Internship, PhD, job proposals…

• [2023-10-18] Arm has several internship offers for the Sophia-Antipolis R&D center, France, that are perfectly in line with this course and/or the Digital Systems course:
  • General presentation flyer
  • Internship proposals
• [2023-10-13] STMicrolectronics has 2 open internship positions in Rousset, France, that are perfectly in line with this course and the Hardware Security course:
  • constant-time analysis of cryptographic software in embedded systems
  • firmware fault resistance analysis

This course provides an overview of the architecture of microprocessor-based systems. It presents the main hardware and software components and the concept of Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) which can be considered as the hardware-software interface. It also shows how computer systems internally represent and process data. Its main goal is to explore the continuum between pure software concepts and the hardware components implementing them in the end. It is intended for students who never attended courses in computer architecture.

Laboratory sessions allow students to discover the internal details of a computer system, and to observe the behavior during the execution of software applications.

Topics:

• History of computers
• Binary representation of data
• Boolean logic, boolean logic gates, storage elements, registers
• Combinatorial circuits, sequential circuits
• Clock, clock frequency, the performance of microprocessors
• Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU), Central Processing Unit (CPU)
• Memory, addresses, load, store
• Instructions, instruction set architectures
• Assembly languages, assembler
• High-level programming languages, compilation
• Labs on RISC-V architectures: observation of a processor during the execution of software applications, design of simple applications in assembly language.

Learning outcomes:

• Understanding of the structure of a computer system, its main hardware and software components, and their role.
• Programming in assembly language.
• Understand how hardware and software interact.

Attending the lectures is not mandatory but highly recommended: there is no real textbook and the provided material does not contain the entirety of what is discussed in the classroom.

The lab sessions are mandatory.

A one hour written exam accounts for 100% of the final grade. The questions and problems correspond to all labs and lectures that have been given. All documents are allowed but connected devices (laptops, smart phones, tablets…) are not. Example past exams:

• 2024 (2024 retake)
• 2023

Recommendations for the lab sessions

All labs are distributed and managed using git and GitLab.

• If you never used the EURECOM GitLab instance, first visit it and log in using your EURECOM credentials (LDAP). This will activate your GitLab account.
• Visit the ia project and request access (top right of web page, "More actions" menu).
• As soon as you will be granted access you will receive an email. Visit the ia project again, read the home page and follow the instructions.
• All lab instructions are given for a GNU/Linux environment (Debian, Ubuntu…) If you work on your personal computer under another Operating System you will have to adapt the instructions.

You read one of these books? Or another that is not in the list and should? Please drop me note and give me some feedback.

The most relevant parts of the Computer Organization and Design, RISC-V Edition (The Hardware Software Interface) book for this course (do not forget the corresponding exercises at the end of each chapter) are:

• Section 1.3 Below Your Program
• Sections 2.1 to 2.10 of Chapter 2 Instructions: Language of the Computer
• Sections 3.1 and 3.2 of Chapter 3 Arithmetic for Computers
• Section 4.2 Logic Design Conventions
• Section A.1 to A.3, A.5 and A.7 of Appendix A The Basics of Logic Design

Plus, optionally:

• Section Historical Perspective and Further Reading of Chapters 1 and 2
• Section 2.13 A C Sort Example to Put it All Together