Computer Organisation

What it covers

• Boolean algebra, logic gates, Karnaugh maps, combinational/sequential circuits, CMOS
• Number systems: signed-integer representations, BCD, IEEE 754 floating point
• x86-64 AT&T assembly: registers, addressing modes, stack frames, calling conventions, recursion
• CPU datapath: fetch-decode-execute, control signals
• Memory hierarchy: caches, virtual memory, paging, TLB
• Pipelining, hazards, superscalar execution, Amdahl's Law, Flynn's taxonomy

Assessment

Gamified point system: final grade = total points / 1000 (capped at 10000 pts → 10.0). Midterm + Endterm exams each max 4000 pts, combined 80% of the grade — but a combined exam score below 4000/8000 fails the course regardless of other points. Three mandatory pass/fail labs (Powers, Recursion, Memory; done in pairs) plus eight optional bonus labs and weekly self-study cycles fill the rest. Exams: 90 min, closed-book, no calculator, fully open-ended since 2021 (pre-2021 papers were MCQ and less representative). Full resit offered next quarter; points don't carry over between academic years.

Resources

• Crash Course Computer Science
• 2018 endterm solved
• Turing Complete — a game teaching computers from the gate up.

Worth knowing

• Exam questions are narrative, with recurring characters (e.g. "Max the Marmot") that hint at the underlying topic — learn to read the story as a clue, not flavour text.
• Format shifted from 100% MCQ (2019) to fully open-ended with justification (2021 onward); weight pre-2021 papers accordingly.
• The 4000/8000-point exam minimum is a hard gate — lab and quiz points can't compensate for a weak exam.
• Labs are graded strictly: no hardcoded solutions, correct calling-convention/stack-frame use required for TA sign-off.