Welcome to CIS 2400! We’re super excited to have you here this term!

Announcements

Please fill out the course survey. We will use this to facilitate several important aspects of CIS 2400.

Due Next

Calendar

Wellness and Inclusion

It is very important to us that you succeed in CIS 2400. We provide many extra resources to help you.

Travis and the TAs hold many office hours
The Ed discussion board, where anonymous and private posts are allowed
Travis and the TAs can be contacted directly via email
Meetings with Travis can be scheduled here: https://www.cis.upenn.edu/~tqmcgaha/#meetings

It is also very important to us that you maintain your mental wellness throughout the course. A few points are not worth losing sleep over. Everyone on the course staff is available to chat, and you can always attend office hours for a non-academic conversation if necessary. You can also visit counseling services if you find you need help beyond the course staff. If you have a temporary health condition or permanent disability (either mental health or physical health related), you should contact the Weingarten Center if you have not already. Additionally, if there is something we can do to make your experience better, please let us know.

All participants in the course have a right to a learning environment that feels safe, where you are treated with respect and feel that you can contribute ideas constructively. Put another way, you have the right to an inclusive learning environment.

We want every student to feel that they have a safe and healthy learning environment, and if at any point you feel like this is not the case in any way, we encourage you to let course staff know so that we can help.

Tools

Ed Discussion •OHQ •Poll Everywhere •Gradescope •Grades •Zoom

Course Staff

Instructor

Travis McGaha

any/all

Book a meeting!

Levine 269 A

tqmcgaha@seas.upenn.edu

Teaching Assistants

Ali

he/him

krema@seas

Andrew

he/him

arigas@seas

Anisha

she/her

anishab@sas

Audrey

she/her

auyang@seas

Craig

he/him

leecraig@seas

Daniel

he/him

duaniel@seas

David

he/him

davidlz@wharton

Eddy

he/him

eddyyang@seas

Ernest

he/him

ngernest@seas

Heyi

she/her

heyiliu@seas

Janavi

she/her

janavic@seas

Jason

he/him

jasonhom@seas

Kat

she/her

katawang@seas

Kyrie

she/her

kyrdo@seas

Mohamed

he/him

alnasir7@seas

Noam

he/him

nelul@seas

Patrick

he/him

pkehinde@seas

Patricia

she/her

mariaagn@sas

Ria

she/her

rias@wharton

Sarah

she/her

saluthra@wharton

Sofia

smouchta@seas

References

The following is a list of references that you might find helpful throughout the course.

Course Information

Syllabus – an overview of the course and course policies

Meeting Requests – For requesting meetings with the course instructor

Course Setup

VMWare Install instructions – Instructions for setting up the CIS 2400 virtual machine

PennSim.jar – A copy of the PennSim.jar used for various homeworks, just in case you need to redownload it

Course Texts

Dive Into Systems Textbook – An optional textbook that contains well written information on most things covered in the class

C reference – a reference of features and useful utilites in C.

Linux Man Pages – Contains useful information on user terminal commands (section 1) and C standard library functions (section 3)

LC4 References

LC4 Instruction Sheet – Contains an organized table of all LC4 instructions and their behaviour

LC4 Single Cycle Processor – Shows an high level view of a single-cycle LC4 processor

Control Signals Description – Lists every control signal in LC4, its possible values, and what those different values mean for each control signal.

ALU Internals for LC4 single-cycle – Shows some details for how the ALU would is implemented in this single cycle LC4 processor.

Schedule

L00	Wed, Aug 31	Introduction and Binary [ pdf ] Course administrivia. Everything is Bits. Binary/Decimal conversions. Hexadecimal. ASCII. Finite Length Integers.
:(	Mon, Sep 05	No Class
L01	Wed, Sep 07	2's Compliment, Overflow, Floats [ pdf ] 2's Compliment, arithmetic operations, integer overflow, IEEE floats (start)
Survey00 (Pre-Semester Survey) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Sep 09
Check-in00 (Binary Representation) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Sep 12
L02	Mon, Sep 12	Rounding, Logical Op's, Boolean Algerbra [ pdf ] IEEE floats (cont.), Logical operators, Shifting, Boolean Algerbra & Simplification float_add.c int_float.c
R00	Tue, Sep, 13 Wed, Sep 14	Recitation00: Binary Representation [ slides ] 2C, Hexadecimal, IEEE Floats
L03	Wed, Sep 14	Intro to CMOS [ pdf ] Brief Circuits & Physics, Introduction to CMOS transistors, Designing CMOS Circuits (start) bonus_transistor_internals.pdf
hw00 (Binary Representation Quiz) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Sep 16
Check-in01 (Logic & CMOS) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Sep 19
L04	Mon, Sep 19	Designing CMOS, Gates, PLAs [ pdf ] Designing CMOS (cont.), Gates, PLAs, Gate Delays & Other physical world concerns
R01	Tue, Sep, 20 Wed, Sep 21	Recitation01: Boolean Algebra & VM [ slides ] Boolean Algebra, Truth Tables, VM Setup & Terminal Demo
L05	Wed, Sep 21	Combinational Logic [ pdf ] Incrementer, Adder, Subtracter, Muxes, Multiplier
hw01 (bits.c) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Sep 23
Check-in02 (Gates & Combinational Logic) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Sep 26
L06	Mon, Sep 26	Sequential Logic [ pdf ] SR Latch, D Latch, Clock, D Flip Flops
R02	Tue, Sep, 27 Wed, Sep 28	Recitation02: Transistors & Gates [ slides ] Transistors, CMOS Logic & Design, PLA's, Gates
L07	Wed, Sep 28	Memory: Heirarchy, Registers [ pdf ] Flip Flops -> Memory, Memory Heirarchy, Registers, LC4 ISA (start)
hw02 (Combinational Logic Written) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Sep 30
Check-in03 (LC4) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Oct 03
L08	Mon, Oct 03	LC4 ISA [ pdf ] LC4 examples, labels, memory, LC4 instruction overview
R03	Tue, Oct, 04 Wed, Oct 05	Recitation03: Sequential Logic [ slides ] Latch, Flip Flop, Gate Delay, Clock & Timing
L09	Wed, Oct 05	PennSim, LC4 Control Structures, LC4 Memory [ pdf ] PennSim, LC4 Control Structures, Pointers, Memory, Strings, Arrays multiply.asm multiply_script.txt sum_numbers.asm sum_numbers_script.txt strlen.asm strlen_script.txt
hw03 (Sequential Logic Written) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Oct 07
L10	Mon, Oct 10	LC4 Single Cycle Processor [ pdf ] LC4 Single Cycle Processor & Control Signals
R04	Tue, Oct, 11 Wed, Oct 12	Recitation04: LC4 [ slides ] LC4 ASM Design & Practice, Penn Sim Demo
Check-in04 (LC4, Pointers, Memory) due @ 04:59 pm on Wed, Oct 12
L11	Wed, Oct 12	Processor Wrapup & OS Intro [ pdf ] LC4 Single Cycle Processor Discussion and Operating System Start
hw04 (LC4 Programming) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Oct 14
Check-in05 (LC4 Single Cycle) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Oct 17
L12	Mon, Oct 17	I/O and subroutines in LC4 [ pdf ] I/O in LC4 (start) echo.asm echo_script.txt
R05	Tue, Oct, 18 Wed, Oct 19	Recitation05: Datapth [ slides ] Single-cycle Processor Components, Control Signals
L13	Wed, Oct 19	OS in LC4 [ pdf ] I/O in LC4 (cont.), Subroutines,OS in LC4 draw_horizontal_line.asm draw_horizontal_line_script.txt
hw05 (Control Signals C Program) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Oct 21
L14	Mon, Oct 24	Midterm Review [ pdf ] Midterm Practice Questions made by Travis ./review_answers
R06	Tue, Oct, 25 Wed, Oct 26	Recitation06: Midterm Review [ slides ] Midterm Review
E00	Wed, Oct 26	Midterm Exam 05:15 pm - 06:45 pm @ Chem 102 [exam info]
L15	Mon, Oct 31	C: Basics & Pointers [ pdf ] C vs Java, Control Structures, Printing, Pointers, Arrays, Strings
R07	Tue, Nov, 01 Wed, Nov 02	Recitation07: OS & C [ slides ] OS Traps, Directives, Strings, Pointers, Intro C
Check-in06 (LC4 I/O and OS) due @ 04:59 pm on Wed, Nov 02
L16	Wed, Nov 02	C: Memory [ pdf ] Global Memory, The Stack, The Heap, Structs, Creating Datastructures memcorrupt.c queue_example/Makefile queue_example/queue.c queue_example/queue.h queue_example/main_queue.c
hw06 (Video Game) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Nov 04
Check-in07 (C & Memory) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Nov 07
L17	Mon, Nov 07	C: Compilation & Tools [ pdf ] C Pre-Processor, gcc, Header Files, Makefiles, valgrind, gdb
R08	Tue, Nov, 08 Wed, Nov 09	Recitation08: Heap & C Tools [ slides ] The Heap, Structs, Makefiles, GDB, Valgrind
L18	Wed, Nov 09	C: Command Line Args & File I/O [ pdf ] Command Line Arguments, File I/O with stdio.h, binary files, endianness print_args.c copy_file.c write_floats.c read_floats.c
Survey01 (Mid-Semester Survey) due @ 11:59 pm on Wed, Nov 09
hw07 (Stack & Stack Calculator) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Nov 11
Check-in08 (LC4 Memory) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Nov 14
L19	Mon, Nov 14	Stack & Globals in Detail, Calling Conventions (start) [ pdf ] Accessing Memory, Calling Conventions, Caller vs. Callee
R09	Tue, Nov, 15 Wed, Nov 16	Recitation09: Binary Files [ slides ] Bitwise Operations, Endianness, C File I/O, hexdump
L20	Wed, Nov 16	Calling Conventions (cont.), Implications of the Stack [ pdf ] Calling Conventions (cont.), Stack Frames, Overhead & Runtime Concerns
hw08 (Disassembler) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Nov 18
L21	Mon, Nov 21	Translating C to ASM [ pdf ] C to ASM, Control Structures
R10	Tue, Nov, 22 Wed, Nov 23	Recitation10: Relaxed Office Hours [ slides ] HW8 Office hours
:(	Wed, Nov 23	No Class
Check-in09 (LC4, C, Memory, Stack) due @ 04:59 pm on Mon, Nov 28
L22	Mon, Nov 28	History, Modern Processors, Modern ISAs [ pdf ]
hw09 (cancelled) due @ 11:59 pm on Mon, Nov 28
R11	Tue, Nov, 29 Wed, Nov 30	Recitation11: J Compiler [ slides ] J Compiler Overview
:(	Wed, Nov 30	No Class
hw10 (Compiler Pt. 1) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Dec 02
L23	Mon, Dec 05	Special Topics: Java vs C, C tips [ pdf ]
R12	Tue, Dec, 06 Wed, Dec 07	Recitation12: J Compiler Pt. 2 [ slides ] Calling Conventions, J Compiler Pt.2 overview
L24	Wed, Dec 07	Course Wrap-Up [ pdf ]
hw11 (Compiler Pt. 2) due @ 11:59 pm on Fri, Dec 09
L25	Mon, Dec 12	Final Exam Review [ pdf ] memset.asm final_review_answers
E01	Thu, Dec 15	Final Exam 06:00 pm - 08:00 pm @ MEYH B1 [exam info]

Credits

Credit to Professor Adam Blank (they/them), who gave Travis McGaha this website template :D
More on Adam can be found on their website here.