Various aspects of microprocessor architecture are covered, including the use of microcode to control hardware, RISC and CISC architectures, Pipelining, DSP and multiprocessing architectures. A discussion of operating systems for user support and process handling is also covered and an implementation in the KISS architecture described in detail.
The course also introduces the student to the C programming language with emphasis on its relationship with Pascal. The student gains experience of using this high level language to write some simple programs. They are then introduced to the KISS architecture through a simulator. This allows the student to translate their C programs into assembler and follow the execution of a program through memory.
These pages contain notes associated with the course and are for reference. They do NOT replace the lectures themselves, and students are strongly advised to attend the lectures in order to follow the course. The following are sets of notes on different sections of the course, and do not correspond to individual lectures.
C Programming and KISS architecture