Announcements Page

Drop-ins

Just a quick reminder that drop-in sessions won’t be running over reading week (week 6) - instead John and I will be running a 2hour revision Q&A session that is in your timetable for 14:00 Monday 21st October!

Also highlighting that TA drop-ins will not be running on certain weeks due to their availability e.g. Ali and Nathan are not available this week! The currently scheduled drop-ins are:

Mondays 11-12pm, weeks 2-5 & 7-12 in MVB 4.01 with Kira (weeks 2-5) or John (weeks 7-12)
Tuesdays 3-4pm, weeks 3-4 & 7-12 in FRY G.16 with Ali
Wednesdays 4-5pm, weeks 3-4 & 8-12 in FRY G.16 with Nathan
Fridays 12-1pm, weeks 1-5, 7-9 & 12 in MVB 4.01 with Alex

It’s worth checking the github page before attend a session, as we’ll be updating the list here if there are any further changes to drop-in sessions!

All the best, Kira and John

Week 5 content and important test announcements

Week 5 materials are now live on the unit’s GitHub page! As we move into the second part of the course, some important announcements concerning the test next week worth 40% of your unit mark, so please read them!

First, and worthy of a paragraph rather than a bullet point, this week’s video lectures are not examinable on our in-class test next week. They are, however, the foundation for literally everything in the second in-class test in week 13, and it is vital that you take the time to understand them. If you absolutely must ignore week 5 for now while you focus on revision, then catching up in week 7 is a viable strategy to some extent - the material in week 7 is about “filling in the gap” between assembly language as introduced this week and the hardware of week 1-4, and most of it (while examinable) will not come up again in weeks 8-11. You can’t just skip week 5 altogether and hope things will work out, though. Absolutely nothing in weeks 7-11 will make any sense if you don’t have a working knowledge of Hack assembly. You’re going to have a bad time.

The remaining announcements are shorter and simpler:

Practice papers for the test will be up early this week, accompanied by an announcement.
Details of the test rules are available here. Note in particular that:
- You will have access to this reference sheet. You are not allowed to bring in any other notes or access any other notes from within the exam room.
- You are allowed to use the built-in lab calculators, but you are not allowed to use physical calculators or the “programming” modes which allow you to e.g. convert between binary and decimal numbers.
- You are only allowed to use the test version of Logisim (“LogiExam”).
- You are not allowed to start writing things or checking notes between coming into the room and the start of the exam.
- We will be running occasional random checks during the exam to make sure you have no banned software or materials open. If this happens, don’t worry, it will only take a few seconds.
- At the start of the test you will need to remove your coat (so dress warm!), bags, and electronic devices and leave them at the front of the room,
- Remember to bring your student ID, writing materials, and a water bottle (with no label).
The test may be showing as 6 hours in your timetable - you can safely ignore this, it’s just the duration of the room booking, which includes setup/teardown for us and extra time for students whose SSPs require extra time or breaks. We will start ASAP after 10am on Wednesday 23rd (not 9am). If you don’t have an SSP, the test will last for two hours and will take place in MVB 2.11 (the same room as labs). If you do have an SSP which requires alternative exam arrangements, you should have received a separate email from the school office with details about timing and venue - you will likely be in MVB 1.15 or MVB 1.07.
Next Monday (the 21st) we will be running a bonus two-hour Q&A session focused on weeks 1-4 to help with revision. Like all our Q&As, attendance is optional but encouraged if there’s any part of the unit you’ve been having trouble with. You should have this in your timetables - it’s in Pugsley lecture theatre in Queens at 2pm. (If you haven’t been to Queens before, it is a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. You must enter via the main entrance on University Walk/Tankard’s Close and follow the signposts or you will wander lost for 15+ minutes. More detailed directions are available here.)
There will be a “mock test” at the start of Thursday labs at noon. This is optional (and has no marks associated with it) but is recommended anyway. Basically, the mock test will be a dress rehearsal for the real test in every way except the test paper, which will be effectively blank. It will likely take about 15-30 minutes, and will be a chance to see what the procedures will be for the real thing next week.

Finally, please note that since this week’s videos were recorded last year we now have a shiny new fork of the Nand2Tetris CPU simulator and an automated test server courtesy of Ali Jardine, a past student and current TA. The fork is available for download here, along with links to the base software’s documentation and a list of features new to the fork, and the test server is here.

Best wishes,

John and Kira

Week 4 content

Week 4 materials are now (mostly) live on the unit’s Github page!

Unfortunately I’ve had some technical issues with recordings, so only the slides are currently available for lectures 4.2 - 4.4. I do have to apologise for this, and I’ll do my best to get the recordings sorted and released this evening!

All the best, Kira and John

More drop-in sessions

Quick announcement to say we have some additional TA sessions available starting from next week (see those in bold below):

Mondays 11-12pm, weeks 2-5 & 7-12 in MVB 4.01 with Kira (weeks 2-5) or John (weeks 7-12)
Tuesdays 3-4pm, weeks 3-5 & 7-12 in FRY G.16 with Ali
Wednesdays 4-5pm, weeks 3-5 & 7-12 in FRY G.16 with Nathan
Fridays 12-1pm, weeks 1-5, 7-9 & 12 in MVB 4.01 with Alex

This information has now been updated on our Github page as well, in case you’d like a reminder of when/where these sessions are.

To reiterate, these are entirely optional and each in a small room (16-20 person capacity) so do come along if you have specific questions for us, but as first point of call for questions outside of in-person sessions, please do also remember that our Teams channel is available and we have eager TAs specifically keeping an eye, ready to answer your questions!

All the best, Kira and John

Another week of Architecture

Week 2 lectures and labsheet are now available on the unit GitHub page!

Answers to last week’s labsheet as well as links to the recording and padlet from last week’s Q&A session have also be uploaded.

As a reminder, tomorrow’s workshop is based on last week’s materials (so doesn’t require you to have looked at anything from week 2 yet) - we’ll start off with a live Logisim circuit building session, followed by a formative (does not count towards your unit grade) Blackboard quiz with TA support.

All the best, Kira and John

Asking questions and drop-in sessions

For all those asking how they can get some help outside of the labs, in addition to the Teams channel (please post questions!!), we have office hours scheduled for you to come and discuss with us in a small group setting:

Fridays 12-1pm, in weeks 1-5, 7-9 & 12 in MVB 4.01 with our wonderful lead TA Alex (starting tomorrow!)
Mondays 11-12pm, weeks 2-5 & 7-12 in MVB 4.01 with Kira (weeks 2-5) or John (weeks 7-12)

These are entirely optional sessions in a small room (that only has a ~20 person capacity) so please do come along if you have specific questions for us, but otherwise the Wednesday Q&A sessions are a great opportunity to ask us lots as well as hear other people’s questions!

We plan to have more of these drop-in session on offer soon, so keep an eye out for a further announcement.

All the best, Kira and John

Attendance monitoring info error

Hi everyone,

It looks like our procedures for monitoring attendance have changed since last year, and we gave out some incorrect information in the intro talk on Tuesday - we won’t be using Qwickly, but the University of Bristol app. Sorry about that - we’ve now put up much more detail on how this works on the unit page here, and removed the old Blackboard subpage which no longer works. If the school office gets in touch asking about non-attendance for week 1, please just blame us!

Best wishes,

John and Kira

Welcome!

Welcome to Overview of Computer Architecture!

Week 1 materials are now available on the unit GitHub page, introducing you to the beginning of digital electronics.

Your first scheduled in-person session with us (tomorrow) will be an overview of the course - you don’t need to prepare anything in advance for this! However, we do expect that you’ll have begun to review this week’s materials before Wednesday’s Q&A session, where you can bring any content related questions, and that you’ll have started to attempt this week’s assignment before Thursday’s labs. We’ll be providing more information on these tomorrow, so please bring any general questions to us then!

For any questions outside of these contact hours; John, our wonderful TAs, and I will be keeping an eye on our unit’s Team page.

All the best, Kira and John