MACHINE-LEVEL COMPUTER PROGRAMMING
  SE 3F03  (Winter 2010)


* * * This outline is distributed at the time of the first class and is constantly updated. Students should consult this page regularly for all information relevant to this course * * *

Instructor

Dr. George Karakostas
Office: ITB/218, Ext: 26132, Mac address: karakos
Office hours: Tue 17:30 - 19:30
 

Course Assistance


Schedule

Term 2, 2009/10
M, W, Th : 13:30 - 14:20, BSB/B135
Tutorials: Th : 10:30-11:20,   MDCL/1110   (Tutorials will be announced in class ahead of time.) 


Tutorials

Tutorials will be announced in class ahead of time.

The lecture time for Mon. 22/2 will be tutorial time, and the tutorial time for Thur. 25/2 will be lecture time. Wed, and Thur afternoon lectures are not affected (will be done as scheduled).

 
Course Objectives - Outline of Topics

In this course, we will study programming at the assembly level and its relationship to programming in higher level languages. The assembly language used for the demonstration of concepts will be that of Intel 80x86 processors. The list of topics covered (in a chronological order) will be: Introduction - Basic Assembly Language (manipulation of integers, basic control structures) - Bit Operations - Subprograms - Arrays - Floating Point - Structures and C++. 
 

Prerequisites

One of ENG PHYS 2E04, SFWR ENG 2DA3 or 2DA4

Antirequisites

COMP ENG 3DJ4, COMP SCI 2MF3

Student Assessment (Grading)

Policy on homework assignments: The students will be distributed in groups of 5-6 students by the instructor (please see the instructor immediately if you find yourself without a group; the student lists usually are not complete until later in the term). Collaboration on the homework assignments is highly encouraged, within reasonable limits. Students are expected to discuss assignment problems with each other, and to cooperate on solutions in their group. Each group should submit one copy of the assignment by e-mail to the TA of the course (usually this will be a zipped directory with the assembly files + C driver program(s) + Makefile). Grading will be based solely on the correctness of the program and it will be binary in nature: if the program(s) don't compile, or they produce wrong results the grade will be 0 points; otherwise, it will be 10 points. Hint: Do not wait for the last hour to write up an assembly program, and send it without testing it thoroughly; most likely it will score a 0.

Policy on delayed assignments: Assignments delivered between their deadline and 24 hours after it will get 50% of total credit. After that, no credit will be given.

Policy on collaboration during exams: ABSOLUTELY NO COLLABORATION DURING EXAMS!!!
 

Resources

Textbook:  "PC Assembly Language", by Paul A. Carter, 2006

Resources:

  1. Dr. Carter's website contains not only his course notes (in the "Tutorial" section"), but example code as well in different platforms in the "Examples" section.
  2. The assembler used is the NASM assembler (installed on the department's machines; you can find it here).
  3. Here is an easy converter between hexadecimal and binary.
  4. Memory address calculation in protected mode.
  5. ....


Academic Dishonesty

"Academic dishonesty consists of misrepresentation by deception or by other
fraudulent means and can result in serious consequences, e.g. the grade of
zero on an assignment, loss of credit with a notation on the transcript
(notation reads:  "Grade of F assigned for academic dishonesty"), and/or
suspension or expulsion from the university.

It is your responsibility to understand what constitutes academic
dishonesty.  For information on the various kinds of academic dishonesty
please refer to the Academic Integrity Policy, specifically Appendix 3,
located at http://www.mcmaster.ca/senate/academic/ac_integrity.htm

The following illustrates only three forms of academic dishonesty:
1.    Plagiarism, e.g. the submission of work that is not one's own or for which other credit has been obtained.  (e.g. submitting a copy of someone else's writeup for an assignment)
2.    Improper collaboration in group work. (e.g. collaboration between groups in an assignment)
3.    Copying or using unauthorized aids in tests and examinations."

 

Faculty/University Notices

"The Faculty of Engineering is concerned with ensuring an environment that is free of all discrimination.  If there is a problem, individuals are reminded that they should contact the Department Chair, the Sexual Harrassment Officer or the Human Rights Consultant, as the problem occurs."
 
"The instructor and university reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term. The university may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment on changes. It is the responsibility of the student to check their McMaster email and course websites weekly during the term and to note any changes."


Assignments

* Note that the nasm assembler is installed in "moore". This is a 64-bit machine, but we are programming in the 32-bit mode. This means that you should compile+link in a 32-bit mode, using the "-f elf" and "-m32" options for nasm and gcc respectively, i.e. "nasm -f elf ..." and "gcc -m32 ...."

Assignment 1 (Due by Fr. 22/1, 7:00 PM):   The assignment is here. Submit one zip file for each team as an attachment in an e-mail to the TA (contact info above), indicating your team number in the body of the e-mail. Your programs will be tested on "moore", so make sure that even if you run &&/|| compile them on your machine or elsewhere, you have migrated them successfully to "moore". NOTE: Here is a small tutorial on Makefile.

Assignment 2 (Due by W. 3/2, 7:00 PM):   The assignment is here. Submission instructions are as above.

Assignment 3 (Due by Fr. 5/3, 7:00 PM): (Notice the deadline extension)   The assignment is here. Submission instructions are as above (i.e., one zip file with everything in it). Don't forget to specify your team # in your e-mail.

Assignment 4 (Due by Fr. 26/3, 7:00 PM):  Modify the textbook example in Chapter 7 that implements the big_int class to handle integers of different sizes.  A few helpful  pointers:  (a)  A nice C++ tutorial that explains the different features of this language used in the examples is here.  (b)  In your implementation there is no reason to have the Size_mismatch exception thrown. Therefore your assembly should not catch this one. Note the way C++ catches exceptions in Fig. 7.18 of the text, and look at the relevant entry in the tutorial.
 
Assignment 5 (Due by Th. 8/4, 7:00 PM):   The assignment is here. Clarification: In the last sentence of the assignment, the case referred to is the case of the square root being an imaginary number (i.e., the quantity under the root is negative). In that case, there are three real roots (see the "Casus irreducibilis" case in the Wikipedia article, D is the quantity under the square root), but you are OK if you output the wrong answer the assignment asks you for ("No real solution").

The teams are here.

Team grades so far are here.


To read files in pdf format, you'll need the Adobe Reader, which is here.

Slides/Examples 

The slides, figures, and examples used in lectures are usually from the textbook.