COMP6300 Computer Architecture

About the course

This course is a rigorous introduction to the design of digital circuits and computer architecture. It provides technical foundations for how a computer system is built from the bottom up and how the high-level programming languages you learn in other courses are translated into simple instructions the computer executes. The course introduces the different abstraction layers necessary to make a computer system work, and a key focus is the connection between hardware and software.

The course introduces the predominant stored-program computer paradigm and principles of digital design and computer architecture. Students build a fully functional general-purpose computer from simple logic circuits in a digital simulator. The course also demystifies assembly code, the machine language the processor speaks, and the mapping of assembly programs to higher levels of programming abstraction. The focus is on fundamental techniques employed in the design of modern microprocessors and their hardware/software interface.

This course will challenge your understanding of how computers work and what happens in them when we run a program. At the end of this course, you will be able to navigate between layers of abstraction in a computer system, from individual digital circuits to high-level software, and understand how low-level structures enable and enhance the abilities of a computer system.

This course covers topics such as combinational and sequential logic design, digital building blocks such as arithmetic/logic unit and random access memory, instruction set architectures and assembly programming, input/output systems, interrupt handling, single-cycle and pipelined processor design, out-of-order execution, and hardware speculation.

When it meets

Every week

• Mon 14:00–16:00 lecture
• Thu 11:00–13:00 lecture

Choose one lab (12 options)

• Tue 08:00–10:00
• Tue 10:00–12:00
• Tue 12:00–14:00
• Tue 15:00–17:00
• Wed 08:00–10:00
• Wed 10:00–12:00
• Wed 12:00–14:00
• Wed 14:00–16:00
• Thu 09:00–11:00
• Thu 16:00–18:00
• Fri 08:00–10:00
• Fri 10:00–12:00

2027 times aren't published yet, so these are last year's.

Requirements

To enrol in this course you must be: studying a Master of Computing OR Master of Computing (Advanced) OR have completed COMP6710 OR COMP7710 OR COMP1110. Incompatible with COMP2300, ENGN2219 and COMP6719.

Wording from ANU Programs and Courses.