UCR CS 61: Computer Organization & Assembly Language

Spring, 2005

Overview

In this course we start with transistors, logic gates, latches, logic structures, and memory circuits. We cover the von Neumann model of computing, and then use all these tools to understand thoroughly the Instruction Set Architecture of a simple computer, the LC-3. This leads on to assembly language programming of the LC-3.

Catalog description :
Lecture, 3 hours; laboratory, 3 hours. An introduction to computer organization. Topics include number representation, combinational and sequential logic, computer instructions, memory organization, addressing modes, interrupt, input/output (I/O), assembly language programming, assemblers, and linkers.
Prerequisite: CS 010 with a grade of "C-" or better


IMPORTANT NOTICE:
If for any reason your official enrollment in this course is delayed, you are still expected to attend all lectures and labs, and submit all assignments, from the beginning of class. Make-ups for missed labs, tests, assignments etc. are generally not granted.

Basic information

Class communications
ALL communication with the class will be via the CS61 mailing list - so be sure to read your mail regularly
All course assignments and other material will be posted to this site.


Instructor :
Dr. Brian Linard (blinard@cs.ucr.edu)
Office hours: Thursday 10:00 am to 6:00 pm (by appointment)
Office: Surge Bldg. 340.


Teaching Assistants and office hours:
Shalendra Chhabra schhabra@cs.ucr.edu
Ron Feliciano rfelicia@cs.ucr.edu
John Cortes jcortes@cs.ucr.edu

Office hours held in Surge Bldg. 282.


Mailing List:
CS061 Mailing List

Lectures:
MWF 2:10 to 3 pm SPROULL 1340


Labs:
Lab attendance is mandatory. Plan to stay in the lab for the entire lab session, working on material related to this course.

Section 021: M 8 - 11 am, Surge 171
Section 022: T 8 - 11 am, Surge 171
Section 023: W 11 am - 2 pm, Surge 170


Text Book:
Introduction to Computing Systems, 2nd edition, by Patt & Patel (McGraw-Hill) ISBN 0-07-246750-9


Course grading:
Letter grades are assigned (approximately) according to the usual 90/80/70/60 scale out of 100 total course points, with 90 and above corresponding to an A, 80 and above to a B, 70 and above to a C, 60 and above to a D, and less than 60 to an F. +/- grades will likely be given. A+'s will be given to students in the high 90's who also have turned in all required material and many of the challenge Lab excercises.

There are two types of coursework: one designed to help you develop your skills and understanding (DRILL), and the other designed to measure, as objectively as possible, your mastery of those skills (ASSESSMENT). You will receive recognition for your efforts in both components, but obviously ASSESSMENT items carry most of the weight:

DRILL (30%)

• 10%:  Homework (8 or 9: will count best 7)
• 10%:  Programming assignments (8 or 9: will count best 7)
• 10%:  Labs (10: will count all 10)

ASSESSMENT (70%)

• 15%:  Quizzes (8 or 9: will count best 7)
• 15%:  Lab Practicals (5: will count best 4)
• 20%:  Mid-Term exam
• 20%:  Final exam

Approximate Time Requirements:
This is a four-unit CS course. As such, you should expect to spend the following approximate amount of time:
3 hours/week in lecture
3 hours/week in lab
8 to 10 hours/week doing individual study (readings, homework, programming, lab preparation, etc).

Don't underestimate the time you will need to spend on this course!!! These are real time amounts spent by average successful past students. Computer Science and Engineering are challenging disciplines requiring extensive time to master.

Lecture schedule

Subject to change as the quarter progresses.

Submission due times

• Homework problem sets: normally set on Tuesdays, due via e-turnin by the following Sunday, at 11 pm
  
• Home programming assignments: normally set on Tuesdays, due via e-turnin by the following Sunday, 11 pm
  
• Quizzes: Generally on Fridays (but pop-quizzes can be sprung at any time of day or night <g>).
  Make sure you have a few copies of your personalized answer sheet with you in every class (only the first page is needed).


• Week 1 (3/28 - 4/3): Introduction to concepts of Computer Organization and LC-3 Assembly language (Chap 1) slides
                Homework 1 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/3
                Homework 1 solution
                Programming assignment 1 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/3
                Quiz 1 solution
  
  
• Week 2 (4/4 - 4/10): Binary arithmetic & data types (Chap 2) slides
                Homework 2 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/10
                Homework 2 solution
                Programming assignment 2 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/10
                Quiz 2 solution
  
  
• Week 3 (4/11 - 4/17): Logic operations, Boolean algebra (Chap 2) slides
                Hardware basics: transistors, logic gates (Chap 3) slides
                Homework 3 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/17
                Homework 3 solution
                Programming assignment 3 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/17
                Quiz 3 solution
  
  
• Week 4 (4/18 - 4/24): Logic circuits & Memory (Chap 3) slides
                Homework 4 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/24
                Homework 4 solution
                Programming assignment 4 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 4/24
                Quiz 4 solution
  
  
• Week 5 (4/25 - 5/1): von Neumann model & the Instruction cycle (Chap 4) slides
                Homework 5 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/1
                Homework 5 solution
                Programming assignment 5 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/1
  
  Midterm - in class Friday 4/29
  SAMPLE MIDTERM EXAM      SAMPLE EXAM SOLUTION
  
             MIDTERM EXAM SOLUTION
  
  
• Week 6 (5/2 - 5/8): LC-3 Instruction Set in detail; LC-3 data path (Chap 5) slides
                Homework 6 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/8
                Homework 6 solution
                Programming assignment 6 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/8
                Quiz 6 solution
  
  
• Week 7 (5/9 - 5/15): LC-3 data path (cont.)(Chap 5) slides
                Homework 7 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/15
                Homework 7 solution
                Programming assignment 7 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/15
                Quiz 7 solution
  
  
• Week 8 (5/16 - 5/22): Assembly Language programming: the process; intro to I/O (Chaps 7 & 8) Ch7 slides Ch8 slides
                Homework 8 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/22
                Homework 8 solution
                Programming assignment 8 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Sunday 5/22
                Quiz 8 solution
  
  
• Week 9 (5/23 - 5/29): i/o, traps to os, subroutines (Chaps 8 & 9) Ch8 slides Ch9 slides
                Homework 9 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Monday 5/30
                Homework 9 solution
                Programming assignment 9 Due via e-turnin by 11 pm, Monday 5/30
                Quiz 9 solution
  
  
• Week 10 (5/30 - 6/5): Stacks (Chap 10); Using Assembly language to inplement some HLL functionality (Chap 14)
                NOTE: 5/30 is an academic holiday
                Ch10 slides Intro to Part II slides
                Quiz 10 solution
  
  SAMPLE FINAL EXAM    solution
  
  

Final Exam

             Thursday 6/9, 11:30 am to 2:30 pm, SPRL 1340

Lab schedule

Subject to change as the quarter progresses.

• Week 1: Lab 1: Basic systems intro; Assembly language tools; Turnin
  
• Week 2: Lab 2: Lab Practical Exam 1 & Using LC-3 registers; adding integers
  
• Week 3: Lab 3: Memory addressing modes; loops
  
• Week 4: Lab 4: Lab Practical Exam 2 & Storing and retrieving data
  
• Week 5: Lab 5: Subroutines
  
• Week 6: Lab 6: Lab Practical Exam 3 & Bit manipulation
  
• Week 7: Lab 7: Character arrays
  
• Week 8: Lab 8: Lab Practical Exam 4 & Tables
  
• Week 9: Lab 9: Stacks
• Week 10: Lab Practical Exam 5 & Review

General Course Policies

• Material covered: As mentioned above, the course consists of all material covered in lectures, labs, assigned reading, programming assignments, etc. While there is considerable overlap among these elements, they are to be considered separate and individually essential building blocks of your introduction to Machine Organization and Assembly Language Programming.
  To put it very bluntly: I will examine you on any material covered in assigned reading, in homework problem sets, or in labs, whether or not I have mentioned it in lecture, and vice-versa!


• Collaboration policy
  In general, we have found that one of the best predictors of success in these courses is participation in a study group of some kind. We encourage you to work together and learn from each other in as many ways as possible, and we will provide any assistance we can to make this happen.
  However, we also have to assess each student individually, so there are very explicit boundaries to collaboration:
  • Midterm, final, quizzes, lab practicals -- Obviously no collaboration
  • In-lecture exercises -- mostly done as teams requiring active participation.
  • Homeworks -- Collaboration is strongly ENCOURAGED, although of course, you should still submit your own solutions (cut & paste submissions will be treated as academic dishonesty - see below).
    In the past, many questions on the midterm and final exams have been taken directly from homeworks.
  • In-lab exercises -- Collaboration is strongly ENCOURAGED. If you complete an exercise, feel free to help others -- teaching enhances your own learning.
  • Home programming assignments -- Collaboration is strongly ENCOURAGED, within a programming team: again, you will be working in teams, but the programs you submit must still represent YOUR OWN original work. Teams should work on the algorithm together, and help debug/test each others code.
    However, copying code from ANY outside source (any book, current or past students, past solutions, web sites, etc.) is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN: we test every submission for copying, and when we find it we treat it as flagrant academic dishonesty (see below).
    Team-mates' code is expected to be similar, but you may not just copy a team-mate's solution.
  
  
• Academic dishonesty: cheating of any sort is severely punished.
  Report cheating (anonymously if you wish) at: https://www.cs.ucr.edu/cheating/.
  We regularly catch several cases of copying in the course EVERY QUARTER, with severe penalties given.
  Other forms of cheating, such as lying to an instructor in order to be allowed to make up a test, or copying on a quiz, etc., are all treated with the same severity.
  PLEASE, don't risk it!! We hate failing students!!


• Regrade policy: regrade requests must be submitted in writing and within one week of the posting of the relevant grades. Likewise, grade-database errors should be pointed out within one week of posting.


• Communicating with the instructors and TAs: when emailing your instructors or TAs, please remember that many students have the same name, and your instructor may be teaching other courses too. So please give your full name and list the course you are referring to, and preferably include your student ID number. You should use your UCR email account (remember that UCR sends many official notices now only by email). Please try to be polite and professional, and use reasonable grammar and formatting.


• Assignments and lab reports: All turned-in assignments will be turned in electronically. Each file should be headed with your name, student id, email, lab & lecture section numbers.
  REMEMBER: Debugging typically takes three times longer than figuring out how to write your program. So don't leave your programming assignments to the last minute!


• Reading: Read the current book sections before coming to lecture, and attend all lectures in their entirety. To encourage these important college study habits, we may give a few simple pop quizzes during the quarter, at any time during lecture.

Lab guidelines

• Students are required to stay the full three hours of lab session every week. You'll have Lab exercises, discussions, and possibly practical exams. Work ahead or on extra course-related material if you finish early.
• During lab discussion time, students should not use the computers. Ideally, students would move their chairs to the whiteboard area.
• Prepare for lab before arriving.
• To reduce disruptions and provide for the best educational environment, all persons in lab during scheduled lab time should be formally registered in that section. In general, no swapping sections and no unregistered people in the lab are allowed, even if there are extra computers.

Electronic assignment turn-in

• Instructions
• Turn-In Page

Anonymously report suspected cheating

• here

Anonymously Provide Comments/Suggestions

• here

Grades

• Grades will be mailed to you on a regular basis thriughout the quarter.

Additional Resources

• LC-3 manual (pdf)
• Summary of LC-3 instruction set
• LC-3 subroutines and linking
• LC-3 Pseudo-ops
• Boolean algebra
• UCR CS department's FAQ Page.
• Password Lookup
• Quiz Forms