
	CSEE W3827 Fundamentals of Computer Systems Fall 2012

Lectures

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:10 - 11:25 AM in 207 Mathematics.

Staff

Name	Email	Office hours	Location
Mailing list for questions	csee3827-staff@lists.cs.columbia.edu
Prof. Stephen A. Edwards	sedwards@cs.columbia.edu	TBA	462 CSB
Prof. Martha A. Kim	martha@cs.columbia.edu	11:30-12:30 T; 2:30-3:30 Th	469 CSB
Emma Ziegellaub Eichler	edz2103@columbia.edu	MW 10:15 - 11:15	Mudd TA Room
Andrew Mercer-Taylor	ajm2209@columbia.edu	M 3-5	Mudd TA Room
David Calhoun	dmc2202@columbia.edu	W 3-4, F 11-12	804 CEPSR

Overview

This course examines how the 1s and 0s that form the foundation of digital computing are organized, structured, and manipulated to produce full-fledged computer systems. In bridging this gap, the course will cover many subjects beginning with binary logic, combinatorial and sequential circuit design, memory structures, instruction set architectures, and, ultimately, basic processor design.

Prerequisites

An introductory programming course, such as COMS 1004 or 1007. You need to understand the basics of imperative, sequential programming to understand the assembly language programming we will discuss.

Schedule

Date	Lecture	Reading	Due
Sep 4	Representing Numbers	1.4
Sep 6	Boolean Logic	1.5,2.1-2.7
Sep 11
Sep 13	Combinational Logic	2.8,2.9,5.2
Sep 18
Sep 20	Sequential Logic	3.1-3.3,3.5	HW 1 solutions
Sep 25
Sep 27	Finite State Machines	3.4
Oct 2	Transistors, Gates, and ICs	1.7
Oct 4	Memory Elements	5.5
Oct 9			HW 2 solutions
Oct 11	Datapath and Control
Oct 16	Homework Solutions		solutions solutions
Oct 18	Midterm Review
Oct 23	Midterm Exam
Oct 25	The MIPS Instruction Set	6.1-6.7
Oct 30	Hurricane -- University closed
Nov 1
Nov 6	Election Day
Nov 8
Nov 13
Nov 15
Nov 20	MIPS Microarchitecture	7.1-7.3	HW 3 solutions
Nov 22	Thanksgiving
Nov 27	A Multicycle MIPS Processor	7.4
Nov 29	Pipelining MIPS	7.5
Dec 4			HW 4 solutions
Dec 6	Caches	8.3
Dec 10 (Monday)			HW 5 solutions
Dec 18	Final Exam -- 9am-12pm in Math 207

Logisim

For some of the homework assignments, you will need to use Logisim, which runs on many platforms. Download it here.

X86 Resources

Required Text

David Harris and Sarah Harris.
Digital Design and Computer Architecture.
Morgan-Kaufmann, 2007.

A perfect fit for our class, half of this book is devoted to classical digital logic design; the other half to processor architecture centered on the practical, but teachable, MIPS processor.

Cover of Digital Design and Computer Architecture

Homework

Each homework assignment is due at at the beginning of lecture on the due date. Late submissions will not be accepted.
We will drop each student's lowest homework grade when calculating final grades.
You may discuss homework problems with your classmates, but your work must ultimately be your own.
Write the names of any collaborators at the top of your submission.

Grading

40% Homeworks

30% Midterm

30% Final

Academic Honesty Policy

You may discuss homework problems with your classmates, but you must write up your solution independently and understand it. Students turning in copied homeworks will be referred to the dean. See the Columbia CS department academic policies for more details.