CS 3220 Processor Design
Fall 2002

Instructor:

Pete Manolios

Office:
Office hours:
Email:
Phone:

CCB 149
Monday/Wednesday 2PM-3PM or by appointment
manolios@cc
404-894-9219

TA:

Vernard Martin

Office:
Office hours:
Email:
Computer Lab
Wednesday 11AM-1PM or by appointment
vernard@cc

Class Information

Location:
Meeting times:
Web page:
Newsgroup:

CCB 53
Monday/Wednesday, 1:05PM-1:55PM
http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~manolios/courses/Processor-design/2002-Fall/
git.cc.class.cs3220

Course Description

This course covers the principles of processor design and provides an in-depth experience in the subject at the undergraduate level. The course will examine how to implement a processor in hardware, how to use low-level software to extend the processor, and how to use verification tools to check that the processor behaves as expected. Students will design and test processors executing a simplified version of the JVM (Java Virtual Machine) using a programmable logic chip.

Grading

Your grade will be based on the following.

Homeworks:
Projects:
Class Participation:

30%
60%
10%

Textbooks

Required:

Hamblen and Furman, Rapid Prototyping of Digital Systems, A Tutorial Approach, Second Edition, Kluwer, 2001.
Patterson and Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design, The Hardware/Software Interface, Second Edition, Morgan Kaufman, 1998.
Computer-Aided Reasoning: An Approach. Matt Kaufmann, Panagiotis Manolios, and J Strother Moore. Kluwer Academic Publishers, June, 2000. (ISBN: 0-7923-7744-3)

Recommended:

Lindholm and Yellin, The Java Virtual Machine Specification, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 1999 is available on-line here.

Equipment

We will use the Altera UP-1 programmable logic boards. Kits containing these boards will be handed out to students for the duration of the semester. Software for the boards is bundled as a CD with the Rapid Prototyping book. Install this on your home machine. We will also try to install the software on Windows-based machines in one of the CoC labs.

Tentative Syllabus

What we actually cover will depend on the interests and background of the class and on whether we delve more deeply into some of the topics.

Logic Design

Gates, combinational Logic
Clocks, sequential logic
Finite state machines
Timing, layout
Design tools: schematic and language based

Computer Organization

Instruction sets, stored-program computer design
Arithmetic
Datapath and control
Pipelining
Memory hierarchies
Modeling Java at the hardware level

Verification

Boolean equivalence
Testing
Symbolic Simulation
Theorem Proving
Model Checking

Notes

The course is very hands-on: this means that there will be many homeworks and projects and that they will count for almost all of your grade.
Homeworks and projects are due by the date indicated. Late submissions will not be accepted.
You are expected to do the readings before class.
The homeworks and projects you turn in must be your own work. Do not collaborate with other students unless I state otherwise. You can talk to one another about high-level ideas and you can consult sources such as the Web, but any significant insights into assignments gained from any source should be cited.
Academic conduct is subject to the Georgia Tech Honor Code.

CS 3220 Processor Design Fall 2002