The University of Western Ontario
London, Canada

Department of Computer Science

CS 3350 -- Computer Architecture

Course Outline -- Winter 2010
(The semester starting January 2010)


Course Description

Computer Architecture is the study of computer design between the levels of electronics and assembly programming (and how it contributes to the goal of performing computations faster). Our main focus is on the CPU, but some time will be spent on external memory and I/O devices as well.

Prerequisites, Anti-requisites (if any)

Operating Systems --- Students are expected to have previous experience with some UNIX variation. There is school equipment available if you do not have your own.

Programming Languages --- This course expects previous programming experience in assembly language, and C. Course work involves some C and assembly programming.

Course Work --- According to the Academic Calendar:

whatever is now equivalent to the old ECE 375 is an anti-requisite.

Students are responsible for ensuring that they meet the prerequisite requirements or have obtained appropriate special permission in the event that they don't meet the formal requirements. Students not meeting the requirements nor having the appropriate permission may be dropped from the course as per Senate regulations.

Instructor

    Robert E. Webber
    Office: Room 384, Middlesex College
    Office Hours: To be announced.
    Phone: x86916 (prefer email -- phonemail doesn't work)
    E-Mail: webber@csd.uwo.ca (use 3350 in subject line to get best results from my spam filtering software) [note: confidential information such as marks should not be sent unencrypted; see prof regarding establishing usable encryption keys for exchanging confidential information]

Textbook, Lecture Notes

Course Website

ftp://ftp.csd.uwo.ca/pub/courses/webber/CS350/ and http://www.csd.uwo.ca/courses/CS3350b are two URLS for the same entry to the course web pages. Announcements related to the course are made on the course web pages. The assignments and exams are marked under the assumption that students are familiar with the material on the course web pages associated with the current semester. Supplementary readings to the course textbook may also be posted on the course web site.

Lecture Topics

Class Schedule

   Lectures: 3 hours (Tuesday 3:30 - 4:30 pm [UC 202], Thursday 3:30 - 5:30 pm [UC 202])

   Labs: 0 hours

TA Consulting Hours (to be announced on course announcements page)

Computing Facilities

NOTE: course assignments will require access to the departmental computing facilities for online handin.

Each student will be given an account on the Computer Science Department senior undergraduate computing facility, GAUL .  In accepting the GAUL account, a student agrees to abide by the department's  Rules of Ethical Conduct .

Note:  After-hours access to certain Computer Science lab rooms is by student card. If a student card is lost,  a replacement card will no longer open these lab rooms, and the student must bring the new card to a member of the Systems Group in Middlesex College Room 346.

Email Contact

We will occasionally need to send email messages to the whole class, or to students individually. Email will be sent to your ITS email address (depending on which one comes with the class list). You must make sure that you read your email on ITS on a frequent and regular basis, or have it forwarded to an alternative email address if you prefer to read it there.

However, you should note that email at ITS (your UWO account) and other email providers such as hotmail.com or yahoo.com may have quotas or limits on the amount of space they can use. If you let your email accumulate there, your mailbox may fill up and you may lose important email from your instructors.  Losing email that you have forwarded to an alternative email address is not an excuse for not knowing about the information that was sent.

Student Evaluation

  • Administrative penalties associated with not following the instructions on exams will not exceed 10% of the value of the exam. Academic offences related to the exams will be handled through the Dean's office. Typical first offense penalty is minus the value of the assignment, which in the case of the exams would mean failing the course.
  • No mark will exceed 100%. Bonuses and administrative penalties are applied to the marks before any exam curving is done. Academic offense penalties are applied after curving.

    If for any reason an assignment, quiz, or midterm is cancelled, the percentage of the course mark associated with that task will be added to the portion associated with the final exam.

    As usual, assignments and exams will be marked and returned as soon as convenient. As usual, final exam and final course marks will not be made available until the department posts the final course marks or the registrar's office makes marks available.

     Exam / Essay / Test / Quiz Schedule

    [NOTE: assignment due dates are tentative pending departmental approval. If they are changed, there will be an announcement on the course announcements page.]

    As per the Academic Calendar, students missing a final exam should report this irregularity `immediately' to their Dean's office. In this course, students seeking a makeup final exam are further required to report that this is the case to their professor via email within 3 days (72 hours) of the occurrence of the exam. [Students in a coma for more than 3 days or with similar excuses should seek an exemption through the Dean's office.] The message must also include the name of the person at the Dean's office who is handling the case. Also, the message must include a list of all other exams the student is currently scheduled to take. Students are expected to promptly make available to the Dean's office whatever evidence they require to judge the situation and be ready to take the makeup exam if the Dean's office approves it.

    Although the material covered on the makeup final exam will be the same as the regular final exam, university regulations do not require that the format be the same. Since the number of people taking the makeup will be fewer, it is much more likely that the makeup will be heavily weighted toward essay-style questions, if the original final exam was a written exam. Note that university regulations do require taking proficiency in English into account when assigning grades.

    Assignment  Schedule


        Extensions: Extensions will be granted only by the course instructor. If you have serious medical or compassionate grounds for an extension, you should take supporting documentation to the office of the Dean of your faculty, who will contact the instructor.

    Ethical Conduct

    All assignments and exams are individual assignments that are expected to represent the work of the student handing them in and not the work of others. Getting other people to help with your course work (other than the usual clarifications provided by professor and/or TAs) lays the groundwork for fraudulent misrepresentation of the work handed in which is an academic offense. Acknowledging outside help does not lessen the problem as there is no marking scheme for balancing the work between you and others.

    Assignments will be marked on both content and style. Assignments that are judged to be the result of academic dishonesty will, for the student's first offence, be given a mark of zero with an additional penalty equal to the weight of the assignment also being applied. You are responsible for reading and respecting the Computer Science Department's policy on  Scholastic Offences  and Rules of Ethical Conduct.

    Academic Accommodation for Medical Illness

    Keep in mind that unencrypted email is not a suitable media for transmitting confidential or personal information, although it can be used for setting up a meeting to discuss matters.

    Note: for assignments cummulatively counting less than 5% of your mark, you can ask the prof what ad hoc relieve he would offer. If you are unsatisfied with that or for situations larger than 5%, use the following official university procedure: