Course Schedule and Catalog
Course Schedule - Fall Semester 2025
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
Meeting location information can now be found on student schedules in ESTHER (for students) or on the Course Roster in ESTHER (for faculty and instructors).Additional information available here.
COMP 425 001 (CRN: 11361)
COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
Long Title: COMPUTER SYSTEMS ARCHITECTURE
Department: Computer Science
Instructor: Simar, Ray
Meeting: 10:50AM - 12:05PM TR (25-AUG-2025 - 5-DEC-2025)
Part of Term: Full Term
Grade Mode: Standard Letter
Course Type: Lecture/Laboratory
Language of Instruction: Taught in English
Method of Instruction: Face to Face
Credit Hours: 4
Course Syllabus:
Course Materials: Rice Campus Store
Restrictions:
Must be enrolled in one of the following Level(s):
Undergraduate Professional
Visiting Undergraduate
Undergraduate
Prerequisites: ELEC 326 OR COMP 326
Section Max Enrollment: 150
Section Enrolled: 0
Total Cross-list Max Enrollment: 150
Total Cross-list Enrolled: 69
Enrollment data as of: 19-APR-2025 11:25PM
Final Exam: Take-Home Exam
Description: Evolution of key architecture concepts found in advanced uniprocessor systems. Fundamental and advanced pipelining techniques and associated issues for improving processor performance. Illustrated with RISC processors such as the ARM processor. Examine several metrics for processor performance, such as Amdahl’s law. Key concepts of data and program memory systems found in modern systems with memory hierarchies and cashes. Perform experiments in cache performance analysis. Influence of technology trends, such as Moore’s law, on processor implementation Approaches for exploiting instruction level parallelism, such as VLIW. Introduction to parallel and multicore architectures. Introduction to processor architectures targeted for imbedded applications. Cross-list: ELEC 425, ELEC 554, COMP 554. Mutually Exclusive: Cannot register for COMP 425 if student has credit for COMP 554.