This course is a natural bridge between the first-year course “Computer Science” and the following courses on computer engineering, including “Operating Systems” and “Computer Networks”. Its role is therefore to smoothly and naturally complete the basic knowledge of a computing system acquired during the course “Computer Science” and, at the same time, to gently stimulate the Student to target at more complex issues such as the low level programming and a deeper understanding of the hardware and software interactions of the different components in a computer. By attending this course the Student is expected to increase her/his overview and knowledge of computer based systems, to become more aware of the issues related to the design and management of a computer, and to have one more opportunity to nurture the curiosity qualities that are at the basis of a future Computer Engineer. An important contribution to successfully meet the above expectations comes from the laboratory lectures, where the Students are provided with the possibility of studying and practically approach how to use physical hardware computer platforms to solve real problems.

A deep and well-assessed knowledge and experience of the topics covered during the first-year course “Computer Science” is definitely highly recommended.

• Basics, examples and exercises of simple combinational and sequential circuit design and related issues, such as testing of the correct behavior, memory/area/speed tradeoff, energy consumption, delay and critical path; • The components of a microprocessor-based system and their interactions: CPU, cache memory, main memory, secondary memory, peripherals, Input/Output devices and related addressing and communication issues, buses and addressing modes; • Some “milestones” of Computer Engineering: virtualization, parallelization of operations, operating systems, reduced instruction set computers, configurable devices. • An introduction to the Assembly language.

• Class lectures: about 62% of the course duration; • Class exercise time: about 20% of the course duration; • Assisted laboratories: about 18% of the course duration. Students are highly invited to interact with Lecturers, both at lecture and exercise times. In addition, Students are highly recommended to interact also by using the resources made available through the web pages of the Course, such as the Forum tools.

• Any general purpose textbook covering the topics of the course; • Optional additional material provided by the Lecturers. Additional reading (among all): • V.C. Hamacher et al., Computer Organization, McGraw-Hill, 2005 • M. Morris Mano, C. R. Kime, Logic and Computer Design Fundamentals, 4th edition, Pearson Prentice-Hall, 2008

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam;

The written exam lasts about 45 minutes. The written exam (accounting up to 24 points) is composed of closed-ended and open-ended questions on the whole program of the course, to be responded in written form on the same paper with the text, which will be given to the students. A mandatory oral exam (accounting up to 9 additional points) follows the written exam, from a few hours to a few days after the written exam. The oral and the written parts cover the whole program of the course. In order to have access to the oral exam, it is necessary a minimum score of 14 points for the written part. Otherwise a rejection will be recorded. A rejection will be also committed if the overall score of the closed-ended questions is not greater than zero points. The mandatory oral exam questions (no more than 3) will span the full program and can also involve the discussion of the laboratory exercises. Failure to satisfactorily responding a single question, will imply a negative score for that question and the immediate termination of the oral exam. If less than 18 points are obtained, a rejection will be registered. The final grade will be determined by adding up all the points collected by the student and rounding the numerical result if it is larger-than/equal-to 18. Laude will be granted to all students whose number of points is larger than 31.5 (before the rounding). Overall, the exam is targeted at evaluating the students both about their knowledge of basic computing systems architectures and their design. Several problems proposed as previous written parts will be made available to the students through the web page of the course.

In addition to the message sent by the online system, students with disabilities or Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) are invited to directly inform the professor in charge of the course about the special arrangements for the exam that have been agreed with the Special Needs Unit. The professor has to be informed at least one week before the beginning of the examination session in order to provide students with the most suitable arrangements for each specific type of exam.

Exam: Compulsory oral exam; Computer-based written test using the PoliTo platform;

The structure, although migrated to online devices/platforms, is the same as described in the section "onsite exams". Due to the lockdown and social distancing requirements, the implementation of the exam could be affected by the way it can be run, as well as by the tools and restrictions available at the time of a call(s). In such a case, the flow will be implemented under any "new restrictions" as much as possible to be consistent with the rules holding in the years 2019-20, i.e. before the COVID-19 era. In particular, the way all of this will be run, depends on the choice of the hw/sw tools that will be chosen. It is for sure that all students should have a stable internet connection, one optional additional device with a second webcam, a microphone in addition to a computing system (i.e., a laptop with working webcam), which is compatible with the tools that will be used, likely polito’s virtualclass and zoom.us client, plus additional software (if any) as indicated through portale della didattica by professors. Once more, in such a case, the professors will inform the students through portale della didattica and as soon as possible, about the flow, the way how the rules are implemented and the requirements for attending the exam remotely. An example of implementation of the rules in a remote exam situation (summer 2020, i.e. february 2020 with minor variations, call) is found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3i1yrezbgwswg3w/AACDck2j1ree_3ha2I-deQjoa?dl=0 The goal, as stated above, is to try to replicate as much as possible, the flow of the exam as it was before the COVID-19 era.

Exam: Written test; Compulsory oral exam; Computer-based written test using the PoliTo platform;

The structure, although migrated to online devices/platforms, is the same as described in the section "onsite exams". FOR ONLINE STUDENTS: Due to the lockdown and social distancing requirements, the implementation of the exam could be affected by the way it can be run, as well as by the tools and restrictions available at the time of a call(s). In such a case, the flow will be implemented under any "new restrictions" as much as possible to be consistent with the rules holding in the years 2019-20, i.e. before the COVID-19 era. In particular, the way all of this will be run, depends on the choice of the hw/sw tools that will be chosen. It is for sure that all students should have a stable internet connection, one optional additional device with a second webcam, a microphone in addition to a computing system (i.e., a laptop with working webcam), which is compatible with the tools that will be used, likely polito’s virtualclass and zoom.us client, plus additional software (if any) as indicated through portale della didattica by professors. Once more, in such a case, the professors will inform the students through portale della didattica and as soon as possible, about the flow, the way how the rules are implemented and the requirements for attending the exam remotely. An example of implementation of the rules in a remote exam situation (summer 2020, i.e. february 2020 with minor variations, call) is found at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/3i1yrezbgwswg3w/AACDck2j1ree_3ha2I-deQjoa?dl=0 The goal, as stated above, is to try to replicate as much as possible, the flow of the exam as it was before the COVID-19 era. FOR ONSITE STUDENTS: In case of blended exams, depending on the number of students involved, dates and other logistics constraints, the exam could be run, for onsite students in one of the following two ways (the students will be promptly informed about which mode will be used call by call): 1) onsite-mode: please see the rules & organization for onsite exams; 2) BYOD-mode: students, even if are present in person, have to bring their own device and have the exam as if they were online; please see rules and organization for online exams