Information about CPSC 240 in Spring 2025.
CPSC 240 has class meeting one 1 hour duration: the first hour is lecture and the second hour is "open lab" where you have direct access to ask the professor anything about this course. That is a great opportunity to obtain assistance with programming.
Professor: Floyd Holliday
Email: holliday@fullerton.edu
Zoom link: 841 642 3131
Course title: Computer Organization and Assembly Programming
Textbook (free download): http://www.egr.unlv.edu/%7Eed/assembly64.pdf
Si instructors with meeting times:
Sara: Wednesday 4:00pm - 5:15pm Room CS110B
Friday 11:30am - 12:45pm Room CS202
Khoa: Tuesday and Thursday 10:00am - 11:15am Room GH333 = Gordon Hall
Kaitlyn: Monday and Wednesday 1:00pm - 2:15pm Room CS102A = Comp Sci Building
Find the meeting times that best fit into your academic schedule.
The Discord server for 240 is https://discord.gg/nEnpMVad3f
Tutors for most computer science lower division subjects are available upon request. Go to room CS206 and ask the receptionist about obtaining the services of a tutor for CPSC240. You may substitute another lower division computer science course in place of 240 if you wish.
Schedule of events for Spring 2025:
Assignment 1 due February 9 @ 11:59pm
Assignment 2 due February 22 @ 11:59pm
Assignment 3 due Mar 9 @ 11:59pm
Midterm program test Mar 10 or 11 during regular class hours; Take-home test only; Classroom not available
Midterm concept test Mar 12 or 13 during regular class hours; Take-home test only; Classroom not available
Assignment 4 due Mar 27 @ 11:59am
Assignment 5 due Apr 12 @ 11:59pm
Assignment 6 due Apr 25 @11:59pm
Programming test (100 points) April 23 or 24, same time as class meeting.
April 28-May 2: Open study week
May 5-May 9: Additional open study preparing for final test
Final concept test (100 points) May 12 or 13 depending if your section meets MW or TuTh. Remote test only, Classroom will be unavailable.
Course grade submission by professor: May 23, 2025.
Summer Session A: May 26-June 24 (5 weeks). The professor of 240 will be teaching CPSC 253 both in person and on zoom. Easiest class you will ever take in computer science: no out-of-class assignments, no attendance records, no programming, no term papers, remote attendance available, three open-note take-home tests with questions of the type multiple choice or short answers. Textbook purchase is optional.
March 3-4 True random numbers versus pseudo random numbers
Post-midterm index:
March 16-17: Management of memory during function calls.
March 18-19: The importance of software licenses.
March 24-25: Language Syntax, Inline Assembly
March 26-27: Pure assembly programming introduction.
March 30-April 5: Spring break
April 7 240-9 Lecture on Pure Assembly at the usual time
April 7 240-3 Possible change in schedule: check back at this webpage
April 8 240-11 Lecture on Pure Assembly at the usual time
April 9 and 19 Rules for System programming aka "Pure Assembly"
April 14 and 15 Lecture on CPU clock.
April 16 and 17 Lecture on AI generating assembly programs, restrictions on the outcome from AI, the 240 culture
April 21 and 22 Review for coming programming test. Can AI be used for the test? What restrictions?
April 23 and 24 Two-hour programing test
Pending future lectures (no specific order)
Pure assembly: how to replace library functions with syscalls
IEEE32: structure of 32-bit float numbers.
GDB commands to modify data in real-time.
How to interpret and use the list file,
How to use rflags to make a more robust program. (possible lecture I don't have it ready yet)
100 people trying to explain why we should use assembly and every answer is different. Funny stuff!
https://www.quora.com/Why-is-Assembly-Language-used