CS-343 E6TBA (2969) Fall 2004

Initial Background Assignments:

• Read chapters 1 and 2 of the textbook on your own. In addition to the background material in chapter 1, study chapter 2 well enough to understand the MIPS assembly and machine language. But you do not need to read sections 2.7 through 2.20 for this course.
• Study all of Appendix B.
• If you are not familiar with CircuitMaker yet, read my Introduction to CircuitMaker web page, download the software, and practice using it to construct and simulate a simple combinational logic circuit, such as a single full adder built from AND, OR, and Invert gates.
• Optional, but useful: Read and do the exercises in what's currently available of "Chapter 0" from a text that I'm working on. Any feedback you supply to me would be appreciated. And it should provide you with a good review of material you should already be familiar with.

Assignment Number	Due Date	Assignment	Solution
	December 16	Final Exam 6:15 to 8:15 PM
7	Midnight, December 16	Assignment 7 Web Page The current reading assignment is Chapter 7 through section 7.5.	Solution Web Page
6	Midnight, November 18	Assignment 6 Web Page The current reading assignment is Chapter 6 through section 6.6 ending on page 426.	Solution Web Page
	November 4	Second Exam.	Last semester's second exam not posted. See solutions to Assignment 5 for help.
5	Midnight, October 19	Assignment 5 Web Page Note that there is an optional extra-credit component for this assignment that I will accept as late as October 21. See the assignment web page for details.	Solution Web Page
4	Midnight, October 14	Study Section B.10 on finite state machine design. You will be tested on FSM design again on the second exam because so many people didn't understand it on the first exam. Also, if you missed class on October 5, be sure to get someone's notes, as we went over FSM design again in that class. Study Section B.8 on registers and flip-flops, which includes the design of the MIPS three-port register file. Read Chapter 5 through section 5.4, which ends on page 318. Assignment 4 Web Page Note that there is an optional extra-credit component for this assignment that will be due October 19. See the assignment web page for details.	Solution Web Page
	September 30	First exam, covering chapters 1, 3, 4, and Appendix B plus material covered in class. Much of the exam will be multiple-choice, but you will also need to be able to draw and/or fill in circuit diagrams, state diagrams, and state tables. There is a web page on state machine design based on an example done in class on September 21 and 23.	Last semester's first exam. Remember, we used a different textbook last semester, so that exam will be of very little use to you in preparing for this semester's exam.
3	Midnight, September 23	Assignment 3 Web Page	Solution Web Page
2	Midnight, September 14	Assignment 2 Web Page	Solution Web Page
1	Immediately	Send an email message to vickery#babbage.cs.qc.edu (change the '#' to an at sign) with CS-343 Assignment 1 as the subject. Put your full name and 4-digit ID number in the body of the message. The subject line must be exactly as specified above, including capitalization and spacing. If not, it will automatically be rejected as spam. Note: I will use your email address to contact you about the course, such as to correct mistakes made in lecture and to give information about homework solutions. You may submit this assignment multiple times from different addresses if you want my messages sent to more than one address. And please let me know if you want me to drop an address too.	When I receive an email in the proper format from you, I will reply with a message that gives you the login information that you will need to access the restricted parts of this web site. These parts will include the homework solution links, which you will need in order to prepare for the exams, and copies of last semester's exams.

• Class Schedule

  The class is scheduled to meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6:30 to 7:45 in SB A-103, with the following exceptions:

  • There will be no class on Thursday, September 16 because the college will be closed for the Rosh Hashanah holiday.
  • There will be no class on Thursday, October 7. We will make up this missed class by extending the other class meetings of the term by three minutes each.
  • The college will follow a Thursday class schedule on Tuesday, November 16. But that won't affect us because our class meets on both Tuesdays and Thursdays.
  • Tuesday December 14 follows a Wednesday schedule at the college. Our last class meeting therefore will be Thursday, December 9.
  • The final exam is scheduled for Thursday December 16 from 6:15 to 8:15 PM. Contact the Registrar's Office immediately if this is in conflict with any of your other exams.
• Course Syllabus
  • This is the first semester we are using the text listed in the syllabus. Be sure to get the third edition of this book, which is significantly different from the previous two editions. Many homework assignments will come from the text, and you won't have access to them without a copy.
  • A copy of the text will be placed on reserve in the library, but this may take some time because the book was published less than a month before the start of classes.
  • The book is available from the QC Bookstore, as well as online. For example, it is listed on Amazon.com for about $65.
  • The links to last semester's exams in the syllabus will be of very limited use to you because a different textbook was used last semester, making the sequence of topics covered as well as the actual material within each topic totally different from this semester. About the only way they might be useful is if you want to see what types of exams I give in general.
  • The three exams will each count 33% of your course grade. The number of homework assignments you submit will determine the other 1%. Homework solutions will be posted immediately after the assignments are due, so late homeworks won't be accepted.
• Check your grades for the course.

  Once a grade for an assignment or an exam has been posted for one week it becomes permanent even if you discover an error after that. So be sure to check that all exams and homeworks have been posted correctly as soon as they are available.