
	CSEE W3827 Fundamentals of Computer Systems Summer 2015

Lectures

Class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:30 - 8:40 PM in 825 Mudd.

Staff

Name	Email	Office hours	Location
Prof. Stephen A. Edwards	sedwards@cs.columbia.edu	TBA	462 CSB
David Arthur	da2647@columbia.edu	3-5 Wednesday	TA Room (Mudd 1st floor)
Emilia Pakuilski	enp2111@columbia.edu	2-4 Sunday

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
Tue May 26	Representing Numbers Boolean Logic	1.4 1.5,2.1-2.7
Thu May 28	Combinational Logic	2.8,2.9,5.2
Tue Jun 2	Sequential Logic	3.1-3.3,3.5
Tue Jun 9	Finite State Machines Memory Elements	3.4 5.5	HW 1
Thu Jun 11	The MIPS Instruction Set	6.1-6.7
Tue Jun 16	MIPS Microarchitecture	7.1-7.3
Thu Jun 18	A Multicycle MIPS Processor Pipelining MIPS	7.4 7.5	HW 2
Tue Jun 23	Caches Transistors	8.3
Thu Jun 25	No Lecture
Tue Jun 30	Final Review		HW 3 strncat.s maxpath.s
Thu Jul 2	Final Exam

Logisim

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

MIPS Resources

MIPS32 Instruction Set Quick Reference

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.
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.