Teaching Computer System Design and Architecture course — An experience

Abstract

Computer systems play an integral role in all facets of the engineering profession. Systems users are always in need of faster, more powerful, yet cheaper computer systems. This calls for an understanding of the processor-level components of computer systems, their design and operation, and their impact on the overall performance of the systems. To fulfill this requirement the course on Computer System Design and Architecture has been introduced in the 3rd semester. Earlier, there were two courses offered with titles “Computer Organization” in Semester 3 and “Advanced Computer Architecture” in Semester 8. These two courses were not related and there existed a gap of 4 semesters in learning of these two courses. Students were unable to appreciate the architecture related concepts in other courses of lower semesters. As mentioned in IEEE SWEEBOK curriculum recommendations, a wide semantic gap exists between the computer's intended behavior and the workings of the underlying electronic devices that actually do the work within the computer. This gap is bridged through Computer Organization. On the other hand Computer Architecture is the course that specifies the relations and parts of a computer system and it deals with mainly three elements viz. Instruction Set Architecture, Computer Organization and Hardware. Accordingly, a course on Computer System Design and Architecture which combines the study of Computer Organization and Computer Architecture is designed to be offered at semester 3. The next challenge came in the form of delivery of the course. Since a detailed conceptual understanding of computer organization and architecture is required, which was not possible only with classroom delivery, self study activity was introduced which provided ability to the students to compare various processor architectures, their functionality and visibility to information processing. This continuous process helped them acquire knowledge, values, skills and understanding that they will require throughout their lifetime.