[Free] Computer Architecture: From Number Systems To Parallelism
Computer Organization and Architecture – Free Course
What you’ll learn
- Number Systems and Logic Gates: Understand binary, decimal, octal, and hexadecimal systems, Explore logic gates (AND, OR, NOT, etc.), Perform binary arithmetic
- Computer Architectures: Study functional units, bus structures, and assembly language, Investigate a case study (e.g., 8086 architecture).
- Design of Arithmetic and Logic Units (ALUs): Apply De Morgan’s Theorem, Explore adders, multipliers (unsigned, signed), and IEEE 754 floating point operations.
- Control Unit and Pipelining: Study the basic processing unit, instruction execution, and branch instructions, Learn about pipelining concepts.
- Parallelism and Memory Systems: Explore the need for parallelism and multicore processors, Evaluate memory system performance.
Requirements
- No prerequiste
Description
The Computer Organization and Architecture course is a comprehensive exploration into the intricate workings of computers. It provides a deep dive into the fundamentals of computer hardware, memory operations, and addressing modes, offering students a solid foundation in understanding the internal structure of computers.The course begins with an introduction to number systems, including binary, decimal, octal, and hexadecimal, and covers various codes such as Grey, BCD, Excess-3, ASCII, and Parity. It also delves into binary arithmetic, including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division using Sign Magnitude, 1’s compliment, 2’s compliment, and BCD Arithmetic. The course also introduces students to logic gates, including AND, OR, NOT, NAND, NOR, EX-OR, and EX-NOR.
The course then moves on to the study of computer architectures, focusing on the functional units of a computer, operational concepts, bus structures, memory addresses and operations, assembly language, instructions, instruction sequencing, and addressing modes. It includes a case study on the 8086 architecture to provide practical insights.The design and operation of the Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU) form a significant part of the course. Students learn about De Morgan’s Theorem, adders, multipliers, division, and IEEE 754 Floating point numbers and operations. The course also covers the basic processing unit, ALU operations, instruction execution, branch instruction, multiple bus organization, hardwired control, generation of control signals, micro-programmed control, and the basic concepts of pipelining.
The course explores the need for parallelism, the architecture of parallel systems, and Flynn’s classification. It also introduces students to the ARM Processor, its instruction set, processor and CPU cores, instruction encoding format, memory load and store instruction, and the basics of I/O operations. Case studies on ARM 5 and ARM 7 Architecture are included to provide practical insights.
By the end of the course, students will have a thorough understanding of computer organization and architecture, enabling them to identify computer hardware, apply Boolean algebra in designing computer logic, examine the operation of basic processing units, analyze concepts of parallelism and multi-core processors, and classify memory technologies and input-output systems. This course equips students with the knowledge and skills necessary to excel in the field of computer science and engineering.
Author(s): Rajaram V, Angayarkanni S A, Srividhya S, Balakiruthiga B
