EE 7700-1 - FAQ

Should I take this course?

The prerequisite for this course is EE 4720, Computer Architecture, the second of two courses on computer architecture. Those arriving from other universities who want to make sure they have the necessary background should check an EE 4720 final exam. For a quick assessment, take the quiz below. You have the background for the course if you understand why (b) is the correct answer for three or more questions. A cache hit is: (a) the latest fashion success. (b) a memory access in which the needed data is found in the cache. A pipeline stall is: (a) a tactic used by former Soviet republics to extract higher fees for rights of way through their countries. (b) a temporary pause in the movement of instructions through part of an execution pipeline typcially due to resource unavailability. A branch penalty is (a) a surcharge on homeowner's insurance used in hurricane-prone areas (such as Baton Rouge). (b) the average number of cycles between the execution of a branch and its target. Speculative execution is: (a) totalitarian law enforcement. (b) execution of an instruction before preceding branches are resolved such that any changes can be undone. A multiple-issue machine is: (a) a political party skilled in the use of polling to appeal to several of the voters' top concerns. (b) a processor that can (under certain circumstances) sustain the execution of more than one instruction per cycle using some duplicated hardware.

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