Spring 2004, Instructor: Allan Snavely

Sample Final Here
Lab 3 report is due at end of class on Tuesday May 25th. Sign up NOW for a demonstration time by consulting the schedule of checkoffs below and sending me email with the names of all your lab partners. First come First Served for slots! URL of this webpage www.sdsc.edu/~allans/cs141/cs141.html

"90 percent of success is showing up" - Woody Allen

"The other 10 percent is preparation" - Allan Snavely
 

(Class Message Board)

(Schedule for Lab checkoffs)

(CSE 141L web page)

Reading and Homework Assignments

Lecture slides

Basic Course Information:

• Instructor: Allan Snavely
• SDSC 311
• allans@sdsc.edu
• office hours: W 12-1
• Head TA: Michael McCracken
• office hours: Monday 10am
• building EBU1 room 6307b.
• mike@cs.ucsd.edu
• TA: Yenny Rusli
• office hours:
Thu at 2-3 pm in 6307B EBU1

• yrusli@ucsd.edu
• Head Lab TA: David Tamjidi
• Lab hours:

3:40 - 5:00 Tu/Th

• AP&M 2444
• dtamjidi@cs.ucsd.edu
• Lab TA: Marshal Dhillon
• Lab hours:

Tue/Thurs: 1pm-2:30pm
Wed: 6-7:30pm

• AP&M 2444
• mdhillon@cs.ucsd.edu
• Meeting times and places
Meeting times and places
• Lecture
• Center Hall 214, TTh 8:00-9:20am
• discussion:
• Wed., 10:00-10:50am in Center Hall 105
• Lab (for those enrolled)
• CSB 002, F 12:30-1:50
• Course textbook

Patterson & Hennessy, "Computer Organization and Design -- The Hardware/Software Interface", Morgan Kaufmann, Second Edition

• Other recommended reading
• Stallings, "Computer Organization and Architecture --Designing for Performance", 4th edition, Prentice Hall
• an alternate perspective
• Hennesy & Patterson, "Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach", 2nd edition, Morgan Kaufmann
• a more advanced treatment of many of the same topics in the textbook
• WWW Computer Architecture Home Page
• Assignments:
• Homeworks will usually be "assigned" on Tuesday and "due" Thursday of the following week.
• I will lecture using overhead transparencies, and will try to make copies of selected slides available to you before class online in pdf format.
Course Outline:
I. Instruction Set Architecture

II. Computer System Performance and Performance Metrics

III. Computer Arithmetic and Number Systems

IV. CPU Architecture

V. The Memory/Cache Hierarchy

VI. Pipelining

VII. Superscalars

VIII. Parallel Machines

Grading Information:
• The grade for 141 will be based on homeworks, one midterm, and a final, as follows:
• homeworks: 0% (but 100% important!)
• class participation: 10%
• midterm: 40%
• final: 50%
• subjective influences like class participation will have an impact in the margins -- it does pay to let the professor know who you are!
• The final will be inclusive of all course material.
• The grade for 141L will be based solely on 4-5 lab reports. I expect that most students will complete the lab assignments as specified; thus the quality of the lab reports will likely be the most important factor in determining grades.
• Homework will not be turned in. Late lab assignments are not encouraged. You will have two grace days during the quarter. I.e., you can turn one lab assignment in two days late, or two assignments in one day late. I recommend not spending those days frivolously early in the quarter. After you have spent your grace days, late assignments will be accepted, but with no guarantees that they will be graded, and with significant penalties if they are. We will make every effort to return assignments to you in a timely manner -- limiting your ability to turn things in late is, unfortunately, critical to that goal.  Anytime after the end of class counts as a day late.  The second day begins 24 hours later.  The weekend counts as a single day.  Thus, something turned in Monday (before 9 a.m.!) that was due Thursday is two days late.
• You have the right of appeal for grading on all tests; however, an appeal (except for scoring errors) covers the entire test, and may result in an unfavorable judgment on another problem. You have one week from the time the midterms are returned to make appeals, including addition errors on your score. Check it over carefully when you get it. All appeals must be made in writing and given to the instructor.
• There is no grading of homeworks. But you need to know how to solve homework problems to pass the tests. A few homework questions will appear on the test VERBATIM. Some other test questions will be very similar to homework. There will be no posted solutions to homework. But we will be happy to assist you in discovering the right answer in office hours, reviews, and sections. Solving the homework is your responsibility and if you do it well and consistently it is sure to result in a good grade. Finding the right answer for yourself ensures you can do the same on the test.
• STRICTLY speaking there is no curve. It is fine with me if everyone gets As. If everyone gets Fs I will retire from teaching. Every quarter I give all the grades A through F. GENERALLY speaking the average is a C, one standard deviation above is a B, two above is an A to A+, one below is a D, two below is an F. However I reserve the right to draw these lines according to the distribution. If everyone gets 90% then everyone gets As.
Integrity:
• Cheating WILL be taken seriously. It is not fair to honest students to take cheating lightly, nor is it fair to the cheater to let him/her go on thinking that is a reasonable alternative in life. Don't test me on this one.
• Tests are closed notes, closed book, closed neighbor, closed mouth, open mind, STATE YOUR ASSUMPTIONS about unclear or vague questions. Some questions are deliberately vague or ambigious in order to test your ability to make reasonable assumptions (just like in real life). Reasonable assumptions I did not anticipate will receive full marks. However it is up to me to decide what is reasonable.
• The following is totally unacceptable and will be punished:

-Receiving, providing, or soliciting assistance from another student during a test.
-Having touching or looking at a book or any writen material except the test and the blackboard during a test.
• Penalties -- anyone copying information or having information copied during a test will receive an F for the class and will not be allowed to drop.  They will be reported to their college dean.  If you can prove non-cooperative copying took place, your grade may be restored, but you must prove it to the dean -- I don't want to be involved. 
If you have comments or suggestions, email me at allans@sdsc.edu