CSc 3210 Computer Organization and Programming

Instructor: Dr. Michael Weeks
Computer Science Department
web-page: https://hallertau.cs.gsu.edu/~mweeks

Syllabus

• See the Class specific info
  
• See the Syllabus policies
  
• See the Tentative Calendar
• Topics

Homework and Exam Information

• Labs instructions
  Labs report format You can see an example here and can download the .tex file with the graphic here
  Here is a LaTeX front-end. There are many alternates available.
  Click here for the assignments
• Quiz 1 is January 29
• Homework 1 is due February 2
  Important note about hmwk1: To do the original homework 1, you need to be introduced to the RISC-V environment. This will happen in lab 4. However, since we delayed the labs by a week, the timing for that homework does not work. To fix this, that assignment is now called Homework 2. The replacement for Homework 1 includes problems from the textbook.
• Quiz 2 is February 12
• Midterm Exam is February 19. See this link about redoing problems
• Homework 2 is due February 25 March 2
• Quiz 3 is March 5
• Homework 3 is due March 30
• Quiz 4 is April 2. Chapter 3 will be on it (see 3.1-3.5). Labs/Homework since the last quiz may be on it.
• Homework 4 is due April 27
• By popular demand, there will be a Quiz 5
• Quiz 5 is April 23. Chapter 4 will be on it. Labs/Homework since the last quiz may be on it.
• By popular demand, there will not be a Homework 5
• Some students requested an optional homework assignment to replace a previous homework score. This is it. Chapter 4 exercises (section 4.19, beginning on page 369): problems 4.11, 4.19, 4.22, 4.24, and 4.27. If you choose to do it, it is due April 27.
• See the Final exam schedule. Our Final Exam is Wednesday April 30th, 2025 13:30-16:00

Class Material

• two's complement, converting from binary to decimal, AND, OR, NOT from February 3
• Example with priority, binary addition, finding magnitude of a negative binary number, arithmetic shifts
• Hexadecimal to binary and back
• We will be using RARS and VSCode/Venus, and they have slightly different conventions when using ecalls. Make sure that the registers are loaded correctly before the ecall. See Table 2 of Robert Winkler's book for RARS, and the link for VSCode/Venus.
• example program that finds 37 + 24 - 17 in RISC-V assembly
• see RISC-V Reference Data from the book's publisher
• Examples of AND, OR, NOT, XOR on binary values
• variations on an example program that finds 37 + 24 - 17 in RISC-V assembly
• Examples using a branch command
• Example2 (from Feb 17) in VSCode and RARS
• Ecalls with RARS and VSCode
• Print int 24, char 10, string ABC, and exit in RARS
  Print int 24, char 10, string ABC, and exit in VSCode/Venus, output
• Division algorithm, Division example 1, Division example 2, Division example 2 (text version), and Division example 3
• Example of a floating point conversion (chapter 3)

General Information

• This is a link to the department's tutoring center. There is also the University's Tutoring Center
• Common Unix commands
• example ssh and sftp
• AI PCs
• Microsoft's new era of AI PCs will need a Copilot key, says Intel
• dual degree program info
• Here is a great article about software bloat that I think is well worth your time to read. And no, it is not required for this class.
• Intel's failed 64-bit Itanium CPUs die another death as Linux support ends
• Here's a page about the vi editor
• Here's a page about Unix commands