CSE 378: Machine Organization and Assembly Language


Autumn 1998
Larry Snyder

Personnel Name Email Office Hours
Instructor Larry Snyder snyder@cs.washington.edu MTu 4:30-5:30
Sieg 426d
Teaching Assistant Maria Gullickson maria@cs.washington.edu Tu 1:30-2:30
and by appt.
Sieg 226d

Lecture Slides

Slides are stored in postscript format, two slides per page.

Homework

Homework assignments are a major portion of the course. In all cases, the goal of the homework is to motivate you to learn the material, and to help verify that you have done so. There are three kinds of homework: programming in assembly language (on a simulated MIPS machine), programming a MIPS simulator in C (on Unix), and questions from the book. Assignments will be due approximately weekly. Homework solutions are to represent original work.

Look here to learn about how to turn in programming assignments.

The Mailing List

The class mailing list is cse378@cs.washington.edu

Hypermail archive

This list is for announcements of general interest to the class. Normal standards of decency and respect are to be observed at all times. Students are welcome to use this list to ask questions, post information, or initiate discussions of general interest to the class. Questions or comments that are not of general interest should instead be directed to the TAs and instructor directly.

There should be no need for you to send an initial "subscribe" request to joint the mailing list. Everyone registered in the course will be placed on the mailing list automatically by the end of the first week of the quarter.

Syllabus

A general syllabus for this course can be found here.

Schedule

Lectures: MWF 11:30-12:20, EE1 045

Quiz AA, Th 9:30-10:20, EE1 037
Quiz AB, Th 12:30-1:20, EEB 316

Text Book

The text for the course is Patterson & Hennessy, Computer Organization and Deisgn: The Hardware/Software Interface, Second Edition, Morgan Kaufmann, 1998.

Useful References

Midterm

Friday, October 30, in class. Closed book, no notes, no calculators.

Final Exam

2:30-4:20 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, 1998 , in class. Closed book, no notes, probably no calculators.

Grading

Grades will be based on the midterm (roughly 20%), final (roughly 40%) and homework (roughly 40%). Percentages are approximate. Intangibles may contribute to the final grade.

Class Participation

I'd like this to be an interactive class. Interaction with the instructor and the TA in class and during office hours is highly encouraged (although not required). If I do call on you, that does not mean that I'm picking on you, just that I'm trying to get you to participate. There might come a time when you have to answer a question to which you don't know the answer. In this case, you should not be ashamed to say, "I don't know." I guarantee this will happen to all of us (myself included) at some point.

Late Assignments and Incompletes

Assignments are due at the beginning of lecture. If you write answers out by hand, please make sure it's legible. Write your name, quiz section, and the name(s) of your collaborators (see below) on each assignment. The late policy is as follows: each student is granted one late day to use at his/her discretion during the quarter. A late day is defined to be the 24 hour period following the lecture. For example, if an assignment is due Wednesday, turning in the assignment anytime up to Thrusday at 11:30 constitutes the use of one late day.

Use your late day wisely. If you use your late day early in the quarter because you are lazy, we will have no pity (and grant no extensions) when you get the flu at the end of the quarter due to too much partying at the beginning of the quarter. Barring exceptional circumstances, extra late days, incompletes, or other extensions will not be granted.

Collaboration/Cheating Policy

Students in this course are encouraged to work together. However, there are a few groundrules everyone must follow. Failure to understand and follow these rules will constitute cheating, and will be dealt with as per university guidelines.

  1. The Gilligan's Island Rule: This rule says that you are free to meet with fellow students(s) and discuss the assignment with them. Writing on a board or shared piece of paper is acceptable during the meeting; however, you should not take any written (electronic or otherwise) record away from the meeting. After the meeting, engage in a half hour of mind-numbing activity (like watching an episode of Gilligan's Island), before starting to work on the assignment. This will assure that you are able to reconstruct what you learned from the meeting, by yourself, using your own brain.
  2. The Freedom of Information Rule: To assure that all collaboration is on the level, you must always write the name(s) of your collaborators on your assignment.

CSE378 Web Pages From Previous Quarters

Autumn 1997 Winter 1998 Spring 1998

cse378@cs.washington.edu (Last Update: 10/09/98 )