COMP1521: Computer Systems Fundamentals

2 x Assignment - 30%
8 x Weekly Tests - 10% (taking best 6 of 8 marks, each worth 1.7)
9 x Lab Questions - 15% (can get more than 15% but total is capped at 15%)
Final Exam - 45%

Prerequisites are either having done COMP1511 or COMP1911 or DPST1091 or COMP1917 - taken from link above
also below, stolen from course website for 20T2
- write simple programs in the C programming language
- define and invoke functions and return results in C
- define and manipulate structured data in C
- use pointers to access data objects
'These are assumed to have been acquired in COMP1511 or COMP1911.'

Really interesting course! Well-structured as well; given the prerequisites to do this course, it's actually quite easy to follow along and a lot of the stuff earlier in the term has some relevance later in the term which is really cool to see (makes you see the applications of everything you learn, even if some other applications weren't explored in depth). Cool topics (bar probably assembly code - improves logic, and was very fun but clunky and annoying to write up) and provided small intros to other comp courses later in uni (comp1511 didn't really do this as it was more just an intro to coding in general). Lectures were great - getting shown sample code/programs and seeing stuff that we were learning about actually happening made it really easy to learn. Would definitely recommend as a course regardless of if you have a predetermined path that doesn't require this course or not

2 x 2 hour lectures, 1 x 1 hour tutorial, 1 x 2 hour lab

3/5

Yes - streamed on teams/private youtube

Andrew Taylor

Cheatsheets + references, lecture slides and lecture code and more all available on course website for the term

4.5/5

No

2020 T2

91 HD

Prerequisites:

A very easy course, with very little content. A few weeks were spent learning MIPS, which is easy to anyone with experience programming before, and is basically a few weeks of free marks. Lecture slides were sufficient for me, and I didn't go to lectures, so I can't comment on the lecturer. Overall a kind of boring course, but I enjoyed the MIPS programming somewhat. Those interested in embedded systems will probably like this course a lot more. Bit of a tip: don't change your perfectly fine code just before the submission deadline; it will break everything and you'll lose a mark because they have to roll your submission back (FeelsBadMan).

2hr + 1hr Lecture, 1x 1hr Tutorial + 2hr Lab (Combined)

1/5

Yes - screen and voice recorded.

Dr. John Shepherd

Lecture slides and course material all uploaded to WebCMS. Since it was the first year offering this course, there were no past exams available, but tutors made sample questions, and past COMP1927 exam questions were located by students, of which a few related to COMP1521.

2/5

None, but the following resources cover some of the course content:

• Introduction to Computer Systems: From Bits and Gates to C and Beyond , by Yale N. Patt and Sanjay J. Patel, McGraw Hill
• Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective , by Randal E. Bryant and David R. O'Hallaron, Prentice-Hall
• nand2tetris: The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles , by Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken, MIT Press

2017 S2

99 HD

- 10% spread across 6 quizzes
- 9% assignment on assembly code
- 11% assignment on C
- 10% spread across labs
- 60% final exam

COMP1511 is the sole prerequisite and is sufficient.

This course is one of the follow-ups to COMP1511, generally taken in the next semester (but can be delayed a fair bit for students not studying CompEng or not considering OS later on).

There are two halves to this course in my opinion. The first half essentially focused on what was going on within/inside the computer when programs are being executed - hence the discussion on assembly. The assembly language used was based off the MIPS architecture (although we used the SPIM simulator when writing up MIPS code), Conceptually it wasn't really hard understanding MIPS - all we had to do was convert C code into it, but it can be quite tedious. The MIPS assignment was straightforward but certainly time consuming and not something that could easily be winged. (Most people understood MIPS well enough as required by the course towards the end of the semester. but it may have caused difficulty during the learning phase.)

But it wasn't just assembly, like MIPS only lasted 2.5 weeks or so. There's also a slightly more in depth discussion with memory management and also the introduction of bit fields/unions. All of that stuff though I think I just rote learnt and took for granted.
The second half presented all the systems - we looked at the Unix file systems and tools and techniques that software/hardware developers used (e.g. sockets, concurrency). Moral of the story with all of that -

2 x 2hr lecture, (1hr tutorial followed by 2hr laboratory)

3/5

Yes

Dr John Shepherd

Lecture slides on webcms3 - seemed sufficient

4/5

None prescribed. Recommended was "Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective , by Randal E. Bryant and David R. O'Hallaron, Prentice-Hall" but I never had to use it.

18s2

94 HD