CSC 231 Microprocessors and Assembly Language

An introduction to the architecture of the Intel Pentium class processor and its assembly language in the Linux environment. Students write programs in assembly and explore the architectural features of the Pentium, including its use of the memory, the data formats used to represent information, the implementation of high-level language constructs, integer and floating-point arithmetic, and how the processor deals with I/O devices and interrupts.

By the end of this course, you will learn about the basic structure of a computer and how a computer runs a program. We will look at how programs expressed in a high-level programming language (e.g., Python, Java, C) get executed by computer hardware as a collection of 1’s and 0’s.

This course will also familiarize you with standard tools and programs from the Linux and Unix command shell programming environment for efficiently performing tasks with programs and data both locally and remotely. We will look at computer architecture, data representations, and machine code implementations of high-level programming languages such as Python and Java. This course will also help you develop the Essential Capacities for Smith Students and connect course concepts with issues in the field of computing through critical thinking exercises.