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Course Info

Syllabus

Lectures

• (Section I) Wednesday and Friday, 9:40-11:00 in SIR 3110
• (Section II) Mondays and Thursday, 11:10-12:30 in UP 1501

Office hours

• (Section I) Friday, 2 pm - 3 pm
• in-person in SCI 4032
• (Section II) Thursday, 1 pm - 2 pm
• online
• https://meet.google.com/epm-deou-aco

Lab times and locations are available here.

TAs

• David Houle-Tymeczko
  Email: david.houletymeczko@ontariotechu.net
• Labib Rahman
  Email: labib.rahman@ontariotechu.net
• Gorkem Vardar
  Email: gorkem.vardar@ontariotechu.net
• Heisn Nithysingha
  Email: Heisn.nithysingha@ontariotechu.net
• Mosarrat Rumman
  Email: mosarrat.rumman@ontariotechu.net

Canvas (requires login)

Labs and inclass exercises will be submitted through course canvas site.

Description

This course introduces the basic ideas of computer organization and underlying digital logic that implements a computer system. Starting from representation of information, the course looks at logic elements used for storing and processing information. The course also discusses how the information storage and processing elements are linked together to function as a computer system. Students become familiar with the basic hardware components of a system and how they are connected, and see how secondary storage, registers and control units must co-ordinate to provide an effective environment for application programming. The components of a multi-level memory, and how it interfaces with the I/O and central processor, are examined.

Learning outcomes

1. Work with numbers and other values in various representations used by computers
2. Understand Boolean logic
3. Design and test digital logic circuits
4. Understand cache, main memory, registers, and other forms of memory
5. Understand how operating systems execute machine language programs
6. Write basic programs using assembly language for a popular platform, such as amd64
7. Understand non-linear computing, such as parallel and quantum computing

Attendance

Lectures in this course will include both presented material, and interactive elements. The classroom interaction will be designed to solidify programming concepts and techniques learned in the lectures. Examples for this course could be documents, diagrams, etc. In order to achieve success in this course, students must attend all lectures.

Grading

• Lab, 30%
• Midterm test, 30%
• Final exam, 40%

Important dates

• Lab
  • As specified on the course canvas
• Midterm
  • Saturday, March 7, note the unusual date
• Final exam,
  • During the final exam week

Ontario Tech University’s academic calendar that lists important dates (and deadlines) is available at here.

Course calendar

Week 1

• Numeric representations I
• Numeric representations II

Week 2

• Numeric representations III
• Basic electronics

Week 3

• Binary arithmetic I
• Binary arithmetic II

Week 4

• Binary arithmetic III
• Boolean algebra and circuit design

Week 5

• Digital logic optimization I
• Digital logic optimization II

Reading week break

Week 6

• Memory I
• Memory II

Week 7

• Memory III
• Control logic I

Week 8

Midterm

• Contorl logic II
• Assembly language programming I

Week 9

• Assembly language programming II
• Assembly language programming III

Week 10

• Assembly language programming IV
• Assembly language programming V

Week 11

• Optimizations
• Quantum computing I

Week 12

• Quantum computing II

Reading material

There is no required textbook in this course, but the following book is recommended for anyone wanting additional study materials:

• Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software,
  Charles Petzold
  978-0-73-561131-3