Computer architecture focuses on techniques to design high-performance processors and is a prerequisite for both design and verification engineers, in any modern processor design project. This course covers computer architecture essentials, as well as some advanced topics, such as multi-threading, data level parallelism in GPUs and multi-core processors. Through a lecture-based approach, supplemented with practical problem sets, you’ll navigate the intricacies of Verilog coding, timing graph walkthrough, and micro-architecture solutions. This course is intended for design and verification engineers interested in working on processor or complex digital system design projects.

Learning Outcomes
At the conclusion of the course, you should be able to

• Identify and resolve pipeline hazards and explain out-of-order execution.
• Evaluate tradeoffs between various cache organization and replacement policies.
• Understand virtual memory organization.
• Design protocol meeting memory coherence and consistency requirements.
• Explain data level parallelism.

Topics Include

• Processor design
• Multi-core processors
• Data level parallelism in GPUs
• Memory systems and hierarchy
• Vectorization
• Multi-threading

Skills Needed

• Knowledge of digital system design with Verilog/SystemVerilog is required.