Syllabus
Computer Science EN.601.229
Computer Systems Fundamentals
Spring, 2024 (3 credits, E)

Please note that this syllabus could be updated during the semester. Any updates will be mentioned in class and on Courselore.

Instructor

David Hovemeyer daveho@cs.jhu.edu

Office: Malone 240A

Office hours: T/Th 1–3 pm, via Zoom (see Courselore for link)

Course Assistants

Head CAs:

CAs:

Meeting

Class meetings are in-person:

Section 01: MWF 9:00–9:50 am, Hackerman B-17

Section 02: MWF 10:00–10:50 am, Hackerman B-17

Textbook

Recommended: Bryant and O’Halloran, Computer Systems: A Programmer’s Perspective, 3rd ed.

Optional: Computer Organization and Design (MIPS edition)

Online Resources

Lecture notes, assignments, and public information about the course will be posted on the course website, https://jhucsf.github.io/fall2024. You should check the course website frequently.

Courselore (announcements, discussion): https://courselore.org/

Gradescope (assignment/exam submission and grading): https://www.gradescope.com/

Videos will be posted on Canvas: go to http://my.jhu.edu, log in, choose Education → Canvas, choose EN.601.229.01.FA24 from courses, then choose Panopto Video

Course Information

Course Goals

By the end of the course you will

  1. Understand machine data types and arithmetic
  2. Be able to understand and write assembly language programs
  3. Understand machine-level memory organization
  4. Understand some types of machine-level security vulnerabilities and how to avoid introducing them
  5. Understand memory hierarchies
  6. Understand architectural features of modern processors, and how to optimize code for efficient execution
  7. Understand how linkers enable the creation of executables from separately-compiled modules
  8. Understand dynamic linking and run-time loading of shared objects
  9. Understand process address space layout
  10. Understand virtual memory translation hardware and how it is used for memory isolation and sharing
  11. Understand basic principles of computer networking
  12. Use networking APIs such as sockets to implement network applications
  13. Use concurrency using abstractions such as threads

This course will address the following Criterion 3 Student Outcomes:

Graduates of the program will have an ability to:

2) Design, implement, and evaluate a computing-based solution to meet a given set of computing requirements in the context of the programs discipline.

Course Topics

Course Expectations & Grading

Class meetings will consist of lecture and discussion, interspersed with in-class activities.

Your course grade will be determined as follows:

You have a total of 120 late hours to use as needed for homework assignments throughout the course. If you are planning on using more than 48 late hours on an assignment, please send a private message to the instructors on Courselore to let us know. Assignment submissions which exceed the maximum number of late hours will (generally) not be considered for credit. Having said that, we understand that exceptional circumstances can arise. If you are in a situation where you think you may need additional late hours, please notify your instructor as soon as possible.

You are expected to attend class in person. The participation credit is earned by participating in peer instruction quizzes during class. You will need an iClicker remote to participate in these quizzes. Please see the Participation credit page for more information.

Grading scale

Note that upper bounds are exclusive and lower bounds are inclusive.

Average Letter grade
97 or above A+
93–97 A
90–93 A-
87–90 B+
83–87 B
80–83 B-
77–80 C+
73–77 C
70–73 C-
67–70 D+
60–67 D
below 60 F

Key Dates

The Schedule lists exam dates.

The Assignments page lists assignments and their due dates.

Assignments & Readings

The Schedule lists the topics and readings for each day.

The course’s Canvas site (under Panopto Video) hosts the lecture videos.

Ethics

The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful, abiding by the Computer Science Academic Integrity Code:

Cheating is wrong. Cheating hurts our community by undermining academic integrity, creating mistrust, and fostering unfair competition. The university will punish cheaters with failure on an assignment, failure in a course, permanent transcript notation, suspension, and/or expulsion. Offenses may be reported to medical, law or other professional or graduate schools when a cheater applies.

Violations can include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments without permission, improper use of the Internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition. Ignorance of these rules is not an excuse.

Academic honesty is required in all work you submit to be graded. Except where the instructor specifies group work, you must solve all homework and programming assignments without the help of others. For example, you must not look at anyone else’s solutions (including program code) to your homework problems. However, you may discuss assignment specifications (not solutions) with others to be sure you understand what is required by the assignment.

If your instructor permits using fragments of source code from outside sources, such as your textbook or on-line resources, you must properly cite the source. Not citing it constitutes plagiarism. Similarly, your group projects must list everyone who participated.

Falsifying program output or results is prohibited.

Your instructor is free to override parts of this policy for particular assignments. To protect yourself: (1) Ask the instructor if you are not sure what is permissible. (2) Seek help from the instructor, TA or CAs, as you are always encouraged to do, rather than from other students. (3) Cite any questionable sources of help you may have received.

On every exam, you will sign the following pledge: “I agree to complete this exam without unauthorized assistance from any person, materials or device. [Signed and dated]”. Your course instructors will let you know where to find copies of old exams, if they are available.

Please note that submitting code, writing, or other products generated by AI (including but not limited to ChatGPT and Github Copilot) is considered to be a violation of academic ethics.

Policies

Disability Services

Johns Hopkins University values diversity and inclusion. We are committed to providing welcoming, equitable, and accessible educational experiences for all students. Students with disabilities (including those with psychological conditions, medical conditions, and temporary disabilities) can request accommodations for this course by providing an Accommodation Letter issued by Student Disability Services (SDS). Please request accommodations for this course by reaching out directly to the instructor as early as possible to provide time for effective communication and arrangements.

For further information or to start the process of requesting accommodations, please contact Student Disability Services at Homewood Campus, Shaffer Hall #101, call: 410-516-4720 and email: studentdisabilityservices@jhu.edu or visit the website.

Mental Health Statement

JHU has several resources to support students. Many students struggle with stress at times with stress, anxiety, and depression. The Counseling Center has many resources available to students:

Johns Hopkins University Student Well-Being

JHU well-being website QR code

In addition, The Johns Hopkins University Behavioral Health Crisis Support Team (BHCST) pairs experienced, compassionate crisis clinicians with specially trained public safety officers on every shift on and around the Homewood campus, seven days a week. The BHCST will provide immediate assistance to those who need it and, just as importantly, link individuals in crisis to ongoing support services in the days and weeks that follow. Call Public Safety, 410-516-5600, and ask for a BHCST clinician.

If you have concerns about a specific student, please contact:

Teaching Policies and Guidelines

Teaching Policies and Guidelines — Undergraduate Advising

Academic Integrity

The strength of the university depends on academic and personal integrity. In this course, you must be honest and truthful. Ethical violations include cheating on exams, plagiarism, reuse of assignments, improper use of the internet and electronic devices, unauthorized collaboration, alteration of graded assignments, forgery and falsification, lying, facilitating academic dishonesty, and unfair competition.

Report any violations you witness to the instructor. You can also contact:

For undergraduate students, the adjudication procedures can be found online here.

For graduate students the policy can be found on the Homewood Graduate and Postdoc Affairs website.

Inclusivity

Johns Hopkins University is committed to creating a classroom environment that values the diversity of experiences and perspectives that all students bring. Everyone here has the right to be treated with dignity and respect. Fostering an inclusive climate is important because research and experience show that students who interact with peers who are different from themselves learn new things and experience tangible educational outcomes. Please join us in creating a welcoming and vibrant classroom climate. Note that you should expect to be challenged intellectually by the instructor, the TAs, and your peers, and at times this may feel uncomfortable. Indeed, it can be helpful to be pushed sometimes in order to learn and grow. But at no time in this learning process should someone be singled out or treated unequally on the basis of any seen or unseen part of their identity.

If you ever have concerns in this course about harassment, discrimination, or any unequal treatment, or if you seek accommodations or resources, please reach out to your instructor or the TAs who will take your communication seriously and will seek mutually acceptable resolutions and accommodations. Reporting will never impact your course grade. You may also share concerns with the department chair, the Director of Undergraduate Studies (WSE Department Heads and DUSes), the WSE Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (Darlene Saporu, dsaporu@jhu.edu), the KSAS Assistant Dean for Diversity and Inclusion (Araceli Frias, afrias3@jhu.edu) or the Office of Institutional Equity (oie@jhu.edu). In handling reports, people will protect your privacy as much as possible, but faculty and staff are required to officially report information for some cases (e.g., sexual harassment).