CSCI 226 - Computer Systems and Organization

CSCI 226 / Spring 2024

Computer Systems and Organization

Projects & Assignments

Final Exam will be held during exam week on Monday May 13 at 3:00 - 5:30pm, in Swords 321. Unless you have made other arrangements with me and confirmed by email, you are expected to take the exam during the officially scheduled time. There is a hard time limit of 2.5 hours to complete the exam (except by prior confirmed arrangement with the instructor). Aside from basic concepts (e.g. what is a "byte"), the exam will mostly cover material from the last few weeks of the course, from mips coding and functions to the end of the semester. See the details in the review sheet for a list of topics.

Notes Sheet: You may bring one page of handwritten notes (double sided) to the final exam. You will be given the usual one-page mips reference sheet as well.

Extra office hours leading up to the exam will be held during study period and exam week:

Monday 5/6 - Monday 5/13, various times, put your name down anywhere that my calendar says I'm available.
Monday 5/6, at 2-4pm, or by request at other times
Tuesday 5/7, at 10:30-11:45am, or by request at other times
Wednesday 5/8, at 1:30-3pm, or by request at other times
Thursday 5/9, at 2-4pm, or by request at other times

Some review materials (also look at the quiz review sheets).

Some review materials from around the web (only partially relevant, but some of the questions are quite good):

Online MIPS compiler/assembler/explorer (select "MIPS gcc 5.4 (el)" on the right side)
Study guide from St. Lawrence, with solutions
Cornell CSCI 3410 Prelim 2, with solutions
An exam from Victoria, NZ, with solutions

The following assignments are to be completed individually, not in groups.

Background material - Symbols, Powers, Arithmetic, make sure you are comfortable with this early in the semester
Project 0 - Logisim Circuits, due Friday 2/2 at 9PM
Project 1 - Breadboards!, due Monday 2/12 at 6PM (submit in class or in Swords 335)
Project 2 - Numbers, due Friday 2/16 at 9PM (submit in class or in Swords 335)
Project 3 - Bitwise-Games, due Monday 2/26 at 9PM
Project 4 - Sequential Circuits, due Friday 3/15 at 9PM
Project 5 - MIPS assembly, due Monday 3/25 at 9PM
Project 6 - MIPS input/output, due Monday 4/8 at 9PM
Project 7 - MIPS calling conventions, due Friday 4/19 at 9PM
Project 8 - Caches, due Monday 5/6 at 9PM (No exceptions. Late work not accepted after classes end.)

Quizzes

Quiz 0 - Wednesday, 2/7 9am-5pm (pick any 45-60 min block, your choice).
Topics: combinational logic, truth tables, Boolean notation.
A few review questions.
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 1 - Wednesday, 2/21, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice).
Topics: number representations, arithmetic, some bitwise operations (but not IEEE 754 floating point99).
A few review questions.
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 2 - Wednesday 2/28, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice).
Topics: clocks, flip-flops/registers, 1-bit sequential circuits, multi-bit sequential circuits.
A few hints and review questions.
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 3 - Friday 3/15, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice).
Topics: multi-bit sequential circuits and datapaths.
A few review questions.
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 4 - ~~Monday 3/25~~ Tuesday 3/26, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice).
Topics: MIPS assembly programming.
A few review questions
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 5 - Wednesday 4/17, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice). Topics: MIPS loops, conditionals, arrays, strings, and calling functions (but not stack frames, and no prologues or epilogues). Given a snippet of C/C++ code, including code that calls functions, write the equivalent MIPS code. Given a small snippet of MIPS code, including code that calls functions, decipher what it is doing. Use temporary and saved registers as appropriate.
MIPS reference sheet (same as usual)
A few review questions
Partial solutions to review questions.
Quiz 6 - Friday 4/26, 9am-5pm (pick 45-60 min block, your choice). Topics: MIPS functions and program layout, including register usage, stacks and stack frames, calling conventions, and global variables. Call a function in MIPS. Given a small C/C++ function, write the equivalent MIPS code. Given a small snippet of MIPS code, decipher what it is doing. Understand the difference between caller-save and callee-save conventions. Understand how to use the stack, allocate or deallocate a stack frame. Know how to use $sp, $fp, $a0, $v0, $s0, $t0, $gp, and other registers.
MIPS reference sheet (same as usual)
A few review questions
Partial solutions to review questions.