6.004 | Spring 2017 | Undergraduate

Computation Structures

Calendar

This calendar reflects the campus schedule when this course was taught at MIT. The lab exercises are currently not included.

SES # TOPICS KEY DATES
L1 Unit 1: Basics of information: entropy, encodings, error correction  
L2 Unit 2: The digital abstraction: combinational logic, voltage-based encoding  
L3 Unit 3: CMOS: MOSFETs, gate design; timing  
L4 Unit 4: Combinational logic: canonical forms, synthesis, simplification  
L5 Unit 5: Sequential logic: latches, registers, timing Lab 1 due
L6 Unit 6: Finite-state machines (FSMs); asynchronous inputs and metastability  
L7 Unit 7: Performance measures: throughput and latency, pipelining  
Quiz 1 (L1–L5)
L8 Unit 8: Design tradeoffs: power, speed, area, throughput  
L9 Unit 9: von Neumann architectures, Beta instruction set Lab 2 due
L10 Unit 10: Assmbly language  
L11 Unit 11: Compiling expressions and statements Lab 3 due 
L12 Unit 12: Stacks and procedures  
L13 Unit 13: Beta implementation  
Quiz 2 (L6–L12)
L14 Unit 14: Multilevel memories: locality, performance, caches  
L15 Unit 14: Cache design issues (continued) Lab 4 due
L16 Unit 15: Pipelining the Beta: pipeline diagrams, data hazards  
L17 Unit 15: Pipelining the Beta: control hazards, dealing with exceptions (continued) Lab 5 due
L18 Unit 16: Virtual memory: mapping, protection, contexts  
Quiz 3 (L13–L17)
L19 Unit 17: Virtual machines: timesharing, OS kernels, supervisor calls  
L20 Unit 18: Devices and interrupts; real-time Lab 6 due
L21 Unit 19: Communicating processes: semaphores, synchronization, atomicity, deadlock  
L22 Unit 20: System-level communication Lab 7 due
L23 Unit 21: Parallel processing: performance limits, data- and thread-level parallelism  
L24 Building a Better Beta: tips for the design project  
Quiz 4 (L18–L22); design project due in one week after the quiz

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2017
Learning Resource Types
Lecture Videos
Programming Assignments with Examples
Lecture Notes
Instructor Insights