These assignments are to be done in two weeks by 1 or 2 people. It is fine if the assignment is done by more than one group or person, but given the wealth of important topics, we probably don't want three or groups working on the same assignment.

The results should be placed on the WWW. My idea is that those who have taken an assignment will give me a dummy URL at time of the sign-up, and then the results will be updated over the 2 weeks so that people can see what is being learned as it happens. The initial report would just say that this page is under construction. Needless to say, the purpose of this class is to explore a potentially exciting new frontier, thus it makes no sense to hold back. Each group will present their results at a class meeting.

My general idea is to have assignments in three areas:

• integrated circuits
• computer architecture
• software (compilers, operating systems, and possibly applications)

• programming
• literature search
• short designs

The model is that the first two assignments would either be literature search or programming, depending on your area and skills, and everyone does a short design project as the final assignment.

Although its fun to program, it usually saves time to use programs that others have created. Two useful sets of resources are:

• The WWW Computer Architecture Home Page
• Wisconsin Architectural Research Tool Set (WARTS)
  (See also this paper on WARTS)

First Assignments

Second Assignments

Third Assignments

Ideas for Assignments