Comp 220 - Computer Organization (Spring 2025)
Introductory Information
- Syllabus.
- Canvas site.
- Dive into Systems - online book for introductory explanations of some course content.
- Compiler Explorer - see what your C++ code looks like in Assembly.
- Computer for sale!
- Image of laptop motherboard - with labels
- Image of another laptop motherboard - no labels
- Simpler parts of motherboard - with labels
- End of Moore's Law - article from MIT Technology Review.
- How transistors work - short YouTube video.
- Cosmic Rays Can Flip Bits! - video on how cosmic rays can impact ICs due to the latter's increasingly tiny size.
Resources
- Decimal to Binary Converter and vice-versa; also includes Hexadecimal.
- MARS - MIPS Assembler and Runtime Simulator; IDE for running MIPS/SPIM. From our friends at Missouri State University.
Fun Images (??)
Photos from the Arithmeum Museum in Bonn, Germany.
- 99.9999999% pure silicon crystal
- Silicon wafers, and self portrait
- Chips on a wafer
- This IS your father's memory (magnetic core memory; 10000 bit capacity)
- So easy, a monkey can do it! (check out the text from the original instructions in upper left)
- As exciting as it gets for a mathematician
And more from the London Science Museum.
Crazy Model Expo (CME)
- Rube Goldberg? - no, it's a portion of the CPU (CME 2012)!
- Katie and Sam - showing binary counter (CME 2017).
- Jon and Lex (CME 2017).
- Eammon's binary counter (CME 2019).
- Jeffrey explaining his flip-flop poster (CME 2022).
- Here's Greg's 8-bit shifter (CME 2024).
- Colin showing Something using Legos (CME 2024).
Hardware Lab
Examples/Handouts
- Measurements and Units
- Seven Great Ideas in Computer Architecture.
- Chapter 1 problems
- Figure 1.16 (pdf) - clock rate and power over time to 2018 (from text).
- Figure 1.17 (pdf) - processor performance over time to 2018 (from text).
- 42 Year Trend - processor performance over time to 2017.
- Up-to-date CPU performance - based on running benchmarks.
- SPIM Quick Reference - note that this reference is not very clear about which instructions are pseudoinstructions.
- example1.s - simplest little assembly program.
- handout2.s - some basic math in assembly.
- example2.s - same as the previous, but with comments.
- handout2messy.s - same as above, but with no spacing.
Lab Info
- lab1start.cpp - starting point for Lab 1.
- randomNums4M - download this file - don't just click!! (It will take forever to load)
- randomNums8M - download this file; even bigger than the previous.
Lab 1