Computer Engineering ENCM
Instruction offered by members of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering in the Schulich School of Engineering.
Department Head - A. Sesay
Associate Heads - S.A. Norman (Undergraduate), D. Westwick (Graduate)
Director of Undergraduate Program for Electrical Engineering - W. Rosehart
Director of Undergraduate Program for Computer Engineering - S.A. Norman
Director of Undergraduate Program for Software Engineering - M. Moussavi
Senior Courses
Computer Engineering 339 H(3-1T-1.5)
Programming Fundamentals
Pointers and references, memory models and memory management. Manipulation of text files and binary files. Abstract data types (ADTs): implementation of ADTs as classes. Introduction to recursion.
Prerequisites: Engineering 233.
Computer Engineering 369 H(3-1T-1.5)
Computer Organization
Organization of a simple stored-program computer: CPU, busses and memory. Instruction sets, machine code, and assembly language. Conventions for assembly language generated by compilers. Floating-point number representation. Hardware organization of simple processors. Address translation and virtual memory. Very introductory examples of input/output devices, interrupt handling and multi-tasking systems.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 339 and Electrical Engineering 353.
Computer Engineering 415 H(3-1T-3/2)
Assembly Language Programming and Interfacing
Review of computer architecture; comparison of RISC and CISC microprocessors, microcontrollers and their instruction sets; interfacing using common input/output devices, debugging and other software engineering practices, strategies for interrupt handling and bus arbitration; Interfacing using a high level language; software and hardware optimizations to achieve real time operations; number representations; real time operating systems concepts; DSP co-processors and microcontrollers.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 369.
Computer Engineering 417 H(3-1T-3/2)
Computer Interfacing and Embedded Systems
Review of computer organization. Overview of input/output devices. Modes of interaction between processors and input/output devices. Interrupt handling. Introduction to microcontrollers and embedded systems design. Connections to multitasking applications and operating systems.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 369.
Computer Engineering 467 H(3-1T-3/2)
Digital Electronics for Computer Engineers
MOS transistor fundamentals (D.C. characteristics, large signal model, transient behaviour). Transistor level implementation of standard MOS logic gates. Other MOS logic blocks. MOS memory (static and dynamic). Interfacing various logic families. Introduction to integrated circuit design.
Prerequisites: Electrical Engineering 343 and 353.
Computer Engineering 491 H(3-2/2)
Real-Time Systems Design
Requirements for real-time systems. Design of embedded systems. Development of applications to run on real-time operating systems.
Prerequisites: Computer Science 457 and one of Computer Engineering 415 or 417. Prerequisites for Computer Science students: Computer Science 455 and 457.
Computer Engineering 493 H(3-1T-1.5)
Software Development for Computer Engineers
Introduction to tools, components and processes used in analysis, design, development and testing of software applications. Features of object-oriented languages. Introduction to object-oriented design.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 339.
Computer Engineering 501 H(3-1T-3/2)
Principles of Computer Architecture
Input/output, processors, intra-system communication, busses, caches. Addressing and memory hierarchies. Microprogramming, parallelism, and pipelining. Classification and taxonomy of computer architectures. Reduced instruction set computers, pipelining, vector processing, dataflow computers, architecture description languages, firmware engineering.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 369 and one of 415 or 417 or Software Engineering for Engineers 413
Computer Engineering 503 H(3-2)
Digital Video Processing
Introduction to the fundamentals of digital video representation, filtering and compression. Topics include: popular algorithms for 2-D and 3-D motion estimation, object tracking, frame rate conversion, deinterlacing, image enhancement, emerging international standards for image and video compression, applications as digital TV, web-based multimedia, videoconferencing, videophone and mobile image communications
Prerequisites: Electrical Engineering 327 and one of Electrical Engineering 409, Computer Engineering 493 or Software Engineering 411.
Note: Credit for both Computer Engineering 503 and any of Computer Engineering 519.33, Electrical Engineering 519.33 or Software Engineering for Engineers 519.33 will not be allowed.
Computer Engineering 505 H(3-2)
Parallel Computer Architectures
An examination of Design and Performance trade-offs in modern parallel computer architectures. Includes an introduction to the basic concepts of parallel computing including message passing and shared memory programming models. An examination of a number of parallel architectures, including pipeline architectures, shared memory multiprocessor systems including both bus based and CC NUMA distributed memory systems, message passing systems, focusing on interconnect issues will also be examined. Also covers cache architectures and strategies to ensure cache coherency in shared memory systems.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 369 and one of Computer Engineering 493 or Software Engineering 443.
Note: Credit for both Computer Engineering 505 and either Computer Engineering 519.27 or Software Engineering for Engineers 519.27 will not be allowed.
Computer Engineering 507 H(3-1T)
(formerly Computer Engineering 519.38)
Computer Aided Design of Integrated Circuits
Development of Computer-Aided Design (CAD) tools for VLSI circuits. Physical Design, algorithm complexity, CAD tool development, partitioning, placement and routing algorithms.
Prerequisites: Electrical Engineering 453
Note: Credit for both Computer Engineering 507 and Computer Engineering 519.38 will not be allowed.
Computer Engineering 515 H(3-1T-3/2)
Digital Signal Processors
Review of microprocessor fundamentals. Comparison of basic system architectures for RISC, CISC and DSP processors, recent architectural innovations. Processor characteristics needed to match the requirements for typical DSP applications. Hardware and software optimization techniques including multiple busses, register windows, super-scalar and other highly parallel instruction sets, critical timing paths, optimizing compilers and multi-processor operation. Fundamental comparison of custom and current commercial single chip DSP processor architectures. Elements of Hardware-Software co-design and development processes. Practical applications and laboratories.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 415 or 417.
Computer Engineering 517 H(3-1T)
(formerly Computer Engineering 519.34)
Computer Arithmetic & Computational Complexity
Analysing the complexity of computer arithmetic algorithms, fundamental issues concerning computational complexity problems with applications to engineering problems, including signal and image processing, cryptography and data mining.
Prerequisites: Computer Engineering 339
Note: Credit for both Computer Engineering 07 and Computer Engineering 519.34 will not be allowed.