VT Computer Science

Description:

An introduction to high-level computer architecture and systems concepts, system software and programming in C.

Covers information representation, basic computer organization, fundamentals of the x86 architecture, the relationship between the C programming language and x86 assembly language, the use of debugging and other system tools, and the development of small- to medium-sized software solutions in C.

Having successfully completed this course, the student will be able to:

understand the representation of information at the hardware level;
understand the different layers of abstraction in a computing system, i.e., logic design, computer architecture, machine language, assembly language, high level language;
write simple to moderately complex programs in C;
be able to apply common UNIX tools, such as gdb and objdump, to analyze, debug and correct C programs;
be able to operate efficiently in a UNIX command-line environment.

Together with CS2506, this course replaces CS2204 and CS2504.

Prerequisites: C or better in CS 2114

Corequisites: Math 2534

Recent Offerings:

CS 2505: Computer Organization I