midterm01 : Midterm 1

num ready? description assigned due
midterm01 true Midterm 1 Wed 10/19 10:00AM

Study guide for midterm 1

The midterm will cover topics from Weeks 1 to 3 which includes:

  1. Number representation:

    • Encoding with fixed and finite number of bits
    • unsigned, signed, hex, decimal
    • fixed point and floating point: understand the tradeoffs
    • conversion between different bases
    • sign extension
    • range of values that can be represented with finite numbers of bits and any given representation
    • binary arithmetic - addition, subtraction
    • overflow - when does it occur for signed and unsigned numbers, how to detect it
  2. ARM Instruction set architecture
    • Registers - size, usage in ARM instructions
    • Arithmetic and bitwise instructions
    • ARM shifts and rotates
    • Hand compiling C to ARM code
  3. C Concepts
    • Bitwise and logical operators
    • Bit manipulations
    • C pointers
    • C arrays and pointer arithmetic

To prepare for the midterm, please go through quiz 1-3, lecture slides AND know the solutions to the puzzles in PA1 with difficulty level 1-3.

Here are the quiz questions with solutions

If you have time, sample the following exercises from Harris and King:

Midterm paper and solutions