CIT-595: Syllabus
Course Description
Textbooks
Grading
Academic Integrity
Homework turn-in procedure
Tentative Weekly Schedule
Course Description
Prerequisite: CIT 593 or equivalent.
CIT595 explores various topics in organization of the digital computer. Introduces to fundamental building blocks of digital computer hardware such as transistors, and logic gates to built components such as memory, ALU etc. and serve as a basis for understanding how a computer operates at the hardware level. We also look at techniques that are used to speedup processor performance such pipelining, micro-architecture ideologies and advanced architectures. The building blocks also will help understand memory organization such as SRAM vs. DRAM and how they are used in the modern computer systems. On the non-hardware level, we look at the role of operating system and the other system software that help run application software on the hardware. Briefly discuss miscealleous topics on I/O systems, and data error dectection and correction and networking.
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Textbooks
Primary Reference text:
The Essentials of Computer Organization and Architecture 2nd Edition
Author: Linda Null and Julia Lobur
ISBN: 0763737690
Note: This book covers large variety of topics in Computer Organization and Architecture (breath but not depth in the content). I will cover certain topics in detail than described in this textbook. Material will be from additional references from books mentioned below or handouts might be provided.Other references for similar material(On Reserve in Engineering Library):
- Structured Computer Organization – 5th Edition by Andrew S. Tanenbaum
- Computer Organization - 5th Edition by Carl Hamacher, Zvonko Vranesic & Safawat Zaky
- Modern Operating Systems - 3rd Edition by Andrew Tanenbaum
Online Resources: A lot of online material throughout the course can be found under the Technical FAQ section.
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Grading
- Overall grade of 90% or above is not necessarily an A. Letter grade assignment is based on class performance.
- Two exams - 45% of grade
- Midterm (20%) & Final (25%)
- Exams are closed book and notes
- Assignments - 35% of grade
- Practice problems and theory questions
- Programming in C
- Project - 20 % of grade
- Invloves in-depth reading on a topic related computer architecture & organization
- There will be a project proposal, in class presentation and final report on the chosen topic
Important:
Credit for work will be recorded only as reported by the TA in the Gradebook on Blackboard. It is your responsibility to make sure that your work has been properly recorded in the Gradebook. Make sure you call any problems with missing records to your TA's attention immediately; the grade entries on the Blackbaord will be considered permanent after one week subsequent to their posting. Similarly, make sure you address problems with grading – either on your homework or on an exam – immediately following the return of your work.
Our TA will be responsible for adjudicating these problems – the instructor will only be involved as a possible court of last appeal in case there is some truly difficult decision to make (i.e., in most cases, I will not be willing to second guess the TA ’s decisions). To submit a request to the TA for a review of a credit assignment on an exam or problem set you must submit an email to faa@seas.upenn.edu, stating the nature of the problem and the remedy you desire. You must submit this adjustment request within one week of the return of the material in question. I have instructed the TA not to consider any requests for grade adjustments that are submitted later than this one week grace period.
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Academic Integrity
You are expected to submit your own for homework assignment. If you are caught with work submitted that is completely copied from some other source (including current or former CIT 595 students), or that has been prepared by somebody other than you, you will face severe discipline by the university. Assignments are to be completed individually unless stated on the homework. You may talk to fellow classmate regarding the assignment but keep in mind what is appropriate and inappropriate about your collaboration: Appropriate:
- Person A doesn't understand what exactly the problem is asking. E.g. writing actual C code vs. psuedocode. He/She discusses this with Person B to arrive at one or the other.
- Person A does not understand a particular concept. Person B explains the concept using an example, other than one asked on the homework.
Inappropriate:
- A attempts half the problem, and B attempts the other half. A and B copy the solutions to half the assignment that the other person wrote. Together, A and B work out each homework problem on chalk/white board; then they separately copy down their work and turn it in.
- Person A completed a programming assignment and just before turning it in, he deleted his program - oh no!!!. In desperation, he/she asks Person B if he can turn in a copy of his/her program.
Note: When in doubt always ask Instructor or TA first, to avoid any potential collabration that can lead to academic dishonesty.
You can further read Penn's Code of Academic Integrity page on this subject matter.
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Homework turn-in procedure
You will turn-in all programming assignments using Digital Dropbox on Blackboard. Follow the steps below to open the Digital Drop Box page.
- Log into Blackboard Open your Course.Click Course Tools under the Tools Menu
- Select Digital Drop Box.
Function Description Add File Upload files to the Drop Box
Send File Send a file to the Instructor
Remove Remove a file from the Drop Box
Important:
- When you submit your homework assignment, if there is more than one file, zip up your files using WinZip or StuffIt program and give the zip file name the same as your penn username and homework/lab number. E.g. My username at penn is palsetia, hence I will submit file called palsetia_hwxx.zip, where xx is homework number.Give an approriate title in the Name field and put down any comments you have in Comments field. You can submit your work more than once, but make sure you mention that in comments section when you resubmit your work.
- When you submit the file, BlackBoard will show the date and time file received. Note: The date and time displayed in each instance is not the date and time on the user’s machine, rather, it is the date and time on the Blackboard Academic Suite server.
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Tentative Weekly Schedule
Week
Date
Lectures
1
1/16
Course Overview & Introduction
2
1/21
Martin Luther Day (most likely makeup lec on Fri recitation)
1/23
Historical Development
3
1/28
Boolean Alegbra
1/30
Combinational Logic
4
2/4
Sequential Logic
2/6
Sequential Logic
5
2/11
Datapath & Control 2/13
Computer Performance
6
2/18
Computer Performnace
2/20
Computer Performace 7
2/25
Memory
2/27
Memory
8
3/3
Review
3/5
Midterm Exam
9
3/10
Spring Break
Spring Break
10
3/17
Memory
3/19
System Software
11
3/24
System Software
3/26
Disk Structure , Disk Management, File Storage
12
3/21
Parity, Error Correction & Detection
4/2
Error Correction & Detection
13
4/7
Guest Lecture 4/9
I/O
14
4/14
I/O
4/16
Presentation 15
4/21
Presentation
4/23
Presentation 16
4/28
REVIEW
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