problems and they require more work than simple practice problems above. However, more work will usually result with deeper learning.