Announcements

• 11/1:CSF Programming Assignment #2 has been postponed to 11/12/2010.

• 10/30:CSF Lab first project has been posted.

• 10/25:Comparison chart between programming work in the CSF course and the CSF lab

• 10/8:Programming Structures Guide uploaded

• 10/4: MIPS chart uploaded.
• 10/1: Programming assignment #1 due October 8, 2010, by midnight.
  SPIM's main sit here

• 9/29: Midterm exam on Friday October 22, 2010.

• 9/29: Programming assignment #1 is due on Friday October 8, 2010, by midnight (electronic submission).
  Get PCspim v.6 here. (Easier to install!!)
• 9/29: Website up and running!

Course Description

CSF addresses the design and performance of the principal operational components of a reduced-instruction-set computing system (RISC) which supports the efficient execution of widely used instruction sets. Arithmetic and logic units, memory hierarchy designs, state-machine controllers, and other related hardware and firmware components are studied, and the qualities of their combined processing capabilities are assessed by means of execution times associated with a range of benchmark programs. Assembly language programming projects, homework problems, and exams are employed to assess a student's fundamental understanding of the tradeoffs resulting from an assortment of variations in digital system design decisions that ultimately characterize the performance of the computing system architecture that is developed.

Course:	600.333/433 Computer Systems Fundamentals
Meetings:	M W F, 10:00 - 10:50, CSEB room B17
Instructor:	Dr. Gerald G. Masson (masson@cs.jhu.edu)
Assistant Instructor:	Jorge Vasconcelos (jorgev@cs.jhu.edu)
Teaching Assistant:	Hari Menon (hmenon@cs.jhu.edu)
Office hours:	M W 2:30-3:30, Th 12-1, NEB 219

Texts

• Hennessy and Patterson, Computer Organization and Design,4th ed. (Required).
• Robert L. Britton. MIPS Assembly Language Programming. (Reference)
• Harris and Harris, Digital Design and Computer Architecture. (Reference)

  Notes:

• Regular exercises will be assigned from the required textbook.
• Supplemental handouts and weblinks will be distributed, or recommended in class.
• Further books and webpages will be also suggested upon request.

Online Resources

• Brief guide to start working with SPIM (http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jorgev/cs333/spim_man.html.)
• MIPS reference with examples (http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~jorgev/cs333/reference.html.)

• MIPS reference chart (http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cs333/MIPSchart.pdf)

• Online course on MIPS assembly programming (http://chortle.ccsu.edu/AssemblyTutorial/TutorialContents.html.)
• MIPS key features (character strings included!) ( http://cims.clayton.edu/itsk2314/Lectures/Assembly.ppt)

• Programming (Control) Structures Guide (http://www.cs.jhu.edu/~cs333/ProgrammingStructures.pdf)

CSF Integrity and Ethics

Academic honesty is required in all work you submit to be graded. You must solve all homework and programming assignments entirely on your own, unless group work is specified in writing. This means you must not show your program code, problem solutions, or work to other students. However, you may discuss assignment specifications with others in the class to be sure you understand what is required by the assignment.

If you use fragments of source code from sources other than your text (such as on-line resources), you must put a reference to that effect in your homework submission. Falsifying program output or results is prohibited.

Please see your professor if there are any questions about what is permissible. More information.

Review material for programming assignment #2

• MIPS key features (including strings)
• Generic steps for calling a procedure

• Recursive factorial example
• Recursive factorial pseudocode Translating, tracking and debugging

• Recursive factorial slide show

Programming Assignments

Objectives

1. Practice the MIPS instruction set to gain a better understanding on the rationale behind this particular RISC architecture.
2. Gain experience of real interaction with an actual micro computer system (embedded computing based on a RISC microcontroller.)

Programming assignments and topics covered