Computer Architecture

This page provides more detailed information about individual lectures as well as links to various resources. Students are encouraged to read selected textbook chapters and review slides before the lecture.

Lecture 1 (Feb 19, 2026)

• Agenda
• Introduction
  • What’s below your program
  • Abstraction as a tool
• Hennessy & Patterson, Computer Organization and Design
  • Chapter 1, Computer Abstractions and Technology
• Extras
  • How ASML took over the chipmaking chessboard
  • The World’s Most Important Machine

Lecture 2 (Feb 26, 2026)

• Computer performance
  • Execution (response) time
  • Throughput
  • Classic performance equation
  • Execution time, clocks per instruction (CPI), clock rate
  • Amdahl’s law
• Hennessy & Patterson, Computer Organization and Design
  • Chapter 1, Computer Abstractions and Technology

Lecture 3 (Mar 5, 2026)

• Digital circuits
  • Combinational circuits
  • Logical functions and basic gates
  • Fundamental operation: 1-bit addition
  • Simple arithmetics: n-bit addition, subtraction
• Hennessy & Patterson, Computer Organization and Design (5th ed.)
  • Appendix B, sections B.1 to B.3, B.5
• Gates and logic families in Circuit Simulator
  • basic gates made of manually operated switches
  • observe the differences in current at the ground terminal
  • RTL Inverter, NAND Gate
  • TTL Inverter, NAND Gate
  • NMOS Inverter, NAND Gate
  • CMOS Inverter, NAND Gate
• LogiSim: Simple adder
• LogiSim: Simple adder/subtractor

Lecture 4 (Mar 12, 2026)

Lecture 5 (Mar 19, 2026)

Lecture 6 (Mar 26, 2026)

Lecture 7 (Apr 2, 2026)

Lecture 8 (Apr 9, 2026)

Lecture 9 (Apr 16, 2026)

Lecture 10 (Apr 23, 2026)

Lecture 11 (Apr 30, 2026)

Lecture 12 (May 7, 2026)

Lecture 13 (May 14, 2026)

Lecture 14 (May 21, 2026)