CSCI 350 Digital Logic and Computer Organization (Spring 2024)

Contact Information

  • Instructor: Michael Levet (He/Him/His)
    • Contact: lastnamefirstinitial (at) cofc (dot) edu
    • Office: Harbor Walk East 312
    • Location:
      • Section 1- HWEA 300: 9:55-11:10 (Tuesday/Thursday)
      • Section 2- HWEA 300: 11:20-12:35 (Tuesday/Thursday)
      • Zoom- Remote Synchronous, for those who wish to participate remotely.
    • Office Hours (Tentative):
      • Tuesday/Wednesday: 3:30-4:30 (Zoom)
      • If I am in my office, please feel free to knock.
      • By appointment
  • Syllabus
  • Google Forms: (You must be signed in to your CofC account to access these forms.)

Announcements

  • 4/17: The instructions for the final reflection have been posted to OAKS. It is due on 4/30 at 8 PM. Class will be cancelled on 4/18 and 4/23, so that you have time to work on this ahead of finals.
  • 4/16: I will drop one additional quiz. The way this will be implemented is that I will be decreasing the denominator for the quiz average by one.
  • 4/6: HW6 revisions are due on 4/21 at 8 PM.
  • 3/30: MT2 is now posted. Per the announcement on 3/14, it will run on April 11-13 (closing at 8 PM on 4/13). Class will be cancelled on April 11. There are 7 questions. You will be graded out of 6 questions.
  • 3/25:
    • HW6 is now posted. It is due on 4/3 at 8 PM.
    • There will be two quizzes, running 3/28-3/30 (closing at 8 PM). The first covers Karnaugh maps, and the second covers regular expressions and finite state machines.
  • 3/24: HW5 revisions are due on 4/7 at 8 PM.
  • 3/14:
    • HW3-4 revisions have been graded, and I have posted updated progress reports to OAKS.
    • The HW average for the class is an 87.37, and the first quartile cutoff is a 76.32.
    • For overall grades, the median is an A- and the first quartile cutoff is a C-.
    • MT2 will run from April 11-13. It will be cumulative, but will emphasize the content post MT1. Induction will be on MT2. I will communicate more details once MT2 comes into focus.
  • 3/11: HW5 is posted. It is due on 3/18 at 8 PM.
  • 2/28:
    • I have graded HW2 revisions and posted updated progress reports. The HW average is a 15.55/19 (=81.87%), and the first quartile cutoff is 13.75/19 (=72.37%). The median grade in the class is a B.
    • In light of Spring Break coming up and the Career Fair, I will be covering Parallel Prefix Circuits tomorrow. These are for enrichment-- you will not be assessed on them.
  • 2/25:
    • MT1 is now graded. The first quartile cutoff was a 5/6 (= 83.33%), and the average was 5.432/6 (=90.5%).
    • Progress reports have been posted. Please check that your records agree with my records.
    • The HW average is 14.3/19 (=75.26%), and the first quartile cutoff is 12/19 (=63.16%). Recall that HW2 revisions are still open, so I expect your HW averages to stabilize once more revisions are graded.
    • The Quiz average is 96.77%, and the first quartile cutoff is 83.33%.
  • 2/21:
    • The quizzes for MT1 have been scheduled. There are 7 questions. You will be graded out of 6 questions.
    • Please plan to attempt all of MT1, even if you have demonstrated proficiency on a similar topic on an earlier quiz.
    • Class will be cancelled tomorrow 2/22.
  • 2/18: HW4 revisions are also due on 3/13 at 8 PM. The same comments as for HW3 revisions apply here as well.
  • 2/17:
    • Midterm 1 will cover HW1-4. Note that everything covered starting from Karnaugh maps onwards will not be on the midterm.
    • HW3 revisions are due on 3/13 at 8 PM. Note that this is considerably more than two weeks. I have chosen this deadline to avoid conflicting with midterms and Spring Break. However, please do plan accordingly to submit these on time.
  • 2/12: HW2 has been graded. Revisions are due by 2/27 at 8 PM. For problems 3(a)-(b) (and only problems 3(a)-(b)), you may submit them for revisions, even if you did not make a good faith attempt. Otherwise, a good faith attempt is required to submit corrections and reflections for a given problem. Gradescope will explicitly tell you for a specific problem if you are not eligible for corrections and reflections.
  • 2/7:
    • HW4 is now posted. It is due on 2/15 at 8 PM. There are 6 total problems (or rather, the parts are partitioned into 6 problems for grading); however, only 5 problems will be added to the denominator. You may earn a 6/5 on HW4, and you may revise your work to earn a 6/5.
    • Quiz 3 opens on 2/8 and closes on 2/10 at 8 PM.
    • Midterm 1 will run from 2/22 through 2/24 at 8 PM.
  • 2/3:
    • I will be out of town from 2/8-2/10 for a research visit and to give a talk at Duke. Class will be cancelled that day.
    • I am required to submit Midterm Grades to the university by March 1 at noon. I am therefore proposing our first midterm to be February 18-20 or February 22-24. Please check your midterm schedules for your CS classes and Math 307, and come prepared on Tuesday to express your preferences. Having multiple exams in one week is stressful, and I will try (but of course, cannot promise) to avoid adding another exam to such a week.
      • The format of the midterm will be a series of OAKS quizzes (each question will be its own OAKS quiz).
      • The midterm will be open-book, open-note, but an individual effort.
      • I have not written the midterm yet and do not know how many questions there will be. I will aim to keep the number reasonable, but not too short.
      • If the midterm is Feb. 18-20, class will be cancelled on Feb. 20. If the midterm is Feb. 22-24, class will be cancelled on Feb. 22.
  • 1/30: Per the announcement in class, HW2 has been extended to 1/31 at 8 PM.
  • 1/29:
    • I need to change my office hours for 1/30 to 3-3:50 rather than the usual 3:30-4:30.
    • HW3 has been posted. It is due on 2/6 at 8 PM.
    • Quizzes 1-2 over HW1 (Induction and Functional Descriptions/Straight-Line Programs, respectively) open on Thursday 2/1 and close Saturday 2/3 at 8 PM. Each quiz is timed at 45 minutes (scaled for students with disability accommodations). You do not have to take the two quizzes back-to-back. They are individual efforts.
  • 1/23: HW1 has been graded. Revisions (including detailed corrections and reflections) are due by 2/6 at 8 PM. Unless you received a Minimal Attempt/No Attempt on Gradescope for the requisite problem, then you may revise and resubmit anything for which you did not receive full credit.
  • 1/18:
    • We did not get to the worksheet today in class. We will instead do that on Tuesday.
    • I have extended the due date for HW2 to 1/30, to ensure that you all have time to digest the worksheet and ask questions in office hours on Wednesday 1/24 or Tuesday 1/30. Technically, you could also stop by office hours on Tuesday 1/23, but I think it is likely that you may not have digested the content that quickly after class. It is possible to get started on the last problem on HW2 now. The definition of a circuit and Math 207 are sufficient background.
    • I assume that most folks have not looked at HW2; but if you have, please make sure to download an updated version. For the last question, I made a minor modification to specify that hard-wired constants are permitted. The ability to hard-wire constants is a standard assumption in Digital Logic (Logisim in fact has functionality for this), and this is grounded in reality in terms of building physical circuits.
    • The scanner was not playing nicely with the handwritten notes from the 11:20 section, so I was only able to upload the handwritten notes from the 9:55 section. The content is identical between the two.
  • 1/15:
    • HW2 will open on 1/18. It is due on 1/26 at 8 PM.
    • On 1/18, class will be devoted to a worksheet. The goal is for you all to practice designing some circuits. This is similar to learning how to program by writing code. In that vein, please consider installing Logisim before class. It is a Java program, so installation should be easy. There will be an associated exist ticket, which will count towards your quiz average. If your response is thoughtful, you will receive credit. Your response does not have to be correct.
    • For folks participating remotely on 1/18, I will bring my laptop and run Zoom from there. I will try to check Zoom periodically to answer questions. Of course, I cannot see when someone raises their hand on Zoom unless I am in front of my computer. I appreciate everyone's patience as I circulate the room and try to answer questions.
  • 1/10:
    • The Syllabus Quiz is now posted. It is due on 1/18 at 8 PM.
    • HW1 will go live on 1/11 shortly after the second section ends. It will be due on 1/20 at 8 PM.
    • Please fill out this Day One Survey. It is optional, and is intended to help me get to know you all and plan the course.
  • 1/7:
    • I recommend downloading Logisim. It is a tool for drawing and simulating circuit (so you can actually test your code, so to speak).
    • In order to prepare homework and quizzes, you will need a tool to convert LaTeX source files into PDFs. I use MikTeX on my local machine (Windows). Overleaf is an online option; note that Overleaf is an interpreter and will sometimes push past compilation errors (this is not a good thing).
  • 1/2: Website created.