Below is a preview of the week-by-week plan for the quarter. There may be adjustments and rearrangements as we go. Exam dates are set at quarter start and will not change.
In the readings listed below, B&O is Computer Systems (Bryant and O'Hallaron), K&R is The C Programming Language (Kernighan and Ritchie), and EssentialC is a PDF available at http://cslibrary.stanford.edu/101. Do the readings before lecture for best effect!
Any code examples worked in class will be posted after lecture into /afs/ir/class/cs107/samples/lectN where N is the lecture number.
Slides will be linked to below the morning of a given lecture.
Assignment due dates listed below do not include grace periods, if any.
| Topics | Readings | Assignments |
|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | ||
| Lecture 1 (Mon 1/7): Welcome to CS107! We'll go through course logistics, learning goals, and a tour of C programs. |
Handouts: 1 - General Information Slides: Lecture 1 Slides B&O Ch 1 - skim this chapter for a quick overview of what is meant by systems, and for a preview of topics to come. |
Out (Tues. 1/8): assign0 |
| No labs this week. | ||
| Lecture 2 (Fri 1/11): Integers We'll learn more about the representation of the integer types: char, short, int, and long, in both unsigned and two's complement signed. We'll also discuss integer arithmetic, overflow, truncation and sign extension, and how mixed signed and unsigned comparison operations work. |
Slides: Lecture 2 Slides B&O Ch 2.2-2.3 - skim the formal proofs, but it's important to take away a solid working knowledge of two's complement and behaviors of integer operations. |
|
| Week 2 | ||
| Lecture 3 (Mon 1/14): Bits and Bitwise Operators We'll dive further into bits and bytes, and how to manipulate them using bitwise operators. |
Slides: Lecture 3 Slides B&O Ch 2.1 |
In: assign0 Out: assign1 |
Lab 1: Bits and ints |
Be sure to check out our guide to gdb. | |
| Lecture 4 (Fri 1/18): Chars and C-Strings We'll explore how strings and characters are manipulated in C using the char and char * types, discuss null termination, and become familiar with the string.h functions. |
Slides: Lecture 4 Slides K&R (1.9, 5.5, Appendix B3) or Essential C section 3 for C-strings and string.h library functions. C-strings are primitive compared to Java/C++ strings, so take note of the manual efforts required for correct use and pitfalls to avoid. |
|
| Week 3 | ||
| Lecture 5 (Mon 1/21 - MLK HOLIDAY): VIDEO ONLY - More C-Strings Now it's time to start digging into the use of * and &, pointer operations/arithmetic, and memory diagrams. In lecture, we will trace through code, draw lots of pictures, and poke around in gdb. |
Lecture 5 Video Lecture 5 Slides K&R Ch 1.6, 5.5 or Essential C section 3 on the mechanics of pointers and arrays. Pay special attention to the relationship between arrays and pointers and how pointers/arrays are passed as parameters. |
In: assign1 Out: assign2 |
| Lab 2: C-Strings | Be sure to check out our guide to Valgrind. | |
| Lecture 6 (Fri 1/25): Arrays and Pointers We'll answer questions like: how are arrays and pointers the same? How are they different? How is an array/pointer passed/returned in a function call? After this lecture, you'll understand how arrays and pointers allow two syntaxes for accessing sequential memory locations, but the underlying reality of the memory is the same. |
Lecture 6 Slides K&R 5.2-5.5 or Essential C section 6 on advanced pointers |
|
| Week 4 | ||
| Lecture 7 (Mon 1/28): Stack and Heap We'll learn about stack allocation, stack frames, and parameter passing. Then, we'll introduce dynamic allocation on the heap ( malloc/realloc/free), heap contractual guarantees and undefined behavior. |
Lecture 7 Slides K&R 5.6-5.9 or Essential C section 6 on the heap. The key concept is comparing and contrasting stack and heap allocation. |
In: assign2 Out: assign3 |
| Lab 3: Arrays/Pointers | ||
Lecture 8 (Fri 2/1): void *, Generics We'll continue comparing and contrasting stack and heap allocation. Then, we'll move on to untyped void * pointers and motivate C generics. |
Lecture 8 Slides still working through K&R 5.6-5.9 or Essential C section 6 on the heap. |
|
| Week 5 | ||
| Lecture 9 (Mon 2/4): More Generics We'll talk about function pointers, which allow us to implement generic operations using client callbacks. |
Lecture 9 Slides K&R 5.11, review man pages or your C reference to be introduced to generic functions in the C library ( qsort, lfind, bsearch) |
In: assign3 Out: assign4 |
Lab 4: void */Function Pointers |
||
| Lecture 10 (Fri 2/8): Floating Point We'll learn about manipulating real-value data types ( float/double) using the IEEE floating point representation. We'll also explore features and limitations of the floating point number line. |
Lecture 10 Slides B&O 2.4 on floats - it's ok to skim the details on exactly which bits go where, instead focusing on which values are representable and why) Cool visualization |
|
| Week 6 | ||
| Lecture 11 (Mon 2/11): Intro to x86-64, Data Movement We'll introduce assembly/machine language and find out what's happening underneath the hood of the C compiler, including a discussion of the x86-64 instruction set architecture and its almighty mov instruction. Then, we'll talk about addressing modes, data layout, and access to variables of various types. |
Lecture 11 Slides B&O 3.1-3.3 for background info on x86-64 assembly. Very carefully read B&O 3.4 on addressing modes and data transfer. The multitude of addressing modes is one of the things that puts the first "C" in CISC. Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
In: assign4 Out: assign5 |
| Lab 5: Floats Hands-on float dissection |
||
| MIDTERM EXAM IN-CLASS Friday, Feb. 15, 12:30-2:20pm (note: full class period) |
See the midterm info page for more information. | |
| Week 7 | ||
| Lecture 12 (Mon 2/18 - PRESIDENTS' DAY HOLIDAY): VIDEO ONLY - x86-64 ALU and Condition Codes We'll talk about arithmetic and logical instructions, as well as condition codes and cmp/test and jmp/jx instructions. |
Lecture 12 Video Lecture 12 Slides B&O 3.5-3.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
|
| Lab 6: Assembly x86-64 in all its glory |
Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. | |
| Lecture 13 (Fri 2/22): x86-64 Control Flow We'll see how to implement C if/else and loops in assembly, discuss other uses of condition codes (setx/cmov), and talk about procedures and the runtime stack. |
Lecture 13 Slides B&O 3.6 Be sure to check out our x86-64 guide. |
In: assign5 Out: assign6 |
| Week 8 | ||
| Lecture 14 (Mon 2/25): x86-64 Runtime Stack We'll introduce instructions for call/return, parameter passing, local stack storage, and register use. We'll also explore optimizing compiler transformations to reduce instruction/cycle count. |
Lecture 14 Slides B&O 3.7, 5.1-5.6 |
|
| Lab 7: Runtime Stack Fun explorations with the stack! |
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| Fri 3/1: No Class, Nick out of town | ||
| Week 9 | ||
| Lecture 15 (Mon 3/4): Managing the Heap We'll see how the heap fits into the address space. We'll introduce design decisions for implementing malloc/realloc/free, as well as performance tradeoffs (throughput, utilization). Then, we'll compare and contrast stack and heap allocation. |
Lecture 15 Slides B&O Ch. 9.9 and 9.11 cover heap allocation implementation and memory misuses. There's lots of very useful detail in 9.9 for the heap allocator assignment! |
In: assign6 Out: assign7 |
| Lab 8: Code and Memory Optimization Experiments in optimization and profiling |
Be sure to check out our CS107 guide to callgrind. | |
| Lecture 16: (Fri 3/8) More Heap Management, Optimization We'll continue discussing heap management and take a look at the compilation process and optimization done by GCC. This could be helpful for final tuning of your heap allocator! |
Lecture 16 Slides | |
| Week 10 | ||
| Lecture 17 (Mon 3/11): Wrap-up We'll wrap up the course themes, preview courses and opportunities post-107, and say some final words. Bring questions if you have them! | Lecture 17 Slides | |
| No labs this week. | In (Thurs. 3/14): assign7 | |
| Fri 3/15: No Class, study day | ||
| Week 11 | ||
| FINAL EXAM Friday 3/22 12:15pm-3:15pm |
See the final exam info page for more information. |