Quick links: Overview · Schedule · Syllabus · Resources

Overview

Lecture location: Wilkinson 021 + Zoom for authorized remote attendees
Lecture time: Tue/Thu 10:15am - 11:30am

Instructor: Dr. Tyler Bletsch
Email: Tyler.Bletsch AT duke.edu
Office Hours:

• After every lecture: In classroom + class zoom.
  ^ These are *real* office hours, not just answering a few short questions - feel free to approach after class with substantive issues.
• Wednesday 11am-12pm: Via zoom - see here for link.
• By appointment: Feel free to email to meet if the above times don't work for you.

Recitations:

Section	Room	Time	Leads
01	Hudson 139	Wed 1:45pm-3:00pm	Sravan Parimi	Vincent Huang
04	Hudson 115A	Wed 1:45pm-3:00pm	Allan Guo	Jincheng He
05	Hudson 222	Wed 1:45pm-3:00pm	Andrew Liu	Lucy Huo
06	Hudson 207	Wed 1:45pm-3:00pm	Emily Sun	Michael Li
02	Hudson 139	Wed 3:30pm-4:45pm	Ethan Yu	Heidi Smith
07	Bio Sci 154	Wed 3:30pm-4:45pm	Trevon Helm	Brandon Bae
03	Hudson 115A	Wed 5:15pm-6:30pm	Mayari Merchant	Dominic Martinez

Additional teaching staff:

• Graduate TAs
  • Jincheng He (jincheng.he@dukekunshan.edu.cn)
  • Ryan Feinberg (ryan.feinberg AT duke.edu)
• Undergraduate TAs
  • Ahmed Abdulrahman (aka40 AT duke.edu)
  • Allan Guo (allan.guo AT duke.edu)
  • Alicia Wu (alicia.wu AT duke.edu)
  • Andrew Liu (al284 AT duke.edu)
  • Brandon Bae (brandon.bae AT duke.edu)
  • Chika Dueke-Eze (chika.duekeeze AT duke.edu)
  • Connie Xu (connie.xu553 AT duke.edu)
  • Dominic Martinez (dominic.martinez AT duke.edu)
  • Emily Sun (emily.j.sun AT duke.edu)
  • Ethan Yu (ethan.r.yu AT duke.edu)
  • Heidi Smith (heidi.a.smith AT duke.edu)
  • Lucy Huo (lucy.huo AT duke.edu)
  • Manith Luthria (manith.luthria AT duke.edu)
  • Marie-Helene Tome (mt392 AT duke.edu)
  • Mayari Merchant (mayari.merchant AT duke.edu)
  • Michael Li (zeyu.li030 AT duke.edu)
  • Prajwal Jagadish (prajwal.jagadish AT duke.edu)
  • Sravan Parimi (sravan.parimi AT duke.edu)
  • Trevon Helm (trevon.helm AT duke.edu)
  • Vincent Huang (vincent.huang AT duke.edu)
• Course coordinator: Yesenia Velasco (yvelasco AT cs.duke.edu)

UTA Office Hours: See forum thread

Course Textbook: David A. Patterson and John L. Hennessy. Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, 5th edition, Morgan-Kaufmann.
→ Available free online from Duke Library here! (Physical copy from Amazon, AddAll) — Not the "ARM" edition or the "Revised Printing"

Links:

• Ed forum - get help and discuss course material
• Discord - get help in a real time chat (must set your name to your real full name)
• GradeScope - submit assignments and see feedback
• Sakai - see grades
• Gitlab - The git repository for assignments
• Anonymous feedback - use this form to send anonymous feedback to the instructor

Schedule

#	Date	Lecture	Reading	Recitation (Wednesdays)	Homework due (11:59:00pm)
1	Tue 8/30	Intro/Overview	Chapter 1	R01. Unix, text editing, and basic C, part 1
2	Thu 9/1	C programming	(See Resources below)
3	Tue 9/6	C programming	(See Resources below)	R01. Unix, text editing, and basic C, part 2
4	Thu 9/8	C programming	(See Resources below)		(Due Thu 9/8) Homework 0
5	Tue 9/13	From C to binary	Sec 2.1-2.4, 3.2, 3.5	R02. Pointers and memory management, part 1 - Q1-2 with Aaric Han
6	Thu 9/15	From C to binary	Sec 2.1-2.4, 3.2, 3.5
7	Tue 9/20	Assembly	Sec 2.5-end	R02. Pointers and memory management, part 2 - Code: leaky.c - Q3-7 with Aaric Han   ^ Minor variation from your version: Missing Q6.
8	Thu 9/22	Assembly	Sec 2.5-end
9	Tue 9/27	Assembly	Sec 2.5-end	R03. Assembly programming with SPIM, part 1 - SPIM intro    - Code: simple.s    - Solution: printint.s - C to MIPS 1: basic manual compiling    - Code: squares.c    - Solution: squares.s - Assembly: strlen function by Yi Chen	(Due Mon 9/26) Homework 1 - prog.c - C debug guide - Tool intro - Sorting tips
10	Thu 9/29	Combinational logic	Sec 4.1-4.2, B.1-B.3, B.5, basic_logic_ev.circ
11	Tue 10/4	Sequential logic	Sec B.7-B.11	R03. Assembly programming with SPIM, part 2 - Assembly: sum function by Maverick Chung    - Solution: foo_function.s - C to MIPS 2: caller saved registers    - Code: squares-with-call.c    - Solution: squares-callersaved.s - C to MIPS 3: callee-saved registers    - Solution: squares-calleesaved.s - Updated recusion example from Jerry Wang
12	Thu 10/6	Sequential logic	Sec B.7-B.11
-	Tue 10/11	Fall Break		Doing HW2? ➥ Homework 2 help clinic Done with HW2 (with an all-green hwtest output)? ➥ R04. Digital design with Logisim (head start)
13	Thu 10/13	Midterm review session
14	Tue 10/18	Midterm exam	Study guide, Practice midterm   (blank version) Live solutions	R04. Digital design with Logisim - input_output.circ
15	Thu 10/20	Finite state machines	Sec B.7-B.11, combo_lock_ev.circ ^ Link fixed 10/19		(Due Thu 10/20) Homework 2 - prog_part.c - MIPS debug guide - Structs - Data structures - Calling conventions - strlen - Loop/sort tips
16	Tue 10/25	Datapath design	Sec 4.3-4.4, 4.9	R05. Using Logisim for larger projects - FSM walkthrough with Andy He
17	Thu 10/27	Datapath design	Sec 4.3-4.4, 4.9		(Due Sun 10/30) Homework 3 - Logisim debug guide - Logisim tips   ^ Video shows older Logisim,       but it's still valid
18	Tue 11/1	Caches	Sec 5.1-5.5	R06. Register file and ALU, part 1 - Regfile demo - ALU demo
19	Thu 11/3	Caches	Sec 5.1-5.5
20	Tue 11/8	Caches	Sec 5.1-5.5	R06. Register file and ALU, part 2
21	Thu 11/10	Virtual Memory	Sec 5.6-5.9
22	Tue 11/15	Virtual Memory	Sec 5.6-5.9	R07. Caching and virtual memory, part 1
23	Thu 11/17	I/O	Sec A.8		(Due Fri 11/18) Homework 4 - TA Guide to HW4 - Processor tips guide - Logisim Evolution - HW4 tool intro - Logisim tips - ALU/Control tips - Tracing/debugging - TTY/Keyboard tips - Dramatic intro (alt)
24	Tue 11/22	Pipelined cores	Sec 4.5-end	Thanksgiving break
-	Thu 11/24	Thanksgiving break
25	Tue 11/29	Pipelined cores	Sec 4.5-end
26	Thu 12/1	Multicore	Chapter 6	R07. Caching and virtual memory, part 2
27	Tue 12/6	Intel x86	Example code, Intel developer manual (pages 1..3908)	R08. Pipeline exercises and R09. Intel x86 and free exploration (time allowing) - memdance.c
28	Thu 12/8	Review for final			(Due Fri 12/9) Homework 5 - virt2phys example - cachesim example - Cachesim Guide (Due Tue 12/13, *optional*) Extra credit - Tar files
	12/19	Final exam (2pm)	Study guide Practice final Reference sheet Live solutions

Syllabus & policies

Course synopsis

Computer structure, machine language, instruction execution, addressing techniques, and digital representation of data. Computer systems organization, logic design, microprogramming, and interpreters. Symbolic coding and assembly systems.

Prerequisite: Computer Science 201 or consent of instructor.

Grading breakdown

This course will require readings from the textbook, problem sets, programming assignments, and digital logic design. Grading breakdown:

Category	%
Homework	55%
Midterm exam	15%
Final exam	25%
Recitation	5%

Homework grading

You are expected to complete the homework individually unless otherwise stated. However, you may discuss topics covered in the class.

Late homework submissions incur penalties as follows:

• Submission is 0-24 hours late: total score is multiplied by 0.9
• Submission is 24-48 hours late: total score is multiplied by 0.8
• Submission is more than 48 hours late: total score is multiplied by the Planck constant (as measured in J·s)

NOTE: If you feel in advance that you may need an extension, contact the instructor. We can work with you if you see a scheduling problem coming, but extensions cannot be granted at or near the due date!

Your homework grade will be based on what you submit to Sakai and when you submit it. The common excuses listed below will be rejected for the reasons shown:

Excuse	Thing you could have done which invalidates excuse
My internet was slow or flaky so my submission was late.	Submit with plenty of margin. There's no reason the assignment can't be submitted HOURS OR DAYS in advance.
I meant to submit, but I forgot to click the submit button.	After submission, leave and re-visit the submission page to make double-sure your file is uploaded properly.
My computer broke and I lost my work!	It's the modern era. Use one of the dozens of data mirroring or backup services: Dropbox, Google Drive, Box (free at Duke!), Crashplan, or just good old fashioned local backups. You should be able to set your laptop on fire and lose zero bytes of work.
I submitted the wrong file, let me send you the right file!	After submission, re-download your files from Sakai to verify it's correct. Test it from scratch to ensure it's what you expect.
One tiny thing was wrong, and I can fix it! Let me get a regrade!	The time to find those bugs is before submission. When you've built your program/circuit, you're not done...that's when testing begins! Test your solution under a variety of conditions. See here for a primer on software testing.
I didn't understand the requirements, let me fix my program and get a regrade!	If you're the slightest bit unsure if your program meets the requirements, ask for clarification in lecture, recitation, or Piazza. If you're worried your submission won't pass our testing, run through it with a TA or the instructor.

I'm not trying to be a jerk, but this is the part of your academic career where we build individual competence, and as in the real world, oversights can be costly.

Recitation grading

Recitation is where you'll learn concrete skills to complement the lecture's theoretical material, and is essential. Recitation grading works as follows:

• Attendance at recitation is expected. Students attending and making good faith effort will receive full credit for the day.

Grade appeals

All regrade requests must be in writing. Email the TAs with your questions. After speaking with the TAs, if you still have concerns, contact the instructor

All regrade requests must be submitted to the instructor no later than 1 week after the assignment was returned to you.

Academic integrity

I take academic integrity extremely seriously. Academic misconduct will not be tolerated, and all suspected violations of the Duke Undergraduate Honor Code will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct. A student found responsible for academic dishonesty faces formal disciplinary action, which may include suspension. A student twice suspended automatically faces a minimum 5-year separation from Duke University.

In addition to the measures taken by the Office of Student Conduct, the affected assignment(s) will receive zero credit, or possibly -100% in egregious cases.

If you are considering this course of action, please see me instead, and we can work something out! I want every student in my course to be successful.

Resources

• Recordings of this course's lectures:
  • Tyler Bletsch: Fall 2021 - See video description to jump to lecture start time.
  • Dan Sorin: Spring 2019
  • Dan Sorin: Spring 2016
• Unix Tutorial
  
  • You should also go through this short tutorial on Linux.
• C Programming Language
  
  • A full Coursera course on C by Prof. Drew Hilton.
  • Dr. Bletsch's "C and Software Tools" course from NC State -- has lots of C programming resources
  • Video snippets by Prof Drew Hilton (Duke ECE)
  • This is an MIT OpenCourseWare set of lectures that does a good job of covering the basics for C programming.
• C Programming Examples
  
  • C Memory Layout Example array as list
    
  • C Bit Manipulation bit manipulation of Hex to extract float fields or for a float input with casting via pointers extract float fields from float input .
• Tools -- Compilers (gcc)
  
  • Compilation: gcc -o newApp test.c
  • Generate compile time warnings: gcc -Wall test.c
  • Include debug symbols into the application: gcc -g -o newApp test.c
  • Introduction to gcc
• Tools -- Debugger (gdb)
  
  • Documentation
  • GDB essentials
  • Quick reference card (annotated version with most useful commands highlighted)
• MIPS Instructions
  
  • Assemblers, Linkers, and the SPIM Simulator (PDF).
  • A two page MIPS quick reference guide from MIPS is here.
  • A three page document from me with MIPS instructions is here.
• SPIM: A MIPS32 Simulator
  
  • Download the appropriate binary for your platform from the SPIM web site.
• Assembly Programming Examples
  
  • sum = sum + i*i is here.
  • sum array is here.
  • recursive sum array is here.
  • recursive sum i*i is here.
• Logic Design Online Book
  
  • Pragmatic Logic by William J. Eccles
• Logic Design Tool
  
  • Logisim is a convenient tool that runs on any platform (Mac, Windows, Linux). You will use Logisim to design and test circuits. Click through the download links until you arrive at the sourceforge.net site and then look for the green download button. Click download and it should autodetect your system so you get the right version.
• Caches and Virtual Memory
  
  • Caching and virtual memory calculator spreadsheet
  • Cache Interaction Policies with Main Memory by Gurpur Prabhu at Iowa State -- discusses why write-back/write-allocate and write-through/write-no-allocate usually go together.
  • Paging notes by Trek Palmer at UMass -- a good summary of the topic (mirrored locally).