IFT 212: Computer Architecture and Organisation (2 Units C: LH 15; PH 45) Course Contents

Principles of computer hardware and instruction set architecture. Internal CPU organisation and implementation. Instruction format and types, memory, and I/O instructions. Dataflow, arithmetic, and flow control instructions, addressing modes, stack operations, and interrupts. Data path and control unit design. RTL, microprogramming and hardwired control. The practice of assembly language programming. Memory hierarchy. Cache memory, Virtual memory. Cache performance. Compiler support for cache performance. I/O organisations.

Lab work: Practical demonstration of the architecture of a typical computer. Illustration of different types of instructions and how they are executed. Simple Assembly Language programming. Demonstration of interrupts. Programming assignments to practice MS-DOS batch programming, Assembly Process, Debugging, Procedures, Keyboard input, Video Output, File and Disk I/O, and Data Structure. Demonstration of Reduced Instruction Set Computers. Illustration of parallel architectures and interconnection networks.