Faculty Contact Information:
| Regularly available at UMUC-Europe Headquarters, Im Bosseldorn 30, Heidelberg, room 50, DSN 370-6762, civilian 06221 / 37 82 08. | |
Consultation:
Before and after class as well as regularly available at UMUC-Europe Headquarters, Im Bosseldorn 30, Heidelberg, room 50, DSN 370-6762, civilian 06221 / 37 82 08.
Class meetings are 27/28 January, 24/25 February, 24/25 March, and 14/15 April. | |
Required Texts and Readings:
| Englander, I. (2003). Architecture of Computer Hardware & Systems Software, (3rd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. | |
Supplementary Readings:
The standard for papers in the graduate program is the APA style. All participants in this course and all graduate MSIT, INSS, MGMT, PUAD, and ECON courses should have a copy of the style guide:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington DC: Author.
All graduate students should be prepared to utilize theUMUC online library. The library contains a large number of full text academic journals that are free of charge and immediately available. The library homepage also contains a number of links related to improving students' research and writing skills. | |
Recommended Journals:
| Publications of the various professional societies (such as ACM -- the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE Computing Society, and the various management professional societies) are strongly recommended. In addition, there are many trade journals (such as eWEEK) that IT professionals should become familiar with, many of these being published both weekly and on-line. | |
Course Description:
| This course examines the major hardware and system software components and underlying technologies that are the basis of the modern digital computer. Major developments in the evolution of computers are reviewed first; theoretical and engineering topics include Boolean logic, the von Neumann architecture, and semiconductor device technology. The similarities and differences between mainframes, minicomputers, and microprocessors are then investigated. Supercomputer, parallel processor, and distributed system architectures are examined. Various types of storage media and input/output devices are discussed. An overview of system software elements, including operating systems and middleware, is also presented. The course concludes by introducing the student to advanced topics such as optical computers and biomolecular computers. | |
Course Goals:
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should understand and be able to apply knowledge concerning:
- Hardware and systems software components that "realize" modern computers.
- Basic theoretical and engineering concepts on which modern computing is based.
- Impact of design choices on performance.
- Current and emerging issues and trends in the design and production of computers.
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Course Objectives:
Upon successful completion of this course, the student should be able to:
- Describe the concept of the Turing Machine, and its relationship to modern computers.
- Analyze the concept, strengths, and weaknesses of the von Neumann architecture.
- Explain the technologies and economics of semiconductor chip production.
- Define the basic concepts of Boolean algebra and its implementation in hardware logic gates.
- Identify the components of computer hardware architectures, and how they interact.
- Describe the interaction between computer operating systems and the underlying hardware.
- Discuss the possible future of high performance computing, in terms of emerging technologies such as quantum and biomolecular computing.
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Grading Information:
Final grades will be calculated as follows:
30% - Mid-term examination - 25 February 2007
30% - Final Examination - 15 April 2007
30% - Assignments
10% - Participation
According to the Graduate School grading policy, the following symbols and scale are used:
A = excellent (90-100)
B = good (80-89)
C = passing (70-79)
F = failure (less than 70)
The grade of "B" represents the benchmark for the Graduate School. It indicates the student has demonstrated competency in the subject matter of the course, i.e., has fulfilled all course requirements on time, has a clear grasp of the full range of course materials and concepts, and is able to present and apply these materials and concepts in clear, reasoned, well-organized and grammatically correct responses, whether written or oral.
Only students who full meet this standard and, in addition, who demonstrate exceptional comprehension and application of the course subject matter, merit an "A."
Students who do not meet the benchmark standard of competency fall within the "C" range or lower. They, in effect, have not met graduate level standards. Where this failure is substantial, they earn an "F." | |
Course Requirements:
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Examinations. There will be a mid-term and a final examination. The questions will be designed to give students an opportunity to demonstrate not only how well they have assimilated the content of MSIT 620, but also how well they can apply the concepts. The mid-term and final examination will each account for 30% of the total grade.
Assignments. Complete graduate level projects or programming assignments, write graduate level papers or case studies: You are required to conduct professional-level research, including appropriately citing works of others and avoiding plagiarism. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
Participate in classroom discussions. You are expected to come to class prepared to engage in all discussions in a professional and informed manner. Usually this requires two to three hours for every hour of a face-to-face class and approximately ten hours of preparation per week for a DE class. | |
Description of Course Requirements:
Successful graduate students in American universities dedicate approximately three hours of preparation/study time for every hour spent in the face-to-face classroom. Thus, the following course requirements were developed on the assumption that students would be prepared to spend approximately 150 hours of their own time working on them. In an 8-week term, that is the equivalent of a half-time job. Most 14-week graduate distance education courses require at least 10 hours per week of dedicated time, plus time spent in the virtual classroom.
STATEMENT ON WRITING REQUIREMENTS:
Effective managers and leaders are also effective communicators. Written communication is an important element of the total communication process. The Graduate School recognizes and expects exemplary writing to be the norm for course work. To this end, all analyses and papers must demonstrate graduate level writing ability and comply with the format requirements of the Publications Manual of the American Psychological Association. All writing assignments will be graded on the basis of content, logic, analysis, mechanics, organization, and research. Careful attention should be given to source citations, proper listing of references, the use of footnotes, and the presentation of tables and graphs. Work submitted online should follow standard procedures for formatting and citation.
POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
Academic integrity is central to the learning and teaching process. Students are expected to conduct themselves in a manner that will contribute to the maintenance of academic integrity by making all reasonable efforts to prevent the occurrence of academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) obtaining or giving aid on an examination, having unauthorized prior knowledge of an examination, doing work for another student, and plagiarism of all types.
PLAGIARISM:
Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional presentation of another person's idea or product as one's own. Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to the following: copying verbatim all or part of another's written work; using phrases, charts, figures, illustrations, or mathematical or scientific solutions without citing the source; paraphrasing ideas, conclusions, or research without citing the source; and using all or part of a literary plot, poem, film, musical score, or other artistic product without attributing the work to its creator. Students can avoid unintentional plagiarism by following carefully accepted scholarly practices. Notes taken for papers and research projects should accurately record sources of material to be cited, quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, and papers should acknowledge these sources in footnotes. The penalties for plagiarism include a zero or a grade of F on the work in question, a grade of F in the course, suspension with a file letter, suspension with a transcript notation, or expulsion. Resubmission of course work from previous classes (whether or not taken at UMUC, UMUC-Europe or BSU), partially or in its entirety, is not acceptable in this course and will result in an automatic failure on the assignment.
DISABLED STUDENTS:
Students with disabilities who need to register or request services should contact the Staff Support Team four to six weeks in advance of registration to request and register for services.
COURSE EVALUATIONS:
Feedback on each graduate course and instructor is important to the university, your professor, and to all UMUC students. UMUC has the responsibility to assess the effectiveness of classroom instruction, and each student has the responsibility to provide accurate and timely feedback through completion of the course evaluation form. This is a shared obligation for us all. It is therefore important that you complete the evaluation form for each course you attend. This should be viewed as an additional course and program requirement. | |
Course Schedule:
This schedule presents 16 units or modules, with each unit corresponding to a half-day on weekend component.
All chapter references are to the course text.
SESSION 1: Introduction and Course Overview, 27 January
- Introductions
- Review of Syllabus
- Clarification of goals, objectives and requirements
- Orientation to the subject
- Overview of Computer Systems
Reading: Chapter 1
SESSION 2: Data in the Computer, 27 January
- Number Systems
- The related number systems bases 2, 8 and 16
- Numeric conversions between number bases
Reading: Chapter 2
SESSION 3: Data in the Computer, 28 January
- Data Formats
- Alphanumeric Character Data
- Image Data
- Other types of data
Reading: Chapter 3
SESSION 4: Data in the Computer, 28 January
- Representing Integer Data
- One's Complement and Two's Complement representations
- Arithmetic using Two's complement representations
- Floating Point Numbers
- Normalization and Formatting of Floating Point Numbers
- The IEEE 754 Standard
- Arithmetic using floating point representation
Readings: Chapters 4 and 5
SESSION 5: Computer Architecture and Hardware Operation, 24 February
- The Little Man Computer
- Operation of the Little Man Computer
- Sample Programs using the Little Man Computer
Readings: Englander Chapter 6
SESSION 6: Computer Architecture and Hardware Operation, 24 February
- The CPU and Memory
- Components of the CPU
- The Memory Unit
- The Fetch-Execute Instruction Cycle
- Instruction word formats
- CPU Architecture, CISC and RISC
Readings: Chapters 7 and 8, Supplementary chapters 1 and 2
SESSION 7: Computer Architecture and Hardware Operation, 25 February
- Input/Output Devices
- Interrupts
- Bus Architecture
- Peripherals
- The Hierarchy of Storage
- Displays and Printers
Readings: Chapters 9 and 10
SESSION 8: Mid Term Examination, 25 February
SESSION 9: Computer Architecture and Hardware Operation, 24 March
- Modern Computer Systems, Clusters and Networks
- High Performance Computing
- A detailed system example (Chapter 12 gives three system examples, it is suggested that
- you pick one for discussion.)
Readings: Chapters 11 and 12
SESSION 10: The Software Component, 24 March
- An overview of Operating Systems
- What the operating system does
- The Bootstrap
- Some history of operating systems
Reading: Chapter 13
SESSION 11: The Software Component, 25 March
- The User View of the Operating System
- Purpose of the User interface
- User functions
- Types of User interfaces
- Command and scripting languages
Reading: Chapter 14
SESSION 12: The Software Component, 25 March
- The internal operating system
- Processes and threads
- CPU scheduling
- Memory management
- Virtual storage
- Some details on an operating system (Chapter 18 gives some details on three operating systems, paralleling the three systems from chapter 12. It is suggested that you pick one for discussion.)
Readings: Chapters 15, 18
SESSION 13: The Software Component, 14 April
- File Management
- Logical and physical views of files
- Logical access
- Physical file storage
- The directory structure
Reading: Chapter 16
SESSION 14: The Software Component, 14 April
- Programming Tools
- Program Editors
- Program Translation
- Assemblers
- Metalanguages
- Linking and loading
Reading: Chapter 17
SESSION 15: Wrapping it up, 15 April
- Course review
- Course evaluation
SESSION 16: The end, 15 April
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Academic Policies:
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Faculty Bio:
| John Meinke, Collegiate Associate Professor with UMUC-Europe and Program Director of the Bowie State University MS in Management Information Systems program and the UMUC-Europe Master of Science in Information Technology program, earned the BA in Mathematics and the MEd in Mathematics Education from SUNY/Buffalo, the MAT in Mathematics from the University of Montana, and the MS in Computer Science from Illinois Institute of Technology. After a period with RCA Computer Systems Division, he became involved with post-secondary education, and has been involved in teaching and curriculum development in computing for three decades. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Computing Sciences in Colleges and on the Steering Committees of both the CCSC Eastern Conference and the CCSC Southeastern Conference. In addition, he serves as a consultant to the CEEB (College Board) AP (Advanced Placement) in Computer Science program. His areas of interest include curriculum development, computer architecture and operating systems. | |