Readings
The following are links of related material organized by our text chapters; including class lecture notes.
Chapter 1
In this class, we will be using UNIX. Learn a little about how UNIX came about and why it is so important to the university research community.Visit the online computer history museum and learn about the changes in computers over time.
Understand the realationship between the processor and memory.
Class lecture notes.
Chapter 2
OSdata describes the interesting background of assembly languages.
Class lecture notes.
Chapter 3
Links to information on Number Systems
Check out how binary was discovered and why.
To understand why computers need binary, read the "Absolute Basics" section.
Class lecture notes.
Chapter 4
Check out the differences between the initial ASCII table and why we now have the expanded UNICODE used today.
Note, not everyone likes the UNICODE standard used today. You should get the full story.
Class lecture notes.
Chapter 5
Class lecture notes
Learn a bit about how logic is used in the basic hardware for every computer.
Find out about efficient algorithms to implement multiplication in hardware.
Chapter 7
Arrays are used everyday, find out some common uses and wiegh the advantages and disadvantages.
For a more technical look at data structures look at a detailed comparison focused on C#.
Chapter 8
Learn about some of the nuances of the MIPS architecture from MIPS Technologies, Inc.
Find some interesting information about the difference between registers we use (word size) and registers large enough for floating point operations (double word size).
Chapter 9
Discover the indepth details about the MIPS architecture commonly used in present day hardware.
The law that every comptuer scientist should know: Moore's Law!
Chapter 10
Why do you need to know Assembly?
For those who would like more assembly- I recommend The Art of Assembly Language.
Chapter 13
Understanding processor pipelining
.