Through a series of hardware and software tasks, students are introduced to the lower level design and operation of computers. Topics include computer hardware, computer architecture, assembly language, high-level languages and compiler design. (Offered fall semester only.)

CIS 284 Computer Programming II; programming in a high-level language, such as Pascal.

Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken, The Elements of Computer Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles, 1^st edition, MIT Press, 2008 (ISBN: 978026214087)

David R. Owen, Associate Professor of Computer Science

Computer and Information Science majors and minors

1. To construct a simplified computer processor from lower-level digital electronic devices.
2. To write simple programs in that processor architecture’s assembly language.
3. To write an assembler that translates from that assembly language to a machine language that can be executed on that processor.
4. To write a compiler that translates from a high-level programming language to that assembly language.
5. To write simple programs in that high-level language.
6. To develop skills in computer programming related to translating from one data representation into another; to describe tradeoffs inherent in different data representations.

1. Boolean logic, binary arithmetic
2. Design of combinational and sequential logic circuits
3. Computer architecture, machine language
4. Assembly language
5. Two-step process for translating from high-level to assembly language (stack-based intermediate language)
6. Compilation (syntax analysis, code generation)