Academic management

The Computer Architecture course is taught by personnel of the Informatics Department during the fall semester within the second course of the Bachelor´s Degree in Computer Science. The course is included in the field Hardware and Physical Fundamentals, within the common courses of the Computer Engineering branch. The skills to be acquired by the student will allow them to understand how modern computers provide support for multitask operating systems, as well as the improvements to increase the performance of the system. Furthermore, the student will be able to select the proper peripheral devices to use with the computer.

Computer Architecture requires the skills acquired by the student in the courses Computer and Network Fundamentals and Programming Fundamentals, taught in the first year. In fact, Computer Architecture is the natural continuation of Computer and Network Fundamentals, since concepts taught in this course are studied more deeply.

Many of the skills acquired by the student in Computer Architecture are considered key skills for other courses of the degree, mainly for the Operating Systems course, where hardware is linked with software.

Similarly, skills acquired in Computer Architecture will be useful in further courses such System Configuration and Evaluation and Computer Infrastructure.

Computer Architecture students are supposed to be taught in Computer and Network Fundamentals in the first year, as well as in Programming Fundamentals.

Computer Architecture encourages the student to acquire the following competences:

The learning outcomes are the following:

Theory contents:

Unit 1. Introduction

    1.1. The computer

    1.2. Instruction set architecture

    1.3. Microarchitecture

    1.4. Performance

Unit 2. CPU

    2.1. The MIPS64 architecture

    2.2. Single-cycle microarchitecture

    2.3. Pipelined microarchitecture

    2.4. Multiple issue of instructions

    2.5. Moore’s law

    2.6. Multithread CPU

    2.7. Support for multitasking OS

    2.8. Support for virtualization

Unit 3. Memory hierarchy

    3.1. Introduction

    3.2. Concept of memory hierarchy

    3.3. Cache memory

    3.4. Virtual memory

    3.5. Support for virtualization

Unit 4. Input/Output system

    4.1. I/O interfaces

    4.2. Interconnection systems

    4.3. Peripheral devices

    4.4. I/O virtualization

Laboratory contents:

Unit 1. Quantitative analysis of computer performance

Unit 2. CPU

Unit 3. Memory hierarchy

Computer Architecture will be taught by means of:

• Lessons: Main concepts of the course are presented in detail.
• Seminars: Problems are solved, as well as questions about the concepts presented in the lessons. In addition, exercises or other tasks may be done.
• Laboratory sessions: The main concepts of the course are trained in a computer to acquire skills in the use of tools.
• Group tutorials: Teachers solve students’ queries in small groups. If required by the teacher, other activities may be done in these sessions, such as teamwork organizing and monitoring.
• Student work: Individual and teamwork, as well as preparing the evaluation sessions. Teachers expect each student to devote the following hours to each lesson or laboratory session in order to acquire the expected skills trained in the course.

Exceptionally, should sanitary conditions require it, non-classroom teaching activities may be included. In that case, students will be informed accordingly.

The assessment of the student is based on:

• Individual work of the student in the theory part of the course
• Individual work of the student in the laboratory
• Teamwork

Those three parts must sum up at least 5 points out of 10 for the student to pass the course. In addition, it is necessary to obtain a minimum mark of 3 points out of 10 in the theory part. In the case that this minimum is not achieved, the final mark will be the lowest between 4.5 and the summation of the three parts.

Assessment of the theory part (5 points out of 10)

The assessment of the theory part of the course is computed differently in the ordinary and in the extraordinary evaluation:

• Ordinary evaluation. Two exams will be done during the course in order to assess the work related to the theory part. These exams will be done individually and will be included in the in-class activities.

Both exams have the same weight in the final mark of the theory part of the course, which will be computed as the average of the two. If the student does not sit an exam, their mark in the exam is 0.

• Extraordinary evaluation. The theory part of the course will be evaluated by means of a final exam. The mark of the theory part of the course is the mark obtained by the student in this final exam.

The mark of the theory part of the course in the ordinary evaluation is not valid for the extraordinary evaluations of the same academic year.

Assessment of the laboratory part (4 points out of 10)

The assessment of the laboratory part of the course is computed differently in the ordinary and in the extraordinary evaluation:

• Ordinary evaluation. During the course two exams will be done related with the work developed in the laboratory sessions. The weight of the exams in the final mark of the laboratory part of the course is 60$ and 40%, respectively. If the student does sit an exam, their mark in the exam will be 0.
• Extraordinary evaluation. The laboratory part of the course will be evaluated by means of a final exam. At least 50% of the maximum theory mark is required to the take the extraordinary laboratory exam.

If the mark of the laboratory part of the course is greater than 50%, it will be valid for the extraordinary evaluations of the same academic year.

Teamwork assessment (1 point out of 10)

During the course, a task to be developed with classmates will be assigned to the student. Students will form teams of four members (as a general rule) of the same tutorial group. The topic of the task will be proposed by the teacher, although team proposals can also be taken into account. At the end of the course, a report must be sent to the teacher and a public presentation must be carried out. The presentation will be carried out by one or more members of the team chosen at the beginning of the presentation. Thus, all the members must attend the presentation of their teamwork.

The assessment of the teamwork will be based on:

• The teaching capacity of doing work. This item includes aspects such as: relationship to the theory concepts, ease of understanding of the work, etc.
• Report presentation. Relevance to the provided template, spelling, expressions from translations, bibliography, references, etc.
• Difficulty of the concepts involved in the teamwork.
• Presentation of the teamwork. Mastery of the subject, synthesis capacity, responsiveness to questions, etc.
• Assessment of the teamwork by classmates.

The mark for each student in the team may be different depending on the participation of the student. The mark in the teamwork of the members that do not attend their teamwork presentation will be 0.

The mark of the teamwork is valid for the extraordinary evaluations of the same academic year. There is no chance to do the teamwork in the extraordinary evaluations.

Differentiated assessment

Two exams will be compulsory in all evaluations. Firstly, a final exam based on the theoretical part of the subject, between 0 and 5 points. Secondly, a final laboratory exam, between 0 and 5 points. To sit the laboratory exam, the student must pass the theoretical exam. A minimum mark of five points is required to pass the course.

Use of materials of illicit means

If fraudulent behavior is detected in any assessment task, test or exam, the final assessment of the course will be 0 points, regardless other possible penalties that could be determined.

Exception

Exceptionally, should sanitary conditions require it, non-classroom evaluation methods may be included. In that case, students will be informed accordingly.

Basic:

• J.C. Granda, J.M. López, M. García, J. Molleda, R. Usamentiaga, J. Entrialgo, F.J. de la Calle. Arquitectura de Computadores. España: Ediuno. Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo, 2019, ISBN: 978-84-17445-50-8.
• D.A. Patterson y J.L. Hennessy. Computer organization and design. The hardware/software interface, 5th edition. Morgan Kaufmann, 2014. ISBN: 9780124077263.

Recommended:

• J.L. Hennessy y D.A. Patterson. Computer Architecture. A quantitative approach, 5th edition. Morgan Kaufmann, 2011. ISBN: 9780123838728.
• W. Stallings y A.C. Vargas. Organización y arquitectura de computadores: diseño para optimizar prestaciones. Prentice Hall, 2001. ISBN: 9788420529936.
• V.C. Hamacher, Z.G. Vranesic, S.G. Zaky, M.L.F. García y G.Q. Vieyra. Organización de computadoras. McGraw-Hill, 1987. ISBN: 9684220588.