CS 0447

Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming

Fall 1997
Mondays and Wednesdays
from 10:00AM to 11:20AM
or from 5:45PM to 7:05PM

113 MIB

Instructor

Rami Melhem (melhem@cs.pitt.edu)
219 Mineral Industries Building,
phone: 624-8426
Office Hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30 to 4:30
Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:30 to 3:30

Teaching assistant

Meepani K. Karunanayake (meepani@cs.pitt.edu)
335 Alumni Hall,
phone: 624-8454
Office Hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30 to 1:30, and from 4:30 to 5:30

Recitations (113 MIB)

Mondays or Wednesdays from 9:00AM to 9:50 AM or from 7:15PM to 8:05PM

Course Description

In this course, we will study the basis of assembly language, the conversion from assembly language to machine language, the relationship between the machine language and the machine executing it, how it is possible to build a machine that executes instructions, what makes a good architecture and how we compare architectures. We will write several programs in MIPS assembly language for the MIPS R2000/R3000 RISC computer and study at least one program for the 80x86 architecture. We will use the SPIM S20 simulator for the projects.

Textbooks

Computer Organization and Design - The Hardware/Software Interface
By David Patterson and John Hennessy
Second Edition - Morgan & Kaufmann.

Requirements and grading:

Three exams (50%).
Four programming projects (40%)
Homeworks and quizzes (10%)

Policy on cheating and late homeworks

Programming projects are to be individual efforts. Collaboration is considered cheating. Cheating on exam or projects will results in a grade of "0" for the first time (for all involved students) and an "F" in the course for the second time.
There will be a 10% per day penalty for late work. Work that is more than five days late will not be accepted. Exams will not be rescheduled except under extraordinary circumstances.

Course Outlines and Schedule:

We will cover Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 from the textbook, as well as Appendices A, B and C. If time permits, we will also cover parts of Chapter 8, and touch on issues from Chapter 6.

Course Index Department of Computer Science University of Pittsburgh