CS611
Assembly Language Programming and Machine Organization
Spring 2001
(Revised)

Instructor: P. Hatcher
Office: Kingsbury M202
Phone: 862-2678
E-mail: pjh@cs.unh.edu
Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10am, MWF 11:30am-12noon, 1:30-2pm, or by appointment.

The prerequisite for this course is CS515.

The key goals for the course are to understand program and data representation, to become familiar with assembly language and machine language programming, to understand the impact on software of basic computer architecture concepts such as the memory hierarchy, and to study fundamental system software such as assemblers, linkers and debuggers.

An outline of the material covered by this course is given here.

Grading

• Each program will be worth 12% of the course grade (5 @ 12% = 60% total).

• The design assignment will be worth 10% of the course grade.

• The midterm exam will be worth 10% of the course grade.

• The final exam will be worth 20% of the course grade.

The programming assignments are (with tentative due dates):

1. Compress ASCII files: due Feb 4.

2. Emulate double-precision IEEE Floating Point addition: due Mar 4.

3. Compaq Alpha subset assembler: due Apr 1.

4. Dynamic linking: due Apr 15.

5. Simple thread library for Alpha: due Apr 29.

The programming assignments must be done in C. There are only two exceptions: programs 4 and 5 may require some code written using Alpha assembler.

Programming assignments may be handed in late at a penalty of 5% per day up to one week late. A program is not considered late unless turned in after 8am on the day after the due date.

The grading of programming assignments will be based primarily upon demonstrated correct functionality. That is, you will be awarded points for what your program actually does. Some test cases will be public but others will be hidden, so careful testing will be required.

Points may be deducted from your programming assignment grade if your work is not adequately documented and structured. If we can't easily read and understand your program, you may lose points! The following are some guidelines:

• each function should have a header explaining its purpose;

• avoid long functions;

• global variables should be used sparingly and for good purpose;

• function bodies should be well-commented;

• use symbolic constants when appropriate;

• always use function prototypes; and,

• choose meaningful variable and function names.

The design assignment is to design a simple file system. The due date for the design assignment is Friday May 11. A design document must be given to me prior to 1pm (the start of the final exam) on that day.

The midterm exam will be given during the normal class meeting on Wednesday March 28.

The final exam will be given during finals week: 1-3pm on Friday May 11.

Students receiving at least 68% of the course points are guaranteed at least a C. Students receiving at least 78% of the course points are guaranteed at least a B. Students receiving at least 88% of the course points are guaranteed at least an A.

Textbooks

On reserve in the Kingsbury library:

• Computer Organization & Design: The Hardware/Software Interface
  by Patterson and Hennessy

• Alpha AXP Architecture Reference Manual
  by Sites and Witek

• Tru64 Unix Assembly Language Programmer's Guide

• The Java Virtual Machine Specification
  by Lindholm and Yellin

• C: A Reference Manual
  by Harbison and Steele

You can also download PDF for the Tru64 Unix Assembly Language Programmer's Guide here.

I do not think you need to purchase any of the above books. Access to the copies on reserve in the library should be sufficient. However, if you want to order your own copies of any of the books on reserve, I suggest Quantum Books or Amazon.com Books.

Computer Accounts

Policy on Cheating

Because so much of your course grade is based upon the programming assignments, I will treat cases of cheating severely. If caught cheating on an assignment, you can expect to (at least) receive a failing grade for the course.

Comments and questions should be directed to pjh@cs.unh.edu