In this course we'll give an introduction to variety of topics from hardware to software. The course will follow roughly the same structure as Computer Science 101 at Stanford University with more hands-on approach. This course substitutes Estonian courses I100 Sissejuhatus informaatikasse and I201 Arvutid.

Monday lectures will cover more theoretical stuff; Thursday workshops are for getting started with new topics; the homework assignments connect theoretical with practice and Tuesday sessions are for follow up, asking/answering questions and presenting homework.

Course credits: 6 ECTS

Lecturer: Lauri Võsandi

E-mail: lauri [donut] vosandi [plus] i600 [ät] gmail [dotchka] com

Grading

Grade mapping:

• 0-50 points, fail
• 51-60 points, pass 1
• 61-70 points, satisfactory 2
• 71-80 points, average 3
• 81-90 points, good 4
• 91-100 points, very good 5

Grading is split between theory and practice

• Exam of 50 points, preparation in lectures and general discussion in workshops.
• Assignments, see instructions and points below.

Lecture: Introduction to computer hardware

Potential exam questions:

• Different buses and their uses
• What are the differences between hard disk drive (HDD) and solid state disk (SSD)? [1]
• What are difference between volatile/non-volatile, RAM, ROM, EEPROM and where are they used?
• What are difference between asynchronous/synchronous, dynmic/static RAM and where are they used?
• What is cache? What is cache coherence? [2]
• What are differences between resistive and capacitive touchscreen? [3]
• Explain how cathode ray tube (CRT) based screen technology works and name pros/cons. [4] [5]
• Explain how liquid crystal displays (LCD) work and name pros/cons. [6] [7]
• Name screen technologies making use of thin film transistor (TFT) technology? [8]
• Name uses for light polarization filters? [9] [10]
• What are the differences between linear vs switching power regulation? [11]
• What are the benefits of twisted pair cabling and differential signalling?
• Active matrix vs passive matrix in display technology
• What is resistance? Capacitance? Inductance?

Jargon: CPU, RAM, ROM, HDD, SSD, PCI, PCI Express, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, VGA, HDMI, DVI, LCD, TFT, LED, OLED, AMOLED, CRT, PWM

Lecture: Introduction to data encoding

In this lecture we'll talk about bits, bytes, integers, strings, pixels, audio encodings, video encoding etc.

Lecture: Introduction to X

In this lecture we'll talk about X

Lecture: Introduction to Y

In this lecture we'll talk about Y

Lecture: Introduction to Z

In this lecture we'll talk about Z

Assignment: Investigating PC hardware

Deadline: 16. September

Credits: 4 points plus extra point for being extra thorough

Use what you learned in Getting started with Ubuntu workshop:

• Place your preferred ISO image to a memory stick using dd or Win32 Disk Imager and boot it on your personal laptop. You do not need to install Ubuntu on your harddisk, simply use memory stick to boot the machine and carry out following tasks.
• Open up terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T.
• Use lsb_release -a to check what operating system distribution you're running.
• Use uname -sr to check what operating system kernel you're running.
• Use cat /proc/cpuinfo and check what CPU model and how many cores your computer has.
• Use arch to check what CPU architecture is being used by the operating system.
• Use cat /proc/meminfo and check how much RAM your computer has.
• Use lspci -t -v -nn to enumerate PCI and PCI Express devices, attempt to identify what is what.
• Use lsusb and lsusb -t to enumerate USB devices, again attempt to identify what is what.
• Use fdisk -l to enumerate disks and partitions.
• Use lsblk to enumerate block devices.
• Use xrandr to enumerate display outputs.
• Use cat /proc/asound/cards to check which audio devices are available.
• Use dmidecode to see even more information about your computer.
• Use ifconfig -a or ip addr list to list all network interfaces.
• Use iwconfig or iw list to list all wireless network interfaces. Is your wireless network interface detected? If not take a guess why?
• Use hcitool dev to list bluetooth host controller. Is your bluetooth deviced detected?
• Use glxinfo to check what 3D rendering capabilities are available, is it hardware accelerated? (hint: is direct rendering enabled?)
• What audio card is your machine using? What bus is it using?
• What graphics controller is your machine using? How is it connected to your machine? What video output resolutions are available and which one is currently used?
• What webcam is your machine using? What bus is it using?
• What wired network chipset your computer has? What bus is it using?
• What wireless network chipset your computer has? What bus is it using?
• What bluetooth device your computer has? What bus is it using?
• Is there a cellular modem connected and how it's connected?
• Boot the ISO image in VirtualBox and follow the same steps as above, what are the differences and why?
• Collect command outputs, answer to questions and send it as plain text e-mail to Lauri, make sure you use the address supplied above with the course code.

If you're already familiar with Linux, it's suggested to take a look at other interesting operating systems such as FreeBSD or OpenBSD.

Assignment: Investigating embedded hardware

Deadline: 23. September

Points: 4 points

Use what you learned in Getting started with Ubuntu and Getting started with Raspberry Pi workshops:

• Instructions will be added by second week of September

Assignment: Investigating X

Deadline: 30. September

Points: 4 points

Extra points

Here you can claim extra credit points for various tasks, this is mostly to improve the quality of wiki.itcollege.ee. Once you have taken care of the task insert your name in the end of the line with corresponding date.

• Expand Getting started with Ubuntu#Installing in VirtualBox section with highlighted screenshots of VirtualBox. Credits: 1p