Instructor: Dr. Steven Robbins
Office: 3.334 NPB
Phone: 458-5544
Address: Steven.Robbins@utsa.edu (subject must contain CS 3853)
Course Homepage: /classes/cs3853s2015/
Office Hours: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, 12 noon until 12:50 pm
Class Times: MWF 11:00 - 11:50 am in room 1.238 NPB
Recitation Times: Mondays at 12 noon and 2 PM
Texts:
Prerequisites: CS 3423 (Systems Programming) and CS 3843
(Computer Organization)
Note that prerequisites will be enforced.
Course Objectives:
- To understand the concepts of underlying computer systems at the macroarchitecture level.
- To understand how to measure the performance of computer systems.
- To understand how performance issues affect the design of computer systems.
Course Content:
We will cover the following chapters of the text:
Chapter 1 (introduction, trends, benchmarks, Amdahl's law)
Appendix C (pipelining)
Appendix B, Chapter 2 (memory hierarchy)
Chapter 5, in part (parallel memory hierarchy)
Chapter 3 (instruction-level parallelism)
Chapter 4, in part as time permits
- 20% in-class quizzes
- 20% Assignments and daily participation
- 35% Three Exams
- 25% Final Exam (Thursday, December 10 at 9:45 am)
The same grade is assigned for CS 3853 and CS 3851.
Attendance:
Attendance in the lecture is required.
Questions will be asked at the start of most class periods.
These quizzes and class participation counts 20% of your grade.
During each class you will log into your VDI account
on the computer at your seat and run ClassQue.
Course Policy:
No make-up exams
will be given except for university sanctioned excused absences. If you
must miss an exam (for a good reason), it is your responsibility to contact
me before the exam. Leave a message at the above number or send me email.
Unless otherwise stated, all assignments are due at the beginning of
class on the due date. Assignments are usually due on a Wednesday.
For these assignments, there will be a 10 percent penalty if they are
turned in by the following class.
Do not miss class to finish an assignment.
Turn in what you have for partial credit.
Assignments will not be accepted after the second due date
unless prior arrangements have been made.
You must keep copies of the source code for all assignments for this
course at least until you receive the your final grade for the course.
At any time during the semester you may be asked to demonstrate any
of your programs.
Unless explicitly stated in an assignment, you may receive help
from any source.
Discussions are encouraged.
However, all discussions and other assistance you
receive on an assignment must be documented in your assignment.
What you turn in must be your own work.
You may not just copy another person's
assignment. However, you may discuss how to solve problems with others.
You must keep track of the date
and the name(s) of the person(s) you talked to,
as well as produce short paragraph
describing what was discussed and the contribution
made by each person involved.
Collaborations that are not documented will be considered cheating.
This type of scholastic dishonesty usually results in
immediate failure in the course
and can lead to additional disciplinary action.
All student are expected to follow the
Roadrunner Creed.
Students are expected to follow the
Roadrunner Creed.
Students should be aware of the policy on scholastic dishonesty which can be found under Section 203
of the
Student Code of Conduct.
Policies regarding disabilities can be found
here.
This Syllabus is provided for informational purposes regarding the
anticipated course content and schedule of this course. It is based
upon the most recent information available on the date of its issuance
and is as accurate and complete as possible. I reserve the right to
make any changes I deem necessary and/or appropriate. I will make my
best efforts to communicate any changes in the syllabus in a timely
manner. Students are responsible for being aware of these changes.