COSC 3P92 Computer Architecture

• Course outline
• Assignment 1 (revised: Jan 29, 2009)
  • New: due 12:00 noon Tues Feb 10. Lates: 12:00 noon Thurs Feb 13 (-25%)
• Assignment 2
• Assignment 3
• --> Assignment solutions are on the board in front of my office.

• Old exams

• Lecture supplements (Powerpoint, Postscript): local Brock access only

• Seminars:
  • Seminar schedule including links to seminar web pages.
  • Suggestions for seminar topics.

• Textbook
  • Structured Computer Organization (5e)
    by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Prentice Hall, 2005, ISBN 0131485210.
  • Reading: (chronological order)
    • ch. 1
    • ch. 2
    • ch. 3 (skip 3.6.4)
    • ch. 5 (skip 5.6, 5.7, 5.8)
    • ch. 4 (skip 4.4.5; scan 4.2)

In the News

• Teraflop chip hints at the future (Feb 2007, BBC)
• Nanochip pushes computing limits (Feb 2007, CNN)
• Chips push through nano barrier (Jan 2007, BBC)

Cool Toys
(aka. the prof's wish list)

• Jazzmutant Lemur: music controller. Close up. But there is also the TouchOSC for the iPhone/ipod!
• Openlabs Workstations: Is it a music keyboard? A PC? Or both?

• FLIR Systems ThermaCAM BCAM SD : thermal imaging camera
• Adesso Cyberpad
• Commodore Gaming PC
• Behringer UCA202: Portable USB audio recorder
• Midispeak: retrofit old Speak-n-Spell toys with MIDI controllers!
• Liquid cooling and monitoring
• LaCie USB/Firewire hub
• NVidia Quadro Plex VCS
• Apple iPhone
• Alienware Media PC
• Actuality Systems 3-D Display

Links of interest (please give me new ones to include!)

• Alternative computers: billiard-ball computer, programmable water, Lego.
• Phidgets - projects for USB and PC's
• Chip Architect - Microprocessor architecture analysis
• Anandtech - hardware analysis and news
• x-bit labs - Special Hardware Infocenter
• Micro Java network
• Tom's Hardware Guide
• CPU Info Center
• LinuxDevices.com: the embedded Linux portal
• Webopedia: Online dictionary of computer terms. Here's a microprocessor comparison chart
• A Look at Firewire and USB (CNN.com)

COSC home page Course Offerings Search COSC pages

URL: http://www.cosc.brocku.ca/Offerings/3P92/
Revised: Jan 5, 2007