CSEE W3827 Fundamentals of Computer Systems Summer 2021

Lectures

Class meets Mondays and Wednesdays, 4:10 - 6:40 PM, May 3 - June 14, online.

Staff

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	Notes	Reading	Due
Mon May 3	Representing Numbers (annotated)		1.4
Wed May 5	Boolean Logic (annotated)		1.5,2.1-2.7
Mon May 10	Combinational Logic (annotated)		2.8,2.9,5.2
Wed May 12	Sequential Logic (annotated)		3.1-3.3,3.5
Sun May 16				HW 1
Mon May 17	Finite State Machines (annotated) (annotated) (annotated)		3.4
Wed May 19	Transistors Memory Elements		5.5
Mon May 24				HW 2
Mon May 24	The MIPS Instruction Set (annotated) The SPIM Simulator		6.1-6.7
Wed May 26	MIPS Microarchitecture (annotated)		7.1-7.3
Mon May 31	Memorial Day Holiday
Tue Jun 1				hw3.zip
Wed Jun 2	Pipelining MIPS (annotated)		7.5
Mon Jun 7	Caches		8.3
Wed Jun 9	(annotated)
Sun Jun 13				HW 4
Mon Jun 14	Final Review
Fri Jun 18	24-hr take-home exam

The Digital Circuit Simulator

The Inkscape SVG Editor

MIPS Resources

• MIPS32 Instruction Set Quick Reference
• The SPIM Simulator
• Some tiny programs that run under SPIM

Optional Text

David Harris and Sarah Harris. Digital Design and Computer Architecture. Morgan-Kaufmann, Second Edition, 2012. 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.

Homework

• Each homework assignment is due at the time listed on Courseworks. 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

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.

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