Schedule

Below is a preview of our week-by-week plan for the entire quarter. There may be slight adjustments and rearrangements as we go. The schedule for the final project is set and will not change.

In the readings below, K&R refers to Kernighan and Ritchie's classic text The C Programming Language (accessible via Stanford's subscription to Safari Books Online). Nick Parlante's EssentialC is another great C reference. Please do the recommended readings before lecture for best effect!

Week 1
Lecture
Mon 4/1		 Introduction and Welcome ( slides, code )

Readings:
Lab/assign Lab 0: Orientation ( writeup )

Please do the Lab 0 prelab preparation before coming to lab.

 Assignment 0: Git oriented ( writeup )
Lecture
Fri 4/5 		RISC-V assembly and machine code ( slides, code )
Week 2
Lecture
Mon 4/8		 From Assembly to C ( slides, code )
  • Our one-page guide to RISC-V.
  • Brush up on C basics (syntax, data types, operators, control structures) via your favorite C reference; sections 1-2 of Nick Parlante's EssentialC; or chapters 1, 2, and 3 of K&R. Skip content on I/O and standard libraries (we are bare metal!)
  • Read Dennis Ritchie's account of the history of C
  • Try out the Compiler Explorer demoed in lecture
  • Read our guides on make and gcc
Lab/assign Lab 1: Getting to know your Mango Pi ( writeup )

Please do the Lab 1 prelab preparation before coming to lab.

 Assignment 1: Larson Scanner ( writeup )
Lecture
Fri 4/12 		C Pointers and Arrays ( slides, code )
  • Before lecture, read EssentialC chapters 3 (skip material on structures) and 6 (skip material on the heap and memory management) or K&R 5.1-5.4. C-strings are primitive compared to Java/C++ strings; take note of the manual effort required to use and pitfalls to avoid.
  • C volatile can be subtle and tricky. See GeeksForGeeks advice on correct use and John Regehr's blog on what NOT to do with volatile
Week 3
Lecture
Mon 4/15		 C Functions ( slides, code )
  • Read up on C functions (Chapter 4 in K&R, or Section 4 in Essential C).
Lab/assign Lab 2: Below C Level ( writeup )

Prelab to prep before lab.

 Assignment 2: Clock ( writeup )
Lecture
Fri 4/19 		Communication and the Serial Protocol ( slides, code )
  • Read about characters and strings, IO functions (putc,puts,printf), and structures (Sections 1.5, 1.6, 1.9, 5.5, 6, 7 in K&R; or Section 3 in EssentialC).
  • Poul-Henning Kamp's essay on The Most Expensive One-byte Mistake. Did Ken, Dennis, and Brian choose wrong with NUL-terminated text strings?
  • Read Sparkfun's tutorial on serial communication.
Week 4
Lecture
Mon 4/22		 Modules, Libraries, and Linking
Lab/assign Lab 3: Debugging and Testing Assignment 3: String Formatting
Lecture
Fri 4/26 		Memory Management
Week 5
Lecture
Mon 4/29		 C Mastery
Lab/assign Lab 4: Linked and Loaded Assignment 4: Backtrace and Malloc
Lecture
Fri 5/3 		Keyboards and the PS/2 Protocol
Week 6
Lecture
Mon 5/6		 Graphics and the framebuffer
Lab/assign Lab 5: Keyboard Surfin' Assignment 5: Keyboard and Simple Shell
Lecture
Fri 5/10 		Interrupts
Week 7
Lecture
Mon 5/13		 Interrupts, cont'd
Lab/assign Lab 6: Drawing into the Framebuffer Assignment 6: Graphics Library and Console
Lecture
Fri 5/17 		Sensors
Week 8
Lecture
Mon 5/20		 /lectures/FloatingPoint/
Lab/assign Lab 7: Mango Pi, Interrupted Assignment 7: System Monitor with Interrupts
Lecture
Fri 5/24 		Project
Week 9
Lecture
Mon 5/27		 Object-oriented programming
Lab/assign Lab 8: Project Team Meeting 1 Final Project
Lecture
Fri 5/31 		RISC-V: origins, design, and future opportunities
Week 10
Lecture
Mon 6/3		 /lectures/Misc/
Lab/assign Lab 9: Project Team Meeting 2
Lecture
Fri 6/7 		Wrap or There and Back Again
Week 11
Final Project
Demo session Fri 6/7 at 3:30 pm
Code submission due Fri 6/7 at 11:59 pm