CS-343 Exam 1 Topics
Spring 2009

Everything listed here is “fair game” for the exam, but I cannot guarantee that I haven’t forgotten something here that just has to be included on the exam. If in doubt, ask on the Course Discussion Board.

• Background_Material.pdf
• Textbook Chapter 1
• Textbook Chapter 3, Sections 1 and 2
• Textbook Appendix C, Sections 1, 2, 3, and 5
• Web Pages for Assignments 1, 2, (and 3 once it has been written!)
• Using Quartus web page
• Class Notes

1. Physical measurement of time and frequency, including use of proper units of measure and conversions of a value from one unit to another (picoseconds to milliseconds, etc.) Period and frequency of a signal; calculations related to them.

   No calculators or other electronic devices may be used during the exam!

2. Information measurement; powers of two; hexadecimal.
3. Throughput and response time.
4. Performance calculation: the three terms that determine Seconds per Program. Comparing performances; benchmarks.
5. Amdahl’s Law
6. Logic equations, truth tables, and logic circuits. Algebraic and Karnaugh Map minimization.
7. Propagation Delays in a logic circuit.
8. Two’s complement numbers: representation of positive and negative numbers; the negation operation; range of values using n bits; definitions of carry and overflow for addition; sign extension operation.
9. Design and implementation of a full adder.
10. Design and implementation of one slice of the MIPS ALU. Note that Appendix C, Section 5 has some very minor differences from the design developed in class and used for Assignment 3; those differences will not be significant on the exam.
11. Multiplexer design and operation, including devices with widths greater than 1.
12. ALU design, including logic for Carry, Overflow, Negative, and Zero condition codes; SLT operation.

I will send email to the mailing list for the course and post a message to the course discussion board if I make changes to this list of topics.