This is an introductory course on Computer organization and computer systems. The course will expose the student to the different layers in a computer system and examine the working of a computer system at these different levels. It will expose the student to the low level details of how machines are assembled and the tools to program them – it will expose what really happens when your programs are run, thereby providing you with the intellectual tools needed to solve problems when things go wrong. In addition to the theoretical concepts, the course through the lab section will provide an exposure to systems skills using various tools and focusing on issues such as performance and correctness. The course will take a bottom-up approach: it will start with the basic components of a computer system, machine representation of data, digital logic circuits, instruction sets and assembly programming, and moves to a discussion of how C programs are translated to the machine level. The course also introduces systems programming concepts such as memory management, file systems, safe programming, system stack, debugging and performance tuning of programs. The lecture, and some lab sessions, will consist of in-class activities and students will be required to work in groups.

Announcements

• This website is under construction - all content subject to change!

Class Resources

• Slack - Join here
• LC3 Download Instructions
• LC3 Download Page
• LC3 Tools Guide
• Git Instructions & Video Demo
• CEDAR Logic Instructions & Video Demo
• Logism Instructions & Video Demo
• Tinkercad Instructions & Video Demo[This will be set up ONLY if we have to go remote]
• Visual Studio Code Instructions & Video Demo

Schedule