Computer systems hardware and architecture

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course consists of theory lectures providing general and up-to-date information on the major components of a computer with historical context and special emphasis on the basic principles of CPU operation. In the laboratory, students learn skills related to the maintenance of computer systems such as disassembling/reassembling the computer, installing operating systems, creating and cloning disk partitions, network configuration, etc.

CONTENT

1. Introduction: counting systems, binary representation of negative numbers, types of computer systems, embedded systems, generations of computers, typical computer architecture
2. Central Processing Unit (CPU): theoretical CPU architecture, assembly language, logic elements, Boolean algebra, adder, Intel 8086 CPU architecture and instruction formats; Von Neumann/Harvard and RISC/CISC architectures, differences between microprocessor and microcontroller; CPU performance; CPU manufacturers
3. Memory: memory units (SI, IEC and JEDEC systems), hard drive (HDD and SSD), flash memory, partitions, file systems, BIOS/MBR and UEFI/GPT, common RAID (redundant array of independent disks) levels; static and dynamic random access memory (RAM), cache memory
4. Hard drive performance tests and cloning with CloneZilla and gparted
5. Creating hard drive partitioning and formatting, and creating a RAID (redundant array of independent disks)
6. Peripherals and networking: ATX standard, PCI and PCIe, graphics processing units (GPUs), basic networking and TCP/IP protocol suite
7. Configuring a Network interface controller; setting up a samba server
8. Checking and fixing your computer 
9. User administration in Linux, Linux terminal commands