ESE 345: Computer Architecture

Spring 2024

Description: This course focuses on the fundamental techniques of designing and evaluating modern computer architectures and tradeoffs present at the hardware/software boundary. The emphasis is on instruction set design, processor design, memory and parallel processing. Students will undertake a design project using a hardware description language and modern CAD tools.

Prerequisites: ESE 280 and ESE 382 3 credits

Instructor:                  Prof. Mikhail Dorojevets

Office:                         243 Light Engineering, 632-8611

Office Hours:              M 10:00 am -12:00 pm

E-mail:                        mikhail.dorojevets@stonybrook.edu

Lecture:                     MW 5:30-6:50 PM 152 Light Eng.

Course website:     http://www.ece.stonybrook.edu/~midor/ESE345/index.html

The last lecture slides (pdf) are here. (If necessary, use "Open link in new window" to see and save the slides).

Teaching Assistants:

    Ramisa Fatima

    Email: ramisa.fatima@stonybrook.edu      TA hours: Tuesday Thursday 1:00 - 2:00 pm

Textbook:       David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy. Computer Organization &

Design The Hardware/Software Interface, Sixth Edition by David A. Patterson

and John L. Hennessy, 2021 by Elsevier Inc. ISBN:978-0-12-820109-1

Recommended Books on the VHDL:

1. Peter J. Ashenden. The Designer’s Guide to VHDL, 3rd edition, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2008,

ISBN: 978-0-12-088785-9.

Course Grading:        Homeworks:                               12% (submission during TA hours)

Exams: (two in-class midterms):   66%

Project:                                        22%

Submissions of both midterms & project are required for every student in this class!

Project Part 1 (VHDL ALU functions) Deadline: 11:59 PM March 29, 2024 by email to TA Ramisa Fatima and Instructor

Full Project Deadline: 1:00 PM April 28, 2024  by email to TA Ramisa Fatima and Instructor

Project Presentations:  April 29 - 30, 2024 (TBA)

Course Learning Outcomes:         

Upon completion of this course, students will learn: 1) computer performance and instruction set design principles, 2) MIPS architecture and basics of assembly language programming, 3) integer and floating-point arithmetic, 4) processor, caches, and memory design, and 5) use of VHDL/Verilog languages in the processor datapath design and verification.