CISC 260  -   Machine Organization and Assembly Language  -  Spring 2013

Instructor: Daniel Chester	TA: Fanchao Meng
Office: 101G Smith Hall	Office: 103 Smith Hall
Hours: M/F 3:15 pm-4:15 pm and by appt.	Hours: Th 2:30 pm-4:30 pm
Phone: 831-1955	Phone: 831-3132
Email: User: chester Domain: cis.udel.edu	Email: User: fcmeng Domain: udel.edu

Textbook

Software

Course Description

Course Objectives

• explain the basic organization of a classical von Neumann machine and its major functional units,
• explain how machine code is formatted and organized, and how it gets executed by the machine,
• write simple program segments in assembly language,
• demonstrate how fundamental high-level programming constructs, such as loops, procedure calls and recursion, are implemented at the machine and assembly language level,
• convert numerical data between different formats,
• perform basic logical and arithmetic operations as implemented in computers,
• understand the memory hierarchy and basic input/output,
• understand performance issues and optimization techniques.

Prerequisites

Class home page

Topics (tentative, not necessarily in the order to be covered)

• Computer components (sections 1.2, 1.3)


• Basic (Harvard, von Neumann, modified Harvard) architecture; fetch-execute cycle


• Bits, gates (pages C-1 thru C-12, C-26 thru C-31, sections C.7, C.8, pages C-58 thru C-62, section 4.1)


• The language of machines (sections 2.1 thru 2.14, B.1, B.5, B.9)


• Java bytecode (On CD_ROM, pages 2.15-15 thru 2.15-18, Figure 2.15.3 on page 2.15-4)


• Intel x86 architecture (section 2.17)


• Computer arithmetic (sections 3.1 thru 3.6)


• Performance (sections 1.4, 1.8)


• Pipelining (figures 4.17, 4.33, 4.41, 4.51, 4.56, 4.60, 4.65, 4.67, sections 4.5-4.9)

Grading

• homework assignments 48%


• midterm Friday April 5, 2013 24%


• final exam Friday May 17, 2013, 1-3 pm REC 101 24%

The numerical scores will be combined, not the letter grades. Since the assignments and exams are not standardized, your course grade will depend not only on the weighted score you receive, but also on how your score compares with the score distribution for the whole class.

Policies

• All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the due date. They must be printed, not handwritten, and given to me in class on the due date. Do not email your work to the TA or me unless I give you instructions to do so.
• Homework will be accepted at the following class period after the due date, but the score will be reduced by 10 percent of the maximum possible score. The homework will not be accepted more than one week after the due date except in extreme and verifiable circumstances.
• All work on assignments must be your own. Do not collaborate with other students or copy their work. Do not copy from a book or other source unless I say otherwise. You may consult with each other about conceptual problems, but see the TA or me for help with details or debugging.

  If you get text or code from any source, including webpages on the Internet, books or other students, and present it as if it were your own, that is plagiarism. If the TA or I discover that you have plagiarized, I am obligated to report the incident to University authorities above the CIS Department. You must acknowledge and document such borrowings if you do use them. If they significantly reduce the amount of work you have to do for an assignment, you will lose points [this part of the policy may change; I will tell you if it does]; the grade you get is for your work, not somebody else's.

• If you can't come to scheduled office hours, please send me email; I'll be happy to schedule a meeting at some other mutually-agreed-upon time.

Homework assignments and example programs