CMSI 2210: Computer Systems Organization

CMSI 2210: Class Notes by Week

The following outline presents the topics that are covered, in the approximate order and time frame in which they will be discussed. Weeks that have passed will be grayed out. The upcoming or current week will be green. Click on each title to expand it and see the topics for that week, or you can click on the or the buttons to do the appropriate action for all weeks. Homework assignments that are assigned will be displayed using italicized and underlined text with a white background. Homework assignments that are due will be displayed using a blue background.

Week 01 — Introduction, Syllabus, Getting Started
- Announcements
  - No class on Monday next week — Labor Day Holiday
  - Assigned: Homework 01 due Wed/Thur this week
  - Assigned: Homework 02 due Wed/Thur of week 3
  - Homework 01 due Wednesday/Thursday this week
- Introduction and Syllabus
- Tools you will use during the semester
- Initial roll call and other sundries
- Assignment Submissions - GitHub
- Development environments
- Compiler/assembler installation
- Explanation of the C programming language example
- Explanation of the nasm programming language example
- Explanation of the ARM programming language example
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: Compiler/assembler installation and checkout
  [Note that this is actually homework 01…]
Week 02 — Basics of a Computer System
- Announcements
  - No class on Monday this week — Labor Day Holiday
  - Homework 02 due next week
- Computer Systems Organization
- Von Neumann Architecture
- Processor Parts and Organization
- Layers of Organization
- Assembly Language
- Beginning Analysis of Number Systems
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: Number Base Conversion Practice
Week 03 — Ways of Representing Information: Number Encoding
- Announcements
  - Assigned: Homework 03 due in two weeks
  - Quiz one next week
  - Homework 02 due Wednesday/Thursday
- Information Representation
- Symbols and Alphabets
- Encoding Schemes
- Bit String Encoding
- Functions
- Function Machines
- Programming as Machine Creation
- Encoding Schemes
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: Bit Pattern Encoding Practice
Week 04 — Character Encoding
- Announcements
  - Quiz one this week on Wednesday [section 01] and Thursday [section 02]
  - Homework 03 due next week
- Character Encoding
- Character Sets
- BCD, EBCDIC, and ASCII
- Unicode
- Other Character Sets
- Ways to Encode Characters
- About Strings
- VERY VERY brief introduction to C
- Monday/Tuesday: In-class Exercise if there's time: Go Fish Practice with C
Week 05 — Computer Logic: CPU Building Blocks
- Announcements
  - Homework 03 due Wednesday/Thursday this week
  - Assigned: Homework 04 due in two weeks
- Quiz one coverage — work most of quiz in class
- S.P.M.E.C. — Seeing Patterns Makes Easier Calculations
- Logic Components
- Gates and Truth Tables
- Combining the Parts to Make a Machine
Week 06 — Computer Logic: CPU Architecture
- Announcements
  - Quiz 02 next week
  - Homework 04 due next week
- Combining Parts to Make a Machine
- Basic Combinations ~ FlipFlops and Adders
- Stanley/Penguin — A Simple CPU
  - Parts
  - Operation
- Illustrating What Happens Inside
- Fetching and Decoding
- Executing the Instruction
- Writing Programs
- Machine Language
- CISC and RISC
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: Stanley Penguin Programming Exercise
Week 07 — CPU Processor Architectures
- Announcements
  - Quiz two this week on Wednesday [section 01] and Thursday [section 02]
  - Homework 04 due Wednesday/Thursday this week
- The X86-64 CPU Architecture
- The ARM and Apple Silicon CPU Architecture
- The NVideaGPU Architecture
- Instruction Encoding/Decoding
- Assembler the Beautiful
- Some Typical Instructions
- Addressing
- Data Types and How They Are Handled
Week 08 — Some Assembly Required…
- Announcements
  - Assigned: Homework 05 due in three weeks
- Quiz two coverage — work most of quiz in class
- Jump instructions
- Registers
- Calling Conventions
- More using 'nasm' on Mac
- More using 'nasm' on PC
- Using the Gnu Debugger, gdb
- Using the lldb debugger [LLDB reportedly means Low Level DeBugger]
- Mixing C and Assembly
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: Port Stanley Penguin to 'nasm'
Week 09 — Flags, Instructions, NASM
- Announcements
  - Homework 05 due in two weeks
- Mon/Tue — In-class Exercise: Port stpn code to real assembly
  This will be a virtual code-along
- Flags
- Some Instruction Details
- The X86-64 Developers Manual
- NASM Tutorial
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: capture the flag
Week 10 — The Debugger & Intro to Mixed Methods Programming
- Announcements
  - Quiz03 on Wednesday [section 01] and Thursday [section 02]
- Interpreting Truth Tables, Schematics, And Descriptions
- Next-level Language Representations
- Top-down or Bottom-up?
- Functions and Pointers and Strings ~ OH MY!
- Compiling and Linking
- Header files and prototypes
- Multiple File Modules in a Program
- C Input/Output Specifications
Week 11 — Deep Into Assembly
- Announcements
  - Homework 05 due Wednesday/Thursday
  - Quiz 04 next week
- Quiz three coverage — work most of quiz in class
- Numbers ~ Signed and Unsigned Integers
- Getting Arguments from the Command Line
- Getting Values from the User
- Reading From Files
- C Libraries – Stuff That's Already Built
- C Isn't Object Oriented… Or Is It?? What the Struct…
- Wednesday/Thursday: In-class Exercise: 'Duplicitous' ~ File I/O in C
Week 12 — Several Miscellaneous Topics
- Announcements
  - Assigned: Homework 06 due in three weeks
  - Quiz04 on Wednesday [section 01] and Thursday [section 02]
- Command Line Arguments
- Floating Point assembly
- Assembly Code Sections
- Recursion in Assembly Code
Week 13 — Re-visit Mixed Methods Programming & Holiday
- Announcements
  - NO CLASS WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY ~ Turkey Day!
  - Homework 06 due in two weeks
- Quiz four coverage — work most of quiz in class
- Command Line Arguments
- Floating Point
- Sections
- We CAN do recursion in assembly!
- No in-class exercise this week due to holiday days off
Week 14 — A Look at Systems In The Large
- Announcements
  - Homework 06 due next week
- Introduction to Messaging
- Messaging Systems
- Socket Interface
- Remote Procedure Call
- Principles of Operation for RPC
- Short week due to the observed holiday…
Week 15 — Wrapping It Up…
- Announcements
  - Homework 06 due Wednesday/Thursday
  - Final exam next week
- Monday/Tuesday: Semester wrap-up – any final topics that need finishing,
  THEN
  Begin the Final Exam Review
- Wednesday/Thursday: Final Exam Review – a brief recap of topics
- DON'T FORGET: I will be available for office hours!
Week 16 — Final Exam
- FINAL EXAM — The Details
- Section 01, the Monday/Wednesday Section:
  Exam is on Monday, December 8^th at 14:00 [2:00 PM]
- Section 02, the Tuesday/Thursday Section:
  Exam is on Thursday, December 11^th at 11:00 [11 AM]
- The exam will be in the same format as all my exams, quizzes and tests. The first page will be matching terms, and the rest of the test will be a combination of short answer, short code writing or interpretation, and multiple choice questions. Point values for each question are given at the end of each question's text. The total point value is given in the text at the top of the first page.