SSU DEPARTMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE

COSC 250 MICROCOMPUTER ORGANIZATION

SPRING 2013 Dave Parker

Departmental Syllabus

USE OF COURSE MATERIALS: All the course materials that I create and distribute (including lectures) are considered my original works and are thus protected by federal copyright law. You are permitted to take notes of lectures and to possess course materials for your own use. You may not record (audio or visual) lectures without my consent. You may not publicly distribute or display (or allow anyone else to publicly display or distribute) these course materials or lecture notes without my permission. Notes from this course may be shared at your discretion with another student who is currently enrolled in the course. It is against federal copyright law to share materials from this course for compensation. 

Index to the Syllabus

COURSE OBJECTIVES: At the conclusion of this course (with a grade of C or better), the student will be able to: OPTIONAL TEXT: Fundamentals of Digital Logic & Microcomputer Design by M. Rafiqzzaman, Rafi Systems, Inc, 2005, 5th edition.  (Students deeply interested in the hardware side of computer science will want this text in their libraries, but it's expensive.)

REQUIRED: Microcomputer Organization Class Notes and Lab Manual by Dean DeFino and Asif Shakur.

MEETING TIMES:
        Lecture:  M-W-F        9 - 9:50 AM   (HS 359)
        Lab            T              9 - 10:40 AM (HS 359) INSTRUCTOR: 

Dave Parker


POINTS:

GRADING SCALE:       90-100% A,   80-89.9% B,   70-79.9% C,   60-69.9% D,   Below 60% F. 
NOTE:  I will compute your course grade twice, once ignoring homework (using only tests and the final exam with a total of 700 points), and again including the homework score (the 900 points listed immediately above).  Whichever is better will be your course grade.  However, because tests and the final exam are all based upon the material in the homework, it is extremely unlikely that your grade without the homework included will be higher than your grade including homework.    ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY:     
  • Your name on any work you turn in (homework, quiz, exercise, program, examination, term paper, etc.) certifies that you attest to ALL of the following:
  • Either the work is entirely your own, or
  • If it contains work by anyone else, such work by others is completely and fully noted or quoted, or
  • If you received help from anyone else that help is acknowledged, or
  • If you worked with others (which is encouraged!) you have indicated their names;
  • Moreover, the work is only for this course and will not be utilized in any other course (unless I have given you written permission to do so);
  • Finally, the work was completed by you this semester for this course and is not work which you (or anyone else) had completed previously.
    •         I will consider any work submitted by you which violates any of the above  to constitute plagiarism, and I will give you an "F" in the course and I will notify the Academic Affairs Office about your academic misconduct.  In case of particularly egregious violations, I will recommend the student(s) involved be academically dismissed from the University.

    .         Assisting or allowing another student to commit plagiarism is also academic dishonesty, and the same penalties will apply.  You are expected to take all reasonable and prudent steps to assure that your work is not copied or reproduced by others.

            I encourage students to work together on assignments, but there is a difference between cooperative learning and academic dishonesty.  As long as the final result is your own individual work, and you have made clear anything which another named person actually did and you have indicated the help you have received and the persons with whom you have worked, you have not committed plagiarism.

              Obviously there will be no conversations during tests and exams.  Similarly, absolutely no electronic devices (calculators, PDA's, cell phones, etc.) may be used - or even be visible during tests and examinations.   

              Please note:  According to SU policy, any course grade of F given because of academic dishonesty will remain on the student's record, will be computed in the student's GPA, and will not be removed if the course is repeated.  Moreover no student with such an F grade may receive academic honors at graduation.

            Other than this statement of policy, there will be no warnings concerning this matter.

    TESTS AND EXAMS:

    RE-TEST POLICY: COMMUNICATION: ATTENDANCE POLICY: HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS 
           Homework will be assigned in this course, and a significant portion of your grade will depend upon your success in completing it.  Moreover the tests and exams will be based upon the homework.  Consequently there will be a homework assignments nearly every class, and each one is due at the beginning of the next class (unless otherwise announced).
            The purpose of homework is primarily to give you practice as an aid to learning.  It is assumed, therefore, that you already understand what you are doing before you attempt the homework.  It is almost certainly a complete waste of time to attempt to work homework problems if you do not understand the examples worked in class and in the text.  (Under these circumstances you may be able to do the homework, but you will learn nothing.)
            Throughout much of the semester, you will be unable to understand the new material unless you have mastered the previous material.  The easiest way to succeed is to master each idea as it is presented in class and in the book.  If you study so that you master material in this way, exams and tests become things to review for -- not things to study for.  LEARN AS YOU GO!   
            In particular you are expected to study (even memorize if necessary!) the definitions, terminology, and concepts IMMEDIATELY after they are presented in class, and you are expected to use them to solve problems.  WAITING TO LEARN MATERIAL UNTIL SHORTLY BEFORE A TEST IS A RECIPE FOR FAILURE! The tests and exams will attempt to determine if you both know the definitions, terminology, and concepts - and can solve problems similar to those assigned for homework. Attempting to cram material into your brain shortly before tests may well have been a successful strategy for you in the past, BUT IT ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT WORK IN THIS COURSE!  

    HOMEWORK FOR MISSED CLASSES

      If you plan to miss a class, you may turn in the entire assignment anytime prior to the start of class and your homework will be graded and counted (even if a quiz is given that day). Under unusual circumstances the instructor may allow students to turn work in late for credit, or may give a short oral or written quiz instead of collecting homework. If due to unavoidable accident or circumstances beyond your control you are unable to attend class, the instructor may allow work to be turned in late for credit if you notify him promptly. In summary, if you know you are going to miss class, either turn in the entire assignment early or make arrangements with the instructor in advance. If you miss due to an unavoidable crisis or accident, make arrangements with the instructor as soon as possible.


    LATE WORK
        Late work will be graded and returned but will not normally be counted.
     

     

    The Business Model of Education

         In recent years it has become popular to compare universities to businesses, with students viewed as "customers," university presidents as "CEO's," degrees as "products," and the classroom as "the workplace." Within certain limits, I am willing to endorse that analogy.  However, I absolutely do not subscribe to the various versions of, "The customer is always right."  If you view yourself as a customer and I am the salesman, we need to make clear exactly what you are buying!


    How it is:  Effort, Accomplishments, Your Job, Your Pay

          Working really hard is probably directly related to your grade in this course: most likely the greater your effort the greater your learning -- and correspondingly the higher your grade.  However your grade will be based upon your accomplishments, not upon the amount of your effort!  Barely trying at all but doing "A" quality work will result in a grade of "A;" working yourself half to death but doing "F" quality work will result in a grade of "F."  To use an analogy from track and field: the prize goes to the one who crosses the finish line first, not to the one who is most covered with sweat at the end of the race.  However this is only part of the story.

            SU considers a student who is taking 12 or more credits to be "full-time(1)."  I will evaluate your work as if I were your employer for 1/4 to 1/3 of your full-time job.  If you are appropriately prepared(2) to take this course I can thus reasonably expect three or more hours of work by you for every hour you spend in lecture.  What I will do in class will help you to understand the material and to see the tasks which must be done.  (Class time is relatively stress-free and relaxing if you come prepared.)  Your real effort comes outside of class when you, largely on your own, work to master the material.  That is your "job." Your pay (i.e. your grade) will depend upon the quality of your work, not upon how long it takes you to get the work done.  There are deadlines which you must meet or you won't get paid.

            I will assign a relatively large amount of work to be done outside of class and due at specific times, and I will evaluate (3) it assuming it represents the very best you can do.  If your work is on time and of high quality, then you are doing your job. If your work is late, sloppy, or incomplete, then you are not doing your job.  In the real world, if you do your job well you get paid and remain employed; otherwise you get fired.  In this class your grade is your pay and will reflect how well you did your job.  Out-of-class assignments are opportunities to demonstrate your very best work and to earn the highest possible pay (grade).

            Most of your pay (grade) for this job (course) will be based upon your scores on  tests and examinations (as announced elsewhere in this syllabus), although homework counts as much as the final examination.  Since these in-class, timed evaluations are all based upon the out-of-class assignments, your pay (grade) on tests (and thus in this course) will likely be low if you failed to do good work on the out-of-class assignments.

            As do most employers, I have a number of policies regarding the workplace (class) which are spelled out elsewhere in the class syllabus.  Life often intrudes upon ones employment obligations, and these policies detail a variety of exceptions which I will allow -- including doing work late, taking tests late, etc.  However all of them are based upon my assumption that you view this class as being as important as a "real" job.  If you simply disappear and fail to complete assigned work -- and then suddenly reappear and ask about "making up" past work, do not be surprised when I act as if you are no longer employed.  As your employer I am very sympathetic as long as I am kept informed about crises and I am extremely unsympathetic when I am ignored.

            As do most employers, I have a number of policies regarding the workplace (class) which are spelled out elsewhere in the class syllabus.  Life often intrudes upon ones employment obligations, and these policies detail a variety of exceptions which I will allow -- including doing work late, taking tests late, etc.  However all of them are based upon my assumption that you view this class as being as important as a "real" job.  If you simply disappear and fail to complete assigned work -- and then suddenly reappear and ask about "making up" past work, do not be surprised when I act as if you are no longer employed.  As your employer I am very sympathetic as long as I am kept informed about crises and I am extremely unsympathetic when I am ignored.

    1. If you are registered for more credits, if you are on an athletic team or involved in other time-consuming extra-curricular activities, if you have a part- or full-time paying job, if you have family responsibilities, or if there are other demands upon your time, then it is your responsibility so to budget your time that you can accomplish what you need to do.
    2. If you have not satisfied the prerequisites for this course, no amount of effort may be enough!
    3. Not all assigned work will be graded, and some will only be evaluated when you take quizzes, tests, or exams.

     

    Workload Remark

           The material in this course will be covered rapidly, and it is dangerous to fall behind!  If you miss class, try to get the notes from someone who was there.  (My own notes may not be of much use to you because they are almost always just an outline of what I present.)  Keep up - and succeed!  If you start getting behind, come see me IMMEDIATELY!