Course syllabus

Lecturers  

• Robert Sheehan

r.sheehan@auckland.ac.nz
Room 303.488 
Office hours: whenever I am around or email me for appointment

• Xinfeng Ye 

xinfeng@cs.auckland.ac.nz
Room 303.589
Office hours: whenever I am around or email me for appointment

Tutor

• Paul Freeman

pfre484@aucklanduni.ac.nz
Office hours are held in the First Floor Science Computer Lab (303S-191):

• Monday 15:00-16:00
• Tuesday 11:00-12:00
• Wednesday 14:00-15:00
• Thursday 12:00-13:00

Topics Covered

• Integer representation
• Character and string representation
• Arithmetic operations
• Logic operations
• Logic gates
• Combinational logic
• Storage elements
• Sequential logic
• The von Neumann model
• An Instruction Set Architecture (ISA)
• Assembly language
• Input and Output including interrupts
• Traps
• Subroutines
• Memory stack
• Introduction to programming in C
• Mapping C variables and operators to an ISA
• Mapping C Control Structures to an ISA
• Mapping C functions to an ISA
• Handling C function calls
• Mapping C pointers and arrays to an ISA
• Mapping C structures to an ISA
• Handling C’s dynamic memory allocation
• User/kernel mode
• Hardware support for context switching
• Hardware support for synchronisation
• Exceptions
• MMU and virtual memory

Learning Outcomes

A student who successfully completes this course should be able to:

• describe elemental data structures, including characters, strings, signed & unsigned integers (various sizes), and pointers
• convert between various representations of a number
• describe the range and limitations of representations of numbers
• describe the execution of basic instructions at the instruction set architecture level
• write simple assembly language programs
• describe the assembly process, and the information that is contained in assembly language instructions
• explain the concept of a pointer and distinguish between the value of a pointer and the entity pointed to 
• write simple programs in C
• describe how an operating system and high-level languages provide abstractions that simplify the programming of complex systems
• describe how the features of virtual memory, user/kernel mode, interrupts and exceptions make it possible to implement a secure multi-user system

Practical requirements

In order to pass the paper, you must:

• Pass the assignment work
• Pass test and exam combined The pass marks in each part and in total are not going to exceed 50%. If you have not achieved 50% in the assignments you are still advised to sit the exam.

Assessment

• Final Exam 60%; Test 20%; Assignments 20%
• Information about what is and isn't permitted in assignments etc. can be found at https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/about/learning-and-teaching/policies-guidelines-and-procedures/academic-integrity-info-for-students.html
• If your exam or test is affected by personal circumstances, you can apply for aegrotat https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/for/current-students/cs-academic-information/cs-examination-information/cs-aegrotat-and-compassionate-consideration.html