Computer Architecture

Princeton University

About this Course

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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.

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

33%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Advanced Level

Approx. 50 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: English

Instructor

Instructor rating

4.58/5 (74 Ratings)

David Wentzlaff

Associate Professor

Electrical Engineering

141,364 Learners

1 Course

Learner Career Outcomes

50%

started a new career after completing these courses

33%

got a tangible career benefit from this course

100% online

Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.

Flexible deadlines

Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.

Advanced Level

Approx. 50 hours to complete

English

Subtitles: English

Offered by

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. It is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution.

Syllabus - What you will learn from this course

Content Rating97%(4,380 ratings)

Week

Week 1

4 hours to complete

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.

4 hours to complete

8 videos (Total 106 min), 2 readings

8 videos

Course Introduction9m

Course Overview4m

Motivation16m

Course Content9m

Architecture and Microarchitecture23m

Machine Models16m

ISA Characteristics25m

Recap1m

2 readings

Readings2h

Problem Set 1 & 1A

3 hours to complete

Pipelining Review

This lecture covers the basic concept of pipeline and two different types of hazards.

3 hours to complete

4 videos (Total 102 min), 1 reading

4 videos

Microcoded Microarchitecture14m

Pipeline Basics30m

Structural Hazard10m

Data Hazards46m

1 reading

Readings1h 30m

Week

Week 2

3 hours to complete

Cache Review

This lecture covers control hazards and the motivation for caches.

3 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 93 min), 1 reading

5 videos

Control Hazards, Jumps15m

Control Hazards, Branch24m

Control Hazards, Others7m

Memory Technologies22m

Motivation for Caches22m

1 reading

Readings1h

3 hours to complete

Superscalar 1

This lecture covers cache characteristics and basic superscalar architecture.

3 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 68 min), 1 reading

5 videos

Classifying Caches28m

Cache Performance17m

Superscalar 16m

Basic Two-way In-order Superscalar4m

Fetch Logic and Alignment11m

1 reading

Readings1h 30m

Week

Week 3

2 hours to complete

Superscalar 2 & Exceptions

This lecture covers the common issues for superscalar architecture.

2 hours to complete

4 videos (Total 77 min), 1 reading

4 videos

Baseline Superscalar and Alignment4m

Interrupts and Bypassing12m

Interrupts and Exceptions29m

Introduction to Out-of-Order Processors30m

1 reading

Readings45m

2 hours to complete

Superscalar 3

This lecture covers different kinds of architectures for out-of-order processors.

2 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 73 min), 2 readings

5 videos

Review of Out-of-Order Processors3m

I2O2 Processors19m

I2O1 Processors28m

IO3 Processors16m

IO2I Processors4m

2 readings

Problem Set 210m

Problem Set 1 Solutions10m

Week

Week 4

1 hour to complete

Superscalar 4

This lecture covers the common methods used to improve the performance of out-of-order processors including register renaming and memory disambiguation.

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 73 min)

5 videos

Speculation and Branch14m

Memory Disambiguation9m

2 hours to complete

VLIW 1

This lecture covers the basic concept of very long instruction word (VLIW) processors.

2 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 75 min), 3 readings

5 videos

Limits of Out-of-Order Design Complexity13m

Introduction to VLIW21m

VLIW Compiler Optimizations21m

Classic VLIW Challenges8m

Introduction to Predication9m

3 readings

Readings10m

Problem Set 310m

Problem Set 2 Solutions10m

Week

Week 5

3 hours to complete

VLIW2

This lecture covers the common methods used to improve VLIW performance.

3 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 105 min), 1 reading, 1 quiz

6 videos

Scheduling Model Review5m

Review of Predication30m

Predication Implementation10m

Speculation Execution26m

Dynamic Events and Clustered VLIWs10m

Case Study: IA-64/Itanium21m

1 reading

Readings30m

1 practice exercise

Midterm30m

2 hours to complete

Branch Prediction

This lecture covers the motivation and implementation of branch predictors.

2 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 76 min), 1 reading

5 videos

Branch Cost Motivation6m

Branch Prediction Introduction5m

Static Outcome Prediction16m

Dynamic Outcome Prediction29m

Target Address Prediction18m

1 reading

Readings1h

Week

Week 6

3 hours to complete

Advanced Caches 1

This lecture covers the advanced mechanisms used to improve cache performance.

3 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 105 min), 1 reading

6 videos

Basic Cache Optimizations16m

Cache Pipelining14m

Write Buffers9m

Multilevel Caches28m

Victim Caches10m

Prefetching26m

1 reading

Readings45m

2 hours to complete

Advanced Caches 2

This lecture covers more advanced mechanisms used to improve cache performance.

2 hours to complete

4 videos (Total 70 min), 2 readings

4 videos

Multiporting and Banking20m

Software Memory Optimizations26m

Non-blocking Caches19m

Critical Word First and Early Restart3m

2 readings

Readings45m

Problem Set 3 Solutions10m

Week

Week 7

3 hours to complete

Memory Protection

This lecture covers memory management and protection.

3 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 79 min), 2 readings

5 videos

Memory Management Introduction13m

Base and Bound Registers11m

Page Based Memory Systems27m

Translation and Protection14m

TLB Processing12m

2 readings

Readings1h 15m

Problem Set 4 & 4A10m

3 hours to complete

Vector Processors and GPUs

This lecture covers the vector processor and optimizations for vector processors.

3 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 81 min), 1 reading

6 videos

Address Translation Review9m

Cache and Memory Protection Interaction22m

Vector Processor Introduction18m

Vector Parallelism6m

Vector Hardware Optimizations18m

Vector Software and Compiler Optimizations5m

1 reading

Readings1h 30m

Week

Week 8

2 hours to complete

Multithreading

This lecture covers different types of multithreading.

2 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 83 min), 1 reading

6 videos

Reduction, Scatter/Gather, and the Cray 19m

SIMD6m

GPUs20m

Multithreading Motivation7m

Coarse-Grain Multithreading26m

Simultaneous Multithreading12m

1 reading

Readings45m

1 hour to complete

Parallel Programming 1

This lecture covers the concepts of parallelism, consistency models, and basic parallel programming techniques.

1 hour to complete

4 videos (Total 60 min), 1 reading

4 videos

SMT Implementation17m

Introduction to Parallelism18m

Sequential Consistency21m

Introduction to Locks3m

1 reading

Readings30m

Week

Week 9

1 hour to complete

Parallel Programming 2

This lecture covers the solutions for the consistency problem in parallel programming.

1 hour to complete

5 videos (Total 66 min)

5 videos

Sequential Consistency Review3m

Locks and Semaphores10m

Atomic Operations27m

Memory Fences11m

Dekker's Algorithm14m

2 hours to complete

Small Multiprocessors

This lecture covers the implementation of small multiprocessors.

2 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 86 min), 2 readings

5 videos

Locking Review2m

Bus Implementation12m

Cache Coherence17m

Bus-Based Multiprocessors5m

Cache Coherence Protocols49m

2 readings

Readings45m

Problem Set 4 Solutions10m

Week

Week 10

3 hours to complete

Multiprocessor Interconnect 1

This lecture covers the design of interconnects for a multiprocessor.

3 hours to complete

4 videos (Total 72 min), 2 readings

4 videos

More Cache Coherence Protocols21m

Introduction to Interconnection Networks8m

Message Passing26m

Interconnect Design15m

2 readings

Readings1h 30m

Problem Set 5 & 5A10m

3 hours to complete

Multiprocessor Interconnect 2

This lecture covers the design of interconnects for multiprocessor and network topology.

3 hours to complete

5 videos (Total 77 min), 1 reading

5 videos

Networking Review7m

Topology18m

Topology Parameters14m

Network Performance15m

Routing and Flow Control20m

1 reading

Readings1h 45m

Week

Week 11

3 hours to complete

Large Multiprocessors (Directory Protocols)

This lecture covers the motivation and implementation of directory protocol used for coherence on large multiproccesors.

3 hours to complete

6 videos (Total 83 min), 2 readings, 1 quiz

6 videos

Credit Based Flow Control7m

Deadlock10m

False Sharing9m

Introduction to Directory Coherence12m

Implementation29m

Scalability of Directory Coherence13m

2 readings

Readings45m

Problem Set 5 Solutions10m

1 practice exercise

Final Exam30m

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Computer Architecture