Computer Systems

Academic unit or major

Undergraduate major in Mathematical and Computing Science

Instructor(s)

Toshio Endo / Akihiro Nomura

Class Format

Lecture/Exercise

Media-enhanced courses

-

Day of week/Period
(Classrooms)

5-6 Tue (W621) / 5-8 Fri (W621)

Class

-

Course Code

MCS.T233

Number of credits

210

Course offered

2021

Offered quarter

4Q

Syllabus updated

Jul 10, 2025

Language

Japanese

Syllabus

Course overview and goals

Modern computers consist of digital circuits implemented on silicon wafers. However, humans program with textual, high-level programming languages such as C++ and Python, and it is not obvious how abstract computing models that humans perceive are actually executed on hardware. In practice, there are many layers involved in the execution, and for this particular course, first we study language abstraction at the lowest level, namely machine languages, and then how hardware can be constructed to interpret and execute such machine languages. In the lab course we will also learn structure of processors by constructing a CPU simulator.

Course description and aims

The goal of this course is to learn the hardware architectural concepts of computers, how they execute the programs in principle. Also, we will cover recent advances in computer architectures, especially techniques to attain speed and execution efficiency, in order to attain insights into how an efficient computing infrastructure can be constructed.
We will first be learning the lowest level programming language, namely machine language, and will then learn how hardware components such as ALUs and memory devices are designed with digital circuits. This will allow students to come to a complete understanding of the abstraction layers of computers based on the von Neumann architecture.

Keywords

Computer architecture, machine language, addressing, von Neumann machine, digital circuits, adders, expressing values with binary numbers, ALU, combinatorial logic, truth table, finite state logic, data path, single cycle execution, multi cycle execution, finite state machine / automaton, microprograming, pipelining, storage / memory, DRAM, memory hierarchy, cache, I/O, hard disk, flash memory, performance, parallelism.

Competencies

• Specialist skills
• Intercultural skills
• Communication skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

For each lecture class a set of PowerPoint slides will be distributed prior to the class. The lab course will have an assignment every one or two classes, and a report is to be submitted for each assignment. The grade will be determined based on the combination of the score of the final exam and the submitted reports.

Course schedule/Objectives

Study advice (preparation and review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend a certain length of time outside of class on preparation and review (including for assignments), as specified by the Tokyo Institute of Technology Rules on Undergraduate Learning (東京工業大学学修規程) and the Tokyo Institute of Technology Rules on Graduate Learning (東京工業大学大学院学修規程), for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Not Specified

Reference books, course materials, etc.

Patterson and Hennessy, Computer Organization and Design: The Hardware/Software Interface, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, 2014.

Evaluation methods and criteria

The grade will be determined based on the combination of the score of the final exam and the submitted reports.

Related courses

• MCS.T204 ： Introduction to Computer Science
• MCS.T214 ： Theory of Automata and Languages
• MCS.T314 ： Operating Systems
• MCS.T334 ： Compiler Construction

Prerequisites

Basic knowledge of programming, and Boolean logic