CS301 Assembly Language Programming

Course Description

Catalog version: Organization of computer registers, I/O, and control. Digital representation of data. Symbolic coding, instructions, addressing modes, program segmentation, linkage, macros, and subroutines. Updated version: Describes how your code executes on real hardware, which is key to debugging, security, and performance. Includes details on both assembly language, such as registers and opcodes, and plain C programming, such as malloc.

Course Outcomes

• Ability to measure actual performance on a given architecture
• Ability to optimize the performance of a program

Tentative Schedule

1. Fri, Sep 05

   NetRun intro, and distinguishing C from C++

2. Mon, Sep 08

   Machine code, assembly language, and registers

3. Wed, Sep 10

   Goto, loops and branches in assembly

4. Fri, Sep 12

   Signed versus unsigned numbers, and comparisons

5. Mon, Sep 15

   Stack push and pop, and preserved registers

6. Wed, Sep 17

   Function declarations, and strings

7. Fri, Sep 19

   C output: printf

8. Mon, Sep 22

   C memory allocation: malloc, and pointer arithmetic

9. Wed, Sep 24

   Arrays in assembly

10. Fri, Sep 26

    Stack manipulation, and "Smashing the stack for fun and profit"

11. Mon, Sep 29

    Pointers and Pointer Casting in C and Assembly

12. Wed, Oct 01

    Structures and classes in C and Assembly

13. Fri, Oct 03

    Methods in C and assembly

14. Mon, Oct 06

    C Macros and include guards

15. Wed, Oct 08

    Assembler macros and symbols

16. Fri, Oct 10

    Inline assembler

17. Mon, Oct 13

    Static and dynamic linking

18. Wed, Oct 15

    Course review for midterm exam

19. Fri, Oct 17

    Midterm exam

20. Mon, Oct 20

    Performance optimization

21. Wed, Oct 22

    Bitwise operators (e.g., Google search)

22. Fri, Oct 24

    Fixed-point arithmetic

23. Mon, Oct 27

    Project 1 presentations

24. Wed, Oct 29

    Project 1 presentations (cont'd)

25. Fri, Oct 31

    Deadline for student- and faculty-initiated withdrawals (W grade appears on academic record)

26. Fri, Oct 31

    Multi-precision arithmetic

27. Mon, Nov 03

    Floating-point and roundoff

28. Wed, Nov 05

    Assembly: SSE floating point

29. Fri, Nov 07

    C: Bits in a float, NaN, Infinity

30. Mon, Nov 10

    x86 archeaology: FPU, SSE, AVX, VEX

31. Fri, Nov 14

    Assembly performance survey

32. Mon, Nov 17

    ARM (cellphone) Assembly Language

33. Wed, Nov 19

    ARM registers and parameter passing

34. Fri, Nov 21

    ARM performance modeling

35. Mon, Nov 24

    Microcontrollers: Arduino

36. Wed, Nov 26

    Quantum and adiabatic computation (optional fun lecture)

37. Thu, Nov 27

    Thanksgiving holiday (no classes, most offices closed)

38. Mon, Dec 01

    C++ exception handling implementation

39. Wed, Dec 03

    C signal handling

40. Fri, Dec 05

    System Calls and interrupts

41. Mon, Dec 08

    Project 2 presentations

42. Fri, Dec 12

    Course review for final exam

43. Fri, Dec 12

    Last day of instruction

44. Wed, Dec 17

    Final exam: 10:15-12:15pm

Grading Policies

Grades will be assigned based on the following percentage intervals:

A+

[99%, 100%)

A

[93%, 99%)

A-

[90%, 93%)

B+

[87%, 90%)

B

[83%, 87%)

B-

[80%, 83%)

C+

[77%, 80%)

C

[73%, 77%)

C-

[70%, 73%)

D+

[67%, 70%)

D

[63%, 67%)

D-

[60%, 63%)

F

[0%, 60%)

Policies

Students are expected to be at every class meeting on time, and are responsible for all class content, whether present or not. If absence from class is necessary, in-class work (other than quizzes) and homework may be made up only if the instructor is notified as soon as possible; in particular, absences due to scheduled events must be arranged ahead of time. Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated, and will be dealt with according to UAF procedures. Students in this class must pay the CS lab fee.

UAF academic policies http://www.uaf.edu/catalog/current/academics

CS Department policies http://www.cs.uaf.edu/departmental-policies/

Disabilities Services:

The UAF Office of Disability Services implements the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and ensures that UAF students have equal access to the campus and course materials. I will work with the UAF Office of Disability Services (208 WHITAKER BLDG, 474-5655) to provide reasonable accommodation to students with disabilities.