CS232: Computer Architecture II
Fall 2008
Announcements
12/17/08 (Wednesday)
- The final results of the Spimbot competition are in. After running 5 double elimination tournaments, here are the final rankings (along with the total number of wins for each bot):
- 45 Cyan
- 32 TheLogicalBanana
- 30 SPIMblech
- 27 UnderRadar
- 27 FearlessBilyk
- 26 AncientOne
- 18 Vampire_Phoenix
- 15 Berone
- 14 nikron
- 11 ManBearPigBot
- 10 TeamKroms
- 10 academicbulemia
- 9 Unnamed_world
- 9 THEANTIDJISRKRA
- 9 TeamRamrod
- 7 Winbot
- 6 siebelbasement
- 5 Tokenator
- 5 CuriousYuriy
- 4 NULL
- 4 loujXXXyty6hr
- Congratulations, Cyan!
12/13/08 (Saturday)
- Here you can find the exams without the solutions. exam1 , exam2 , and exam3 .
12/12/08 (Friday)
- The final exam will be December 16 from 13:30 to 16:30 in the Engineering Hall (1EH building), ROOMS 106B1 (last name A-K), 106B8 (last name L-Z).
- Study the MSI and MESI cache coherence protocols, as there will be questions in the exam about them.
12/11/08 (Thursday)
12/10/08 (Wednesday)
- The competition will be held tomorrow (Thursday December 11th) at 2:00pm in SC2405
- The results of the qualifying round of the spimbot competition are in. The following bots are qualified for the competition:
- academicbulemia
- AncientOne
- Berone
- CuriousYuriy
- Cyan
- FearlessBilyk
- loujXXXyty6hr
- ManBearPigBot
- nikron
- NULL
- siebelbasement
- SPIMblech
- TeamKroms
- TeamRamrod
- temp
- THEANTIDJISRKRA
- TheLogicalBanana
- Tokenator
- UnderRadar
- Unnamed_world
- Vampire_Phoenix
- Winbot
12/9/08 (Tuesday)
- NEW: We will accept MP6 by Wednesday at 8:00 am from everyone, not just
the students that have not used the waiver. See the note on the newsgroups about this topic.
12/9/08 (Tuesday)
- Note that late submission for MP6 (Wednesday 8:00 am) is only possible for the students that have not used the waiver.Students that have used the waiver should submit the MP Tuesday at 8:00 pm at the latest.
12/5/08 (Friday)
- The spimbot tournament will take place December 11 in room 2405 at 2:00 pm.
- The final exam will be December 16 from 13:30 to 16:30 in the Engineering Hall (1EH building), rooms 106B1 (last name A - K), 106B8 (last name L-Z).
- A few students have asked if they can use the waiver to turn in MP6 assignment late. However, we need to grade MP6 on Wednesday (at the latest) to determine the groups that can go to the tournament. Thus, I can only extend the deadline until Wednesday December 10 at 8:00 am (Notice am, not pm), so that you can work all the night. After that, we will not be able to take your MP.
- Midterm 3 has been graded and grades have been entered. The average was 78.4. A histogram can be seen
here.
12/2/08 (Tuesday
- The lecture on Wednesday will be taught by professor David Padua and will
give an overview of GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and programming of theses devices using CUDA. CUDA is a compiler and set of development tools that enable the use of a variation of C to write programs that run on the GPU.
- The lecture on Friday will cover cache coherence protocols. Understanding cache coherency is important when writting parallel applications.
12/1/08 (Monday)
- Sections will take place in the computer lab in room 0220 in Siebel Center.
11/20/08 (Thursday)
- The spimbot contest (MP6) has officially been posted. Please work through the tutorial in the documentation before section next Monday. It will make your life much easier. The tentative date for the tournament is December 11. We will confirm the date soon.
11/17/08 (Monday)
- Office hours for tomorrow Tuesday:
- Maria from 11:15 to 12:15 in 4308.
- Abner from 3:00 to 5:00 in 212.
- Cyrus from 5:00 to 6:15 in 212.
11/14/08 (Friday)
- Craig recorded some videos solving old exams that show his thought process to solve these problems.
page1 , page2 , vm problem.
The above lins may not start the video if you just click on them. If this is happenning, just right-click -> save link as, and run them from your computer.
- Solution to hw4 has been posted.
- The discussion Section on Monday November 17 will take place in Siebel Center in the computer lab in room 0220, which is located in the basement. Please read the Notes on Vtune and Vtune tutorial before coming to this Section.
11/12/08 (Wednesday)
11/7/08 (Friday)
- Homework 4 has been posted. Notice that it is due Friday November 14 at 8:00 pm. Since midterm 3 will be next Wednesday (November 19), you will not be able to turn in the homeowrk after November 14.
- The accumulative average for MP 0-4 and HW 1-2 is 503. You can see a histogram here. You can use this histogram together with the histograms for exam 1 and 2 (that are also posted) to find out how your grade compares to that of your peers. Your grade will be computed as explained in the Course Info (under Grades).
11/5/08 (Wednesday)
- Exam 2 has been graded and grades have been entered. The average was 64. You can see a histogram here
11/3/08 (Monday)
- IMPORTANT: We are extending the deadline for HW3 and MP5 until Friday November 7 at 8:00 pm with no late penalty. Notice that HW3 and MP5 will NOT be accepted after that.
- Cyrus is changing office hours for this week. He will be holding office hours on Wednesday 11 am - 1 pm, instead of Tuesday 5 - 7 pm.
10/30/08 (Thursday)
- The assignment for CS296 has been posted. I would like to meet with the students registered in CS296 next week (either Wed 3:00 - 4:00 pm or Friday 4:00 - 5:00 pm). Please let me know the time that works better for you by sending me an email.
10/29/08 (Wednesday)
10/27/08 (Monday)
The partial grading we have done of your HW2s has revealed that more than a few students have problems with the concepts related to pipelining that the homework utilized. We recommend all of you to make sure you understand every part of the HW2 SOLUTION that was posted since Friday night.
Also take a look at some of the multiple past exams available.
If there are any questions make sure to come to OFFICE HOURS tomorrow (held from 3 to 7 pm).
10/24/08 (Friday)
- Solutions to the practice exam can be found here.
- Solution to HW2 has been posted.
10/22/08 (Wednesday)
- We have an in-class exam on Wednesday October 29. To find out what will be covered on the exam, see the the exam review notes, the practice exam, and feel free to peruse the old exams.
10/20/08 (Monday)
- Maria will have office hours Monday from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
10/15/08 (Wednesday)
- I will be out of town Thursday and Friday. Thus, I will need to cancek office hours on Friday, but I will send another professor to teach Friday's class. I will hold office hours on Monday, I will post the time during the weekend.
10/14/08 (Tuesday)
10/14/08 (Tuesday)
- Cyrus is holding office hours on Thursday from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
10/13/08 (Monday)
Exam
- You can pick up your exam after the class on Wednesday and during Section next Monday. You can also pick it up during office hours at the TA's office (sorry that we did not bring it today to the Section).
- If you want us to review the exam you will have to return your exam to us and write or explain to us the question to review and the reason for that. You should expect an answer within a week or so.
Survey
After going through the survey from last Monday, the general impression is that the class is going well. Below I am going to summarize some of the comments that appeared more often:
- Newsgroups: a few people complained about newsgroups not being well monitored. We are changing that and will try to answer your questions shortly. If you still think that we are not doing a good job, please let me or the TAs know.
- Office hours: most people thought office hours were OK, but a few asked for office hours:
- Monday: Nor the TA's or I can have office hours on Monday. However, to address this issue we will answer questions about MPs or Homeworks during or between Sections on Monday.
- Thursday (for people who are late). I am trying to find a solution for this, and I will post something about it shortly.
- Sections: Some students would like to discuss the solutions at the end of the Sections. This is something that we sometimes, but not always do. Our goal with Sections is that students solve the problem in class, and they can ask questions when they do not know how to solve a problem (that is the reason to have Sections with an average of 20 students, so that we can better address individual questions). If we spend 15-20 minutes in the beginning explaining the new material and we also have to spend a similar amount of time at the end explaining the solution, there is little time for you to work on the problems and for us to answer your questions. Also, if we were to follow this format, Sections will be pretty much like a regular lecture. Thus, work on the exercises and ask questions.
- Of course, there were many other comments and I cannot summarize them all here. I have taken note of the most important ones, and will address them. For some comments, however, although the feedback is good I cannot change matters now, but I will use it for future years if I teach this class again.
- Finally, if you have any extra comment that you think it is important, please let me know by talking to me, the TAs, or sending an email.
-- Maria
10/10/08 (Friday)
- The date for Exam 2 has changed from October 24 (Friday) to October 29 (Wednesday). See the schedule.
10/9/08 (Thursday)
- Exam 1 has been graded and grades have been entered. The mean was 76. You can see a histogram here.
10/7/08 (Tuesday)
- Remember homework 1 is due Wednesday October 8 at 8:00 pm in the TA office (0212 SC). Notice that we cannot verify
the precise time at which your written homework was handed. Thus, late penalties will be applied using the
following rules:
- A homework handed after Wednesday 8:00 pm and before Thursday 8:00 pm will have a 15% penalty.
- A homework handed after Thursdsay 8:00 pm and before Friday 8:00 pm will have a 30% penalty.
10/3/08 (Friday)
- Maria is changing office hours to Wednesdays 3:00 - 4:00 pm and Fridays 4:00 - 5:00 pm.
10/2/08 (Thursday)
9/29/08 (Monday)
- The solutions to MP4 have been posted.
9/28/08 (Sunday)
- The solution to the exam review questions can be found here.
9/24/08 (Wednesday)
- We have an in-class exam on Wednesday. To find out what will be covered on the exam, see the the exam review notes (which include practice problems) and feel free to peruse the old exams. Notice that Floating-Point numbers will not be covered in the exam (although in the class I said that they would be covered).
- Prof. Garzaran is cancelling office hours this Friday; She will have office hours next Monday 3:00 - 4:00 pm.
9/18/08 (Thursday)
9/16/08 (Tuesday)
- MP2 has been graded and the solution has been posted.
9/12/08 (Friday)
- Discussion Sections Monday September 15 are in DCL L440.
- Mean for MP1 was 81, standard deviation 22.73. You can see a histogram here.
9/10/08 (Wednesday)
9/7/08 (Sunday)
- The solution to the MP1 has been posted.
9/6/08 (Saturday)
- Craig Zilles recorded himself writing some MIPS programs to try to model his thought process when writting MIPS code. Feel free to use these as a reference for working on MP#2.
- There are also videos showing how to use the debugger to find bugs introduced into this code by the TAS. There are up now here.
- Here are some slides and notes about debugging. Hopefully you will find them useful.
9/3/08 (Wednesday)
- MP#2 is out and due on Wednesday, September 10 at 8:00 pm.
9/1/08 (Tuesday)
- We posted office hours on the course info page. They begin Today.
- Tuesdays 3:00 pm-5:00 pm, Wednesdays 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm, in 212 Siebel Center.
8/27/08 (Wednesday)
- MP#1 is out and due on Wednesday, September 3 at 8:00 pm.
- MP#0 is also out, but is due a week later. It is a tutorial for the xspim tool.
8/22/08 (Friday)
- Welcome to CS232. The first day of class is Monday August 25th. Yes. There is section the first day of class
Sections are not optional.
- Sections are in 1214 in Siebel Center. Look at the schedule for Sections in the Course Info link.
- Lectures are in 1404 in Siebel Center on Wednesdays and Friday from 2:00-2:50pm.
- Please verify that you have a working EWS
account. If you do not, please inform us as soon as possible.
email
