College Bulletin 2016-2017 
    
    Dec 22, 2024  
College Bulletin 2016-2017 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CPSC 031. Introduction to Computer Systems


This course is a broad introduction to computer science that focuses on how a computer works and how programs run on computers. We examine the hardware and software components required to go from a program expressed in a high-level programming language like C or Python to the computer actually running the program. This course takes a bottom-up approach to discovering how a computer works. Topics include theoretical models of computation, data representation, machine organization, assembly and machine code, memory, I/O, the stack, the operating system, compilers and interpreters, processes and threads, and synchronization. This course also introduces parallel and distributed computing with a specific focus on shared memory parallelism for multicore and SMP systems.
Prerequisite: CPSC 021  or equivalent.
Natural sciences and engineering practicum.
Lab work required.
1 credit.
Fall 2016. Staff.
Spring 2017. Staff.
Fall 2017. Staff.
Spring 2018. Staff
Catalog chapter: Computer Science  
Department website: http://www.cs.swarthmore.edu/


Access the class schedule to search for sections.