NET4003 Computer Systems Architecture

Course Outline
Fall 2014
Revised 2014-09-03. Check the website for possible changes.
Course Web site: http://iv.csit.carleton.ca/~hutchins/NET4003/
The web site may contain last minute information about all aspects of the course,
including changes to assignments, changes to instructors office hours, scheduling, course
outline, etc. so you should check the website regularly.
Calendar Description of the Course: (more details at end of course outline)
History and evolution of computers. Models and functional descriptions of CPU, bus,
memory, I/O. Internal data transfer and storage concepts. Bus protocols. Memory
organization and cache principles. Digital logic and simple logic designs of CPU, buses,
memory. Concepts of virtual machines, parallel computing, cloud computing.
Prerequisites: Third year standing in the Networking program+ NET 2003 + NET 3001.
Students who have not satisfied the prerequisites for this course must withdraw from the
course or they will be automatically deregistered from the course after the last day to
register for courses in the term.
Instructor:
Office hours:
E-mail:

David Hutchinson. Room 230 AP

see website http://iv.csit.carleton.ca/~hutchins/NET4003/
hutchins@sce (dot carleton.ca)

Teaching Assistant: To Be Announced - see website.

Lectures:

See website

Lab Sessions: See website

Textbook:
1. Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Structured Computer Organization, 5th Edition, Prentice
Hall, 2006. Class notes will be available for some of the topics not covered in the
main text.
Reference Texts:
1. William Stallings, "Computer Organization and Architecture", 7th ed., Prentice Hall,
ISBN 0-13-185644-8, 2006
2. S. Dandamudi, Fundamentals of Computer Organization and Design, Springer,
2003.
3. J. Hennessy and D. Patterson, "Computer Organization: A Quantitative Approach",
Morgan Kaufmann, 3rd Edition, ISBN 1-55860-724-2, 2003
4. C. Hamacher, Z. Vranesic and S. Zaky, "Computer Organization", McGraw Hill, 5th
Edition, ISBN 0-07-232086-9, 2002

Grading Scheme: For students who pass the final exam, the final grade will be
calculated as follows:
Assignments: 25% / Project: 20% / Mid-term test: 15% / Final exam: 40%
To pass the course, a student must pass the final examination (D- or better) and obtain an
overall passing average (assignments plus midterm plus Project plus final exam).
Students who miss an assignment deadline or midterm must present a valid medical
certificate to the instructor within one week after the deadline or midterm; otherwise, the
student will receive a zero for that item.
Assignments and Project:
We will have several assignments related to basic course material and one project
assignment. The project will be on a course-related topic chosen by the student and
approved by the instructor. It will involve the student researching a topic and preparing a
report and an in-class presentation.
Exams:
There will be a mid-term test approximately halfway through the term. Arrangements for
the mid-term tests will be announced during the class.
A closed book, no calculators, final exam will be held during the University's formal
examination period.
The final exam is for evaluation purposes only and will not be returned to the students.
Students who miss the final exam may be granted permission to write a deferred
examination (see the Undergraduate Calendar for regulations on deferred exams). These
students have additional months to study and a less crowded examination schedule
compared to their colleagues who write the final exam in April. As such, it is only fair to
expect substantially better performance from these students on the deferred examination
than on the final exam.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism (copying and handing in for credit someone else's work) is a serious
instructional offense that will not be tolerated. Please refer to the section on instructional
offenses in the Undergraduate Calendar for additional information.

Equity Services and Paul Menton Centre

For more details visit the Equity Services website
http://www.carleton.ca/equity/accommodation/student_guide.htm
http://www2.carleton.ca/pmc/new-and-current-students/dates-and-deadlines/
You may need special arrangements to meet your academic obligations during the term. For an
accommodation request the processes are as follows:
Pregnancy obligation: Contact the Paul Menton Centre with any requests for academic
accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for
accommodation is known to exist.
Religious obligation: Contact the Paul Menton Centre with any requests for academic
accommodation during the first two weeks of class, or as soon as possible after the need for
accommodation is known to exist.
Academic Accommodations for Students with Disabilities updated 2012-09-27
The Paul Menton Centre for Students with Disabilities (PMC) provides services to students with
Learning Disabilities (LD), psychiatric/mental health disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), chronic medical conditions, and
impairments in mobility, hearing, and vision. If you have a disability requiring academic
accommodations in this course, please contact PMC at 613-520-6608 or pmc@carleton.ca for a
formal evaluation. If you are already registered with the PMC, contact your PMC coordinator to
send me your Letter of Accommodation at the beginning of the term, and no later than two weeks
before the first in-class scheduled test or exam requiring accommodation (if applicable). After
requesting accommodation from PMC, meet with me to ensure accommodation arrangements are
made. Please consult the PMC website for the deadline to request accommodations for the
formally-scheduled exam (if applicable). http://www2.carleton.ca/pmc/new-and-currentstudents/dates-and-deadlines/

More on Course Topics: This is a more detailed list of course topics to be covered
(though not necessarily in this order). The topics in this course are necessarily
evolving from year to year as technologies mature. Italics indicate a topic that may be
mentioned but may not be covered in detail unless time permits.

Preliminary: History of computers; evolution of concepts; influence of

technology. Review of based arithmetic; representing information in a computer:
integers, characters, floating point numbers.
Overview of a computer system; various architectural models to give different
perspectives; users view, programmers view, designers view, layered models.
The instruction cycle, relation to interrupts.
Addressing modes, handling operands, RISC, CISC.
Central processing unit. Arithmetic Logic Unit, control. Communication with
Bus, Memory and I/O components.
Pipelining, superscalar machines, speculative execution, internal parallelism
Digital Logic A: Introduction to digital logic. NAND, AND, NOR, OR gates.
How transistors make these gates work. Simplifying logic. Karnaugh maps.
Buses. Example of a bus protocol: PCI bus. Discussion of SCSI, PCMCIA, other
buses.
Memory organization and hierarchy; cache memory; Error detection and
correction. Hamming codes. Memory mapping. Virtual memory. Memory
protection.
Role of an operating system/kernel. Software interrupts. I/O services. How two
things can happen at the same time. Multitasking. Job scheduling. Program
status word. Supervisor and user modes.
Peripheral devices: disk, keyboard, monitor; other devices. How asynchronous
operation is possible.
Interrupts
Programmable I/O, Interrupt driven I/O, Direct memory access.
Digital Logic B: Combinational circuits: (de)multiplexers, (en/de)coders, adders.
Design of simple computer components using digital logic: CPU, memory.
Introduction to parallel and high performance computers. Amdahls law. Flynns
taxonomy. Limits and costs of parallel computing. Open MPI. GPU computing
using CUDA or Open CL.
Virtualization of processors and storage. Advantages and disadvantages.
Example products and management tools. Virtualization in the datacenter and for
personal use. Hardware assisted virtualization.
Architecture of Distributed data centers.
Cloud computing. Advantages and disadvantages. Example products and
management tools. Local clouds and wide area clouds.