Faculty of Science

Objectives

To provide knowledge on the basics of Computer Architecture, namely all its components and understand the main data networks technologies from Local Area Network (Wireless and Wired) to the Internet.

Contents

Introduction to Computer Architecture: Introduction to Micro-processors, Memory, ALU, Input/Output, Buses, Persistent Memory Devices, Performance, Amdahl's law; Assembly Programming: Basic Operands of the MIPS Assembly Instruction Set, Implementation of Arrays, Translation to Machine Instruction, Conditional Branches, Loops, Supporting Procedures, Addressing Modes; Computer Hardware Techniques: A survey of techniques used to increase processing performance without increasing the clock speed, Pipelining, Caching, Instruction Level Parallelism; Data Networks: The evolution of wired/wireless communication networks and key technologies: standards, Ethernet, token ring, circuit and packet switching, frame relay, SMDS and ISDN; Wireless Networks: Introduction to mobile communications, GSM and UMTS; Wireless LAN: infrastructure and ad-hoc networks, IEEE 802.11 standards, WiMAX (802.16), Bluetooth technology, and wireless sensor networks; Internet Services and Tools: The TCP/IP Network Stack, IP Routing, Congestion Control, Applications (e-mail, World Wide Web, VoIP), Network Management, Network Security.