Welcome to CS304: Computer Architecture. General information about this course and its requirements can be found below.
Course Designer: JM Perry
Course Description: Exploration of the basic hardware/software components, assembly language, and functional architecture design of computers, specifically focusing on instruction sets, processor arithmetic and control, the Von Neumann architecture, pipelining, memory management, storage, and other input/output topics.
Getting Started
After familiarizing yourself with the following course syllabus, enroll in this course using the "Enroll me in this course" button located on the left hand toolbar. Once enrolled, navigate to Unit 1 of the course to read the unit introduction and then access the "Unit 1 Activities" page, which provides all links and instructions for unit specific course resources.
Earning College Credit
This course provides students the opportunity to earn actual college credit. It has been reviewed by Brandman University and can applied as credit towards a degree by students who are currently enrolled or plan to enroll at Brandman. You can read more about this special program here.
Evaluation and Minimum Passing Scores
In order to pass this course, you will need to earn a 70% or higher on the final exam. Your score on the exam will be tabulated as soon as you complete it. If you do not pass the exam on your first attempt, you may take it again as many times as needed, following a 7-day waiting period between each attempt.
You will only receive an official grade on your final exam. However, in order to adequately prepare for this exam, we recommend that you work through the materials in each unit. Throughout the course you may find practice quizzes or other assignments that will help you master material and gauge your learning. Scores on these assignments are informational only and do not contribute to your overall course grade.
If you are seeking to earn college credit at Brandman, you must take and pass the version of the exam titled "Proctored Final Exam." That exam will be password protected.
Technical Requirements
This course is delivered fully online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and to attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.
To access the full course including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor Academy account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one, free of charge, here. Although you can access some course resources without being logged into your account, it’s advised that you log in to maximize your course experience. For example, some of the accessibility and progress tracking features are only available when you are logged in.
For additional technical guidance check out Saylor’s tech-FAQ and the Moodle LMS tutorial.
Fees
There is no cost to access and enroll in this course. All required course resources linked throughout the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, activities, etc are accessible for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam and course completion certificate.
This courses does contain an optional final exam that will provide students an opportunity to earn college credit. Access to the exam itself is free, though it does require the use of a proctoring service for identity verification purposes. The cost for proctoring is $25 per session.
Time Commitment
While learning styles can vary considerably and any particular student will take more or less time to learn or read, we estimate that the "average" student will take 109 hours to complete this course. Each overall unit within the course is similarly tagged with an estimated time advisory. We recommend that you work through the course at a pace that is comfortable for you and allows you to make regular (daily, or at least weekly) progress. It's a good idea to also schedule your study time in advance and try as best as you can to stick to that schedule.
It may be useful to take a look at these time advisories and to determine how much time you have over the next few weeks to complete each unit, and then to set goals for yourself. Perhaps you can sit down with your calendar and decide to complete subunits 1.1 and 1.2 (a total of 2.5 hours) on Monday; subunits 1.3 and 1.4 (a total of 3.5 hours) on Tuesday; subunits 1.5 and 1.6 as well as the Unit 1 Assessment (a total of 4.5 hours) on Wednesday and Thursday; etc.
Tips/Suggestions
Learning new material can be challenging, so below we've compiled a few suggested study strategies to help you succeed.
Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories as you read. This can help you differentiate and contextualize concepts and later provide you with a refresher as you study.
As you progress through the materials, take time to test yourself on what you have retained and how well you understand the concepts. The process of reflection is important for creating a memory of the materials you learn; it will increase the probability that you ultimately retain the information.
Although you may work through this course completely independently, you may find it helpful to connect with other Saylor students through the discussion forums or study groups. You may access the discussion forums at https://discourse.saylor.org.
Pay special attention to all of Unit 1, as it lays the groundwork for understanding the more advanced material presented in the latter units.
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- identify important advances that have taken place in the history of modern computing, and discuss some of the latest trends in computing industry;
- explain how programs written in high-level programming language, such as C or Java, can be translated into the language of the hardware;
- describe the interface between hardware and software, and explain how software instructs hardware to accomplish desired functions;
- explain the process of carrying out sequential logic design;
- explain computer arithmetic hardware blocks and floating point representation;
- explain how a hardware programming language is executed on hardware and how hardware and software design affect performance;
- explain the factors that determine the performance of a program;
- explain the techniques that designers use to improve the performance of programs running on hardware;
- explain the importance of memory hierarchy in computer design, and explain how memory design impacts overall hardware performance;
- describe storage and I/O devices, their performance measurement, and redundant array of inexpensive disks (more commonly referred to by the acronym RAID) technology; and
- identify the reasons for and the consequences of the recent switch from sequential processing to parallel processing in hardware manufacture, and explain the basics of parallel programming.
Suggested Prerequisites
In order to take this course, you should:
- have read the Saylor Student Handbook;
- be comfortable writing, compiling, and executing your own programs;
- be knowledgeable about the basics of digital logic and Boolean algebra;
- have experience programming using a high-level language such as C/C++ and/or have completed the following courses: