General Description:
The objective of CS160 is for you to become familiar with the hardware components of a computer system, their design and interaction. The lectures deal with the principles and underlying concepts of Boolean algebra, logic gates, registers, data path and control, pipelining, cache and virtual memory, instruction set architecture, assembly language, instruction formats and addressing modes, and parallel computing. The labs more or less support the lectures.
The four credit hours for this course comprise two 75-minute lectures and one 3-hour lab per week. Lab attendance is mandatory (see lab web site for detailed lab policies). Lecture attendance is not mandatory, but likely necessary to obtain a good grade. Homework will be assigned and graded, with students potentially presenting their solutions in class. Three major tests, a report detailing the basic architectural components (and their integration) of a current computer, and possibly an unannounced quiz or two will complete the required work.
Course Prerequisites:
CS102 (Introduction to Computer Science).
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