To learn what determines the capabilities and performance of compuper systems and understand the interactions between computer architecture and software so that future software designers can achieve the best cost-performance trade-offs and so that future architects understand the effects of their design choices on software. The content of this course will be explained in lectures. Examples explain the theortical content of the lectures. For a certificate a positive oral test needs to be passed. Course material is availabe at the home page. A lab course complements this course.

This course will introduce students to the architecture-level design issues of a computer system. They will apply their knowledge of digital logic design to explore the high-level interaction of the individual computer system hardware components. Concepts of sequential and parallel architecture including the interaction of different memory components, their layout and placement, communication among multiple processors, effects of pipelining, and performance issues, will be covered. Students will apply these concepts by studying and evaluating the merits and demerits of selected computer system architectures. Structure of the lectures: Fundamentals of computer design, instruction set principles, pipelining, instruction-level parallelism, superscalar/VLIW design issues, memory hierarchies, storage and I/O design issues, multiprocessor design. issues. The content of this course will be explained in lectures. Examples explain the theortical content of the lectures. For a certificate a positive oral test needs to be passed. Course material is availabe at the home page. A lab course complements this course.