List of Topics (By Week): 1. The basic organization of a computer system and a processor. Boolean algebra. combinational logic circuits. State elements: the R-S latch. Lab: Review of basic UNIX commands and utilities. 2. State Elements (Cont'd): D-latch, D-flipflops. The register file, multiplexors, decoders. Lab: Review of basic C programming language features. 3. The instruction set: Operations and operands. Introduction to assembly programming. Simple ALU operations and branch instructions. Lab: Bit-wise logic operations and standard library routines in C. Source level C program debugging. 4. Addressing modes. Memory allocation and stack mechanism in assembly programs. Lab: Compiling C programs into assembly programs. 5. Procedure calls in assembly programs. Register usage convention. Assemblers, linkers, debuggers. Lab: Assembling, disassembling, linking. An emulator and a debugger for executing and debugging assembly programs. 6. Number representations and ALU operations. Floating point instructions. Lab: Writing assembly programs with simple control structures. 7. The processor data-path and control. Design of a primitive processor with hard-wired control. Instruction execution steps. Lab: Writing assembly programs dealing with radix and floating point numbers. 8. Finite state machines. PLA vs. ROM. The basics of microprogramming. Lab: Writing assembly programs with recursive procedure calls. 9. Relationship between concepts covered so far. Lab: Review and comprehensive exercises. 10. SRAM and DRAM. Caches. Lab: Reducing memory reference penalty in assembly programs by efficient use of registers, caches and other techniques. 11. Virtual memory, page faults, TLB. Lab: Memory allocation in assembly programs. Measuring and understanding page faults generated by a program. 12. Exception and interrupt handling. Lab: Exception handlers. Long jumps. 13. I/O. Bus. I/O and network interface. Lab: I/O routines. 14. A high-level view of instruction Pipelining and other Performance Issues. Lab: Measuring and understanding program performance. 15. Review and prepare for exam. Lab: Review and finish up. 2001.08