caasnsr@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Clifford Adams) (07/30/88)
In article <2601@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> wes@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes: >Why not teach machine organization concepts right alongside HLL programming? >Certain topics, such as loop control and number crunching, could be programmed >in both an HLL and in assembly. This would give the beginning student both >a better understanding of the machine and some rudimentary skills in assembly >language. Here at New Mexico Tech there was (1 year ago) a course which basically fit the above description. It was called CS221, Computer Organization, with an associated lab (CS221L), Systems programming. The class taught the basics of computer and CPU organization, and taught the PDP assembly language. The lab taught C, and the students each used it to write an assembler subset for our VAX 11/750. Overall, the class was a good introduction to assembly language in a systems context. This year, however, the class has become a first-year class, and the lab has become a class of its own (probably due to the difficulty of the lab for some students). -- Clifford A. Adams --- "I understand only inasmuch as I become." ForthLisp Project Programmer (Goal: LISP interpreter in Forth) caasnsr@nmtsun.nmt.edu ...cmcl2!lanl!unm-la!unmvax!nmtsun!caasnsr
ho@svax.cs.cornell.edu (Alex Ho) (08/01/88)
In article <2601@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> wes@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes: > >Why not teach machine organization concepts right alongside HLL programming? >Certain topics, such as loop control and number crunching, could be programmed >in both an HLL and in assembly. This would give the beginning student both >a better understanding of the machine and some rudimentary skills in assembly >language. Both of these would serve him well in future, more advanced machine >organization courses. > last semester i completed a course similiar to what you describe above. the second of a three semester sequence of "introduction to computer science" at u.c. berkeley, we were taught 1) programming in c; 2) programming in vax assembly; and 3) computer architecture. the major programming project for the course was to write a risc I simulator in c on the vax. what fun! the goal of the course was exactly what you describe above. learn a hll and machine architecture at the same time. it worked. >Comments should go to comp.edu; I'm redirecting them there. i hope it makes it there. --- alex ho university of california, berkeley ho@svax.cs.cornell.edu a lost eecs major (spending the summer at) cornell university
erict@flatline.UUCP (j eric townsend) (08/02/88)
In article <834@nmtsun.nmt.edu>, caasnsr@nmtsun.nmt.edu (Clifford Adams) writes: > In article <2601@ukecc.engr.uky.edu> wes@engr.uky.edu (Wes Morgan) writes: > >Why not teach machine organization concepts right alongside HLL programming? > >Certain topics, such as loop control and number crunching,could be programmed > >in both an HLL and in assembly. This would give the beginning student both > >a better understanding of the machine and some rudimentary skills in assembly > >language. > > Here at New Mexico Tech there was (1 year ago) a course which > basically fit the above description. It was called CS221, Computer > Organization, with an associated lab (CS221L), Systems programming. > The class taught the basics of computer and CPU organization, and > taught the PDP assembly language. The lab taught C, and the students > each used it to write an assembler subset for our VAX 11/750. There is (was?) a similar class at University of Houston. It was based on PDP assembly, and the students wrote various utility type programs while getting a rough view of how utilities/commands work w/in a given os and hardware. There is a compiler/operating systems class pair that, as I understand it, has the students write a simple compiler one semester and a simple operating system the next. I could have been lied to, however. :-) -- Motorola Skates on Intel's Head! J. Eric Townsend ->uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict smail:511Parker#2,Hstn,Tx,77007 ..!bellcore!tness1!/