Fall 2012

Professor C. D. Cantrell, UT-Dallas

Course Information

Teaching Personnel

Grading

Homework

Web Site

Required Textbooks

Examinations

Academic dishonesty

TEACHING PERSONNEL

• Office hours: Saturday afternoons 1:30-3; other times by appointment.
• Prof. Cantrell's office is located in EC 2.302.
• Send email to Prof. Cantrell
  (cantrell@utdallas.edu)
• Telephone numbers:
• Voice: (972) 883-2868

• Office Hours: MW 2:30-3:45 in ECSN 3.610.
• Send email to Carissa Roper
  (cjr073000@utdallas.edu)

WEB SITE

All course notes and other vital information will be available primarily through the course Web site. Some information may also be available via eLearning.

REQUIRED and RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS

Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware-Software Interface, Fourth Edition, Revised Printing, by Professors David Patterson and John Hennessy. (Required)

GRADING

HOMEWORK

Grading: Homework will receive 70% of full credit if you make a serious attempt at solving all problems. The remaining 30% of the homework credit will be given if the answers are correct.

Homework Policy:

1. NO LATE HOMEWORK! Homework will be considered late at 10:00 AM the day after it is due, and will not be graded without a valid excuse.
2. ALL HAND-WRITTEN ANSWERS TO HOMEWORK PROBLEMS MUST BE ON ENGINEERING PAPER TO RECEIVE CREDIT. NO EXCEPTIONS! (Pads of engineering paper are available in the UTD Bookstore and in many office-supply stores.)
3. Pencil is preferred. Also, please use only one side of the paper.
4. Organize your answer as shown in Example 1 or Example 2. State clearly the assumptions made in solving the problem, the theory or formula(s) to be used, and show all of the steps of the solution. Organizing your work in this way will help you follow the directions given for each problem.
5. Some measures to ensure that your homework includes all required steps include (but are not limited to):
   1. Label equations taken from the text.
   2. List all given data and what you are looking for.
   3. List formulas to be combined or used before you start algebraic manipulations.
   4. Make numerical substitutions only at the end, if required.
   5. Define all variables you use.
   6. Explain what you are doing.
   7. Document your computer programs.
6. Units are required thoughout your solution, wherever applicable. Common units used in computer design include clock periods (cycles), seconds, Hz (hertz, cycles per second), and MHz (megahertz, millions of cycles per second).
7. Box your final answer so that it can be found quickly.
8. Number each problem. The assigned order is preferred.
9. Number your pages using the notation m/n in the upper right corners of your engineering sheets, where m is the number of the current page and n is the total number of pages in the current assignment. See Example 1 or Example 2.
10. Staple your homework. If homework is not stapled, points will be deducted and neither the TA nor the instructor will be responsible if pages get lost.
11. Full credit cannot be given, even if a solution is numerically correct, unless the TA can follow it. Partial credit will never be given for incomprehensible, poorly organized, or unexplained answers.
12. Copies of sample or template programs with no additional work on your part, and source programs without output, will receive no credit.
13. Take the time to do a good job. This is part of learning to write useful, understandable engineering reports.

Homework Advice: DO NOT COPY HOMEWORK SOLUTIONS! You will cheat only yourself if you do. Many of the problems on the midterm and final exams will be very similar to exercises that have been assigned as homework. If you do not attempt to solve the homework exercises yourself, you will be completely unprepared for the exams, and will be likely to fail the course.

EXAMINATIONS

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY