ECE 311 Computer Organization and Architecture

Fall Term (2019f) last updated 2019-12-8

Course web page: http://www.ualberta.ca/~delliott/ece311
eClass page and forum

Course	Resources
Calendar Description
Marking	Textbook
Term work	Lecture Notes
General Course Info	Sample exams

Course announcements can be found here.
Questions can be posted here (and postings optionally delivered to your email). If you know the answer to a question (a difficulty, not a problem solution), by all means post it. Please read prior postings to see if your question has been asked and answered. Create a new topic for most questions (unless it's a request for elaboration).
Use email for questions of a confidential nature.

Professor	Duncan Elliott	780-492-5357	ICE 11-281
Marker	Xianglou Chen

General Course Info

Lectures MWF 9:00-9:50 in SAB 336

Office hours

Outline

Ch.	Topic
1	Intro
A	Instruction Set Architecture
C	Pipelining
B, 2	Memory Hierarchy
J	Computer Arithmetic
3	Instruction Level Parallelism
D	Storage Systems
	More Parallelism and Extremes

(ask more questions and we'll cover less material but in greater depth)

Marking

Tentative Marking scheme for ECE 311.

Items [that were] denoted with ?? are tentative and are to be decided by majority vote in class by deadlines set by instructor.
Bonuses (>100%) may be available on some marked materials and will be carried forward.

Term work	15%	Problem Sets or Quizzes on Fridays
Midterm	25%	2 aid sheets 8.5x11 inch, hand written, any information, Oct. 21 in MEC 2-3 class time
Final Exam	60%	6 aid sheets 8.5x11 inch, hand written, any information 3 hours - scheduled by registrar's office

Problem sets are due in class at the beginning of the lecture before being solved in class. Mutually beneficial collaboration is encouraged, provided that the names of all collaborators are cited on the problem set ("worked with ..."), immediately below the student's name. Marking will be based on effort, with a possible exception of multiple-week assignments at the end of term. Please do not put student id numbers on problem sets or any other materials to be returned in class. (Yes, put your student ID on midterm and final exams.)

Quizzes will be held unannounced at the beginning of selected lectures where problem sets are due. The only aids are the student's own problem set and a calculator. Individual work is expected.

Past handouts, unclaimed graded materials, etc. can be picked up from a box near ECE reception.

Submissions will not normally be re-graded more than two weeks after the first day these have been returned in class.

The examination aid sheets must be in the student’s own handwriting (both sides, no photocopies or printouts), may be no larger than 21.59 by 27.94 cm (8.5x11 inch) paper, like a formula sheet, but may contain any information.

Deferred examinations and Re-examinations may contain multiple components (including an oral component) as designed by instructor.

If you wish to discuss private information, let me know that you'd rather not talk in the classroom.

In the past, students have indicated that audio recording stifles the asking of questions in lectures. To keep everyone comfortable, audio or video recording or photographs by students requires the written consent of all students, unless Accessibility Resources indicates special needs.

Grade Determination Method

In this course, raw marks will be calculated up until after the final exam. The percentage grade will be converted to a letter grade according to the calendar definitions of those grades and the degree of mastery of the material.

Code of Student Behaviour

The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University.

Policy about course outlines can be found in the University Calendar.

Textbook

John Hennessy, David Patterson, "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach" 6th ed.
library

Lecture Notes

The most important material will be covered on the white board. Please ensure you have a complete set of notes.
Selected lecture notes will be made available online one week after the lecture. A preliminary version may be available beforehand.
Use your ccid (Campus Computer ID) to access course materials.

Term Work

updated ~weekly

PS	Due	Assignments, Past exams	Solutions in class & online
1	Sep 13	ps 1
2	Sep 20	ps 2
3	Sep 27	ps 3
4	Oct 7	ps 4	due Monday
5	Oct 11	ps 5
6	Oct 18	ps 6
7	Nov 4	ps 7	due Monday
8	Nov 18	ps 8	due Monday
9	Nov 22	ps 9
10	Dec 2	ps 10	due Monday