Contents

Assignments

Lecture preparation is on the Topics page.

Lab preparation is on the Lab page.

Gates: Work with digital logic gates.
  • assign: Wednesday 8 September
  • due: Tuesday 14 September
  • Zero: Starting from scratch in CS 240.
  • assign: Wednesday 8 September
  • due: Wednesday 15 September
  • due: Thursday 16 September
  • Bits: Manipulate data with bit-level operations.
  • assign: Tuesday 14 September
  • checkpoint: Tuesday 21 September
  • due: Friday 24 September
  • Circuits: Grow logic circuits and processor components.
  • assign: Friday 24 September
  • due: Friday 1 October
  • Arch: Inspect and manipulate memories and a processor architecture.
  • assign: Friday 1 October
  • due: Friday 8 October
  • Pointers: Build a command parser with C pointers and arrays.
  • assign: Tuesday 19 October
  • due: Friday 29 October
  • x86: Reverse engineer x86 code to navigate an adventure.
  • assign: Friday 29 October
  • due: Tuesday 9 November
  • Buffer: Smash the stack to understand calling conventions and security concerns.
  • assign: Tuesday 9 November
  • due: Tuesday 16 November
  • Profile: Profile a person who change{d,s} computer systems.
  • assign: Tuesday 14 September
  • checkpoint: Friday 22 October
  • due: Tuesday 14 December
  • Malloc: Build a memory allocator.
  • assign: Tuesday 30 November
  • checkpoint: Tuesday 7 December
  • due: Tuesday 14 December
  • A note on assignments as of Fall 2020:

    Assignments in versions of this course from Spring 2015 through Spring 2020 integrated the theme of different courses at a school of magic from a popular book series, as we gradually showed that there is no magic inside a computer. The instructors decided it was time to remove this theme in Fall 2020. If you encounter any lingering traces that we missed, please let us know.

    Exams

    HW Exam: Computational Building Blocks
    ISA Exam: Hardware-Software Interface

    Extra Fun

    Parts of these assignments will be used in lab activities, but completing them in full is not required this semester. They are linked here if you are curious to explore further.

    • Cache: Use performance impact to reveal cache dimensions.
    • Shell: Build a shell to explore the process model.