CSC103 2008

CSC 103: How Computers Work

Schedule

First half of Fall 2008: Sept 4th to Oct. 21st.

Textbook

The Most Complex Machine., by David Eck, A. K. Peters, Natick Ma [1]. This book should be available at the Greycourt bookstore. (CSC103_Book_Chapters)

Organization and Schedule

• Week 1:
  • Chapter 1, general introduction

• Week 2:
  • Chapter 2, binary system, arithmetic, logic gates
  • Chapter 2, logic gates, binary adder

• Week3:
  • Building a computer
    • von Neuman architecture
    • Von Neuman bottleneck
    • CPU, RAM, Secondary Memory
    • Case Study: the Suse EEE, and the switch from magnetic to semiconductor storage
  • History of computers
    • video "Machine that changed the world"
    • Loom, Craig.

• Week 4:
  • Client/Server architecture.
    • Trends.
    • Services.
    • Google vs. Microsoft
  • Programming: Javascript

• Week 5:
  • Programming: Javascript
  • Programming: Javascript

• Week 6:
  • Programming: other languages (Macros?)
  • Chapter 4, NP, solvability, towers of hanoi

• Week 7:
  • Parallel programming
    • SETI@home
    • Folding@home

• Week 8:
  • Singularity