Within this practical core lecture, we will deal with the specification, the implementation, the correctness, and the evaluation of computer hardware.
The following topics will be covered:
- Basics: Combinational & Clocked circuits
- DLX instruction set architecture
- DLX implementation: Sequential, Pipelined implementation, Improved pipelined implementation (forwarding, branch prediction)
- Memory system with caches: In order to gain fast memory accesses, a memory system with caches will be presented.
- Virtual memory support: A virtual memory support is essential for multitasking operating systems; topics like memory management units are covered.
- I/O Device support
A support for I/O devices is essential for user interaction, networking, or data storage.