Introduction to Computer Organization

Overview

Studying computer organization is essential for anyone in the technology field, as it provides a fundamental understanding of how computers work. It's not just for hardware engineers; it's a critical skill for a variety of roles, including software developers and IT professionals. Understanding hardware enables you to optimize performance, troubleshoot problems effectively, and innovate new technologies. This course provides a foundational understanding of how computers work at a low level through the lens of MIPS architecture. You'll learn how to analyze a microprocessor's performance, trace program flow through assembly code, manage the stack, and understand how computers perform arithmetic from a hardware perspective. Upon completion, one will be able to: - Explain the role of the clock and the instruction cycle in a computer's operation. - Discuss the trade-offs between CPU performance and power consumption. - Describe how memory addresses are used to access data. - Write simple assembly language programs using MIPS instructions. - Demonstrate a deep understanding of procedure call conventions. - Explain the IEEE 754 standard for representing floating-point numbers. - Perform, debug, and trace arithmetic operations step-by-step. This is an intermediate-level course, intended for learners with a background in computer science or electronics engineering. To succeed in this course, you should have experience with a high-level programming language like C, C++, or Python.

Syllabus

Module 1: Microprocessor Performance

This module presents clocks, cycles, power wall, MIPS instruction set, operands, registers, and memory organization.

Module 2: Control Instructions

This module discusses control instructions, branching, simple assembly codes, procedure calls, jump-and-link, data movement among registers, endian-ness, and dealing with large constants.

Module 3: Computer Arithmetic

This module covers ASCII vs. binary, 2's complement, signed-unsigned, sign extension, alternative representations, and performing simple arithmetic.

Module 4: Floating Point Operations

This module explains sign and magnitude representation, exponent representation, floating point addition, multiplication, fixed point representation, and subword parallelism.