S. Reda EN164 Sp ‘11

EN164: Design of Computing Systems Lecture 01: Class Overview

Professor Sherief Reda http://scale.engin.brown.edu

Electrical Sciences and Computer Engineering School of Engineering

Brown University Spring 2011

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Computing systems

•  Computing has evolved from its mainframe and personal origins to being embedded and ubiquitous

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Custom versus Programmable Computers

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Advantages: •  very high

performance and efficient

Disadvantages: •  not flexible (can’t

be altered after fabrication)

•  expensive

Hardware (Application Specific Integrated Circuits)

Software-programmed processors

Advantages: • software is very flexible to change Disadvantages: • performance can suffer • fixed instruction set by hardware

1. Objectives of computing system design

•  Performance

•  Power

•  Cost

•  Reliable

•  Secure

Exact design objectives depend on the context and intended field of deployment

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1. Trends in computing technology

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[from Kurzweil – Singularity is Near]

1. Technology for computer design

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Integrated Circuits Printed Circuit Boards

2. Processor architecture and organization

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lw $t0, 32($s3) add $t0, $s2, $t0

sw $t0, 48($s3) store word

• Assembly language and instruction set architecture

• Basic units of a processor

• Data and control flow in a processor

• Pipelined processor design

•  Improving performance using instruction-level parallelism and thread-level parallelism

• Contrast organization of real processors

3. Memory organization

•  Learn about memory hierarchy design •  Learn about cost, size, performance, and power trade-

offs in memory design •  Learn about memory technologies: SRAM (cache),

DRAM, Flash

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4. I/O and intercommunication organization

•  Communication between processor, memory and I/O devices

•  Interrupts and interrupt handling •  Direct Memory transfer

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5. Laboratory

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•  Learn basics of programmable logic

•  Learn how to use design tools (just as they are used in practice)

•  Learn a popular language, Verilog, to describe hardware

• Design, implement, and boot a working pipelined processor

• Hands-on work on optimizing computing design objectives

Prerequisites & books

Prerequisites: •  EN160: digital logic design: binary numbers, combinational circuits,

arithmetic circuits, sequential circuits.

•  CS31: Introduction to Computer Systems: binary numbers, digital circuits, compilation and OS.

Course Book:

Website: http://scale.engin.brown.edu/classes/EN164S11/

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[4th edition]

Grading

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•  Labs: two students / group. All labs must be completed to pass course

•  Midterm: Wednesday March 16

•  Final Exam: Monday May 16

 Student academic code will be strictly enforced

Hours •  Class meeting times:

–  MWF 1:00 pm to 1:50 pm at B & H 158

•  Office hours:

–  Monday and Tuesday from 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm at B & H 349

•  TAs:

–  Ryan Cochran, Marco Donato, and Onur Ulusel

•  TA lab hours:

–  All week days at B & H 194.

–  MWF 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

–  TuTh 7:30 pm to 9:00 pm

•  TA office hours

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