Instructor: Dr. Shaun D. Ramsey 
Email: sramsey2@washcoll.edu
Phone: (410)810-7485 
Office: DUNN N102
Office Hours: 2:30pm W,  1pm TR



CSI 250 - Computer Organization and Architecture
Fall 2014
Website: http://shaunramsey.com/250
Classroom/Meetings: DUNN N103 1:30-2:20pm
Text: Essentials of Computer Architecture by Comer
Tentative Exam dates: 9/24, 10/27, final during finals week
Grade Breakdown: Exams (25% each), Homework, Classwork, Quizzes (25% combined)
Attendance: Fail on 6 == absences + lates/2


Overview and Advising: This course is effectively a survey course
covering a broad range of organization and architecture components and
concepts. Digital logic, type representations and main memory will be
considered. In addition, assembly and assembly related issues will
cover another large chunk of this course. As a survey of the field of
architecture, this course covers many aspects that come together to
form a cohesive basis for further study in the field.

Exams: The final exam will be administered during its scheduled slot
during final exam week. An absence on the day of the exam will result
in a grade of 0. Except in cases of very extreme emergency, exams must
be taken on the day the exam is given. Before a make-up test is
scheduled, documentation of the extreme emergency must be
given. Make-up exams for tests missed due to an extreme emergency will
be arranged for a time that is mutually convenient for the student and
Dr. Ramsey.

Attendance: Attendance is mandatory in this course. On your sixth
absence, you automatically fail the course. As a matter of courtesy,
you are expected to notify Dr.  Ramsey before class describing the
reason of your absence. You must be present on the day of an exam or
you will receive a 0. There is no distinction between excused and
unexcused absences. It is quite likely that I will email you to
discuss the reasons you have missed the class, but it is ultimately
your duty to keep track of your absences and to contact me. Missing a
class may result in missed classwork and/or quizzes. There are no
make-up quizzes or classwork. It is your responsibility to obtain
assigned homework, announcements and class notes from a
classmate. Coming late to class will also count against you. In this
case, every two late arrivals (lates) count as an absence. Thus you
fail the course with 12 lates or 6 absences or any mix of the two that
add up to 6. Examples are: 2 lates and 5 absences, 4 lates and 4
absences, 6 lates and 3 absences, and so on.

Grading: Programming assignments must be handed in on time and
compile. Late homework (and programming that does not compile) will
receive a grade of 0, however, I will grade late homework and consider
it when tallying final grades. It is most important to do the homework
to gain programming skill, rather than to achieve high marks. Each
homework is fully accessible in this course and there are two lab
sessions each week to help you. Homework is due by the beginning of
class on the day it is due. Do not ’touch’ or modify your files on the
server after handing in the assignment, as this will change the time
stamp. If you miss an assignment, you should always make up the work
for consideration, review and mark up.

Academic Honesty: You are always subject to the Honor Code of
Washington College.  Always sign the honor code on materials that you
hand in (including homework and exams). All work must be your own.

Accommodations: If you have an accommodation that has been reported to
the college, please let me know as soon as possible so I can work to
meet your accommodation. You must notify me of any necessary
accommodation at least two weeks prior to the requirement.

General Schedule:
Week 1 Transistors, Gates, Logic, Algebra, Units
Week 2 Continued Digital Logic, Clock
Week 3 Flip-flops, K-Maps
Week 4 Bases, Units
Week 5 Catch-up, Exam
Week 6 Data Representations
Week 7 Multiplication, State of the Art
Week 8 Assembly, Pipelines, Clocks, Instructions
Week 9 Compilation, Linking, Optimizations
Week 10 Catch-up, Exam
Week 11 CISC, RISC, Stalls and Forwarding
Week 12 Memory
Week 13 Parallelism
Week 14 Catch-up, Review