Key Information
About the content
In this course, you will learn to design the computer architecture of complex modern microprocessors. All the features of this course are available for free. It does not offer a certificate upon completion.
Syllabus
- Week 1 - Introduction, Instruction Set Architecture, and Microcode
This lecture will give you a broad overview of the course, as well as the description of architecture, micro-architecture and instruction set architectures. - Week 1 - Pipelining Review
This lecture covers the basic concept of pipeline and two different types of hazards. - Week 2 - Cache Review
This lecture covers control hazards and the motivation for caches. - Week 2 - Superscalar 1
This lecture covers cache characteristics and basic superscalar architecture. - Week 3 - Superscalar 2 & Exceptions
This lecture covers the common issues for superscalar architecture. - Week 3 - Superscalar 3
This lecture covers different kinds of architectures for out-of-order processors. - Week 4 - Superscalar 4
This lecture covers the common methods used to improve the performance of out-of-order processors including register renaming and memory disambiguation. - Week 4 - VLIW 1
This lecture covers the basic concept of very long instruction word (VLIW) processors. - Week 5 - VLIW2
This lecture covers the common methods used to improve VLIW performance. - Week 5 - Branch Prediction
This lecture covers the motivation and implementation of branch predictors. - Week 6 - Advanced Caches 1
This lecture covers the advanced mechanisms used to improve cache performance. - Week 6 - Advanced Caches 2
This lecture covers more advanced mechanisms used to improve cache performance. - Week 7 - Memory Protection
This lecture covers memory management and protection. - Week 7 - Vector Processors and GPUs
This lecture covers the vector processor and optimizations for vector processors. - Week 8 - Multithreading
This lecture covers different types of multithreading. - Week 8 - Parallel Programming 1
This lecture covers the concepts of parallelism, consistency models, and basic parallel programming techniques. - Week 9 - Parallel Programming 2
This lecture covers the solutions for the consistency problem in parallel programming. - Week 9 - Small Multiprocessors
This lecture covers the implementation of small multiprocessors. - Week 10 - Multiprocessor Interconnect 1
This lecture covers the design of interconnects for a multiprocessor. - Week 10 - Multiprocessor Interconnect 2
This lecture covers the design of interconnects for multiprocessor and network topology. - Week 11 - Large Multiprocessors (Directory Protocols)
This lecture covers the motivation and implementation of directory protocol used for coherence on large multiproccesors.
Instructors
David Wentzlaff
Associate Professor
Electrical Engineering
Content Designer
Platform
Coursera is a digital company offering massive open online course founded by computer teachers Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller Stanford University, located in Mountain View, California.
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This is a great course. I learned tremendously.The only wish is that it is updated with the new materials and the new text book (H&P 6th, planned soon) in the near future.
Because there is no help session , i was need the help during course session but there was no option and second thing is this course doesn't have certificate this is a very major issue.Thank you
This is a great course. I learned tremendously.The only wish is that it is updated with the new materials and the new text book (H&P 6th, planned soon) in the near future.
The course material (lecture slides) for "Computer Architecture" is almost identical to that of the other top universities, so you can be confident in its quality. Professor is clearly experienced in both teaching and the subject. I really enjoyed the lectures. I'm really grateful for the opportunity to take this course. All in all, it was a very satisfying experience.
Nice course, learnt a lot of new information. If practical part is also included in this course, this this course will even be more good.
Quite intense but also quite rewarding. Dr. Wentzlaff's class are captivating and well prepared. The exames are a little bit exhausting, but effectively measure what was learned.