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Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

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Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#71

Post by passwert »

williamDafoe wrote: post #58

As someone who taught this at a top 10 university, it doesn't look to me like a very good course. I feel like you should have all the basics to design a CPU by the end of the course and this course fails completely to teach the Breadth necessary for CPU design

I'm curious, do you mind explaining, what a top 10 university is (e.g. ranked by students, number of published papers etc.)? FYI, the ETH is also considered as a top 10 university (top 6 actually according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings)

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#72

Post by giu »

bionicbits wrote: post #62
veselin wrote: post #2

This is one of the best courses at ETH (computer science). Too bad I finished the PhD before this course was there. Another very interesting course is "Reliable and Interpretable Artificial Intelligence".

How was attending this University? I recently moved family abroad from USA. Hoping my daughter may have interest in attending here for computer science. I am just blown away by the cost of US Universities. Not sure what you get out of USA schools anymore compared to some European Universities?

I enjoyed my time there a lot (did a BSc and MSc there) and can recommend it to anyone who's interested in the engineering and natural sciences. School doesn't cost much (I paid around 600CHF per semester), provides a great infrastructure (for one, I was already running simulations on a high-performance distributed-memory cluster during my third BSc semester), allows you to meet and work with a lot of great people, and you are also able to choose from a vast number of very interesting lectures thought by some great scientists (this gets unlocked during your MSc).

One of the "downsides" to ETH Zürich is that it's quite competetive right from the beginning: you have to pass the Basisprüfung after your first year to continue your studies there (8-9 exams during the month of August), which 40%-50% of the attending students will not pass (it's kind of a "filter-exam"); this is one of the differences compared to the popular US universities: everyone with a high school degree (Gymnasium here in Switzerland) is allowed to attend University here in Switzerland, i.e., we don't have interviews or entry exams for most of the BSc majors (medical school is an exception).

If you have questions, feel free to contact me (see my profile).

All the best to you and your daughter!

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#73

Post by giu »

Thimothy wrote: post #64
yannovitch wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the OP, but I studied at ETH Lausanne and visited at ETH Zurich, and it was my best academic memory, surpassing Paris, London or the other universities I attended. So I recommend you a lot to try to get into this School, it's one of the best in the world, and the price of the education is a bargain compared to the comparable US universities.

In case someone gets confused searching for it, normally the federal politecnic university at Lausanne is called by its French name, EPFL. ETH Zürich has better score in international ratings, but the EPFL doesn't lag behind much. It's a really top noch place to learn any technical career.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that the Scala programming language was created at EPFL: https://scala.epfl.ch/

Martin Odersky (the original author) is still a professor there and teaches some Computer Science courses: http://lampwww.epfl.ch/~odersky/

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#74

Post by krn »

passwert wrote: post #71
williamDafoe wrote: post #58

As someone who taught this at a top 10 university, it doesn't look to me like a very good course. I feel like you should have all the basics to design a CPU by the end of the course and this course fails completely to teach the Breadth necessary for CPU design

I'm curious, do you mind explaining, what a top 10 university is (e.g. ranked by students, number of published papers etc.)? FYI, the ETH is also considered as a top 10 university (top 6 actually according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QS_World_University_Rankings )

> I'm curious, do you mind explaining, what a top 10 university is (e.g. ranked by students, number of published papers etc.)?

If the comment was made by a professor in the U.S., it could have meant "top 10 in North America".

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#75

Post by Youden »

bionicbits wrote: post #62
veselin wrote: post #2

This is one of the best courses at ETH (computer science). Too bad I finished the PhD before this course was there. Another very interesting course is "Reliable and Interpretable Artificial Intelligence".

How was attending this University? I recently moved family abroad from USA. Hoping my daughter may have interest in attending here for computer science. I am just blown away by the cost of US Universities. Not sure what you get out of USA schools anymore compared to some European Universities?

A comparison I've heard is that ETH is like Europe's MIT.

However you should be aware that undergraduate courses are generally taught in German (at least in Zürich): https://ethz.ch/content/dam/ethz/common/docs/weisungssammlun...

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#76

Post by herodotus »

willbw wrote: post #6
herodotus wrote: post #5

Too bad they host their course videos on Youtube. It has become painful to use. I don't understand why they cannot host them on their own server.

Interested to hear how you think self-hosted video is superior to Youtube, I have found the opposite to be true in every circumstance (unless you are without adblocker for some reason).

Even with Adblock installed, there are interruptions. Try listen to the slow movement of a piece of classical music, for example: the mood is certainly ruined with commercials placed randomly in the stream. And if Adblock is active, there still could be a short break in the stream: more than enough to ruin the mood.

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#77

Post by vymague »

somebodythere wrote: post #19

I've been following Onur's Design of Digital Circuits. I even bought a Basys 3 FPGA to do the labs. It's really helped me break down the black box that is the CPU I program as a software dev (I finally understand Spectre and Meltdown), and I'm learning basic FPGA dev as a nice bonus.

That's amazing. I wouldn't expect an intro architecture class would let someone to understand cutting edge stuffs like Spectre and Meltdown.

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#78

Post by ZeikJT »

angry_octet wrote: post #14
RealityVoid wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the proper word is "rogue" - but your points are spot on.

But it's (unintentionally?) clever, because the product they keep pushing on you is called YouTube Red, i.e. YouTube Rouge. (How they came up with this name, given the existence of porn site Red Tube, I'll never know.)

They changed the name to YouTube Premium

Re: Computer Architecture – ETH Zürich – Fall 2019

#79

Post by crashocaster »

williamDafoe wrote: post #58

As someone who taught this at a top 10 university, it doesn't look to me like a very good course. I feel like you should have all the basics to design a CPU by the end of the course and this course fails completely to teach the Breadth necessary for CPU design

His prerequisite first year course [0] actually matches your description more, and even has students designing their own CPUs on FPGAs. I feel like this course goes more in the direction of his own research interest, and already assumes the basic "breath" you speak of.

[0] https://safari.ethz.ch/digitaltechnik/spring2019/doku.php?id...

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