Lecturer: Giovanni Danese  

Course name: Calcolatori elettronici
Course code: 502501
Degree course: Bioingegneria
Disciplinary field of science: ING-INF/05
University credits: ECTS 6
Course website: n.d.

Specific course objectives

The course introduces the architecture of microprocessors and microcomputers, explaining its behavior by the usage of the Assembly Language. The teaching aims to emphasize the relations among the computer architecture, the microelettronics techniques and the base software organization. The practice lessons are related to the Assembly Language and the tuning of simple programs in a dedicated development environment.

Course programme

Architecture of a processor
Functional blocks: memory, arithmetic unit, input and output units, control unit. Units interconnection: bus. Interruption. Hardware e software. Functional blocks flow chart for a processor. instruction flow and data flow. Information representation, relative numbers, conversion between representations, real numbers. Aritmetic unit: representation of relative numbers and their conversions, adders, carry look ahead adders, product, Booth's algorithm, fast multipliers, division algorithms. Real numbers operations.

Assembly language
Addressing tecniques and Assembly instructions. Interrupts management. Assembler, linker-loader, developmente environment and simulator. Examples.

Course entry requirements

Programming fundamentals.

Course structure and teaching

Lectures (hours/year in lecture theatre): 45
Practical class (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0
Practicals / Workshops (hours/year in lecture theatre): 0

Suggested reading materials

Patterson D.A., Hennesy J.L.. Computer organization and design: the hardware-software interface. . Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2009, IV edition..

Testing and exams

A written theoretical test will be followed by an oral examination. The validity of the theoretical test stops with the end of the next examination session that follows the one when the test has been incurred.