Week 5

Learning objectives

Upon finishing this learning module, you should be able to:

Discuss and describe the major components of a CPU and their purpose, and the fundamental machine execution cycle (fetch-decode-execute)
Trace the execution of and write simplified machine code programs
Describe and perform common error detection and correction tricks used by computers
Use loops to build programs that create or modify images

Quiz 2 is open this Thurs-Saturday

Class Schedule

First Class Meeting

Machine Architecture & The Little Computer sections
Work on Programming

Independent:

Little Computer worksheet 1
Programming - Complete Ch 20
Programming - Ch 21 Reading

Second Class Meeting

Algorithm of the Week activity - Error detection and correction
Work on Programming

Independent:

Algorithm of the Week reading
Programming - Complete Ch 21
Programming - Ch 22 Reading

Programming

Do the following assignments based on Programming chapters from Welcome To CS. Completion assignments are graded for accuracy. Reading assignments are graded for attempting all of the interactive elements on the assigned pages.

Ch 20 - Completion
Ch 21 - Reading & Completion
Ch 22 - Reading - Stop when you hit the Chapter Summary

Make sure you are logged into the book so your work is saved and you get credit. The surest way to make sure you are logged in is to start the programming assignment by clicking on the button in the corresponding assignment in Elearn.

Machine Architecture & the Machine Cycle

Read about the major components of a CPU and the machine cycle: Chapter 6 of the computing section of Welcome To CS.
Optional This video is a good secondary source. The first 12.5 minutes do a nice job of showing a processor at work. (From minute 12:30 until the end gets into more detail than we are going to worry about, but you may find it interesting.)

Machine Code and the Little Computer

Read Ch 7.1 - Machine Language in Welcome To CS. Just the one page this links to, not all of the Programming Languages chapter
Rather than try to work with real machine language, we are going to use something called the Little Computer to see what a program is like at this level. Read Ch 7.2 about the Little Computer in Welcome to CS. (Just one page - there is more about the Little Computer that we will tackle next week.)
Do the practice problems from LC Worksheet 1 (Files area in elearn). You will need to make use of this Little Computer simulator

Algorithm of the Week: Error Detection & Correction

Read Ch 5 of Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future
Optional Check out the algorithms that allow for checking credit card numbers and ISBN numbers in books.