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Introduction:
Hello, my name is Jon Squire and I have been programming computers
since 1959. This course covers a little history of computer
architecture through some of the latest advances.
The motherboards and CPU chips being passed around are old in
computer history time. The ISA card slots were replaced by PCI
card slots that are replaced by external USB devices. The
serial port for RS232 devices is replaced by the USB port.
Floppy disk are disappearing along with that connector on
the motherboard. RAM still uses DIMM's and the slots have
grown to handle 4, 8 and 16 gigabytes of memory. The printer
port will be going as will the AGP graphics connector.
Overview:
This course will present detailed information on the internal
working of the CPU, cache, memory, busses and peripheral devices
such as disk drives and DVD's. The course five part project will
have each student simulate a small computer using the VHDL
digital simulation language.
Read the syllabus.
Much of the lectures are covered in these WEB pages.
Lecture notes are often updated just before class.
And, sometimes corrected after class. :)
Some information is still presented on the blackboard/whiteboard.
Check UMBC "Blackboard" for announcements and grades.
The Top 500 Multiprocessor systems are evaluated about every six
months. These are not your typical home computers.
The Top 10 are shown www.top500.org/list/2006/06
More Lecture 1, pdf format
The free market system and resulting competition, provide better and
more economical products to consumers. Expect flip-flop between
vendors for best or most economical products.
Occasional news items will be shown:
news item from Eweek
AMD has announced their next move.
Sun and IBM are still in the competition.
----- other items --------
A standard engineering statement is:
Fast, Cheap, Reliable - pick any two.
Monopolies: Ford Motor Company, Standard Oil of New Jersey, IBM, AT&T, ...
Microsoft.
Computer Architecture Development:
System Architecture
Logic Design
Circuit Design
Device Physics
For the inverter above, a chip cross section is:
N type and P type impurities are diffused into the silicon substrate
through a mask, typically in a high temperature vacuum process.
Mask Making and Processing
The black would be a metalization mask, here showing the
transistor input connection. Other masks are for P+, N+,
N well and via (the etch through the SiO2 to allow electrical
connection to metal.)
The large round wafer, after processing with all the masks,
is broke up into many rectangular dies. Each die is placed
in a package and the input and output pads on the die are
connected to the pins on the package. The die in the package
is called a chip or IC chip or Integrated Circuit Chip.
"Feature size" is the smallest dimension of metal width, gate width,
metal spacing, etc. 65 nanometers is 0.000 000 065 meter or
about 2.5 millionths of an inch.
Look at Homework 1, it is assigned today.
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