CSE 240A – Principles in Computer Architecture

Assignments, Exams & Projects

Submit your solutions through Gradescope: https://www.gradescope.com/courses/488019

Homeworks

Instructions (Please Read)

• Submit typed answers to the following questions as a PDF via Gradescope.

• Please review the notes of Lecture 1 Introduction for late submission policy.

• HW to be done individually.

• HW must be typed. No handwritten solutions.

• To count for 20% of final grade

• Hint: you may use in-class exercises posted after each class as example questions.

Homework 1

• Due: February 16, 2023 at 11:59 PM. 

• Homework Overleaf Link (read only): https://www.overleaf.com/read/jbzzfqfbyrhv

• Solution: https://www.overleaf.com/read/nkhvkwppvwnr 

Homework 2

• Due: March 16, 2023 at 11:59 PM. 

• Homework Overleaf Link (read only): https://www.overleaf.com/read/hfjdnmcpvkvk 

• Solution: To be posted

Midterm Exam

Instructions (Please Read)

• To count for 40% of your final grade.

• Submit typed answers to the following questions as a PDF via Gradescope.

• Please start working on the midterm early. Q&A on Piazza will be closed by 3pm on Tuesday February 28 (TAs and I are not expected to answer questions asked after that time)

• Due: Tuesday, February 28, 2023 at 3:30 PM with no extension. The same late submission policy will apply as homework.

• Midterm Overleaf Link (read only): https://www.overleaf.com/read/fkzvdvhmmvwp

• Midterm Solution:  To be posted

Reading Assignment

• Due on 03/14/2023 at 11:59pm. Please submit your review on Gradescope in a PDF file.

• Please pick any one paper of your interest from MICRO 2022 conference program: https://www.microarch.org/micro55/program/

• You may search for a paper draft using the paper title. Most of the papers should have a copy available online.

• Please write your review by following the provided Review template.

Project

Option 1: Recreate results from a recent research paper

• Group project with up to 2 people

• Check if they are reproducible

• Check if they still hold with recent tech advances & new app requirements

Option 2: Implement a Branch Predictor

• Group project with up to 2 people

• Link for the starter code: https://github.com/rskpdev/CSE240A

• Grading

  • All grading will be done with respect to your predictor's Misprediciton Rate, as well as its correctness (for Gshare and Tournament) compared to our implementation (see the project guidelines for detailed grade points breakdown).

  • We will cover branch predictors in class, but if you want to look ahead you can use some materials from prior offerings of 240A:

    • A discussion of related branch predictors is included in a lecture video and associated notes.

    • A video recording of a TA's discussion session can be found here.

• Turn-in instructions: Submit a project report per group. Group submissions have been enabled on Gradescope. Source code is not required. But we may request source code later on, if a particular project report is not sufficient for us to determine the grade of the project. 

  • Please look at the project report guidelines subpage for further information

Option 3: Propose your own project proposal

• Group project with up to 2 people

• Need to get approval from the instructor by submitting a project proposal

• Instructions for the proposal

  • Minimum one paragraph

  • Maximum (including references) of 2 page whitepaper style proposal

  • Minimum 11pt font

  • Submit by email to ppannuto@ucsd.edu

  • Due on February 17 (Friday)

Option 4: Literature Survey

• Solo project

• Write a literature survey paper on a specific topic in/related to computer architecture

• Has a limited cap score (27%)