Revised October 17, 2011

CS 230: Introduction to Computers and Computer Systems

General Description

An introduction to hardware and software concepts used in computer systems. Specific topics include machine-level programming, memory organization, and basic I/O mechanisms.

Logistics

Intended for 2nd-year students with an interest in Computer Science. Not open to Computer Science students. Normally available Winter.

Related courses (see calendar for official details)

Predecessors: One of CS 116, 136, 138, 146; Not open to Computer Science students.

Successors: CS 338, CS 436.

Conflicts: CS 241, CS 251.

Hardware/Software used: UNIX, MIPS Simulator.

Typical Reference(s)

D. Patterson, J. Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design, 4th ed., Morgan Kaufmann.

Required preparation

At the start of the course, students should have the ability to

Follow programs written using imperative control flow.
Write simple imperative programs using lists, iteration, and array indexing for both read and write (mutable memory model).
Use basic algebra, calculus, and probability (for performance analysis).

Learning objectives

At the end of the course, students should have the ability to:

Write short machine- and assembly-language programs to perform simple data manipulation.
Describe data representations used by computer hardware at the bit level, operate on these representations, and compute their values.
Explain some simple processor implementation optimization techniques, in particular pipelining, and how differences in code ordering can impact performance for processors using these optimizations.
Compare basic memory and I/O architectures, and how they can impact performance.
Compare various forms of multiprocessing computing platforms.
Exemplify basic functionality and components of an operating system.