I just came home from the examination of the Advanced Computer Architecture lesson.

Out of Order instruction execution algorithms (Tomasulo), cache models, branch predictors... you know, this kind of stuff:http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0a5li_Nl5d5sEwz6zAmOnfLHTiJSv95UPaOm-QZLH0l6ja9ln

I still think that it this class is a bit more high-level than the rest of the lessons, in terms of technology specialization, but I still did ok.

 

Describe how this course is used in the day to day work place.

 

If you design high level systems I suspect it is used every day, but many engineering jobs would not fall into that category. Since many jobs are not for life it is still good to have.

 

It's all about building a complete computer unit. From the processor instruction set to how the memory will communicate with other parts to how the interrupts will affect the program execution.

Custom processor-cache-memory protocols, processor to processor communication protocols, miss ratio benchtests; anything to fit your custom system needs.

Not that I know how to do it, just part of it... in theory... yeah...

That particular professor's department has some significant work done on computer science:
http://www.cslab.ece.ntua.gr/
It's in english too!