COA Syllabus
| Topic | Subtopics / What to Cover |
|---|---|
| Basic Computer Organization | Functional units ⭐ Stored program concept |
| Number Systems | Binary, Octal, Decimal, Hexadecimal ⭐ Number conversion ⭐ |
| Signed Number Representation | Sign magnitude ⭐ 1’s complement ⭐ 2’s complement ⭐ |
| Binary Arithmetic | Binary addition ⭐ Subtraction ⭐ Overflow ⭐ |
| Fixed & Floating Point | Fixed-point representation IEEE 754 floating point ⭐ |
| Boolean Algebra | Boolean laws ⭐ De Morgan’s theorem ⭐ |
| Logic Gates | AND, OR, NOT ⭐ NAND, NOR, XOR ⭐ |
| Combinational Circuits | Adders ⭐ Subtractors ⭐ Multiplexers ⭐ Decoders ⭐ |
| Sequential Circuits | Flip-flops ⭐ Counters ⭐ Registers ⭐ |
| Instruction Set Architecture | Instruction formats ⭐ Addressing modes ⭐ |
| CPU Organization | ALU ⭐ Control unit Registers ⭐ |
| Instruction Cycle | Fetch ⭐ Decode ⭐ Execute ⭐ |
| Pipelining | Pipeline stages ⭐ Speedup ⭐ Hazards ⭐ |
| Memory Hierarchy | Cache ⭐ Main memory ⭐ Secondary memory ⭐⭐ |
| Cache Memory | Cache mapping ⭐ Replacement policies ⭐ |
| Virtual Memory | Paging ⭐ Segmentation ⭐ |
| I/O Organization | Programmed I/O ⭐ Interrupt-driven I/O ⭐ |
| Secondary Storage | Magnetic disk Disk scheduling ⭐ |
| Performance Metrics | CPI ⭐ MIPS ⭐ Throughput ⭐ |
| RISC vs CISC | Differences ⭐ |
| Flynn’s Classification | SISD, SIMD, MISD, MIMD |