Outline
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The tentative outline for the course follows the basic structure of the textbook. These topics may not be covered in the order appearing below.

There is a weeklong assignment for each unit. Two of these assignments are designated as exams: a midterm and a last (final) exam. Units may be covered in slightly different order during the term.

- **Introduction to Computer Systems:** Overview of computer organization and architecture. Basics of computer hardware and software interaction. Machine-level representation of data.

- **Machine-Level Representation of Programs:** Understanding assembly language. Control and data representation in the CPU. Memory hierarchy and its impact on performance.

- **Processor Architecture:** CPU design principles. Instruction set architecture (ISA). Pipelining and its optimization techniques.

- **Optimizing Program Performance:** Understanding performance metrics. Techniques for enhancing program efficiency. Analysis of benchmarks and profiling tools.

- **Memory Hierarchy:** Caching principles and optimizations. Virtual memory concepts and management. Memory allocation strategies and their impact.

- **Linking:** Linking process and executable file formats. Dynamic linking vs. static linking. Library design and usage.

- **Exceptional Control Flow:** Handling exceptions and interrupts. Process control and context switching.System calls and their implementation.

- **I/O Systems:** Principles of I/O devices and controllers. Buffering and caching for I/O performance. File system structures and organization.

- **Network Programming:** Basics of network protocols. Socket programming and communication. Client-server model and networked applications.

- **Security and Protection:** Threats to computer systems. Access control and authentication mechanisms.Principles of cryptography and secure communication.