Computer Systems Engineering (Universitas Gadjah Mada dual degree) MSc
Computer Architecture (H) COMPSCI4007
- Academic Session: 2026-27
- School: School of Computing Science
- Credits: 10
- Level: Level 4 (SCQF level 10)
- Typically Offered: Semester 1
- Available to Visiting Students: Yes
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
- Curriculum For Life: No
Short Description
The course explains in depth how a computer works, by developing a digital circuit that implements an instruction set architecture. Topics include cache, virtual memory, support by the architecture for the operating system, and instruction level parallelism.
Timetable
3 hours per week
Excluded Courses
None
Co-requisites
None
Assessment
Examination 80%, coursework 20%.
Main Assessment In: April/May
Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? No
It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.
[No exceptions]
Course Aims
This course provides a working understanding of the fundamental principles of computer systems. It answers the question "How do computers work?" at a substantive level, as well as giving a foundation needed for other areas in computer systems. The course reviews the behaviour of digital circuits and introduces a functional hardware description language for specifying and simulating synchronous circuits. Using the hardware description language, a complete and precise design of a simple but realistic computer architecture is developed. Advanced topics include the memory system, pipelining, superscalar organisation, and interaction between the architecture and operating system, and the use of formal methods in hardware design. Current trends are introduced, in particular parallelism and reconfigurable computing.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of the course students will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of a processor datapath design, and be able to derive the control signal settings required to make the datapath perform an operation;
2. Implement the datapath and the control as digital circuits;
3. Use simulation to explore properties of a processor circuit;
4. Analyse the behaviour of a processor pipeline as the processor executes various sequences of instructions;
5. Predict the impact of the memory hierarchy on system performance;
6. Describe how the operating system utilizes the architecture's support in order to provide processes, protection, virtual memory, and input/output;
7. Discuss the role of parallelism in current and future architectures.