ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022

Course Syllabus
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Cornell University

revision: 2022-08-22-12-13

1. Course Information
Cross Listed CS 4420 Computer Architecture
Co-Meet ECE 5740 Computer Architecture
Prereqs ECE 3140 (cross listed as CS 3420) or CS 3410
Instructor Prof. Christopher Batten, 323 Rhodes Hall, [email protected]
Office Hours: 323 Rhodes Hall, Tuesday, 4:30–5:30pm
Admin. Assistant Kimberly Budd, 314 Rhodes Hall, [email protected]
Graduate Preslav Ivanov pi57 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Mon, 7:30–9:30pm
TAs Lauren Shen ljs324 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Tue, 7:30–9:30pm
Angela Zou az292 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Thu, 7:30–9:30pm
Owen Deng qd39 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Tue, 7:30–9:30pm
Ronin Sharma rrs234 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Wed, 7:30–9:30pm
Undergraduate Romano Tio rat83 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Wed, 7:30–9:30pm
TAs Austin Brown ajb497 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Mon, 7:30–9:30pm
Lily Yu gly6 Office/Lab Hours: 314 Phillips, Thu, 7:30–9:30pm
Lectures 120 Physical Sciences Building, Monday and Wednesday, 2:45–4:00pm
Disc. Section 165 Olin Hall, Friday, 2:40–3:30pm
Required J. L. Hennessy and D. A. Patterson
Materials “Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach”
5th edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012
Available on Canvas, Amazon ($80)
Cornell library has e-book and hard copy
D. M. Harris and S. L. Harris
“Digital Design and Computer Architecture”
2nd edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 2012
Amazon ($80)
Cornell library has e-book and hard copy
“ECE 4750 Course Packet”
Available on Canvas
Website http://www.csl.cornell.edu/courses/ece4750
Staff Email [email protected]

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

2. Description
This course aims to provide a strong foundation for students to understand the modern eras of com-
puter architecture (i.e., the single-core era, multi-core era, and accelerator era) and to apply these
insights and principles to future computer designs. The course is structured around the three pri-
mary building blocks of general-purpose computing systems: processors, memories, and networks.
The first half of the course focuses on the fundamentals of each building block. Topics include
instruction set architecture; single-cycle, FSM, and pipelined processor microarchitecture; direct-
mapped vs. set-associative cache memories; memory protection, translation, and virtualization; FSM
and pipelined cache microarchitecture; cache optimizations; and integrating processors, memories,
and networks. The second half of the course delves into more advanced techniques and will enable
students to understand how these three building blocks can be integrated to build a modern shared-
memory multicore system. Topics include superscalar execution, out-of-order execution, register
renaming, memory disambiguation, branch prediction, and speculative execution; multithreaded,
VLIW, and SIMD processors; and memory synchronization, consistency, and coherence. Students
will learn how to evaluate design decisions in the context of past, current, and future application
requirements and technology constraints.
This course includes a significant project decomposed into four lab assignments. Throughout the
semester, students will gradually design, implement, test, and evaluate a complete multicore system
capable of running simple parallel applications at the register-transfer level.

3. Objectives
This course is meant to be a capstone course in computer engineering that draws together concepts
from across the ECE curriculum including digital logic design, computer organization, system-level
software, and engineering design. The course will prepare students for jobs in the computer engi-
neering industry and can act as a springboard to more advanced material in graduate-level courses.
This course can also provide a foundation for students interested in performance programming,
compilers, and operating systems; and it can provide system-level context for students interested in
emerging technologies and digital circuits. By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• describe computer architecture concepts and mechanisms related to the design of modern
processors, memories, and networks and explain how these concepts and mechanisms interact.
• apply this understanding to new computer architecture design problems within the context of
balancing application requirements against technology constraints; more specifically,
quantitatively assess a design’s execution time in cycles and qualitatively assess a design’s
cycle time, area, and energy.
• evaluate various design alternatives and make a compelling quantitative and/or qualitative
argument for why one design is superior to the other approaches.
• demonstrate the ability to implement and verify designs of varying complexity at the
register-transfer-level.
• create new designs at the register-transfer-level and the associated effective testing strategies.
• write concise yet comprehensive technical reports that describe designs implemented at the
register-transfer-level, explain the testing strategy used to verify functionality, and evaluate the
designs to determine the superior approach.

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

4. Prerequisites
This course is targeted towards senior-level undergraduate students and M.Eng. students, although
it is also appropriate for advanced juniors and first-year Ph.D. students. An introductory course on
computing is required (CS 1110 or equivalent). A course in digital logic design and computer organi-
zation (ECE 2300 or equivalent) and a course in system-level programming (ECE 3140 or equivalent)
are also required. CS 3410 is a suitable replacement for ECE 2300 and ECE 3140 for the purposes of
satisfying the prerequisites. Students should feel comfortable working with a hardware description
language such as Verilog, SystemVerilog, or VHDL and have a reasonable understanding of digital
logic, assembly-level programming, storage systems, basic pipelining, and simple cache design.
M.Eng. and Ph.D. students coming from undergraduate institutions other than Cornell may want
to spend additional time reviewing the secondary required textbook, “Digital Design and Computer
Architecture, 2nd edition” by D. M. Harris and S. L. Harris (Morgan Kaufmann, 2012), to refresh their
understanding of basic concepts. If a student has less experience working with Verilog, then they are
strongly encouraged to read Chapter 4 in Harris and Harris on digital design with Verilog and/or
to review the optional text “Verilog HDL: A Guide to Digital Design and Synthesis, 2nd edition” by S.
Palnitkar (Prentice Hall, 2003). Students who have never used Python before may want to spend
additional time reviewing the optional textbook titled “Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer
Scientist” by A. B. Downey (Green Tea Press, 2014).

5. Topics
The course includes five parts: the first three parts cover the fundamentals of processor, memory,
and network design, while the final two parts cover more advanced processor and memory design.
In addition, the final lecture at the end of the course will present in detail an example architecture
from industry to help illustrate the concepts discussed in class. A tentative list of topics for each
part is included below. The exact topics covered in the course are subject to change based on student
progress and interest.

• Part 1: Fundamental Processors (6 lectures) – instruction set architecture; single-cycle, FSM,

and pipelined processor microarchitecture; resolving structural, data, control, and name
hazards; and analyzing processor performance
• Part 2: Fundamental Memories (5 lectures) – memory technology; direct-mapped
vs. associative caches; write-through vs write-back caches; memory protection, translation, and
virtualization; FSM and pipelined cache microarchitecture; and analyzing memory
performance
• Part 3: Integrating Processors, Memories, and Networks (2 lectures) – processor and L1 cache
interface; banked memory systems; message-passing systems; shared-memory systems
• Part 4: Advanced Processors (12 lectures) – superscalar execution, out-of-order execution,
register renaming, memory disambiguation, branch prediction, speculative execution;
multithreaded, VLIW, and SIMD processors
• Part 5: Advanced Memories (2 lectures) – memory synchronization, consistency, and coherence

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

6. Required Materials
There are three materials that students are required to have access to for the course: the primary
course textbook, the secondary course textbook, and the course packet.

• Hennessy and Patterson Textbook – The primary required textbook for the course is “Computer
Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 5th ed.,” by J. L. Hennessy and D. A. Patterson (Morgan
Kaufmann, 2012). This is the classic text in the field. The first chapter will be available on
Canvas for download. This textbook is in Uris library, available as an e-book to any Cornell
student with a valid NetID, and is also available through Canvas to all enrolled students.
• Harris and Harris Textbook – The secondary required textbook for the course is “Digital Design
and Computer Architecture, 2nd ed.,” by D. M. Harris and S. L. Harris (Morgan Kaufmann, 2012).
This is the primary required textbook for ECE 2300. There will be some assigned reading from
this book, but a student may or may not need to purchase the actual book depending on how
comfortable a student is with the more basic material. M.Eng. and Ph.D. students coming from
undergraduate institutions other than Cornell may want to purchase this book to solidify their
understanding of digital logic design and basic computer architecture. The book also includes
some useful background information on digital design using the Verilog hardware description
language. This textbook is in Uris library and is also available as an e-book to any Cornell
student with a valid NetID.
• Course Packet – The course will use a packet of additional reading material on processors,
memories, and networks that is meant to complement the course textbook. The information in
the packet is either not in the textbook, or is presented in a useful alternative way. The course
packet materials are posted on Canvas.

7. Optional Materials
There are a few additional books that students may find useful for providing background on Verilog,
SystemVerilog, and Python.

• Verilog Book – “Verilog HDL: A Guide to Digital Design and Synthesis, 2nd ed.,” by S. Palnitkar
(Prentice Hall, 2003) provides a good introduction to Verilog-2001 well suited for the beginner.
• SystemVerilog Book – “SystemVerilog for Design: A Guide to Using SystemVerilog for Hardware
Design and Modeling, 2nd ed.,” by S. Sutherland, S. Davidmann, and P. Flake (Springer, 2006)
provides a good introduction to the new features in SystemVerilog that can enable productive
hardware design.
• Python Book – “Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist, Version 2.0.1” by
A. Downey (Green Tea Press, 2014) is an excellent introduction to Python especially
well-suited for beginners to either the language or programming in general. This book is
available on the course website for download.

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

8. Format and Procedures

This course includes a combination of lectures, quizzes, discussion sections, readings, practice prob-
lems, lab assignments, and exams. ECE 5740 students will also be required to complete additional
position papers and a position defense.

• Lectures – Lectures will be from 2:45pm to 4:00pm every Monday and Wednesday in 120 Phys-
ical Sciences Building excluding the following academic holidays: Labor Day (9/5), Fall Break
(10/10), and Thanksgiving (11/23). We will start promptly at 2:45pm so please arrive on time.
Students are expected to attend all lectures, be attentive during lecture, and participate in class
discussion. Please turn off all cellular phones during class. Use of cellular phones and laptops
during lecture is not allowed (see Section 11.B).
• Quizzes – There will be a short quiz at the beginning of some lectures. The quiz should take
about five minutes, and will cover some of the key topics discussed in the previous lecture.
Quizzes may or may not be announced ahead of time, and there are no make-up quizzes. The
lowest quiz score is dropped. Students should prepare for a potential quiz by simply reviewing
the material from the previous lecture before coming to class. Solutions to quizzes will be
available online soon after the quiz is given for formative self-assessment.
• Discussion Section – The discussion section will be most Fridays from 2:40pm to 3:30pm in 165
Olin Hall. These discussion sections will be relatively informal, with the primary focus being
on facilitating student’s ability to complete the lab assignments and on reviewing material from
lecture using problem-based learning. Many of the discussion sections will involve hands-on
activities so students should bring their laptops.
• Readings – Students are expected to complete all of the assigned reading according to the
schedule on the course website, although there is some flexibility. Some students may prefer to
complete the readings before the corresponding lecture, while others may prefer to complete
the readings after the corresponding lecture. Either strategy is acceptable. The readings are
contained within the course textbooks and the course packet.
• Practice Problems – The course will include practice problems distributed throughout the
semester to help students put the concepts learned in lecture and reading into practice. Solu-
tions will not be provided for the practice problems. Students should work either individually
or collaboratively on the problem sets and then discuss their solutions with course instructors
during office/lab hours.
• Lab Assignments – The course will include four lab assignments that allow students to incre-
mentally design, implement, test, and evaluate a complete multicore system with an integrated
collection of processors, memories, and networks. Students are expected to work in a group of
two students, although groups of one or three students may be allowed with explicit instructor
permission in exceptional circumstances (see Section 11.F for collaboration policy). It is sug-
gested that students form a group early on and keep the same group throughout the semester.
Students can either form their own groups or ask the instructor to form a group for them. Much
more detail about the lab assignments is provided in the Lab Assignment Assessment Rubric to
be posted on Canvas. Students will be using the ECE Computing Resources to complete the lab
assignments, the lab code must be submitted via GitHub, and the lab report must be submitted
in PDF format via Canvas. No other means of submission or electronic format will be accepted.
Each lab also has a lab milestone. Although the milestones are not graded, students are ex-
pected to complete the milestone and submit their code via GitHub by the milestone deadline.
Code which is submitted by the deadline will be reviewed by the course staff and feedback

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

will be provided to the students. Students which do not meet the milestone usually struggle
to complete the entire lab by the final lab deadline. Lab assignments are due on Thursdays at
11:59pm except for the final lab which is due on a Tuesday at 11:59pm (see Section 11.D for late
submission policy).
• Exams – The course includes two prelim exams and a cummulative final exam. The exams
assess student understanding of the material presented in lecture and assigned readings. The
prelim exams include a series of short answer questions. The final exam includes two parts: the
first part includes a series of short answer questions, while the second part includes a detailed
design problem which requires students to compare and contrast two design alternatives. The
exams do not assess student understanding of the Linux and RTL development environment
(e.g., the Linux command line, Verilog, Python, etc.) used for the lab assignments. If students
have a scheduling conflict with the exam, they must let the instructor know as soon as possible,
but no later than two weeks before the prelim or final exam. Graded final exams and the exam
solutions are only available for review under the supervision of a course instructor. You may
not remove your graded exam, nor may you remove the exam solutions.
• Position Papers/Defense – ECE 5740 students are required to complete three short position
papers throughout the semester qualitatively comparing and contrasting alternative architec-
tures before arguing strongly for one of the alternatives. Each position paper focuses on either
processor, memory, or network architecture. Relevant readings will be assigned for students to
prepare their position paper. Position papers should be submited in PDF format via Canvas.
ECE 5740 students will also be required to complete a 15-min position defense with the instruc-
tor at the end of the semester. To prepare for the position defense, the student should choose
one of their position papers and be ready to make a strong and compelling argument for their
chosen architecture. Students should be ready to defend their choice through questions from
the instructor.

9. Assignment and Exam Schedule

The current schedule is on the course website. Most assignments are due on Thursdays at 11:59pm.
Changes to this schedule will be posted as announcements via Ed.

Thu Sep 8 Lab 1: Increment Milestone

Thu Sep 15 Lab 1: Iterative Integer Multiplier
Thu Sep 22 → ECE 5740: Processor Position Paper
Thu Sep 29 Lab 2: Incremental Milestone
Thu Oct 6 Prelim from 7:30–9:00pm (location TBD)
Thu Oct 13 → ECE 5740 Memory Position Paper
Thu Oct 20 Lab 2: Pipelined Processor
Thu Oct 27 → ECE 5740 Network Position Paper
Thu Nov 3 Lab 3: Incremental Milestone
Thu Nov 10 Lab 3: Blocking Cache
Thu Nov 17 Prelim from 7:30–9:00pm (location TBD)
Tue Nov 29 Lab 4: Incremental Milestone
Tue Dec 6 Lab 4: Multicore System
Thu Dec 8 → ECE 5740 Position Defense
Dec Final Exam (location TBD)

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

10. Grading Scheme

This course will be adopting a philosophy of “grading for equity” where grading is exclusively used
to assess mastery of the material covered in the course as opposed to rewarding effort and/or in-
centivizing specific behaviors. To this end, each part or criteria of every assignment is graded on
a four-point scale without any curve. A score of 4.25 is an A+, 4 roughly corresponds to an A, 3
roughly corresponds to a B, 2 roughly corresponds to a C, and so on. A score of 4.0 usually indi-
cates that the submitted work demonstrates no misunderstanding (there may be small mistakes, but
these mistakes do not indicate a misunderstanding) or there may be a very small misunderstanding
that is vastly outweighed by the demonstrated understanding. A score of 3.0 usually indicates that
the submitted work demonstrates more understanding than misunderstanding. A score of 2.0 usu-
ally indicates that the submitted work demonstrates more misunderstanding than understanding. A
score of 1.0 usually indicates that the submitted work is significantly lacking in some way. A score of
4.25 is reserved for when the submitted work is perfect with absolutely no mistakes or is exceptional
in some other way.
Total scores are a weighted average of the scores for each part or criteria. Parts or criteria are usually
structured to assess a student’s understanding according to four kinds of knowledge: basic recall of
previously seen concepts, applying concepts in new situations, qualitatively and quantitatively eval-
uating design alternatives, and creatively implementing new designs; these are ordered in increasing
sophistication and thus increasing weight. Detailed rubrics for all quizzes and exams are provided
once the assignment has been graded to enable students to easily see how the score was awarded.
For lab assignments, a detailed Lab Assignment Assessment Rubric is available on Canvas.
The final grade is calculated using a weighted average of all assignments. Each lab assignment is
weighted equally. All quiz grades are averaged to form a single total. Students can drop their lowest
quiz score. At the instructor’s discretion, additional quiz scores may be dropped depending on the
total number of quizzes in the semester. The weighting for the various assignments is shown below.

ECE 4750 ECE 5740

Quizzes 10% 8% (students can drop lowest score)
Lab Code 25% 22% (weighted equally)
Lab Reports 10% 8% (weighted equally)
Prelim Exams 30% 30% (weighted equally)
Final Exam 25% 25%
Position Papers/Defense n/a 7% (weighted equally)

Note that the prelim and final exams account for over half of a student’s final grade. The exams
in this course are very challenging. Successful students begin preparing for the exams far in ad-
vance by carefully reviewing the assigned readings, independently developing study problems, and
participating in critical study groups.
To pass the course, a student must at a bare minimum satisfy the following requirements: (1) submit
three out of the four lab assignments; (2) take the prelim exams; and (3) take the final exam. If
a student does not satisfy these criteria then that student may fail the course regardless of the
student’s numerical grade.

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

11. Policies
This section outlines various policies concerning auditors, usage of cellular phones and laptops in
lecture, audio/video recording in lecture, turning in assignments late, regrading assignments, col-
laboration, and accommodations for students with disabilities.

11.A Auditor Policy

Casual listeners that attend lecture but do not enroll as auditors are not allowed; you must enroll
officially as an auditor. If you would like to audit the course please talk to the instructor first! Usually we
wait until the second week of classes before allowing auditors to enroll, to ensure there is sufficient
capacity in the lecture room. The requirements for auditors are: (1) attend most of the lectures;
(2) complete most of the in-class paper quizzes; and (3) perform reasonably well on these quizzes.
If you do not plan on attending the lectures, then please do not audit the course. Please note that
students are not allowed to audit the course and then take it for credit in a later year unless there is
some kind of truly exceptional circumstance.

11.B Cellular Phones and Laptops in Lecture Policy

Students are prohibited from using cellular phones and laptops in lecture unless they receive explicit
permission from the instructor. It is not practical to take notes with a laptop for this course. Students
will need to write on the handouts, quickly draw pipeline diagrams, and sketch microarchitectural
block diagrams during lecture. The distraction caused by a few students using (or misusing) laptops
during lecture far outweighs any benefit. Tablets are allowed as long as they are kept flat and used
exclusively for note taking. If you feel that you have a strong case for using a laptop during lecture
then please speak with the instructor.

11.C Audio/Video Recording in Lecture Policy

Any kind of audio or video recording during lecture is strictly prohibited without express written
constent from the instructor. This includes taking photos with cell phones, taking videos with cell
phones, and/or using voice recorders. These kinds of activities are distracting to the other students
and the instructor, and violate the privacy of the lecture attendees.

11.D Late Submission Policy

Lab reports must be submitted electronically in PDF format on Canvas, and lab code must be submit-
ted electronically via GitHub (as explained in the lab handout). No other formats will be accepted!
Lab assignment reports and code must be submitted by 11:59pm on the due date. Lab assignment
reports and/or code can be submitted up to one day late without penalty. No additional extensions
will be granted except for a family or medical emergency. We will be using the online Canvas as-
signment submission system. You can continue to resubmit your files as many times as you would
like up until the deadline, so please feel free to upload early and often. If you submit an assignment
even one minute past the automatic 24-hour extension, then the assignment will be marked as
late.

11.E Regrade Policy

Addition errors in the total score are always applicable for regrades. Regrades concerning the actual
solution should be rare and are only permitted when there is a significant error. Please only make

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

regrade requests when the case is strong and a significant number of points are at stake. Regrade
requests should be submitted online via a private post on Ed within one week of when an assignment
is returned to the student or within one week of when an exam is reviewed with the class. You must
provide a justification for the regrade request.

11.F Collaboration Policy

The work you submit in this course is expected to be the result of your individual effort only, or in the
case of lab assignments, the result of you and your partner’s effort only. Your work should accurately
demonstrate your understanding of the material. The use of a computer in no way modifies the
standards of academic integrity expected under the University Code.
You are encouraged to study together and to discuss information and concepts covered in lecture
with other students. You can give “consulting” help to or receive “consulting” help from other stu-
dents. Students can also freely discuss basic computing skills or the course infrastructure. However,
this permissible cooperation should never involve one student (or lab group) having possession
of or observing in detail a copy of all or part of work done by someone else, in the form of an
email, an email attachment file, a flash drive, a hard copy, or on a computer screen. Students are
not allowed to seek consulting help from online forums outside of Cornell University. Students are
not allowed to use online solutions (e.g., from Course Hero) from previous offerings of this course.
Students are encouraged to seek consulting help from their peers and from the course staff via of-
fice hours and the online Ed discussion forums. If a student receives consulting help from anyone
outside of the course staff, then the student must acknowledge this help on the submitted assign-
ment.
During in-class paper quizzes and examinations, you must do your own work. Talking or discussion
is not permitted during the in-class paper quizzes and examinations, nor may you compare papers,
copy from others, or collaborate in any way. Students must not discuss a quiz/exam’s contents with
other students who have not taken the quiz/exam. If prior to taking it, you are inadvertently exposed
to material in a quiz/exam (by whatever means) you must immediately inform an instructor.
Should a violation of the code of academic integrity occur, then a primary hearing will be held. See
https://theuniversityfaculty.cornell.edu/academic-integrity for more information about
academic integrity proceedings.
Examples of acceptable collaboration:
• Bob and Beth are struggling to complete a lab assignment which requires implementing a direct-
mapped cache. They talk with Alice and Adam and learn that both groups are really struggling.
So the four students get together for a brainstorming session. They review the lecture and read-
ing materials and then sketch on a whiteboard some ideas on how to implement a direct-mapped
cache. They might also sketch out some code snippets to try and understand the best way to de-
scribe some of the hardware. Then each group independently writes the code for the assignment
and includes an acknowledgment of the help they received from the other group in their lab re-
port. At no time do the groups actually share code.
• Bob and Beth are having difficulty figuring out difficult test cases for their pipelined processor.
They make a post on Ed to see if anyone has some general ideas for tricky corner cases. Alice
and Adam figured out an interesting test case that ensures their pipelined processor correctly
forwards the address to a store instruction, so Alice and Adam post a qualitative description of
this test case. Bob and Beth then independently write the code for this test case and then include
an acknowledgment of the help they received from the other group in their lab report. At no
time do the groups actually share test code.

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

• Bob and Alice are seated close to each other in the final exam. Bob is struggling on a prob-
lem requiring drawing a detailed pipeline diagram. While stretching, he accidentally sees the
pipeline diagram on Alice’s solution. This was an unintentional mistake, but now he has seen
the pipeline diagram and it has helped him remember how to correctly show data hazards.
While this is not “acceptable collaboration,” the right thing for Bob to do is complete the prob-
lem and include a note explaining that he briefly saw Alice’s solution. Bob’s note should clearly
indicate how seeing Alice’s solution impacted his own solution so the instructors can take that
into account when assessing his understanding.
• (ECE 5740) Bob is preparing his position paper comparing various network topologies and he
is a little confused on the trade-off between using a ring vs. crossbar topology. Bob knows
Alice is also working on her position paper, so they meet to brainstorm various advantages
and disadvantages of the two topologies. They discuss the associated reading and sketch on
a whiteboard a list of advantages and disadvantages. Bob and Alice then independently write
their position papers based on this discussion but in their own words. Both Bob and Alice
include an acknowledgment in their position paper of their interactions. At no time do the
students share any actual writing.
Examples of unacceptable collaboration:
• Bob and Beth are struggling to complete a lab assignment which requires implementing a direct-
mapped cache. They talk with Alice and Adam and learn that both groups are really struggling.
So the four students get together for a joint coding session. Each student works on one module
in the cache, then they combine the modules together to create the final working direct-mapped
cache. The four students share and copy each other’s code often in order to finish the assignment. Each
group submits the final code independently. Each group acknowledges the help it received from
the other group, but it doesn’t matter since they explicitly shared code.
• Bob and Beth are having difficulty figuring out difficult test cases for their pipelined processor.
They make a post on Ed to see if anyone has some general ideas for tricky corner cases. Alice
and Adam figured out an interesting test case that ensures their pipelined processor correctly
forwards the address to a store instruction, so Alice and Adam show their test code to Bob and Beth
in the computer lab. Bob and Beth use this test code and include it in their submission. Bob and
Beth include an acknowledgment of the help they received from the other group, but it doesn’t
matter since they explicitly copied code.
• Bob and Alice are seated close to each other in the final exam. Bob is struggling on a prob-
lem requiring drawing a detailed pipeline diagram. While stretching, he accidentally sees the
pipeline diagram on Alice’s solution. This was an unintentional mistake, but now he has seen
the pipeline diagram and it has helped him remember how to correctly show data hazards. Bob
completes the problem and submits his solution representing it as his own independent work.
• Anna cannot make today’s lecture since she has an extracurricular commitment. Anna asks Bart
to complete two in-class paper quizzes and to put Anna’s name on the second quiz.
• (ECE 5740) Bob is preparing his position paper comparing various network topologies and he
is a little confused on the trade-off between using a ring vs. crossbar topology. Bob knows
Alice is also working on her position paper, so they meet to brainstorm various advantages
and disadvantages of the two topologies. They discuss the associated reading and sketch on
a whiteboard a list of advantages and disadvantages. Bob and Alice then independently write
their position papers based on this discussion but in their own words. They then meet to go
over their position papers and each student reads the other student’s work. They then improve their

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

position papers based on what they read in the other student’s work. Both Bob and Alice include
an acknowledgment in their position paper of their interactions, but it doesn’t matter since they
explicitly shared their writing.
• (ECE 5740) Bob has just finished his 15-minute position defense and bumps into Alice in the
hall. Bob tells Alice in detail exactly how the discussion went including the questions the instructor
asked. This give Alice an unfair advantage and means the position defense does not accurately
represent her own understanding.
Notice that the key is that students should not share the actual solutions or code with each other
unless expressly permitted by the course instructors. Consulting with your fellow students is fine
and is an important part of succeeding in this course. If the vehicle for consulting is a whiteboard
(and you avoid writing the actual solution on the whiteboard) then you should be fine.

11.G Copyright Policy

All course materials produced by the course instructor (including all handouts, tutorials, prob-
lems, quizzes, exams, videos, scripts, and code) are copyright of the course instructor unless oth-
erwise noted. Download and use of these materials are permitted for individual educational non-
commercial purposes only. Redistribution either in part or in whole via both commercial (e.g., Course
Hero) or non-commercial (e.g., public website) requires written permission of the copyright holder.

11.H Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

In compliance with the Cornell University policy and equal access laws, the instructor is available to
discuss appropriate academic accommodations that may be required for students with disabilities.
Requests for academic accommodations are to be made during the first three weeks of the semester,
except for unusual circumstances, so arrangements can be made. Students are encouraged to register
with Student Disability Services to verify their eligibility for appropriate accommodations. Note that
students cannot simply rely on Student Disability Services to email the instructor without actually
speaking to the instructor in person. Students must speak with the instructor in person during the
first three weeks to discuss their accomodations.

12. Online and Computing Resources

We will be making use of a variety of online websites and computing resources.
• Public Course Website – http://www.csl.cornell.edu/courses/ece4750 is the main public
course website which will also have course details, updated schedule, reading assignments,
and most handouts. We intend for all course content to always be available on Canvas. The
public course website is just for public access to some of this content.
• Canvas – We will be using Canvas to manage course content, assignment submission, and
grade distribution.
• Ed – We will be using Ed for all announcements and discussion on course content, lab assign-
ments, and the projects. The course staff is notified whenever anyone posts on the forum and
will respond quickly. Using the forum allows other students to contribute to the discussion and
to see the answers. Use common sense when posting questions such that you do not reveal so-
lutions. Please prefer posting to Ed as opposed to directly emailing the course staff unless you
need to discuss a personal issue.

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ECE 4750 Computer Architecture, Fall 2022 Course Syllabus

• ecelinux Servers – The ECE department has a cluster of Linux-based servers which we will be
using for the programming assignments. You can access the ecelinux servers remotely using
PowerShell, Mac Terminal, VS Code, X2Go, MobaXterm, or Mac Terminal with X11. More
information about accessing the ECE computing resources is available on Canvas.
• GitHub – GitHub is an online Git repository hosting service. We will be using the commeri-
cal GitHub service to distribute programming assignment harnesses and as a mechanism for
student collaboration on the lab assignments. Students will also use GitHub for submitting the
code for their lab assignments. Students are expected to become familiar with the Git version
control system. Note that we are not using the Cornell-hosted version of GitHub as in some
other courses; we are using github.com.

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