CS 3740, Fall 2020

pretty cs3740 logo
Logo courtesy Wordle

California State University Stanislaus

CS 3740: Computer Organization

Fall 2020

Tu Thu 3:30 - 4:45 pm, Zoom and other software

Instructor: Dr. Megan Thomas

[Basic Information / Syllabus] [Announcements] [Calendar/Lecture Notes] [Homeworks] [News]

Welcome to CS 3740, an overview of logical hardware technologies used in digital computer systems, including memory organization, bus structures, CPU pipelining and parallelism, and control unit organization.

Prerequisite: CS 2700.

Announcements and Upcoming Events:

12/17/2020 Here is the final exam, "in class" portion.
When you are done with the midterm, or at 3 pm, upload your work to the CS Homework site.
(Password for final exam is the same as the lecture slide password.)
Writing your answers on plain paper, photographing the results, and uploading the photographs is fine. Please write with a dark implement and photograph in the most even and steady light you can arrange. (Don't forget to number your answers and include your own name.)

12/10/2020 If you missed the CR/NC deadline and still want that option, just email me. I'll do grade changes to CR/NC, upon request, until... oh, Aug 2021.

11/28/2020 Of possible interest: "Episode 434: Steven Skiena on Preparing for the Data Structures and Algorithm Job Interview" of the Software Engineering Radio podcast. (10 Nov 2020)

11/23/2020 AI System Beats Supercomputer in Combustion Simulation" (18 Nov 2020, Tech Talk from IEEE Spectrum) A radically new chip demonstrated interesting potential on AI challenges.

11/22/2020 "A look inside the factory around which the modern world turns: How one Taiwanese firm uses unrivalled technology to dominate the world's chip-making industry" (18 Dec 2019, Economist) A look at the recent history of TSMC, the world's biggest maker of computer chips, and how geopolitics intersects with business at TSMC's fabs. (The Economist web site is paywalled and may block you. The article should be available via our campus library web site, in their ProQuest ABI/INFORM collection.)

11/12/2020 Belatedly, here is "Hamming codes, how to overcome noise" by 3Blue1Brown, a more extensive introduction to the use of parity bits than the exercise we did in class. (Sent in by student JB)

11/10/2020 We will cover Chapter 9, then (by class vote) Chapter 11, then Chapter 10 (as we have time).

By Friday, watch "John Hennessy and David Patterson Deliver Turing Lecture at ISCA 2018". (You only need to watch the first hour. The last 20 minutes is Q&A -- I found it fun, but I won't require it.)
Post your reaction to the video, and also answers to the questions, in the appropriate Discussion on our Canvas site.
Write several sentences about your personal reaction to the talk(s). What interested you, what puzzled you, what do you want to learn more about? (Will you be happy, if you are as enthusiastic about your career when you are DP and JH's age as they are about their careers?)
Describe, in your own words, the big challenges to computer architecture they describe, and the opportunities those challenges open up.
Give the details of at least four of the papers Patterson and Hennessy cite (at the bottom of their slides). (Title, authors, etc)

11/9/2020 "Practice Quiz | Chapter 6" is available in Canvas, and will remain available from now until late Friday, Nov 13. All students may take the quiz three times; your highest score will be the score kept. 30 minutes to complete the quiz.

11/4/2020 As we were recently discussing new possibilities for storage technology, here's another. "Lasers Write Data Into Glass", 29 May 2020, IEEE Spectrum

11/4/2020 "The Highest Paying IT Jobs For 2021: Robert Half", 19 Oct 2020, CRN.com

11/3/2020 "Practice Quiz | Chapter 5" is available in Canvas, and will remain available from now until late Friday, Nov 6. All students may take the quiz three times; your highest score will be the score kept. 30 minutes to complete the quiz.

10/8/2020 News Article Reading Responses Two assignment:
Visit IEEE Spectrum magazine's 'Embedded Systems' news web site Read three news articles selected from that web page (and only from that web page). Avoid the patch of assorted "Features" in two rows in the middle of the page, and avoid "Sponsored" links, if present. There are more embedded systems articles below the "Features" rows. (You may read a "whitepaper" if you truly want to, but there are likely to be extremely technical. More technical than our textbook.)
For each news article, write:

a 2-4 sentence summary of what the article was about,

plus one sentence about what you thought was the most interesting thing about that news article,

plus two questions you have about the article or the topic of the article.

Log on to the class Canvas site, go to Discussions Reply to my "News Article Reading Responses Two" post and include all your summaries, etc, in that post. Your posts will be visible to the other students in the class after they have been posted.

9/22/2020 "Students Need to Know What Success in Computing Looks Like, Starting from Realistic Expectations" , Blogs@ACM, 12 Sept 2020.
"The top tech jobs in 2020 and the skills you must have to secure them", Ladders, 16 Sept 2020.
"How to succeed in your first 90 days of a new job when you start remote", The Enterprisers Project, 10 Sept 2020.

9/15/2020 Open to any / all STEM students on campus -- The Commons Connection: https://www.csustan.edu/STEM-success/stem-study-spaces (Zoom link was emailed to you)

9/10/2020 News Article Reading Responses One assignment:
Visit IEEE Spectrum magazine's 'Hardware News and Articles' web site (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware). (IEEE, as you will recall, is a professional organization for people who work in power engineering and computing fields.) Read three news articles selected from that web page (and only from that web page). For each news article, write:

a 2-4 sentence summary of what the article was about,

plus one sentence about what you thought was the most interesting thing about that news article,

plus two questions you have about the article or the topic of the article.

Log on to the class Canvas site, go to Discussions Reply to my "News Article Reading Responses One" post and include all your summaries, etc, in that post. Your posts will be visible to the other students in the class after they have been posted.

9/1/2020 ACM Bytecast interview with Hennessy and Patterson (at the bottom of the page) -- the interview I mentioned in class today

8/28/2020 Office hours will be via Zoom. The Zoom link is available in an announcement in our class Canvas LMS site. The office hours available will be kept up to date on my main web page.

8/11/2020 (Click only if you have time to read; this site only gives 3 free articles.)
"These are the top 20 computer science jobs hiring right now" by theladders.com, 21 July 2020, (includes a list of computer science jobs and estimated salaries)
and
"Hiring managers should look outside traditional tech hubs to fill cybersecurity jobs" by TechRepublic, 23 July 2020.

8/9/2020 "Tips for Succeeding in This and Other Online Courses" courtesy of the CS department at U. of Nebraska-Lincoln

8/25/2020 Welcome to CS 3740!

Chapters We Will Cover:

1, very briefly
5, a little 4 (interrupts)
6
7
8
Advanced topics selected by vote, or instructor's whim, or based on events in the news

Homeworks:

	Points
News Article Reading Responses One	5
Homework 1	15
Project 1	20
Homework 2	15
News Article Reading Responses Two	5
Homework 3	15
Homework 4	15
Homework 5	20

News and Notes

2020 Eckert-Mauchly Award Lecture by Luiz Andre Barroso: "A Brief History of Warehouse-scale Computing: a practitioner's perspective" on 3 June 2020 at ISCA 2020.
"Your own RISC: A new blueprint for microprocessors challenges the industry's giants" by the Economist, 3 Oct 2019. (If blocked by a paywall, students can access Economist articles via the CSU Stanislaus library web site.)
"DRAM's Damning Defects - and How They Cripple Computers: An investigation into dynamic random-access memory chip failure reveals surprising hardware vulnerabilities", IEEE Spectrum, 23 Nov 2015.
The April 2015 issue of IEEE Spectrum featured several articles about the current and possible future status of Gordon Moore's famous observation about circuits and integrated chips.
"The birth of the computer", a TED talk by historian George Dyson
"Hard drive teardown" by engineerguy
"Fiber optic cables: How they work" by engineerguy
Binary, Logic Gates, Hexadecimal review videos (videos courtesy of Prof. Z. Kurmas at Grand Valley State University)

12/17/2020	Here is the final exam, "in class" portion. When you are done with the midterm, or at 3 pm, upload your work to the CS Homework site. (Password for final exam is the same as the lecture slide password.) Writing your answers on plain paper, photographing the results, and uploading the photographs is fine. Please write with a dark implement and photograph in the most even and steady light you can arrange. (Don't forget to number your answers and include your own name.)
12/10/2020	If you missed the CR/NC deadline and still want that option, just email me. I'll do grade changes to CR/NC, upon request, until... oh, Aug 2021.
11/28/2020	Of possible interest: "Episode 434: Steven Skiena on Preparing for the Data Structures and Algorithm Job Interview" of the Software Engineering Radio podcast. (10 Nov 2020)
11/23/2020	AI System Beats Supercomputer in Combustion Simulation" (18 Nov 2020, Tech Talk from IEEE Spectrum) A radically new chip demonstrated interesting potential on AI challenges.
11/22/2020	"A look inside the factory around which the modern world turns: How one Taiwanese firm uses unrivalled technology to dominate the world's chip-making industry" (18 Dec 2019, Economist) A look at the recent history of TSMC, the world's biggest maker of computer chips, and how geopolitics intersects with business at TSMC's fabs. (The Economist web site is paywalled and may block you. The article should be available via our campus library web site, in their ProQuest ABI/INFORM collection.)
11/12/2020	Belatedly, here is "Hamming codes, how to overcome noise" by 3Blue1Brown, a more extensive introduction to the use of parity bits than the exercise we did in class. (Sent in by student JB)
11/10/2020	We will cover Chapter 9, then (by class vote) Chapter 11, then Chapter 10 (as we have time). By Friday, watch "John Hennessy and David Patterson Deliver Turing Lecture at ISCA 2018". (You only need to watch the first hour. The last 20 minutes is Q&A -- I found it fun, but I won't require it.) Post your reaction to the video, and also answers to the questions, in the appropriate Discussion on our Canvas site. Write several sentences about your personal reaction to the talk(s). What interested you, what puzzled you, what do you want to learn more about? (Will you be happy, if you are as enthusiastic about your career when you are DP and JH's age as they are about their careers?) Describe, in your own words, the big challenges to computer architecture they describe, and the opportunities those challenges open up. Give the details of at least four of the papers Patterson and Hennessy cite (at the bottom of their slides). (Title, authors, etc)
11/9/2020	"Practice Quiz \| Chapter 6" is available in Canvas, and will remain available from now until late Friday, Nov 13. All students may take the quiz three times; your highest score will be the score kept. 30 minutes to complete the quiz.
11/4/2020	As we were recently discussing new possibilities for storage technology, here's another. "Lasers Write Data Into Glass", 29 May 2020, IEEE Spectrum
11/4/2020	"The Highest Paying IT Jobs For 2021: Robert Half", 19 Oct 2020, CRN.com
11/3/2020	"Practice Quiz \| Chapter 5" is available in Canvas, and will remain available from now until late Friday, Nov 6. All students may take the quiz three times; your highest score will be the score kept. 30 minutes to complete the quiz.
10/8/2020	News Article Reading Responses Two assignment: Visit IEEE Spectrum magazine's 'Embedded Systems' news web site Read three news articles selected from that web page (and only from that web page). Avoid the patch of assorted "Features" in two rows in the middle of the page, and avoid "Sponsored" links, if present. There are more embedded systems articles below the "Features" rows. (You may read a "whitepaper" if you truly want to, but there are likely to be extremely technical. More technical than our textbook.) For each news article, write: a 2-4 sentence summary of what the article was about, plus one sentence about what you thought was the most interesting thing about that news article, plus two questions you have about the article or the topic of the article. Log on to the class Canvas site, go to Discussions Reply to my "News Article Reading Responses Two" post and include all your summaries, etc, in that post. Your posts will be visible to the other students in the class after they have been posted.
9/22/2020	"Students Need to Know What Success in Computing Looks Like, Starting from Realistic Expectations" , Blogs@ACM, 12 Sept 2020. "The top tech jobs in 2020 and the skills you must have to secure them", Ladders, 16 Sept 2020. "How to succeed in your first 90 days of a new job when you start remote", The Enterprisers Project, 10 Sept 2020.
9/15/2020	Open to any / all STEM students on campus -- The Commons Connection: https://www.csustan.edu/STEM-success/stem-study-spaces (Zoom link was emailed to you)
9/10/2020	News Article Reading Responses One assignment: Visit IEEE Spectrum magazine's 'Hardware News and Articles' web site (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware). (IEEE, as you will recall, is a professional organization for people who work in power engineering and computing fields.) Read three news articles selected from that web page (and only from that web page). For each news article, write: a 2-4 sentence summary of what the article was about, plus one sentence about what you thought was the most interesting thing about that news article, plus two questions you have about the article or the topic of the article. Log on to the class Canvas site, go to Discussions Reply to my "News Article Reading Responses One" post and include all your summaries, etc, in that post. Your posts will be visible to the other students in the class after they have been posted.
9/1/2020	ACM Bytecast interview with Hennessy and Patterson (at the bottom of the page) -- the interview I mentioned in class today
8/28/2020	Office hours will be via Zoom. The Zoom link is available in an announcement in our class Canvas LMS site. The office hours available will be kept up to date on my main web page.
8/11/2020	(Click only if you have time to read; this site only gives 3 free articles.) "These are the top 20 computer science jobs hiring right now" by theladders.com, 21 July 2020, (includes a list of computer science jobs and estimated salaries) and "Hiring managers should look outside traditional tech hubs to fill cybersecurity jobs" by TechRepublic, 23 July 2020.
8/9/2020	"Tips for Succeeding in This and Other Online Courses" courtesy of the CS department at U. of Nebraska-Lincoln
8/25/2020	Welcome to CS 3740!