Time and Location: Tuesday/Thursday 3:30pm-4:50PM, Zoom (link is available on blackboard)
Instructor: Adwait Jog (Personal Website)
Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 5PM to 6:30PM or by appointment, Zoom (same link as above)
Email: ajog@wm.edu
Deadlines: Feb 5 (add/drop deadline) and March 29 (last day to withdraw). Refer to the UG calender for more details.
Exam Dates: March 15-16 (Midterm Exam) and May 10 (Final Exam, 2:00 to 5:00PM). Refer to the Fall 2021 Final Exam Schedule for more details.
Prerequisite(s): CSCI 304 and either CSCI 301 or CSCI 303. Experience with Python programming is desired (equivalent to CSCI 140/141). If you do not meet these requirements, please talk to the instructor.
Required Textbook: Computer Organization and Design, Patterson & Hennessey (P&H), 5th Edition (MIPS Edition), see this website for more details.
Materials: We will primarily use Blackboard for delivering and submitting materials. Piazza will be used for course announcements and discussions.
Help: It is important to start working on homeworks early. If you need help, show up in the office hours or ask questions in or after the class. You are also highly encouraged to use piazza to ask questions. You are also expected to attend all lectures.
Homework Assignments (25%)
Activities (mostly in-class) (25%)
Midterm Exam (25%)
Final Exam (25%)
Final letter grades will be given based on the standard scale used in W&M. Grades may be curved at the instructor's discretion.
Homework assignments should be submitted electronically on Blackboard by 23:00 hrs on the due date in the PDF format. You may use MS-word or Latex to typeset your answers, however, final submission must be in the PDF format. Submission in any other format (including hand-written and then scanned PDFs) will not be graded and will receive zero.
Homework submission deadlines are hard. However, we do have a late/miss policy for homeworks only:
You can have up to a 48-hour extension for any three (3) homeworks of your choice.
If you use up all your three (3) extensions, homeworks will not accepted after the deadline and zero points will be awarded.
You can collaborate on the homework problems with one more student currently enrolled in the class. However, you must write up each problem solution by yourself without assistance. You must also identify your collaborator. If you did not work with anyone, you should write ”Collaborator: none.” It is a violation of this policy to submit a problem solution that you cannot orally explain to the instructor.
There will be periodic in-class problem solving activities. You are expected to participate in them. Once the activity is complete, you need to submit your answer sheet (in PDF format) on Blackboard on the same day by 23:00 hrs.
You may you use your notes, lecture material, or textbook. You can also discuss with your classmates. However, please write answers on your own.
If you miss an in-class activity, zero points will be awarded for that activity. However, we do have the following policy:
You can make up for a maximum of three (3) missed in-class activities. You can do that by submitting your answers on Blackboard within 48 hours of the missed activity.
The lowest score on the activities will not be counted.
We have two exams: mid-term and final exam. Dates for the exams are mentioned at the top of this page.
The format of the exams will be discussed in-class.
No collaboration is allowed on exams.
If you miss an exam, zero points will be awarded for that exam.
The university and department policies against academic dishonesty will be strictly enforced.
Students are required to follow the Honor System of William & Mary.
It is the policy of William & Mary to accommodate students with disabilities and qualifying diagnosed conditions in accordance with federal and state laws. Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a learning, psychiatric, physical, or chronic health diagnosis should contact Student Accessibility Services staff at 757-221-2512 or at sas@wm.edu to determine if accommodations are warranted and to obtain an official letter of accommodation. For more information, please click here.
The Writing Resources Center, located on the first floor of Swem Library, is a free service provided to W&M students. Trained consultants offer individual assistance with writing, presentation, and other communication assignments across disciplines and at any stage, from generating ideas to polishing a final product. To make an appointment, visit the WRC webpage.
The lecture slides of this course are developed based on the original lecture slides from Mary. J. Irwin (Penn State) and Computer Organization and Design, 5th Edition, Patterson & Hennessy (P&H), Morgan Kaufmann. The course staff also acknowledges the contributions of Mary. J. Irwin, Chita Das, Yuan Xie, N. Vijaykrishnan, and other instructors and TAs at Penn State, towards developing the course material over a period of time.