Basic Information

• Course Code: CS 683
• Course Name: Advanced Computer Architecture
• Course Offered In: 2023-‘24
• Semester Season: Autumn
• Instructors: Prof. Biswabandan Panda
• Prerequisites: EE309
• Difficulty (1 being easy and 5 being tough): 4

Course Content

Hardware caches and replacement policies, Branch Prediction, Superscalar processors, basics of architecture-based computer security

Feedback on Lectures

Lectures are intense, and force you to think. The instructor encourages discussion and will often prompt the class to answer whatever conundrum is currently being discussed. All doubts are welcome and these discussions can take half the lecture slot. I found it engaging, but it can be very hard sometimes to understand and keep track of what is being discussed. Attending as many lectures as you can is a must.

Feedback on Evaluations

There were two assignments and a paper implementation (project), all done in a team of 3.There was a midsem, but no endsem. The assignments and project take time, and are in C++ (CS101 should be on your fingertips)

Study Material and Resources

The topics covered were very varied and niche: I only studied from the class notes, which meant keeping up with the lectures was important.

Follow-up Courses

N/A

Final Takeaway

This is a hard and gruelling course, and Prof. Biswa has a very specific way in which he wants to teach it: You have to be very interested and willing to put in effort towards the course topics. Taking this course also prevents you from taking EE748, which is a course taken by Prof. Virendra Singh, covering similar ground.