CSC103 Syllabus 2013

--D. Thiebaut 10:21, 1 April 2013 (EDT)

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Wikis | Weekly Schedule | PIAZZA

Prof. Dominique Thiébaut
Ford Hall 356, 208.
Smith College
Telephone: 3854
Office hours: Wed 1-4 p.m, and by appointments

CSC 103: How Computers Work, Fall 13

Overview

This course has no prerequisites. It is intended to introduce students to the history, theory and use of digital computers. Students from all majors are welcome - though there is some math and computer programming during the semester, the course is designed assuming students have no previous computer experience. Through the material presented in this course, students will be introduced to:

1. A brief history of computers
2. Binary numbers, and understanding how and why computers use them
3. Logic gates - the basic building blocks of computers
4. programming with Processing - which you may find you'll like to use beyond this course!
5. A better understanding of how the computer does everything you direct it to do.
6. Some important issues about computers in our future

A great number of topics are discussed in this seven week period, with the purpose not to explore any one topic fully or in depth. Rather the purpose is to provide a high level view of how a computer works - from the most fundamental hardware component (the logic gate) through the sophisticated programs we all use every day (such as word processors). Hopefully this first look at all these topics will encourage students to take additional courses in areas that are of most interest.

Instructor

Dominique Thiebaut
Office: Ford Hall 356, Clark Science Center
Email: thiebaut@cs.smith.edu
Office Hours: Office Hours: TBA

Schedule

First half of Fall 2013. Sept 3rd to Oct. 17th, 9:00 - 10:20 a.m.

Textbook

No textbook for the class. There is plenty of good reading on the Web and you will be directed to good sources of information to read for the class as we progress.

Tentative list of topics covered

• Binary system, arithmetic, logic gates
• Logic gates, binary adder
• Logic design: building a simple circuit typically found inside microprocessors.
• What's inside a computer?
  • Computer architecture: the methodology used to design computers: the von Neumann architecture
  • Von Neuman bottleneck
  • CPU, RAM, Secondary Memory
• Assembly Language: how a microprocessor operates: what does it do? How fast?
• History of computers
  • Babbage
• Programming: the Processing language
  • Programming Environment
  • Program development
  • Other programming languages
• Important Concepts:
  • Moore's Law
  • Von Neumann's bottleneck
  • The Singularity:
    • Signs of the Singularity by Vernor Vinge.
    • Can Machine Be Conscious?, Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi.

Piazza

This term we will be using Piazza for class discussion. The system is catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, and your instructor. When you have a question regarding reading assignment, or the class material, and you think others in the class may have similar problems or questions, you are encouraged to post your questions on Piazza at: https://piazza.com/smith/fall2013/csc103/home.

Grading

• Attendance and participation: 10%
• Homework assignments (roughly one weekly assignmnent): 50%. Homework assignments will be typically due on Wednesdays.
• Quiz: 10%
• Final take-home exam: 30%

No late assigments will be accepted.

Teaching Assistants

There are two TAs assigned to all the Computer Science courses this semester (roving TAs) and they can help you work out some of the bugs you may have in your programs.

• Julia Edwards
• Gavi Haskel

The TAs hold help hours in Ford Hall 241, but they can also be sometimes in Ford Hall 342. Information about their weekley hours will be available once the semester has started (probably after the first week of classes) here: http://cs.smith.edu/classwiki/index.php/Computer_Science_TA_hours