There are a wide variety of resources used in this course. Links will be posted here incrementally as the course progresses.
The optional text for this course has traditionally been any edition after the 1st of:
Computer Organization & Design, The Hardware/Software Interface, Patterson & Hennessy, Morgan Kaufmann publisher.
However, it has become too awkward to cross-reference the material across the many different versions. Any of the MIPS-oriented versions from the 2nd to the 6th edition (released in late 2020) are usable, but we'll only be directly referencing sections in the 5th edition. This textbook is very widely used and it is supported by many online reference materials. The bad news is that our course cannot use any of the questions in the text because solutions for them are easily located using your favorite WWW search engine. However, the good news is that, if you don't quite follow our presentation, there are tons of materials freely available to help you.
It is also worth noting that the content of CPE380 has been increasingly diverging from that of the text as we add more exposure to Verilog to make the understanding of computer design more concrete. In 2023, we took this one step further by having students write some Verilog code rather than simply being shown many examples for how things are implemented in Verilog. As of Spring 2024, the material covered in CPE380 is still basically the same, but it has undergone major rearrangement to allow students more time to get used to Verilog and to get the projects done.
All in-person lectures are recorded via Echo360 live and linked into the course Canvas page, primarily so that students with excused absences can use them to keep up. The recordings are simple Echo360 videos, without real provision for live interaction, and thus certainly are not as effective as being in the class in person; it is expected that students will be attending lectures in person unless ill, under quarantine, etc. Lecture slides and other review materials will be posted under the relevant topics below. Material below the horizontal rule may be from the Fall 2023 semester and subject to change; material above the horizontal rule has been adjusted to match the Spring 2024 presentation.
Computer Organization and Design.