Course Information

Computer architecture is a foundation for computer scientists and engineers. CS211 is intended for students who are with basic understandings of computer architecture and interested in pursuing research in computer architecture or related fields. CS211 will help students to observe and explore computer architecture in both macroscopic and microscopic dimensions. The goal of CS211 is to make students better understand how software and hardware cooperate and gain knowledge from the classic and state-of-the-art with regard to technology, applications, and economics that drive continuing changes in the area of computer architecture.

The topics covered by CS211 will include (but are not limited to): instructions and instruction set, memory hierarchy, pipeline, out-of-order execution, speculative execution, caching, memory consistency, multi-threading, vectors, virtual machines, etc.


Course Staff

Instructor: Chundong Wang, wangchd <the-at-sign> shanghaitech.edu.cn.

Office Hours: 9:00am - 11:00am, every Friday of Fall 2023 (except public holidays), at SIST 1A-504.D.

TA: Chen Meng, chenmeng2022 <the-at-sign> shanghaitech.edu.cn

TA: Jia Lei, jialei2022 <the-at-sign> shanghaitech.edu.cn


Course Resources


Course Schedule

Lecture Date   Topic   Notes
L01 Tue 26/09/2023   Introduction (L01 slides)
L02 Sat 07/10/2023   Entry-level Test
L03 Tue 10/10/2023   ISA, Microcode, ROP (L03 slides)   Reverse Polish Notation
L04 Thu 12/10/2023   Pipeline I (L04 slides)
L05 Tue 17/10/2023   Pipeline II (L05 slides)
L06 Tue 24/10/2023   Memory Hierarchy I (L06 slides)
L07 Tue 31/10/2023   Memory Hierarchy II (L07 slides)
L08 Thu 02/11/2023   Memory Hierarchy III (L08 slides)
L09 Thu 02/11/2023   Out of Order Execution (L09 slides)
L10 Tue 07/11/2023   Speculative Execution (L10 slides)
L11 Thu 09/11/2023   VLIW (L11 slides)
L12 Tue 14/11/2023   Multi-threading (L12 slides)
L13 Thu 16/11/2023   Vector (L13 slides)
- Tue 21/11/2023   Mid-term Exam
L14 Thu 23/11/2023   Cache Coherence (L14 slides)
L15 Tue 28/11/2023   Memory Consistency (L15 slides) A tutorial on MCM
L16 Tue 28/11/2023   Synchronization (L16 slides)
L17 Thu 30/11/2023   Advanced Topics on Cache and Memory (L17 slides)
L18 Tue 05/12/2023   Virtualization (L18 slides)
L19 Thu 05/12/2023   Hardware Security (L19 slides)
L20 Tue 12/12/2023   Summary (L20 slides)
- Thu 14/12/2023   Final Exam