- This is CS 4250 Computer Architecture
- I am Nat Tuck
- We’re doing attendance on Inkfish.
Computer Architecture? #
In this class we’re doing two things:
- A much deeper theoretical dive into how computer hardware works and how computer software integrates with it.
- A semester project where you build a project involving hardware and the low level hardware/software interface.
Semester Project #
- You’ll be working on a team of 1 or 3 students. Teams and project proposals are due in two weeks.
- You’ll be building something using a Sophgo SG2000 dev board.
- I can lend you one to get started, assuming everyone doesn’t decide to work alone.
- Getting your own is required. Order confirmation screenshots are part of your first homework.
- Computer hardware market is stupid - you can’t just get a board on Amazon and there will be tariffs.
Example projects:
- Chess robot
- Dedicated game console with fancy hardware (e.g. snake on LED array with big joystick)
- Some other simple robot
- Hardware trigger for remote computing (e.g. face recognition bot, sound-triggered security camera, etc)
Theoretical Topics #
- ISAs, RISC-V
- Too much assembly language
- Device I/O
- Way too much detail on how processors actually execute code. Maybe we’ll do some self-modifying code.
Look at the Syllabus #
- Two mid-semester exams, mostly on lecture content.
- No final exam, final presentation instead.
- Labs could be whenever
- Supposed to be working on project most of the semester in addition to homeworks.
Homework Due Next Week #
- Order your stuff.
- Come up with at least two unique project ideas (if you’re on a team of three, that means your team of three should have six ideas already when trying to pick one for next week’s HW).
Direct vs. Indirect Knowledge #
- Draw a resistor - (Yellow, Orange, Black, Black, Brown)
- How do we decode resistance?
- Where should we store that knowledge? Which pieces do we store where?
