Engineering - Course - Microprocessor Organization and Design

This course introduces the organization and gradual design of generic central processing units (CPUs), focusing on the role of a CPU as the core of computer systems. Topics include arithmetic logic unit design; control unit design; registers; and address, data and control buses. Organization of single and multi-core processors. Machine and assembly languages of a standard microprocessor are used to illustrate the design and its interface with upper layers such as operating systems. Labels. Flags. Masking. Time Delays. Serial versus parallel I/O. Handshaking. Several laboratory experiments will be based on microcontrollers. Pre-req.: COMP 226.