OSU-CS271

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CS 271 – Computer Architecture and Assembly Language

Catalog Description: Introduction to functional organization and operation of digital computers. Coverage of assembly language; addressing, stacks, argument passing, arithmetic operations, decisions, macros, modularization, linkers and debuggers.

Credits: 4 Terms Offered: Winter

Structure: Two 80-minute lectures per week.

Enforced Prerequisites: CS 161 Other Prerequisites: MTH 231

Courses that require this as a prerequisite: CS 311

Course Content:
• Hardware, architectures
• Internal representation of data, instructions, and addresses
• Boolean Algebra
• Elementary circuits
• Instruction set architecture, micro-programs
• Assembly language
• Debuggers

Measurable Student Learning Outcomes:
At the completion of the course, students will be able to…
1. Identify the major components of CISC and RISC architectures, and explain their purposes and interactions. (Level 1; ABET Outcome i)
2. Simulate the internal representation of data, and show how data is stored and accessed in memory (Level 3; ABET Outcome A).
3. Explain the relationships between a hardware architecture and its instruction set, and simulate micro-programs (Level 1; ABET Outcomes a, i).
4. Explain the Instruction Execution Cycle (Level 1; ABET Outcomes a, i).
5. Explain the differences among high-level, assembly, and machine languages (Level 1; ABET Outcomes a, i).
6. Write well-modularized computer programs in an assembly language, implementing decision, repetition, and procedures (Level 3; ABET Outcomes A, I).
7. Use a debugger, and explain register contents (Level 3; ABET Outcomes i, l).
8. Explain how the system stack is used for procedure calls and parameter passing (Level 1; ABET Outcomes a, i).
9. Explain how editors, assemblers, linkers, and operating systems enable computer programming. (Level 1; ABET Outcome i).
10. Explain various mechanisms for implementing parallelism in hardware/software (Level 1; ABET Outcome i).