CS111H. Introduction to the Computer

Prerequisites: none

Syllabus:

• Introduction: Brief history of computing; the components of a computing system
• Machine level representation of data: Bits, bytes, and words; numeric data representation and number bases; signed and twos-complement representations; fundamental operations on bits; representation of nonnumeric data
• Digital logic: Switching circuits; gates; memory
• Assembly level machine organization: Basic organization of the von Neumann machine; control unit; instruction fetch, decode, and execution; instruction sets and types; assembly/machine language programming; instruction formats
• Algorithms and problem-solving: Problem-solving strategies; the role of algorithms in the problem-solving process; the concept and properties of algorithms
• Input and output: simple I/O; files
• Overview of programming languages: History of programming languages; brief survey of programming paradigms; the role of language translation in the programming process
• Fundamental programming constructs: Basic syntax and semantics of a higher-level language; variables, types, expressions, and assignment; simple I/O; conditional and iterative control structures; functions and parameter passing; structured decomposition
• Fundamental data structures: Primitive types; arrays; records; strings and string processing; data representation in memory; pointers and references
• Recursion: The concept of recursion; recursive mathematical functions; simple recursive procedures; implementation of recursion
• Software development methodology: Fundamental design concepts and principles; structured design; testing and debugging strategies; test-case design; programming environments; testing and debugging tools

Units covered:

PF1	Fundamental programming constructs	5	core hours (of 9)
PF2	Algorithms and problem-solving	2	core hours (of 6)
PF3	Fundamental data structures	5	core hours (of 14)
PF4	Recursion	5	core hours
AL2	Algorithmic strategies	2	core hours (of 6)
AL3	Fundamental computing algorithms	2	core hours (of 12)
AL5	Basic computability	1	core hour (of 6)
PL1	Overview of programming languages	1	core hour (of 2)
PL4	Declarations and types	1	core hour (of 3)
PL5	Abstraction mechanisms	2	core hours (of 3)
AR1	Digital logic and digital systems	3	core hours (of 6)
AR2	Machine level representation of data	2	core hours (of 3)
AR3	Assembly level machine organization	2	core hours (of 9)
AR4	Memory system organization and architecture	2	core hours (of 5)
SP1	History of computing	1	core hour
SE1	Software design	2	core hours (of 8)
SE3	Software tools and environments	1	core hour (of 3)
SE6	Software validation	1	core hour (of 3)

Notes:
[to be supplied]

Online resources for CS111H