Computer Architecture
- Free
- No certificate
- Advanced
- 5 weeks
Computer Architecture is David Wentzlaff's Princeton course on the design of modern processors, pitched at advanced level. Its twenty-one modules begin with a review of instruction set architecture, microcode, pipelining and caches, then cover superscalar execution and exceptions over four modules, VLIW, branch prediction, advanced caches, memory protection, vector processors and GPUs, multithreading, parallel programming, small multiprocessors, multiprocessor interconnects and large multiprocessors with directory protocols. Coursera labels it advanced level with a flexible schedule and estimates five weeks at ten hours a week.
The course page states that all the features of the course are available for free and that it does not offer a certificate upon completion, consistent with Princeton's policy of awarding no credentials for its open courses. Coursera describes the advanced label as designed for those already in the industry, and the opening modules are reviews of pipelining and caches, so learners new to the topic should expect to do outside reading alongside the lectures.
What you’ll learn
- Review instruction set architecture, microcode, pipelining and caches
- Explain superscalar execution, exceptions, VLIW and branch prediction
- Design advanced cache hierarchies and memory protection
- Compare vector processors, GPUs and multithreading
- Understand parallel programming and multiprocessor interconnects and coherence
Who it’s for
Engineers and computer-science students who already know basic processor design and want a graduate-level treatment of modern microarchitecture.
Syllabus
21 sections as listed on coursera.org, 51 hours in total.
- Introduction, Instruction Set Architecture, and Microcode 4 hours
- Pipelining Review 3 hours
- Cache Review 3 hours
- Superscalar 1 3 hours
- Superscalar 2 & Exceptions 2 hours
- Superscalar 3 2 hours
- Superscalar 4 1 hour
- VLIW 1 2 hours
- VLIW2 3 hours
- Branch Prediction 2 hours
- Advanced Caches 1 3 hours
- Advanced Caches 2 2 hours
- Memory Protection 3 hours
- Vector Processors and GPUs 3 hours
- Multithreading 2 hours
- Parallel Programming 1 1 hour
- Parallel Programming 2 1 hour
- Small Multiprocessors 2 hours
- Multiprocessor Interconnect 1 3 hours
- Multiprocessor Interconnect 2 3 hours
- Large Multiprocessors (Directory Protocols) 3 hours
Instructor
- David Wentzlaff Associate Professor, Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
Course details
- Skills covered
- Computer Architecture
- Memory Management
- Microarchitecture
- Computer Systems
- Includes
- 21 modules · 2 assignments
- Subtitles
- 22 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.7 out of 5 by 3,918 learners; 330,578 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Princeton Online (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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