Computers are rapidly changing the way people think and live. We can use them to talk to each other, we can use them to play games, control robots and do any crazy thing that you could probably imagine. How do computer perform all these works?

The computers we use today look different from each other, but across all computers, regardless of the different types of technology they use, they’re always doing these same four things: they take in information, they store it as data, they process it, and then they output the results. This course will show you how the computers do these four things step by step.  

This course takes the MIPS microprocessors as the example, comprehensively explains the computer working principle and interface technology.

It first introduces the basic structure and working principle of computer systems, and then the information representation, storage and operation rules in computers.

Then focuses on MIPS instruction system, assembly language implementation of commonly used C language statements.

After that, a specific implementation of a single-cycle microprocessor is introduced based on a simple MIPS instruction set.

It also describes the computer’s hierarchical storage system and management mechanism in detail, including cache, memory management technologies.

After that, various types of bus technology are briefly introduced, which are the interconnection paths of different components.

Semiconductor memories are the main memory of the computer system, how the semiconductor memory chips are organized to construct the main memory and are connected to the system bus is also illustrated in detail.

In addition to the processor and a set of memory modules, the third key element of a computer system is a set of I/O modules. The various ways in which the I/O function can be performed in cooperation with the processor and memory will be examined in detail, which includes programmed I/O, interrupt driven I/O and DMA.

The entire course includes two computer languages: assembly language and C language. Assembly language helps readers to deeply understand the internal working mechanism of the computer. C language is mainly used to write various interface drivers. It explains the contents from computer’s microstructure to high-level language programming and strives to help readers to build a solid knowledge system about digital circuits and computer working principles.

The experiment and practice platform involved in this course includes MARS (4.5) MIPS simulator, FPGA integrated development kit-vivado (2018.1), FPGA board-Nexys4 or Nexys4 DDR.

After completing the course, you can grasp the following knowledge:

1) The architecture and organization of computer 

2) MIPS assembly language programming

3) The interaction between software and hardware

4) The technology used in computer's memory system

5) The technology used in computer's IO system

6) The IO interface circuit design and programming

7) The internal memory interface circuit design

1. digital circuits and logic design

2. C language programming
   

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[2].William Stallings.Computer Organization and Architecture Designing for Performance (8th Edition). PearsonPrentice Hall. 2006.

[3]. Robert Britton. MIPS Assembly Language Programming. Chico,California, 2003.

[4].Randal E. Bryant, David R. O’Hallaron. Computer Systems-A Programmer's Perspective. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2003.

[5]. Barry B. Brey. The Intel Microprocessors 8086/8088,80186/80188, 80286, 80386, 80486, Pentium, Pentium Pro Processor, Pentium H,Pentium m and Pentium 4 Architecture, Programming, and Interfacing. 7th Edition. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. 2006.