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CODE 111453
ACADEMIC YEAR 2025/2026
CREDITS
SCIENTIFIC DISCIPLINARY SECTOR INF/01
LANGUAGE Italian
TEACHING LOCATION
  • GENOVA
SEMESTER 1° Semester
SECTIONING Questo insegnamento è diviso nelle seguenti frazioni:
  • A
  • B
  • MODULES Questo insegnamento è un modulo di:

    AIMS AND CONTENT

    LEARNING OUTCOMES

    Learning the fundamental principles underlying the organization and structure of computers with regard to languages ​​(assembler and machine code), numerical representation and arithmetic operations on it, and combinatorial and sequential circuits.

    AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

    The student will acquire the necessary skills to understand how information is stored in the computer and how high-level programs are translated into the computer's own language. 

    The choice of reference architecture is a key aspect. The RISC-V architecture was chosen because it offers a simple, elegant, modern, open source model that is also of growing interest in the non-academic sphere. 

    In particular, you will be able to
        describe the components of the Von Neumann architecture;
        encode and decode numbers with and without sign, integers, fractional, floating point;
        translate simple programs from C to RISC-V assembler;
        recognise and describe the main combinational circuits.

    In addition, students will acquire basic learning-to-learn, personal and social skills through group teaching, cases/problems.

    PREREQUISITES

    No specific prerequisites are required.

    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

    • Introduction: from high-level language to hardware
    • The components of a computer: the von Neumann architecture
    • Information representation
      • Bits, bytes, single and double word 
      • Representation of integers, with and without sign in bases other than decimal 
      • Representation of non-numeric information (e.g., characters and images)
      • Binary arithmetic of computers and floating-point numbers according to the IEEE 754 standard
    •  RISC-V ISA
      • The main instructions 
      • Operands and addresses
      • Translation and execution of a program (assembler, linker, loader)
    • Combinational circuits
      • Logic gates, truth table and Boolean expressions
      • Arithmetic and logic unit
      • Clock

     

    RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

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

     

    TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

    LESSONS

    LESSONS START

    According to the calendar approved by the Degree Program Board: https://corsi.unige.it/corsi/11896/studenti-orario

    Class schedule

    The timetable for this course is available here: Portale EasyAcademy

    FURTHER INFORMATION

    For further information, please refer to the course’s AulaWeb module or contact the instructor.