CS 152/252A Spring 2026

Instructor: Chris Fletcher / Lecture: TuTh, 5:00 PM–6:30 PM, VLSB 2050 [Zoom, 252A Presentation Zoom, bCourses Media Gallery]

Course Calendar

Skip to current week

Wk.	Date	Lecture	252 Readings	Discussion	HW	Lab
1	Tue Jan 20	1. Intro / Early Machines Slides / Recording	Week 1 Logistics 252A Reading Summary Submissions			Lab 1 (due Fri Feb 06)
1	Thu Jan 22	2. Microcoding Slides / Recording	Week 1 Logistics 252A Reading Summary Submissions
2	Tue Jan 27	3. Pipelining 1 Slides / Recording	Week 2 Readings Dark Silicon and the End of Multicore Scaling Conservation Cores: Reducing the Energy of Mature Computations Cramming more components onto integrated circuits	1. Microcoding Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides Microcoding Handout	Homework 1 (due Sun Feb 08) PrairieLearn / Solutions
2	Thu Jan 29	4. Pipelining 2 Slides / Recording
3	Tue Feb 03	5. Memory 1 Slides / Recording	Week 3 Readings Hitting the Memory Wall: Implications of the Obvious AI and the Memory Wall Vector Runahead	2. Pipelining Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides
3	Thu Feb 05	6. Memory 2 Slides / Recording		2. Pipelining Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides
4	Tue Feb 10	7. Memory 3 Slides / Recording	Project Proposals	3. Memory Hierarchy Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides	Homework 2 (due Fri Feb 20) PrairieLearn / Handout / Solutions	Lab 2 (due Sun Mar 01)
4	Thu Feb 12	8. Guest Lecture (Annapurna Labs) Slides / Recording	Project Proposals
5	Tue Feb 17	9. Memory 3 (cont.) Slides / Recording	Week 5 Readings GoFetch	4. Virtual Memory Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides
5	Thu Feb 19	10. Address Translation Slides / Recording	Week 5 Readings GoFetch
6	Tue Feb 24	11. Virtual/Physical caches + Midterm 1 Slides / Recording	Week 6 Readings Decoupled Access/Execute Computer Architectures Decoupled Vector Runahead	5. Midterm 1 Review Session Discussion: Worksheet / Video / Slides
6	Thu Feb 26	12. OoO 1 Slides / Recording			Homework 3 (due Fri Mar 13) PrairieLearn / Solutions
7	Tue Mar 03	13. OoO 2 Slides / Recording	Week 7 Readings Roofline: An Insightful Visual Performance Model for Floating-Point Programs and Multicore Architectures A Performance Counter Architecture for Computing Accurate CPI Components	6. Out of Order Execution Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides		Lab 3 (due Sun Mar 22)
7	Thu Mar 05	14. OoO 3 (OoO 2 slides continued) Slides / Recording
8	Tue Mar 10	15. Branch Prediction 1 Slides / Recording		7. Physical Register Files and Branch Prediction Discussion: Worksheet / Solutions / Slides
8	Thu Mar 12	16. Guest Lecture (Apple) Recording
9	Tue Mar 17	Quiz (in class)		No discussion (Quiz)
9	Thu Mar 19	17. VLIW Slides / Recording		No discussion (Quiz)	Homework 4 (due Fri Apr 03) PrairieLearn / Solutions
10	Tue Mar 24	No Lecture (Spring Break)		No discussion (Spring Break)		Lab 4 (due Sun Apr 05)
10	Thu Mar 26	No Lecture (Spring Break)		No discussion (Spring Break)
11	Tue Mar 31	18. Vectors Slides / Recording	No Reading (Spring Break)	8. VLIW and Software Pipelining Discussion: Worksheet / Slides
11	Thu Apr 02	19. Multi-threading Slides / Recording	No Reading (Spring Break)
12	Tue Apr 07	20. GPU Slides / Recording		9. Multithreading and Vector Machines Discussion: Worksheet / Slides		Lab 5 (due Sun Apr 19)
12	Thu Apr 09	21. Cache Coherence Slides / Recording			Homework 5 (due Thu Apr 23) PrairieLearn
13	Tue Apr 14	22. Midterm 2
13	Thu Apr 16	23. Spatial Architectures and Trainium Slides / Recording
14	Tue Apr 21	24. Synchronization				Lab 6 (due Sun May 03)
14	Thu Apr 23	25. Memory Consistency
15	Tue Apr 28	26. Guest Lecture (Security)
15	Thu Apr 30	27. Last Lecture (Topic TBD)
16	Tue May 05	No Lecture (RRR Week)
16	Thu May 07	No Lecture (RRR Week)
17	Fri May 15	Final Exam (11:30 - 2:30)