Week 6

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 the goals of higher level programming languages and how they relate to machine code
Uses branches in the Little Computer to make decisions
Use conditionals in Python

Class Schedule

First Class Meeting

Little Computer Assembly and Branching
High level programming
Work on Programming

Independent:

Little Computer Assembly & Branch worksheets
Programming - Complete Ch 22
Programming - Ch 23 Reading

Second Class Meeting

Algorithm of the Week - Compression
Work on Programming

Independent:

Algorithm of the Week reading
Programming - Complete Ch 23
Programming - Ch 24 Reading
Work on the Impacts of Computing assignment

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 22 - Completion
Ch 23 - Reading & Completion
Ch 24 - 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.

Assembly & The Little Computer

Read about what an assembly language is and how to write assembly for the Little Computer: Ch 7.4-7.5 in Welcome To CS.
Do LC Assembly Worksheet (Class Files link in elearn)
You will need to make use of this Little Computer Assembler

Little Computer Branching

Last week, we saw how a simple computer would process information and use its memory. This week, we will look at how it could use branch instructions to allow us to say things like "if the number is positive, do this, otherwise do that" and "go back to instruction 4"

Read Ch 7.3 on the Little Computer in Welcome To CS to learn about the branch instructions.
Do LC Branching Worksheet (Class Files link in elearn)
You will need to make use of this Little Computer simulator

Higher Level Programming Languages

Read the rest of Ch 7 in Welcome to CS. It describes how the higher level programming languages (like the Python you are learning) relate to assembly and machine language.

Algorithm of the Week: Data Compression

Read Ch 7 of Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future
Read this Data Compression supplement. It demonstrates how to build a Huffman code - a version of the Shortest Symbol trick from Nine Algorithms.
Do the compression practice worksheet (Class Files in elearn)

Impacts of Computing

This week, you will participate in a discussion about the social impacts of Automatic Vehicle Recognition. See the Canvas assignment in this week's module for specific instructions

Optional Extras

How big-data and computation are transforming medicine: