ENCE260-14S2 (C) Semester Two 2014

Computer Systems

15 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 14 July 2014
End Date: Sunday, 16 November 2014
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 27 July 2014
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 12 October 2014

Description

An introduction to computer programming in C, computer architecture, and embedded systems.

This is an introductory course to computer systems and is a mixture of computer programming in
C, computer architecture, and embedded systems. This material will be delivered in 3 equal
parts and comprises:
1. An introduction to C programming, by Richard Lobb. Note that Lab and assignment work
for this section will be on the COSC quiz server.
2. An introduction to computer architecture, by Phil Bones.
3. An introduction to embedded systems, by Steve Weddell.

The computer architecture module is delivered as a single lecture per week and over the
duration of the course. This module describes computer hardware through the introduction of
digital logic and provides a link as to why "C" computer programs are written in the way they
are.

In the introduction to C programming during Term 3, you'll learn to write C programs on desktop
machines. C was developed as an alternative to assembly language for low-level programming
tasks like operating systems and embedded computing. It remains the most widely-used
language in the embedded systems community and is also of importance to computer scientists
as the language used for implementing many high-performance libraries and high-level language
interpreters and compilers. For example, the standard Python interpreter and the Linux
operating system are both written in C.
The introduction to embedded systems module in Term-4 extends your C programming skills with
application to a small, dedicated computer board, the UCFK. This embedded system uses an AVR
microcontroller by Atmel and has just a few buttons and LEDs for input and output. Groups of
two students will complete a small, embedded system project on the UCFK board during Term-4.

Learning Outcomes

  • Students will:
  • understand how to generate structured programs in the C programming language,
  • understand the basic components of a computer and how they interact to execute
    software,
  • understand the use of an embedded microcomputer, interfacing with common
    peripheral devices,
  • have gained experience in generating a small embedded system.

Prerequisites

COSC121, COSC122 and 15 points of Mathematics or Statistics or MSCI110; or subject to the approval of the Dean of Engineering and Forestry

Restrictions

ENEL206; both COSC208/ENCE208 and COSC221/ENCE221

Course Coordinator

Steve Weddell

Lecturers

Richard Lobb and Phil Bones

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage 
Assignment 1 10%
Assignment 2 10%
Final Exam 50%
Quiz 10%
Test 20%

Textbooks / Resources

Recommended Reading

King, K. N; C programming : a modern approach ; 2nd ed; W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.

Further recommended reading:
http://ecewiki.elec.canterbury.ac.nz/mediawiki/index.php/UCFK4

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $841.00

International fee $4,638.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

Limited Entry Course

Maximum enrolment is 300

For further information see Electrical and Computer Engineering .

All ENCE260 Occurrences

  • ENCE260-14S2 (C) Semester Two 2014