IT&C 252

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Computer Architecture and Organization

Electrical and Computer Engineering Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering

Course Description

Principles of computer hardware and instruction set architecture. Subjects include: internal CPU organization and implementation, peripheral interconnect and IO systems, and low-level programming and security issues.

When Taught

Winter.

Min

3

Fixed

3

Fixed

2

Fixed

3

Note

Students must receive a C or higher grade in this course to move on to IT&C 344.

Title

CPU Architecture

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate ability to modify a CPU design to add instructions and to improve the overall efficiency of execution.

Title

Security

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate how vulnerabilities in software coding can be exploited in computer security attacks (eg. buffer overflow).

Title

Abstraction

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate understanding of the various abstractions used to manage complexity in computer systems and support application concurrency. e.g. system calls and virtual memory.

Title

Development Tools

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate ability to use a C compiler, an assembler, a disassembler, a debugger, and CPU emulators to develop, debug, test, analyze and optimize programs.

Title

Input/Output

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate understanding of how peripherals are accessed in a computer system, e.g. polling or interrupt driven I/O.

Title

Performance

Learning Outcome

Know how application performance can be affected in a target system by memory hierarchy design factors such as cache size, bus width, clock rate and memory speed.

Title

Assembly Language

Learning Outcome

Demonstrate ability to understand and program with assembly language.

Title

Program Architecture

Learning Outcome

Know how to write more reliable, secure, and efficient software with an understanding of how the software is executed on the underlying architecture.