CS3432 Computer Organization

CS 3432 is a first systems course about how computer systems work. Whereas computer architecture describes the functional behavior of a computer, computer organization describes the structural relationships. CS 3432 is a course in computer organization that answers questions such as the following:

How are programs written in a high-level language, such as C or Java, translated into the language of the hardware, and how does the hardware execute the resulting program?
What is the interface between the software and the hardware, and how does software instruct the hardware to perform the necessary functions?
What determines the performance of a program, and how can hardware designers or programmers improve the performance?
What are the reasons for and the consequences of the recent switch from sequential to parallel processing?

The syllabus can be found here.

Some parts of this class are a little frustrating at first. Watch this video.

Most of the concepts taught in this class were already present in the Apollo spaceship, which is presented in this great video.

You can see the Real-Time System of the Apollo spaceship in action in this video. Watch out for program alarm 1201.

Get inspiration as well from Margaret Hamilton's work and the people who had to use rope memory.

We program in class. Here is a list of programs that we have written so far:

There will be 3 Homework Assignments in this class. They are systems-centric and not fully 100 percent self-contained - just like any industrial systems project.

Homework Assignment 1 is due on 03/01/2026 at 11:59PM MST. It consists in completing the following C program so that it can convert from IA2 to IA5 and vice-versa. Students must document themselves on how the two encodings IA2 and IA5 work (a link is given in the boilerplate code). Once they have understood the basics of both encodings, they need to complete the functions clearly marked in the boilerplate code, following the specifications given for each function in comment of the code. Students must submit their work in the form of C source code (ASCII-encoded) by email to utep-spring-2026-comporg-hw1@christoph-lauter.org. No submission of executables, images, Microsoft Word files nor any programs in any other programming languages are accepted.
Homework Assignment 2 is due on 03/23/2026 at 7:59PM MDT. It is described here. Students must submit their work directly on paper to their lab TA Christina Alejandra Carreon.
Homework Assignment 3 will be posted here.

There will be 3 exams in this class:

The Midterm Exam I has been organized on Wednesday 03/04/2026. The theoretical part is available here. The practical part is based on boilerplate code that can be found here. Students must submit their solutions to the pratical part as a C source code file named sorting.c by 03/05/2026 1:59AM MST. The source code file must include each student's first and last name as well as UTEP ID in comment in the beginning of the submitted file. Programs that do not compile will receive very little credit. Students must submit their work in the form of C source code (ASCII-encoded) in attachment to an email to utep-spring-2026-comporg-midtermI@christoph-lauter.org. No submission of executables, images, Microsoft Word files nor any programs in any other programming languages are accepted.
The Midterm Exam II will be posted here.
The Final Exam will be posted here.