Introduction

ASIA PACIFIC INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Higher Diploma in Computer Systems
Advanced Computer System Architecture Assignment

Intake	        : Full-Time Higher Diploma 2000 - HF0051CSG1
Lecturer	: Mr Karl Low
Date Assigned	: 13 November 2000
Date Due	: 09 December 2000

Cache Technology

You are required to provide a brief write-up on the cache mapping mechanisms found in the latest Intel Pentium III processors and the AMD Athlon processors.

You are required to perform an evaluation, highlighting the following:-

1. Overall description of the cache system.
2. Description of the cache mapping method employed by both systems.
3. The merits (or weak points) of the cache system found in both systems, from the perspective of performance.

General Assignment Requirements

1. You are required to work in a project team. Each project team member is expected to produce an equal amount of effort into the research. The members of each group will be randomly chosen and the list shall be final. You have to be aware that teamwork is the key factor in deciding the success of the report.

2. A complete (and comprehensive) report of between fifteen to twenty pages is required. You are required to build a web page (or pages) that is to contain all the research details. Ensure that the report is properly enhanced with illustrations (or diagram) to improve on the readability (and most notably, the clarity) of the report. The total number of pages specified does not include the illustrations or diagrams.

3. The web pages that you are designing must conform to regular HTML codes (that can be browsed using web browsers like Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer).

4. You are required to make use of an appropriate web page design tool (or authoring tools) that will allow you to generate these web pages.

5. The report (your web pages) should generally contain the following sections:-
     a) Table of Contents. This section should contain hyperlinks to your other sections within the report.
     b) Acknowledgement Section. A section used to thank individuals who have helped in the assignment. This would include third parties such as individuals from the IT industry, IT companies, publications, friends or family.
     c) Introduction Section. A brief write up of the assignment, the aims and objectives.
     d) Main Contents. This section should present the main ideas, followed by the other details that can further strengthen your ideas.
     e) Bibliography Section. A listing of all related reference materials that your web pages are referring to. You are also required to specify hyperlinks to other web sites that contains materials related to your area of study.
     f) Appendix (where necessary, which could outline details of terminologies which have not been clearly defined or explained within the report)

6. All diagrams or pictures within the web pages have to be prepared to an extremely high professional level, providing clarity and meaning to the topics under discussion.

7. Do note that you should not stray away from the main idea of building these web pages (which is the report and its contents). The emphasis in on what information you have rather then how it is presented. Do not focus too much of your attention on the interface as the contents of your report carries much more marks.

8. An initial plan must be drawn up for your web page(s), which should cover the following:-
     a) Topics discussed. A general outline of all the topics being discussed within the web page(s).
     b) Workload matrix. An outline of work and how it is distributed among team members.
     c) Task managers. People who are in charge of a particular area regarding the project. Some examples would include:-
          i) Project Leader (overseeing the co-ordination among all members)
          ii )Secretary. To ensure that the details of meetings are kept up to date and contains the relevant details.
          iii) Quality Manager. An individual who is in charge of overseeing the quality of the work produced. This would include issues such as consistency and relevance of the material.
          iv) Research Manager. An individual who would be in charge of overseeing (and co-ordinating) the research effort by the group and ensures that the relevant details are obtained and within the specified duration.
     d) Project Plan (weekly schedule or monthly schedule)

9. Although the presentation format of the report is subjective and free for you to decide on, marks will be awarded for the general presentation of the report based on language clarity, flow of thoughts, general neatness, support provided by each individual member and the relevance of the material.

10. Marks will also be awarded for the overall presentation of your web pages, taking into consideration the user-friendliness of the layout and the use of hyperlinks, icons, buttons, pictures and other GUI related ideas or concepts. Readability is very important and you are reminded to develop web pages that do not have too much text within it, as this tends to become too tiresome to read.

11. As part of project management, each group is required to submit minutes of every group meeting that was conducted. A project plan for the research (in the form of a gantt chart) must be prepared prior to the beginning of the research and must clearly outline the tasks to be performed by each individual member. Ensure that the minutes are decisive, showing positive milestones being achieved or positive decisions being made.

12. Even though the report format is free for you to decide on, you must end with a comprehensive and meaningful conclusion.

13. You are required to email the URL of your completed work by the specified due date. This URL should contain all the
 relevant web page (or pages) and corresponding illustrations (or pictures/diagrams). Marks will be deducted for assignments that are incomplete. It is your responsibility to ensure that the final product that is presented is complete.

14. You are allowed to use server space besides the UNIX server at APIIT. In this instance, you must ensure that access to this server is easily available.

15. Plagiarism is regarded as a serious offence and will automatically result in zero marks being awarded for the report.