Knowledge and understanding: knowledge of the structure, the technologies, and the functioning of digital system architectures based on processors, and of their programming in C and assembly. Applying knowledge and understanding: providing the necessary knowledge to understand the modern architectures of processor based digital architectures and to program processors in C and assembly. Making judgments: to develop the ability to independently study, understand and critically evaluate the problems and their solutions in digital system architectures and their programming. Communication skills: to develop the ability to communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions in the field of digital system architectures and their programming. Learning skills: to develop the necessary competence for studying novel digital system architectures and novel programming systems.

Computer science fundamentals

Computer abstractions and technology; instructions: language of the computer; arithmetic for computers; the processor; basic C programming elements.

Hennessy. Computer organization and design ARM edition: the hardware software interface. Morgan Kaufmann, 2016. Ritchie, Dennis M. and Brian W. Kernighan, The C programming language. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1988.

Theory: classroom teaching with slides; exercise and lab activities: in classroom and in labs equipped with PCs. The teaching material, including exercises and problems, is made available to students through the Moodle platform.

Clarifications about the course topics are possible also outside lectures by contacting the professor personally or by email.

The exam aims at verifying that the student is confident with processor based digital architectures and their programming. The exam consists in a written exam, composed by programming exercises and open questions, and an oral exam.

This course explores topics closely related to one or more goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs).