CS : Low-Level Programming
3 Credit Hours – Grade (A to F)
Instructor: Dr. John C.W.V.A. Marsaglia

Text Book--None
 other supplemental materials, links and/or hard copy will be provided during the term.
Office: ITC 309, Phone: 503-838-8991, Fax: 503-838-8332
E-Mail: jcm@wou.edu, Web Site: http://www.wou.edu/~jcm/
For all email communications the WOU email service must be used.
Division of Computer Science Western Oregon University
345 North Monmouth Avenue Monmouth, Oregon 97361
See website for currently scheduled times and days, appointments may also be scheduled
(request an appointment through email). I will make every an attempt to be present at scheduled office hours however other important meetings or appointments may conflict.
Those exceptions will be posted on my office door and might also be known (time permitting) by the computer science division assistant (Ms. Alvarado).
See website for course hours and location(s).
Programming techniques that require programmer to be aware of the computer’s hardware organization. Approximately one-half of the class will be devoted to an introduction to assembly language programming, and the remainder of the class will consider aspects of the C programming language such as: pointers, dynamic memory allocation, the address operators and the bitwise operators.

Course Objectives The primary objective of this course is to introduce students to the foundations of computer organization and architecture. Another objective is to develop the ability to perform programming in an assembly language
After completing this course students should be able to:
• Recognize and manipulate representations of numbers stored in digital computers
[ABET (a)]
• Recall the history and development of modern computers, developing an appreciation for the potential and directions for future changes [ABET (g), (h)]
• Recall the internal organization of computers, CPU, memory unit and Input/Outputs and the relations between its main components [ABET (i), (j)]
• Recognize and perform computations with the functional units of the processor
[ABET (i)]
• Analyze cost performance and design trade-offs in designing and constructing a computer processor including memory [ABET (b), (c), (j)]
• Perform elementary quantitative performance evaluation of computer systems
[ABET (c), (j)]
• Solve elementary problems by assembly language programming [ABET (c), (i)]
Outcomes are assessed through a combination of homework assignments, projects, in-class quizzes and final exams. Projects are graded on correctness, documentation, and style.
The internal organization of computers; assembly language; the storage of information; fetch/execute cycle, CPU organization, instruction set and addressing modes, I/O ports, stacks and machine language.
Grade Metrics and Relative Weights:
Assignment(s) 40%
Quizzes 30%
Comprehensive Final 30%
Late work will be penalized. Any assignments submitted late will immediately decrease in maximum value by 10%. With every 24 hours that pass after the original due date and time the assignment will continue to lose an additional 10% in maximum weight. That means that after 5 days the assignment will have a maximum value of 50%. After 10 days the assignment has a value of 0%.
Quizzes and exams are not to be made up unless they meet similar conditions that are stated below for an incomplete course grade.

The following grading scale will be applied to each students accumulated course metric values.
100% - 92% A 91% - 90% A–
89% - 88% B+ 87% - 82% B 81% - 80% B–
79% - 78% C+ 77% - 72% C 71% - 70% C–
69% - 68% D+ 67% - 62% D 61% - 60% D–
59% - 0% F
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Academic dishonesty refers to cheating: a serious ethical issue. You are encouraged to work cooperatively with other students in the class. However, each student is expected to do his or her own assignments. Written work that appears to be copies of each other will not be given credit. Helping or being helped by, another student or the appearance of helping, or being helped by, another student during a quiz or an exam will be considered academic dishonesty. This will be grounds for a zero on the quiz or the exam.
NOTES:

It is the policy of the Computer Science department that you must receive a passing grade on the final exam (60% or higher) in order to pass the class.

A student who is participating in an official college activity for example, a member of an athletic team or a member of a performing arts organization may have an exception made to a deadline with a signed, written request from the sponsoring organization before the deadline. It is the student’s responsibility to obtain the written request.

Student work that has not been returned will be kept for one quarter.
 An incomplete grade will be given only in unusual circumstances. You must be passing the class at the time of the request for an incomplete, and there must be a serious event that prevents you from completing the class.
 A poor but passing grade will not be considered for an incomplete.