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. ( List of Chapters)

Organization, Schedule & Reading

• Week 1:
  • General introduction (Chap 1)

• Week 2:
  • Binary system, arithmetic, logic gates (Chap 2)
  • logic gates, binary adder (Chap 2)

• Week3:
  • Building a computer (Chap 5)
    • 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 (Chap 5)
    • video "Machine that changed the world"
    • Loom, Craig.

• Week 4:
  • Client/Server architecture. (Chap 10)
    • Trends.
    • Services.
    • Google vs. Microsoft
  • Programming: Javascript (Chap 6)

• Week 5:
  • Programming: Javascript (Chap 7)
  • Programming: Javascript

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

• Week 7:
  • Parallel programming (Chap 10)
    • SETI@home
    • Folding@home

• Week 8:
  • Singularity:

• • • Signs of the Singularity by Vernor Vinge.
    • Can Machine Be Conscious?, Christof Koch and Giulio Tononi.

Additional Resources

• IEEE Special Issue on Singularity