Introduction to Computer Architecture and Machine-Level Programming
| Recitation: | Tuesday 1:10 – 2:00 p.m., Gilman 2113 and Pearson 108 for Labs |
| Thursday 12:10 – 1 p.m., Gilman 1813 and Pearson 108 Pearson for Labs |
Graded Course Work: Will consist of homework, frequent in-class activities, quizzes, and three exams. Weights for these will be provided later.
General Approach: Concepts in computer architecture and machine-level programming will be explained as much as possible through solutions of problems in lectures, in-class activities, and recitations. It is a good idea for you to regularly attend lectures and recitations.
Students with Disabilities: Iowa State University complies with the American with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. Any student who may require an accommodation under such provisions should contact me as soon as possible and no later than the end of the first week of class or as soon as you become aware. You will need to provide documentation of your disability to the Disability Resources (DR) office, located on the main floor of the Student Services Building, Room 1076, 515-294-6624. Please request that a Disability Resources staff send a SAAR form verifying your disability and specifying the accommodation you will need.
News Assignments Grades Syllabus Labs Tools Tutorial
January 9, 2008: There will be no recitations during the first week of class.
January 9, 2008: The course syllabus is available here: Syllabus
January 15, 2008: There will be no recitations during the second week of class either.
January 15, 2008: Please note for future reference that only the version of spim/pcspim that can be downloaded from the Tools page should be used for the labs. The version that can be downloaded from the spim web site is incompatible with the lab exercises.
January 27, 2008: HW #2 has been posted here and is due in class on Wednesday, January 30
January 31, 2008: Grades for homework #1 have been posted here. Scores are posted by the last four digits of your student ID number. Please, at all times, let Matt know immediately of any errors.
February 1, 2008: Please note that for all assignment and exam problems you need to show all of your work. Only giving answers, even if they are correct, will result in a deduction of points. It must be clear how you worked through the problem and arrived at the correct solution for full points. This can also help to result in partial credit for incorrect answers.
February 4, 2008: HW #3 was handed out in class on Friday and is also posted below. It is due in class on Friday, February 8.
February 4, 2007: Grades up through homework #2 have been posted here.
February 6, 2008: General instructions and tips for doing the lab exercises have been posted here
February 6, 2008: Lab #1 has been posted below and is due on Thursday, February 14th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab1" as the subject.
February 6, 2008: Beginning on Tuesday, February 12 and continuing through Thursday, March 6, recitations will be held in the computer lab in room 108 of Pearson. Students will be able to work on assigned labs on their own and ask Matt any questions that they have.
February 6, 2008: Exam #1 is currently scheduled for Friday, February 15 during the regular lecture time (and in the same room).
February 6, 2008: Exam #2 is currently scheduled for Wednesday, March 12 in class. The lab exam portion of the exam will be given during the recitation times on Tuesday, March 11 and Thursday, March 13.
February 7, 2008: Scores for Quiz #2 have been posted on the grades page.
February 12, 2008: Lab #2 has been posted below and is due on Thursday, February 21st by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab2" as the subject.
February 12, 2008: Lab #3 has been posted below and is due on Thursday, February 28th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab3" as the subject.
February 12, 2008: Lab #4 has been posted below and is due on Thursday, March 6th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab4" as the subject.
February 14, 2008: Some of the lab machines in the lab (Pearson 108) have an incorrect version of pcspim installed. If you run pcspim and click the menu item "Help" -> "About PCSpim..." and see that the it DOES NOT say "PSCpim version 1.0" then it is the incorrect version and you need to download the pcspim.zip file from the Tools page, unzip it (preferably to your Desktop), and run that version of pcspim by double-clicking the included pcspim.exe.
February 14, 2008: Grades up through HW #3 have been posted on the Grades page.
February 15, 2008: HW 4, which was handed out on Wednesday, is due on Monday, Feb 18 in class. It is listed below.
February 18, 2008: The score for Exam #1 have been posted on the Grades page. There were 10 points worth of extra credit and figured with a high score of 100 points the average was 92.3.
February 21, 2008: HW #5 was handed out in class on Wednesday and is posted below.
February 22, 2008: HW #6 was handed out in class today and is posted below.
February 24, 2008: Scores for everything graded so far have been posted on the Grades page.
February 27, 2008: Please note that for lab #3 you must use a loop (or loops) to traverse the arrays for full credit. You cannot simply make unique copies of the code for each pair of array accesses.
February 27, 2008: Scores for everything up through Lab #2 have been posted on the Grades page.
February 29, 2008: The solution for the in-class Activity #6 has been posted here.
February 29, 2008: There will be a quiz in class on Wednesday, March 5.
February 29, 2008: Dates and times for the written and lab components of Exam 2 are as follows:
March 5, 2008: Grades up through HW #6 have been posted on the Grades page.
March 13, 2008: Scores for everything up through the lab exam have been posted on the Grades page.
March 20, 2008: Scores for exam 2 have been posted. There are scores for the lab portion (worth 30 points), the written portion (worth 70 points), and the total (worth 100 points), on the Grades page.
March 24, 2008: Composite grades have been posted on the Grades page. They can be found in the second column from the left (titled 'MidComp') and are figured out of a total of 80% (0.80).
March 24, 2008: Recitations for this week and next (through April 3rd) will be held in the lab. Afterwards they will return to the scheduled class rooms.
March 24, 2008: Lab #5 has been posted below. It is due by 5:00pm on April 4th. Matt will cover material specific to this lab exercise in lecture on Wednesday, March 26th.
March 26, 2008: The composite scores posted on Monday were sorted incorrectly and therefore the scores did not match up with the correct ID's. They have been corrected and re-posted on the Grades page. I'm very sorry for the mistake. Anyone with a .50 or lower should talk to Dr. Prabhu on Friday morning or immediately after class on Friday because Friday is the last day to drop if necessary.
April 2, 2008: Homework #7 was handed out in lecture today and is also posted in the ASSIGNMENTS section below. It is due in class on Wednesday, April 9.
April 7, 2008: Recitations will now be held in the scheduled classrooms in Gilman instead of the lab in Pearson: Tuesday 1:10 to 2:00 in Gilman 2113 and Thursday 12:10 to 1:00 in Gilman 1813
April 8, 2008: Homework #8 has been posted below and is due in class on Wednesday, April 16
April 19, 2008: Quiz 4 will be held in class on Wednesday, April 23
April 21, 2008: Grades for everything up through homework #8 have been posted on the Grades page.
April 28, 2008: Activity 12 was given in class on Monday, but is also available here.
April 28, 2008: The following information refers to the final exam for this semester:
| FINAL EXAM: Thursday, May 8, 9:45 to 11:45 A.M | Pearson 1105 (our regular classroom) | Bring a Calculator | Closed Book, Closed Notes |
April 30, 2008: All course material except for the final has been scored and the totals have been posted on the Grades page. The column named 'PreFinal' (the third column) contains the percentage out of 80 that each student has so far. The final exam will be worth the remaining 20 percent of the final grade.
May 9, 2008: The grades for the final exam and the final course grades have been posted on the Grades page. We hope you enjoyed the course and learned a lot. Have a great summer.
Some of the lab machines in the lab (Pearson 108) have an incorrect version of pcspim installed. If you run pcspim and click the menu item "Help" -> "About PCSpim..." and see that the it DOES NOT say "PSCpim version 1.0" then it is the incorrect version and you need to download the pcspim.zip file from the Tools page, unzip it (preferably to your Desktop), and run that version of pcspim by double-clicking the included pcspim.exe.
ComSci 321 Lab Instructions.doc
Lab #1 is due on Thursday, February 14th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab1" as the subject.
Lab #2 is due on Thursday, February 21st by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab2" as the subject.
Lab #3 is due on Thursday, February 28th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab3" as the subject.
Lab #4 is due on Thursday, March 6th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab4" as the subject.
Lab #5 is due on Friday, April 4th by 5:00pm. Solutions should be mailed to Yuly with "ComS 321, Lab5" as the subject. Note that you MUST use the version of pcspim that is available for download from the course site here for this lab. Newer versions of pcspim WILL NOT work with the necessary trap handler.
HW #2 is due in class on Wednesday, January 30
HW #3: Problems 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.10, 2.11, 2.12, 2.13, 2.15, 2.16, 2.17 (From the Second Edition of the book). Due in class on Friday, February 8.
HW #4: Chapter 3 – Problems 3.1 and 3.2. Due: Monday, Feb 18 in class.
HW #5: Chapter 3 - Problems 3,4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.11. Due: Wednesday, Feb 27 in class.
HW #6: Chapter 4 – Problems 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.11, 4.14. Due: Friday, Feb 29 in class.
HW #7 is due in class on Wednesday, April 9
HW #8 is due in class on Wednesday, April 16