ACETry ACE ↗
← Back

CMPEN 331Computer Organization And Design

3 credits · Computer Engineering · Penn State

INTRODUCTION TO MAJOR COMPONENTS OF A COMPUTER SYSTEM, HOW THEY FUNCTION TOGETHER IN EXECUTING A PROGRAM, HOW THEY ARE DESIGNED. CMPEN 331 Computer Organization and Design (3) The goals of the course are to introduce students to the major components of a computer system (the data path, the control path, the memory system, the I/O system), how they function together in executing a program, and how they are designed. The relationships between instruction set design, addressing modes, fetch and execute operations, and their impact on the underlying architecture are presented. Students will develop skills both in assembly language programming and in designing architecture components in a hardware description language (VHDL or verilog). CMPEN 331 is a required course for both computer engineering and computer science majors. CMPEN 331 requires access to PCs/workstations with commercial hardware description language tools (e.g., Synopsys VSS compiler and simulator) and a modern assembler/debugger (e.g., SPIM MIPS assembler, simulator, and debugger).

Before you enroll

Prerequisites

You need one from each line:

Where it fits

Where it sits in degree plans

Suggested plans most often put it in Year 4 · Fall (1 program).

Required in (2)

  • Computer Engineering, B.S. (Engineering)
  • Computer Engineering, Minor (Engineering)

One of the options in (1)

  • Mechatronics, Minor
What it opens up

Courses that list CMPEN 331 as a prerequisite (6)

  • CMPEN 417 Digital Design Using Field Programmable Devices
  • CMPEN 431 Introduction to Computer Architecture
  • CMPEN 472 Microprocessors and Embedded Systems
  • CMPEN 475 Functional Verification
  • CMPSC 473 Operating Systems Design & Construction
  • EE 417 Digital Design Using Field Programmable Devices