CSC103 Weekly Schedule Fall 2012

--D. Thiebaut 12:05, 21 August 2012 (EDT)

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Wikis | Weekly Schedule | Main Page

Office Hours: Tu-Th: 2:00-4:00 p.m. and by appointment.

Weekly Schedule

Week	Topics	Reading
Week 1 9/6	Thursday Introduction to the class and the 1/2 semester 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. Two giants for computer science: George Boole (1779-1848): logic expression = boolean expression. Logic: creating formulas where variables are combined by operators. The variables are boolean variables, the operators are logic operators. Any formula can be represented with a combination of just three operators: AND, OR, and NOT.	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:
Week 2 9/11	Tuesday A note on registering for CSC102 (Shameless plug for CS Facebook page) Three different "worlds": World 1 (Logic) World 2 (Technology) World 3 (Math) George Boole (1779-1848) Expressions that can be True or False Operators to combine expressions And, Or, Not Electricity Switches (transistors) ON/OFF The idea of a code Number systems Decimal: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 Binary: 0, 1 Logic: truth tables for AND, OR, and NOT operators Counting in decimal Counting in base 8: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20, ... 76, 77, 100, 101, ... Interesting published research result: U. Penn designs first optical gate Thursday Counting in base 2 (binary) Adding in decimal Adding in base 2 Homework #1 and Solutions	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:
Week 3 9/18	Tuesday Q&A Review addition in base 2 Claude Shannon (1916-2001): writes a Master's thesis at MIT in 1948, which states that any binary numerical computation can be performed using logic expressions and logic operators. "The whole digital revolution started with [Shannon]" Logic Gates Data sheet for the AND gate. Data sheet for the OR gate. Data sheet for the NOT gate. ( All 3 gates in one pdf) Logic Design Logic-Gate Simulator Thursday HAPPY MOUNTAIN DAY!	Reading: Logic Gates on wikipedia: You can skip the Universal Logic Gate section, the De Morgan section, and the remaining sections until the end. A good introduction on the Logic Circuit Simulator which we use in Lab #1 A "HowTo" document for creating simple Wiki pages (to get you started for next week)
Week 4 9/25	Tuesday PC Demolition Lab (Ford Hall Foyer) . Prep Sheet. Photos of the event on Facebook Thursday Schematics from NASA, and a specific sheet showing logic gates. Lab #1 in FH241 Homework 2 (will be due on 10/4/12 @ 9:00 a.m.)	Reading A good introduction on the Logic Circuit Simulator (from Lab #1)
Week 5 10/2	Tuesday Some comments about the current homework. Creating a Wiki. Demonstration and introduction to the next homework assignment. Quick summary of PC Demolition Lab. What you needed to discover: The processor The Crystal The Random Access Memory (RAM) The power supply The mother board The hard disk The optical disk (DVD/CD player/burner) The Wiring Various Ports Video about the first personal computer (a bit of history!) Introduction to creating Wiki pages Introduction to Assembly Language: the secret language of the processor! Microprocessor and Assembly Language Let's play a game the xComputer Simulator the Instruction Set for our computer A first program A second program Execution of selected instructions (pdf) Thursday Assembly Language Programming.	Reading 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 6 10/9	Tuesday: Fall Break Thursday	Reading
Week 7 10/16	Tuesday Thursday: Take-home Final Exam	Reading
Week 8 10/23	Tuesday: Final Exam Q&A	Reading

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