CSC103 Syllabus 2017

--D. Thiebaut (talk) 09:38, 18 July 2017 (EDT)

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CSC103 Home | Wikis | Weekly Schedule | PIAZZA

Prof. Dominique Thiébaut
Ford Hall 356
Smith College
Telephone: 3854
Office hours: M 3-5, W 2-4, and by appointments

CSC 103: How Computers Work, Fall 2017

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: dthiebaut@smith.edu
Office Hours: Monday 3-5, Wednesday 2-4

Schedule

First half of Fall 2017. Sept 8th to Oct. 24th, MWF 9:00 - 9:50 a.m.

Textbook

No textbook for the class. We will use Web resources.

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
  • The Von Neumann's bottleneck

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/fall2017/csc103/home.

Grading

• Participation: 10%
• Homework assignments (roughly one weekly assignmnent): 50%. Homework assignments will be typically due on Sunday, at midnight.
• Quiz: 10%
• Final take-home exam: 30%

• No late assignments will be accepted. You can drop 1 assignment during the 1/2 semester without penalty.

Teaching Assistants

To be announced at a later time.