CS-210. Computing Systems I: Machine Organization
Course web page: http://www.cs.binghamton.edu/~pmadden/cs210
Fall 2008

Instructor: Patrick H. Madden email pmadden@acm.org
Lectures: MWF
TAs: Michael Hines, Gowrishankar Sivanathan
There are four lab sections; check with BUSI for times
Text: Patt & Patel: Introduction to Computing Systems - From Bits and Gates to C & Beyond - 2nd Ed.
The Textbook Resource page has a lot of useful stuff
There will be a required lab kit (about $15); details will be available shortly.
Atmel ATtiny2313 documentation
AVR Studio
WinAVR
Recommended: check out TopCoder algorithms competitions, to get an idea of the sort of folks you'll be up against in the job market.
Highly recommended: join the ACM Student chapter, and try the local programming contests.

Grading:

3 in-class exams, 25% each
One final, 25%.

There will be periodic in-class pop quizzes, and some homeworks for over the weekend. For every 2 you miss, your grade is lowered by 1 percentage point. So -- it's ok if you miss a class or two, but if you make a habit of it, your grade will suffer.

Labs are required, and you MUST complete your work during lab. If you're paying attention and working at a reasonable pace, this will not be difficult. You may miss or fail to complete one lab. For each subsequent lab, your grade will be lowered by 2 two points.

Grade ranges are typically [90-100%] = [A- to A], [80=90%]=[B- to B+], [70-80%]=[C- to C+], and so on. Depending on the actual scores, the percentage range may change slightly.

As an example: suppose your scores on the exams are 70, 90, 80, and 80. This gives an average of 80, which would be a B-. If you have missed 3 pop quizzes (resulting in 1% deduction) and 4 labs (first one is skipped, three others gives a 6% deduction), you wind up with a total deduction of 7%, with the final average being 73. This would fall into the C- range. You probably should have come to class more, and not missed those labs.

If I catch anyone cheating (or helping someone cheat), they will fail the course. There will not be make-up dates for labs, or late homeworks accepted. Get things done on time.

Homeworks and Labs

Homeworks will be assigned on Friday, and should be turned in at lab.

• Homework 1 (due the week of August 31st). To Binary and Back.
• Homework 2 (due the week of September 7th). Drawing transistor-level circuits.

Rough Schedule

Announcements

• No labs during the first week of classes.