CSC103 Weekly Schedule 2013

--D. Thiebaut 10:23, 1 April 2013 (EDT)

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Syllabus | PIAZZA

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 1 9/3	Tuesday Syllabus Introduction to the class and the 1/2 semester schedule Organization of the class a short movie to get the discussion started... some examples of computers: Antikythera mechanism, oldest computer (start at 1min 47sec) Harvard research: 1.8 zettabytes in 4 grams of DNA Keywords: code: Translating from one system of values to another system. Electricity The Binary System: a system where the only two numbers available are 0 and 1. Every operation that we can do in decimal, with 10 digits, we can also do in binary. The Transistor: A switch controlled by electricity. Counting in binary Thursday Announcement: If you want to take CSC102 and haven't contacted Pippin Wolfe (apwolfe@smith.edu), please do so now! Quick recap of Tuesday's lecture. A movie on Babbage's Difference Engine We continue counting in binary, then move on to simple additions in binary, remembering first how we do additions by hand in decimal. Figuring out the value of a binary number: what is the value of 1110, for example? ==> Main message: everything we can do in decimal we can do in binary Recap: at some point in time, engineers had very fast electronic switches at their disposition in the form of transistors mathematicians had shown that a binary system allowed the same quality of arithmetic as the decimal system. Comes Boole (1815-1864), and the boolean algebra (very soon we'll talk about Shannon, who linked Boole's work with binary arithmetic. More on that later) Boolean assertions can be either True or False new boolean assertions can be combined with simple operators to form other assertions that are also boolean and can only be True or False The operators are AND, OR, and NOT. They are defined by truth tables. Several examples to discuss in class: Alarm system to go to CSC103 the right day at the right time Alarm system to allow one to stay in bed during the weekend True/False machine to pick ice cream	Reading Primary: Video (Part 2) on George Boole and Boolean Algebra. (5.18 min) Shannon's MIT Thesis, and boolean theory Counting in Binary Secondary: Instructor's Notes (read only the beginning part)
Week 2 9/10	Tuesday Review of where we are Binary system Boolean variables, boolean operators, and boolean functions The "ice cream machine" example From boolean function to truth table From truth table to boolean function Shannon's thesis (1948): we can do arithmetic with logic! Look at the binary addition as an operation in the world of logic Logic gates: the AND gate, the OR gate, and the NOT gate (also called inverter). building a 2-bit adder with logic gates. Electronic circuit: Logic Gates Data sheet for the AND gate. Data sheet for the NOT gate. Data sheet for the OR gate. Thursday Lab (you may want to bring your laptop if you prefer to work on your laptop rather than the iMacs) The lab is available here. Homework 1 due 9/17/13 at 9:00 a.m. and solution Lab 1 to be done in class on 9/12/13. lab solution.	Reading: Instructor's Notes Logic Gates on wikipedia: You can skip the Universal Logic Gate section, the De Morgan section, and the remaining sections until the end.
Week 3 9/17	Tuesday Schematics from NASA Exercises to do in class From logic gates to flip-flops: the magic Let's play a game! The xComputer Simulator Programming in Assembly Language Basic Instruction Set Thursday Assembly Language The Cookie Monster! the xComputer Simulator the Instruction Set for our computer A first program A second program Execution of selected instructions (pdf) Lab on Assembly Language Homework 2 and Solution Lab 2 on Assembly Language	Reading: von Neumann's bottleneck A good description of the Computer simulator You will find Wikipedia's description of the processor interesting. Concentrate mostly on the sections labeled Microprocessor, Operation, and Clock Rate.
Week 4 9/24	Tuesday Exercises Solution to first problems from Lab 2 Thursday MOUNTAIN DAY! Homework 3 is available. Due 10/3/13 10/8/13 @ 9:00 a.m.
Week 5 10/1	Tuesday Going over the last problem of Lab 2 The Von Neumann bottleneck. Moore's Law, first introduced in 1965. The number of transistors in circuits doubles every 18 months. What it is, what it means, how it has been extended. Understanding Exponential Growth We need a Moore's Law in medicine... The end of Moore's Law New processor made of Nanotubes, published 26 Sept. 2013 Thursday What is Processing? Ben Fry, one of the co-inventors of the language, explains. This is less about Processing than about data visualization, and how Ben Fry, one of the co-authors of Processing uses the language to represent data. Several of his projects are presented. Ben Fry generated the computer graphics for Minority Report (start watching around Time Stamp 7 minutes 25 seconds). Introduction to the language "Processing": Web Page, Keynote, Quicktime To download and install Processing, go to Processing.org	Reading: Instructor's Notes On Von Neumann's Bottleneck and on Moore's Law.
Week 6 10/8	Tuesday Programming in Processing: Processing Lab Processing Lab (Please install Processing on your computer before the lab, if you are going to use your own laptop. The directions can be found here). Thursday PC Demolition Lab (see the pictures on the department Facebook page!) Take-Home Exam Processing Lab Take-Home Exam
Week 7 10/15	Tuesday: Fall Break Thursday Quiz Discussion Signs of the Singularity by Vernor Vinge. Can Machines Be Conscious?, Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi. Ray Kurzweil on the Singularity. Bio taken from Wikipedia: Raymond "Ray" Kurzweil (/ˈkɜrzwaɪl/ kurz-wyl; born February 12, 1948) is an American author, inventor, futurist, and a director of engineering at Google. Aside from futurology, he is involved in fields such as optical character recognition (OCR), text-to-speech synthesis, speech recognition technology, and electronic keyboard instruments. He has written books on health, artificial intelligence (AI), transhumanism, the technological singularity, and futurism. Kurzweil is a public advocate for the futurist and transhumanist movements, as has been displayed in his vast collection of public talks, wherein he has shared his primarily optimistic outlooks on life extension technologies and the future of nanotechnology, robotics, and biotechnology. Food for thought... Additional articles on the issue of the Singularity (including IEEE Spectrum issue on the subject). Susan Blackmore's TED talk on Memes and Temes.

• Optional Homework