Computer Science

Advanced Computer Architecture: COMPSCI 703 Semester 1, City Campus

»: Lecturer

»: Recommended preparation

»: Scheduled Lecture Times

»: Recommended Texts

»: Assessment

»: Mid-semester Test

The most important trend in computer architecture these days is the increasing importance of parallelism. Multiprocessing is emerging everywhere. Processors have mostly stopped getting faster but continue to get smaller and cheaper. Multicore processors are becoming commonplace, ready or not. Soon it will be hard to buy a computer that doesn't have multiple cores.

Programming multiple computers offers many challenges. This course will survey the trends and focus on the problems -- solved and as yet unsolved -- regarding parallel systems. We'll look at various models of parallel programming, studying what makes programming hard, and promising approaches to make it easier.

Lecturer

James Goodman Email: <goodman@cs.auckland.ac.nz>

Recommended preparation

COMPSCI 313 or SOFTENG 363 Computer Organization (Critical)

COMPSCI 340 or SOFTENG 370 Operating Systems (Useful)

Scheduled Lecture Times

3-4pm, Tuesdays, Thursdays & Fridays

Recommended Texts

There will be no required textbook. Most readings will be available on the web.

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Assessment

Final exam is worth 60%.