CS ATLAS A map of computing

Domain 04 —

Computer Architecture

6 topics1945 — 1999
1945Von Neumann Architecture1947Transistor & Integrated Circuit1956Memory Hierarchy & Caches1964Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC1971Microprocessor & Moore’s Law1999GPU & Heterogeneous Computing

Chronology — 28 entries

Chronology

Every milestone in this domain, ordered by date. An event shared by several topics is counted once.

1945The EDVAC reportThe classic description of the stored-program architecture.Von Neumann Architecture
1947The point-contact transistorBardeen, Brattain and Shockley at Bell Labs.Transistor & Integrated Circuit
1948The Manchester BabyThe first machine to run a stored program.Von Neumann Architecture
1949EDSAC goes into serviceThe first practical stored-program computer.Von Neumann Architecture
1951UNIVAC IThe first commercial computer.Von Neumann Architecture
1956Magnetic-core memoryRandom-access main memory becomes real.Memory Hierarchy & Caches
1958The first integrated circuitKilby puts several components on one piece of material.Transistor & Integrated Circuit
1959The planar processNoyce and Moore make integrated circuits manufacturable.Transistor & Integrated Circuit
1964IBM System/360The model for CISC and for compatibility.Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC
1965Moore's lawComponent counts roughly double every two years.Transistor & Integrated Circuit
1965The cache ideaWilkes proposes a small, fast buffer memory.Memory Hierarchy & Caches
1968DRAM is inventedOne transistor per bit.Memory Hierarchy & Caches
1971Intel 4004The first commercial microprocessor.Microprocessor & Moore’s Law
1974Intel 8080It fuels the personal-computer wave.Microprocessor & Moore’s Law
1978Intel 8086The starting point of x86.Microprocessor & Moore’s Law
1980Multi-level cachesL1 and L2 become standard on processors.Memory Hierarchy & Caches
1980RISC is proposedPatterson starts the RISC project at Berkeley.Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC
1981The IBM PCAn open architecture creates the clone industry.Microprocessor & Moore’s Law
1985MIPS R2000A commercial RISC processor.Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC
1990ARM is foundedLow-power RISC moves into mobile devices.Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC
1999GeForce 256The word GPU reaches a wide audience.GPU & Heterogeneous Computing
2000NUMA and the memory wallThe coherence challenge of the multicore era.Memory Hierarchy & Caches
2001Programmable shadersGPUs begin to accept general programs.GPU & Heterogeneous Computing
2005Multicore becomes mainstreamClock speeds stall and parallelism becomes the main road.Microprocessor & Moore’s Law
2006CUDAAn operating system for general-purpose GPU computing.GPU & Heterogeneous Computing
2010RISC-VAn open, extensible instruction set.Instruction Sets: RISC vs CISC
2012AlexNetGPU-trained deep networks begin.GPU & Heterogeneous Computing
2017TPUs and dedicated acceleratorsGoogle puts tensor arithmetic into silicon.GPU & Heterogeneous Computing

Curriculum

Courses and labs

Which university courses this domain usually maps to, and whether the practical work is a standalone project course or an in-class lab.

Standalone lab course / project

There is a separate project course (usually 1–2 credits, two intensive weeks) in which you build a working CPU. Boolean algebra becomes a circuit here for the first time.

Courses

Digital LogicComputer OrganisationComputer Architecture

Open courses

  • CMU 15-213 Introduction to Computer Systems (CSAPP)
  • Berkeley CS 61C Great Ideas in Computer Architecture

What the labs look like

  • Digital logic lab

    Simplify expressions with Boolean algebra, then build them from gates: the first time a truth table becomes a circuit

  • CPU design

    Go from single cycle to pipeline (MIPS / RISC-V) in Logisim or Verilog, and pass the instruction tests

  • The seven CSAPP labs

    data, bomb, attack, cache, malloc, shell, proxy — each one teaches a layer of abstraction