This module introduces students to modern microprocessor architectures, using the Intel x86 series as case studies, with the intent to showing the practical implications of such knowledge upon programming decisions. Topics include pipelining, superscalar/VLIW machines, register-renaming, out-of-order execution, multi-core architecture, caches, multicore-cache coherency, x86 instruction set architecture, application binary interfaces, Flynn'92s taxonomy, Streaming SIMD extensions etc.
Prerequisites
CSD 1101, CSD 2126