Computer Systems Architecture

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News

The last CSA lecture will be on Monday, 1/12.

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News: Guest lecture on Monday 27/10/08, 1200-1300 in JC-BSSOUTH-B52

Speaker : Jon Masters

Jon Masters graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2003 and has since worked on a variety of embedded and Enterprise Linux systems. He ported the Linux kernel to run on a variety of scientific instruments at Oxford Instruments before working for embedded Linux pioneer Montavista in the UK, and then moved to the United States where he works on the Linux kernel for Red Hat. He writes books on Linux in his spare time, and enjoys great American roadtrips, hiking, and mountaineering.

Title: Operating Systems (Linux)
Abstract:

Modern Operating Systems such as Linux exploit recent advances in Computer Systems Architecture such as advanced 64-bit processors, chipsets, buses, and memory architectures. This introductory lecture will examine some of the requirements an Operating System places on the underlying system architecture and vice versa, using the ongoing work to adapt Linux for real time systems as an example. There will be ample opportunity for questions and answers on Linux related topics.

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Course Information

• Lecturer: Thorsten Altenkirch (txa)
• Tutors and demonstrators:
  • Alexander Green (asg)
  • Liyang Hu (lyh)
  • Mauro Jaskelioff (mjj)
• Module Code: G51CSA
• Duration: Autumn 2008, Semester 1
• Lectures: Monday, 1200-1300 in JC-BSSOUTH-B52; Thursday 16:00-17:00 in JC-EXCHGE-D.LT2
• Lab Sessions: Tuesday, 10-12 ; Wednesday 11-13 in A32 (starting after 29/9/08).
• Tutorials: see here (starting after 29/9/08).
• Online forum (discussions, questions, ...)

Course Text

Computer Organisation and Design
The Hardware/Software Interface
3^rd Edition

• By David A Patterson and John L Hennessey
• Published by Elsevier / Morgan Kaufmann
• ISBN: 1-55860-604-1
• Price: 39.99GBP
• Known as the “Patterson and Hennessey” book
  (There’s a different “Hennessey and Patterson” book)
• Includes a CD-ROM with additional material
• Copies available for loan from the library

Lecture Slides

• Lecture 00: Introduction, 25/9/08
• Lecture 01: Bits, Bytes and Numbers, 25/9/08
• Lecture 02: Basic architecture; Introduction to SPIM, 2/10/08
• Lecture 03: MIPS32 Overview, 6/10/08
• Lecture 04: Machine Code, Data Transfer and Control Flow, 9/10/08
• Lecture 05: Comparisons, Loops and Bitwise Operations, 13/10/08
• Lecture 06: Binary Addition and Signed Numbers, 16/10/08
• Lecture 07: Signedness, Overflow, Multiplication and Division, 20/10/08 and 23/10/08, quiz
• Jon Master's guest lecture: Operating Systems (Linux), 27/10/08
• Lecture 08: Real Numbers and IEEE 754 Arithmetic, 30/10/08, quiz
• Lecture 09: Floating Point Arithmetic and the MIPS FPU, 3/11/08 and 6/11/08, quiz.
• Lecture 10: MIPS Procedure Calling Convention and Recursion, 10/11/08
• Lecture 11: Pointers and references, 13/11/08 & 20/11/08
• Lecture 12: Interrupts, Exceptions and I/O, l12-echo.asm, l12-timer.asm, l12-async.asm, 24/11/08
• Lecture 13: Processor Architecture and Pipelining, 27/11/08

Online Resources

• Appendix A
  

  Electronic copy of Appendix A from the course text; useful reference for MIPS and SPIM.

• Getting Started with PCSpim
  

  Introduction to the Windows version of SPIM.

• SPIM homepage
  

  Download PCSpim for Windows or xspim for X11 from here. Also check the Resources section for links to technical manuals.

• MIPS/SPIM reference card
• Wikipedia entry on IEEE 754 (floating point) (1985 version).
• Java Applet for IEEE 754 conversion

Also, use Google, Wikipedia.

Coursework

Marksheet and tutorial attendance

1. Coursework published 29/9/08, to be signed off in the labs before 6/10/08.
2. Coursework published 6/10/08, deadline 13/10/08, 12:00 use the coursework submission system.
3. Coursework published 13/10/08, deadline 20/10/08, 12:00 use the coursework submission system.
4. Coursework published 20/10/08, deadline 27/10/08, 12:00 paper submission via school office for part 1, use the coursework submission system for the rest.
5. Coursework published 27/10/08, deadline 3/11/08, 12:00 paper submission via school office for part 1, use the coursework submission system for the rest.
6. Coursework published 10/11/08, deadline 17/11/08, 12:00 paper submission via school office for part 1-3, use the coursework submission system for part 4.
7. Coursework published 24/11/08, deadline 1/12/08, 12:00, use the coursework submission system.
8. Coursework published 1/12/08, deadline 8/12/08, 12:00 use the coursework submission system.

Selected solutions (from students).