Announcements
Class Info
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Professors: Sukrit Venkatagiri, Tia Newhall
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Labs Instructor: Jocelyn Corey
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Class: Tuesday / Thursday, 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM, Singer 33
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Labs:
Section A
Friday 8:50 AM - 10:20 AM (Sukrit Venkatagiri)
SCI 240
Section B
Friday 2:00 PM - 3:30 PM (Jocelyn Corey)
SCI 240
Section C
Friday 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM (Jocelyn Corey)
SCI 240
Section D
Thursday 1:05 PM - 2:35 PM (Jocelyn Corey, Tia Newhall)
CLOTHR 16
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Ninjas: Alina, Lila, Nicholas, V, Ben, Lisa, Marlea — see CS31 Ninja Sessions.
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Office Hours:
Mondays 2:00 - 4:00 PM
SCI 249
Tuesdays 3:00 - 4:30 PM
SCI 258
Wednesdays 9:00 - 10:00 AM
SCI 258
Wednesdays 1:00 - 3:00 PM
SCI 252-B
You may attend any, and all, instructor’s office hours.
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Textbook: Dive into Systems
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EdSTEM: Q&A Forum
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GitHub: Swarthmore GitHub Enterprise
Required Materials
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iClicker: This course uses iClicker devices to facilitate feedback and discussion during class. For many intermediate and upper level CS courses including CS 31, we require that students purchase their own clicker for personal use. Clickers may be purchased at the college bookstore or online. If you purchase your clicker at the bookstore, it is eligible for the TAP program. Please register your clicker online as soon as possible! Even if you have used clickers in other CS courses, you still need to register your clicker for use in this course.
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Textbook: all readings will come from a free, online textbook: Dive into Systems by Matthews, Newhall, and Webb. (Two of the co-authors are Swarthmore CS faculty!) If you would like a print version of the textbook, it is available for purchase at the college bookstore. You are not required to purchace the print version of the textbook, as the on-line version is available for you to use for free.
Course Overview, Goals, and Structure
This course is a broad introduction to computer science that focuses on how a computer works and how programs run on computers. We examine the hardware and software components required to go from a program expressed in a high-level programming language like C or Python to the computer actually running the program. This course takes a bottom-up approach to discovering how a computer works and introduces parallel and distributed computing with a specific focus on parallelism for multicore and other shared memory systems.
Topics include theoretical models of computation, data representation, machine organization, assembly and machine code, memory, I/O, the stack, the operating system, compilers and interpreters, processes and threads, and synchronization. In addition to parallel programming, we will discuss parallel computers and system-level support for parallel computing.
Prerequisite: Completion of CS21 or its equivalent.
Goals for the Course:
Class Structure
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Readings: Shorter readings serve as a first exposure to new topics, where students learn the basics of the material. These should be read prior to the class meeting for which they are assigned. The reading quizzes are primarly based on these readings. Full required weekly readings complement lecture content. See tips for reading textooks for how to read these.
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Class meetings: The classroom material will cover the course concepts in depth, and include activites to practice applying concepts learned, and to facilitate student discussion.
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Exams: There is a midterm exam and a final exam (both closed-book) covering the material in the class meetings (and to a lesser extent on some labs). Some reference materials will be provided with the exams.
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Labs: There are several lab programming assignments (mostly in C) that will explore various aspects of computer systems.
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Reading Quizzes: Most class meetings there will be a short quiz primarily based on the shorter assigned readings.
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Written Homeworks: There are several written homework assignments. Written homeworks are on based on class material and provide good practice for exams.
Inclusion Statement
Diversity, inclusion, and a mutual sense of belonging are all core values of this course. All participants in this course must be treated with respect by other members of the Swarthmore CS community. We must all strive, students and faculty both, to never make anyone feel unwelcome or unsafe in any way. Violations of these principles are viewed as unacceptable, and we take them very seriously. If you ever feel discriminated against or otherwise excluded, no matter how minor the offense, we encourage you to reach out to any course professor or lab instructor (their contact info is available here: Class Info) or campus non-discrimination contacts.
Schedule
This is a tentative schedule; it may change as we go. All section numbers refer to the Dive into Systems textbook unless otherwise indicated. You should read the assigned sections before class to prepare for reading quizzes.
Read tips for reading CS textbooks to help you determine what to focus on and how to get the most out of required readings.
WEEK | DAY | ANNOUNCEMENTS | TOPIC & READING | ASSIGNMENTS/WEEKLYLABS |
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1 | Sep 03 | — |
Introduction, BinaryFor Tues:
For Thurs:
For Weekly Lab: |
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Sep 05 | Last Day to Declare CR/NC (Sep 08) | |||
2 | Sep 10 | — | Binary, Intro to CFor Tues: For Thurs: For Weekly Lab:
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Sep 12 | Drop/Add Ends (Sep 16) | |||
3 | Sep 17 | — | Computer Architecture, Digital CircuitsFor Tues: For Thurs: |
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Sep 19 | — | |||
4 | Sep 24 | — | Computer Architecture, C PointersFor Tues: For Thurs:
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Sep 26 | — | |||
5 | Oct 01 | — | AssemblyFor Tues:
For Thurs: For Weekly Lab:
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Oct 03 | — | |||
6 | Oct 08 | — | Assembly: FunctionsFor Tuesday: For Thursday:
For Weekly Lab:
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Oct 10 | — | |||
— | Oct 15 | Fall Break | ||
Oct 17 | ||||
7 | Oct 22 | — | C Structs and 2D arrays, Assembly, Memory HierarchyFor Tuesday:
For Thursday: |
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Oct 24 | — | |||
8 | Oct 29 | — | Memory Hierarchy, CachingFor Tues:
For Thurs: |
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Oct 31 | — | |||
9 | Nov 05 | — | Caching, OS, ProcessesFor Tues:
For Thurs: For Weekly Lab:
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Nov 07 | — | |||
10 | Nov 12 | — | OS, Processes, VMFor Tues: For Thurs: For Weekly Lab: |
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Nov 14 | — | |||
11 | Nov 19 | — | OS, VM, ParallelFor Tues: For Thurs: |
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Nov 21 | — | |||
12 | Nov 26 | — | Parallel Programming, ThreadsFor Tues: |
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Nov 28 | Thanksgiving | |||
13 | Dec 03 | — | Parallel, Synchronization, PerformanceFor Tues: For Thurs: |
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Dec 05 | — | |||
14 | Dec 10 | — | Parallel, Course Wrap-upFor Tues: |
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Dec 12 | — |