AIMS AND CONTENT

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

The student will acquire the necessary skills to understand how information is stored in the computer. In particular, he will be able to:

encode and decode signed and unsigned, integer, fractional, floating point numbers;
know and analyze elementary logic circuits;
analyze the digital components that underlie the architecture of modern computers.

Furthermore students will acquire basic skills on learning to learn, basic personal and social skills through didactics for groups, cases/problems.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures, classroom exercises, ongoing assignment with delivery and evaluation.
Instant polling will be used for self-assessment and didactics for groups and cases/problems.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The components of a computer: the von Neumann architecture

The representation of information

Bit, byte, single and double word
Number representation, signed and unsigned numbers, two's complement
The representation of non-numeric information (e.g., strings)
Computer arithmetic and floating point numbers according to the IEEE 754 standard

The RISC-V processor

A simple implementation scheme
Logic gates, truth tables and Boolean expressions
Combinational circuits
Arithmetic and logic unit
Clocks
Memory: Flip-Flops, Latches, and registers
Memory: SRAM and DRAM

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

David A Patterson John L HennessyStruttura e progetto dei calcolatoriProgettare con RISC-VSeconda edizione italiana
ISBN: 9788808199669

Chapters 2, 4 (4.5-4.10), 5 (5.6-5.10), 6 (6.1-6.6) Appendix B

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

DAVIDE ANCONA (President)

GIORGIO DELZANNO (President)

DANIELE D'AGOSTINO (President Substitute)

LESSONS

Class schedule

The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

EXAMS

Exam schedule