Fri, 31 Oct 2014, 21:13


My students,

As you prepare for the 2nd midterm exam, I have a few things that
could be useful to you.

Thing 1: the problem set you are working on right now.

It has been pointed out to me that problem 1 of the current problem set
is left over from the early days when there was no interleaving on the
individual DRAM chip.

In lecture, I hope I made it clear that the typical DRAM chip today has
multiple banks (8 in the case of DDR3).  Therefore, to address a location
on the chip, one needs bank bits as well as row and column address bits.

In problem 1, you can assume no interleaving on the chip, so accessing
a location on the chip requires only row and column bits.

Thing 2: caches

Even though we spent most of Wednesday talking about caches, I have
decided to not put anything about caches on the 2nd midterm.  I will
save that for the final.

Thing 3: review session

Monday's class is set aside for review.  In addition, Stephen will hold
a review session Monday evening, starting at 8pm in room SZB 104.  The
model for all review sessions in my courses is as follows: Stephen will
try to answer any questions you have.  He will continually ask if you have
any more  questions, and will respond to your questions.  When there are
no more questions, the review session is over.  No new material will be
covered, so come or stay away as you wish.  Come as early as you wish,
stay as late as you wish.  This is completely optional, but many students
have found it useful in the past.

Good luck on the midterm.
Yale Patt