COMSC142: Computer Architecture and Organization

Spring 2025 Sam Bowne

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To attend class online:
https://twitch.tv/sambowne

For interactive help, connect to:
https://zoom.us/j/4108472927
Password: student1

Schedule · Lecture Slides · Projects · Syllabus

Class Description

ADVISORY: Eligibility for ENGL-090

The organization and behavior of real computer systems at the assembly-language level. The mapping of statements and constructs in a high-level language into sequences of machine instructions is studied, as well as the internal representation of simple data types and structures. Numerical computation is examined, noting the various data representation errors and potential procedural errors. May not be repeated. SC

LMC: DA
TRANSFER: CSU

Textbook

Dive into Systems (free, online)

Quizzes

The quizzes are multiple-choice, online, and open-book. However, you may not ask other people to help you during the quizzes. You will need to study the textbook chapter before the lecture covering it, and take the quiz before that class. Each quiz is due 30 min. before class. Each quiz has 5 questions, you have ten minutes to take it, and you can make two attempts. If you take the quiz twice, the higher score counts.

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Lecture Slides

1. By the C, by the C, by the Beautiful C · PDF · Keynote
2. A Deeper Dive into C Programming
3. C Debugging Tools
4. Binary and Data Representation
5. What von Neumann Knew: Computer Architecture
6. Under the C: Diving into Assembly
7. 64-bit x86 Assembly (x86-64)
8. 32-bit x86 Assembly (IA32)
9. ARM Assembly
10. Key Assembly Takeaways
11. Storage and the Memory Hierarchy
12. Code Optimization
13. The Operating System
14. Leveraging Shared Memory in the Multicore Era
15. Looking Ahead: Other Parallel Systems and Parallel Programming Models

Projects not ready yet

Last Updated: 11-30-25 11:21 am