Category:I600 Introduction to Computers and Informatics

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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. Attendance won't be tracked, the sessions are there if you need help. Bring your laptops for Tuesday and Thursday sessions.


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.
  • Extra points for improving quality of wiki articles, extracurricular work and also helping others, see points below.

Exam will be halfway between oral and written: You'll be given 30 minutes to prepare for several random questions and 15 minutes to discuss what you've answered. If you don't have prior experience with the topics, it's highly recommended to take part of the sessions in order to pass the exam.

Lecture: Computer hardware

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 recording #1

Lecture recording #2 starting 12:30

Lecture slides Random access memory, permanent storage, buses, input devices, display technologies, networking

Potential exam questions:

Security section: Hacking SD cards

Assignments:

Lecture: Storage abstractions

In this lecture we'll talk about permanent storage abstractions: block device, disk, partition, file system, directory/folder, file, journaling, FAT32, NTFS, ext4, HFS+

Lecture slides

Lecture recording starts at 47:50.

Lecture: Bootloaders, kernels

In this lecture we'll discuss how a computer boots and how an operating system kernel is loaded.


Lecture recording #1, first half we'll discuss about first assignment about investigating PC hardware, slides start at 43:40.

Lecture recording #2, first 15 minutes we'll discuss about second assignment about investigating embedded hardware, last slides about kernels are discussed from 16:00 up to 27:30. I forgot to switch video input for lecture recording so you'll have to browse slides from the link below :/

Lecture slides: bootloaders, kernels.

Jargon: BIOS (basic input/output system), UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface), bootloader, kernel, process, context switch, x86 real/protected mode, paged virtual memory, swap/pagefile, kernelspace/supervisor mode, userspace, hypervisor mode (ring -1), system management mode aka (ring -2).

Potential exam questions:

  • What is the role of BIOS/UEFI in x86-based machines?
  • Explain step by step how operating system is booted up, see slides for flowchart.
  • Describe the functionality provided by general purpose operating system. See architecture of Windows NT, Android, OS X.
  • What are the main differences between real mode and protected mode of x86-based processor?
  • What happens during context switch?
  • What is the purpose of paged virtual memory?


Security section: DMA attack, editing GRUB entries to gain root shell without password prompt, 20 years old security exploit in x86 processors.

Lecture: Libraries, frameworks

Lecture recording #1, from 00:27:30 up to 1:04:00.

Lecture slides

Jargon: framework, library, ABI, API

Security section: HTTP.sys bug crashes IIS web servers, OpenSSL bug Heartbleed.

Lecture: Programming languages

In this lecture we'll talk about programming languages

Lecture recording: starting from 1:04:00

Lecture slides: programming languages, stack machine

Jargon: stack machine, lexer/lexeme, token, abstract syntax tree

Potential exam questions:

Assignments:

Lecture: Data encoding

Lecture recording

Lecture slides

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

  • What is bit? Nibble? Byte? Word?
  • What is quantization in terms of signal processing?
  • How are integers stored in binary? What integer range can be described using n bits? How many bits are required to describe integer range from n .. m.
  • How are single precision and double precision floating point numbers stored in binary according to IEEE754 standard? Floating-point multiplication
  • What is the difference between CMYK and RGB color models? How are YUV, HSV and HSL colorspaces related to RGB? What are sRGB and YCbCr and where are they used?
  • How is data encoded on audio CD-s? What is the capacity of an audio CD?
  • What is sampling rate? What is bit depth? What is resolution?
  • What is bitrate?
  • What is lossy/lossless compression?
  • What is JPEG suitable for? Is JPEG lossy or lossless compression method?
  • What is PNG suitable for? Does PNG support compression?
  • How are time domain and frequency domain related in terms of signal processing? What is Fourier transform and where it is applied?

Jargon: 44.1kHz sampling rate, 16-bit audio, RGB565 pixel format, RGB888 pixel format

Lecture: Introduction to Y

Potential exam questions:

In this lecture we'll talk about Y

Lecture: Introduction to Boole algebra

Assignments:


Assignment: Investigating PC hardware

Goal: Get familiar with your laptop hardware. Get out of the comfort zone of your primary operating system and try out other operating systems. Learn about hardware virtualization.

Deadline: 16. September

Credits: 5 points plus extra point for being extra thorough about interpreting what you see.

Use what you learned in Getting started with Ubuntu workshop:

  • Read the instructions before you act.
  • 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 click Try Ubuntu once the operating system boots off the memory stick 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 processor information. What CPU model and how many cores your computer has?
  • Use arch to check what CPU architecture is being used by the operating system. Is it 32-bit or 64-bit?
  • Use cat /proc/meminfo to check memory usage. 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. How big is your harddisk? How many and how big partitions it has?
  • Use lsblk to enumerate block devices.
  • Use xrandr to enumerate display outputs. What video output resolutions are available and which one is currently used?
  • 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 device 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? What bus is it using?
  • 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?
  • Answer to questions above and send it as plain text e-mail to Lauri, make sure you use the address supplied above with the course code, otherwise your mail is not searchable in my mailbox. Attach collected command outputs as plain text file, do not send .odt, .doc files, these are not readable on my smartphone. When answering to questions phrase the text in a way that is understandable out of context, so I don't have to open up wiki to understand what you're talking about.

Note that I can't expect you to install Ubuntu on your physical machine, but I can help if you want to do that. You should have Ubuntu ready to go in a virtual machine at least for subsequent sessions. We're using Ubuntu because it's widely used on servers and in the cloud, so any Ubuntu skills will definitely come handy in future. If you're already familiar with Linux, it's suggested to take a look at other interesting operating systems such as FreeBSD or OpenBSD. Take a look at Kali Linux if you're interested in penetration testing.

Assignment: Investigating embedded hardware

Background: Most of the smartphones nowadays are using SoC built around ARM processor. Raspberry Pi is an excellent piece of hardware to for checking out how an ARM-based machine looks like.

Goal: Get familiar with hardware ARM-based hardware.

Deadline: 23. September

Points: 4 points

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

  • Read the instructions before you get busy.
  • Boot Raspbian on Raspberry Pi.
  • Use the commands described in previous assignment to examine the environment of Raspbian on Raspberry Pi. What are the major differences compares to your laptop and virtual machine?
  • What buses is Raspberry Pi making use of?
  • What filesystems is Raspbian making use of?
  • Answer to questions above and send it as e-mail to Lauri, make sure you use the address supplied above with the course code, otherwise your mail is not searchable in my mailbox. Attach collected command outputs as plain text file, do not send .odt, .doc files, these are not readable on a phone. When answering to questions phrase the text in a way that is understandable out of context, so it is not necessary to open up wiki to understand what you're talking about.

Assignment: Investigating LAMP

LAMP software bundle is consists of Linux-based OS, Apache web server, PHP programming language runtime and MySQL database. Most of the web applications on the Internet including Facebook are built on top of LAMP-styled software stack. Use a Raspberry Pi or Ubuntu virtual machine to set up WordPress, ownCloud or any well-known web application that makes use of a database such as MySQL. To make your life easier also set up SSH public key authentication.

Goal: Get familiar with LAMP stack. Get comfortable with (SSH) public key authentication.

Deadline: 30. September

Points: 4 points

Tasks:

  • If you're using Ubuntu virtual machine approach, see Accessing a virtual machine via SSH connection
  • Use SSH to connect to your server over the network. If you're using Windows on your laptop use PuTTY to gain access to command line and WinSCP to copy files, otherwise simply boot Ubuntu in a virtual machine and use ssh username@hostname to invoke commands and sftp://username@hostname in the file browser to access filesystem.
  • Set up any of the web applications referenced above. You may be interested in reading also this and this.
  • Demonstrate that the web application you installed works in next Tuesday session, screenshots/photos with explanation sent to e-mail above also suffice.
  • Optional: Set up SSH public key authentication to enos.itcollege.ee.
  • Optional: Set up public key authentication to your Raspberry Pi. Windows users might want to take a look at PuTTYgen instructions.

Note: You don't have to necessarily use Raspberry Pi - Web application installed in Ubuntu VM is also accepted, also if you're maintaining similar installation of a production server that is accepted as well. WAMP on Windows is also accepted.

Assignment: Set up basic IoT scenario

Internet of Things is one of the emerging technologies (read: hype). IoT is essentially about getting everything online, including lightbulbs, switches, window shades etc. In this assignment LED symbolizes a light and the task is to implement code which allows user to switch the LED on and off over the network.

File:Raspberry-pi-gpio-18-led bb.png

Goal: Get familiar how Python code can be started up. Build basic IoT appliance, a light that can be turned on and off via the Internet.

Deadline: 7. October

Points: 4 points

  • Complete the Python track at CodeAcademy if you haven't done that yet.
  • Follow the wiki page Blinking LED section under Getting started with Raspberry Pi.
  • Get an LED blinking on command-line.
  • Get LED blinking from Python code.
  • Get basic HTTP server running in Python.
  • Combine all of the above, build an HTTP server that can be used to turn LED on and off from via web browser.
  • Optional: Take a peek at next assignment and upload working version to GitHub.
  • Optional: Smoothen the transitions using PWM.

Assignment: Collaborating using Git

Software development is usually done by several contributors, to facilitate efficient collaboration a distributed version control system is a must. In this assignment you'll upload your code to GitHub and modify fellow student's code to reflect changes in the Raspberry Pi setup:

Deadline: 14. October

Points: 5

Goal: Get familiar with distributed version control systems. Collaborate.

  • Create GitHub account if you haven't done so yet.
  • Create a Git repository, eg http://github.com/your-username/rpi-iot-example
  • Install Git on your Raspberry Pi by using apt-get install git.
  • Clone the repository to your Raspberry Pi using git clone http://github.com/your-username/rpi-iot-example.
  • Move the Python code created earlier to the Git repository directory.
  • Use git add to add the files.
  • Configure full name: git config --global user.name "Firstname Surname"
  • Configure e-mail: git config --global user.email first.last@domain.tld
  • Use git commit to create the initial commit.
  • Use git push to push the commits to GitHub server.
  • Set up public key authentication between your laptop and GitHub servers, verify that https://github.com/username.keys gives the expected result.
  • Use git clone to clone the repository to your laptop. Ubuntu should first apt-get install git, Windows and Mac users might want to take a look at Git homepage. If you're looking for graphical user interface take a look at GitHub Desktop or TortoiseGit.
  • Create README in the repository directory, populate it with relevant content - what is it about, who made it etc and commit the changes.
  • In your Raspberry Pi setup replace the single-color LED with RGB LED as shown above.
  • Clone fellow student's repository and adapt the code to reflect physical changes to the setup, the Python snippet should now permit changing the color of the light, have it blinking and turn it off. Other interesting modes are awarded with extra points.
  • Use either Atlassian Tutorials, git - the simple guide or Try Git as a reference if you get lost.
  • Document in the README what GPIO pins are used in the code for red, green and blue. Extra points for making the Python code configurable from command-line.
  • Late submissions will heavily lose points for failure to comply with decent commit messages.
  • Send Lauri the URL of your repository at GitHub.

Assignment: Disassembling Python

CPython is the default, most widely used implementation of the Python programming language. CPython is written in C. CPython compiles Python source into bytecode which is interpreted by a Python virtual (stack) machine. This is very similar to what is done with Java. Use dis to disassemble a Python function into stack machine instructions. Follow bytecode instructions to determine what each instruction does.

Deadline: 21. October


Consider following Python function, which calculates the sum of squares. For example sum_of_powers(2, 3) == 14 (1**2 + 2**2 + 3**2): 

def sum_of_powers(exponent, numbers):
    counter = 1
    return_value = 0
    while True:
        if counter > numbers:
            break
        return_value += counter ** exponent
        counter += 1
    return return_value

# Following two lines are the ones which produce the instructions shown below
from dis import dis
dis(sum_of_powers)

Corresponding Python stack machine instructions extracted with dis are following. Columns correspond to: line number in the source code, instruction offset (in bytes), instruction name as listed in dis documentation, 

22           0 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)               # Constant of 1 is pushed to stack
             3 STORE_FAST               2 (counter)         # Pushed value is popped and stored in variable counter

23           6 LOAD_CONST               2 (0)               # Constant of 0 is pushed to stack
             9 STORE_FAST               3 (return_value)    # Pushed value is popped and stored in variable return_value

24          12 SETUP_LOOP              43 (to 58)           # Loop until instruction no 58 is set up

25     >>   15 LOAD_FAST                2 (counter)             # Value of variable <counter> is pushed to stack
            18 LOAD_FAST                1 (numbers)             # Value of variable <numbers> is pushed to stack
            21 COMPARE_OP               4 (>)                   # Two topmost values of stack are popped and compared,
                                                                # boolean result is pushed back to the top of stack
            24 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE       31                       # If top of the stack if False,
                                                                # jump to instruction no 31 is performed.
                                                                # Top of the stack is popped

26          27 BREAK_LOOP                                       # Execution jumps out of the loop, the one
                                                                # that was set up at inst no 12
            28 JUMP_FORWARD             0 (to 31)               # Placeholder probably due to the way pipeline is handled

27     >>   31 LOAD_FAST                3 (return_value)        # Value of variable <return_value> is pushed to stack
            34 LOAD_FAST                2 (counter)             # Value of variable <counter> is pushed to stack
            37 LOAD_FAST                0 (exponent)            # Value of variable <exponent> is pushed to stack
            40 BINARY_POWER                                     # Exponentiation of two topmost values is performed and
                                                                # substituted with the result
            41 INPLACE_ADD                                      # Two topmost values are added and substituted with the sum
            42 STORE_FAST               3 (return_value)        # Sum of the addition is stored in variable <return_value>

28          45 LOAD_FAST                2 (counter)             # Value of variable <counter> is pushed to stack
            48 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)                   # Constant of 1 is pushed to stack
            51 INPLACE_ADD                                      # Two topmost values are added and substituted with the sum
            52 STORE_FAST               2 (counter)             # Sum is stored in the variable <counter>
            55 JUMP_ABSOLUTE           15                       # Code execution jumps to instruction no 15 (the beginning of the loop)

29     >>   58 LOAD_FAST                3 (return_value)    # The value of variable <return_value> is pushed to stack
            61 RETURN_VALUE                                 # Return top of the stack to the function caller


Executing the function with arguments exponent=2 and numbers=3 will result in return value of 14, the steps to get to the results are following: 

   -1. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3]; co_consts[?, 1, 0]
    0. stack = [1]
    3. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 1]
    6. stack = [0];
    9. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 1, 0]
   12. stack = []; loop is set up, counter is 1
   
   15. stack = [1]
   18. stack = [1, 3]
   21. stack = [False]
   24. stack = []; jump to instruction 31
   31. stack = [0];
   34. stack = [0, 1];
   37. stack = [0, 1, 2];
   40. stack = [0, 1]
   41. stack = [1]
   42. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 1, 1]
   45. stack = [1];
   48. stack = [1, 1];
   51. stack = [2]
   52. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 2, 1]
   53. jump to instruction no 15, counter is 2
   
   15. stack = [2]
   18. stack = [2, 3]
   21. stack = [False]
   24. stack = []; jump to instruction 31
   31. stack = [1]; here we have only 1**1
   34. stack = [1, 2];
   37. stack = [1, 2, 2];
   40. stack = [1, 4]
   41. stack = [5]; here we already have 1**2 + 2**2
   42. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 2, 5]
   45. stack = [2];
   48. stack = [2, 1];
   51. stack = [3]
   52. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 3, 5]
   53. jump to instruction no 15, counter is 3
   
   15. stack = [3]
   18. stack = [3, 3]
   21. stack = [False]
   24. stack = []; jump to instruction 31
   31. stack = [5]
   34. stack = [5, 3];
   37. stack = [5, 3, 2];
   40. stack = [5, 9]
   41. stack = [14]; here we have 1**2 + 2**2 + 3**2
   42. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 3, 14]
   45. stack = [3];
   48. stack = [3, 1];
   51. stack = [4]
   52. stack = []; co_varnames = [2, 3, 4, 14]
   53. jump to instruction no 15, counter is 4
   
   15. stack = [4]
   18. stack = [4, 3]
   21. stack = [True]
   24. stack = []; no jump
   27. break out of the loop
   58. stack = [14]
   61. return to caller

Assignment steps:

  • Select one of the Fibonacci code examples below
  • Use from dis import dis and dis(function_name_goes_here) to disassemble the function to opcodes
  • Comment the stack machine instructions as shown above
  • Follow the instructions and elaborate after each instruction executed a) the stack contents b) co_varnames contents c) co_names contents d) what happened as shown above


Fibonacci with iterators: 

def fib(n):
    a,b = 1,1
    for i in range(n-1):
        a,b = b,a+b
    return a

Fibonacci with recursion: 

def fib(n):
    if n==1 or n==2:
        return 1
    return fib(n-1) + fib(n-2)

Fibonacci with infinite loop and breaks: 

def fib3(n):
    a,b,i = 1,1,0
    while True:
        i += 1
        if i >= n: break
        b,a = a+b,b
    return a

Another variation: 

def fib4(n):
    a = 1
    b = 1
    i = 0
    while True:
        i += 1
        if i >= n: break
        s = a + b
        a = b
        b = s
    return a

Assignment: Investigating compilers

Deadline: 4. November

Use code for calculating Fibonacci series as an example input. You're encouraged to use any other code snippet you can handle. 

int main() {
  int c;
  long int first = 1;
  long int second = 1;
  long int next;
  for (c = 0; c < 10; c++) {
    printf("%d ", first);
    next = first + second;
    first = second;
    second = next;
  }
}

Steps:

  • Install GNU Compiler Collection: apt-get install gcc
  • Store the code snippet in a file and compile it: gcc fibonacci.c -O fibonacci
  • Verify that the executable works: ./fibonacci
  • Install ARM cross-compiler: apt-get install gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf
  • Compile ARM assembly of the code snippet: gcc -S fibonacci.s -O fibonacci.s
  • Recompile with different optimization levels: -Os, -O0, -O1, -O2 and -O3. What are the differences?
  • Comment the ARM assembly and send it as e-mail attachment to Lauri, make sure you use the address supplied above with the course code, otherwise your mail is not searchable in my mailbox.


Assignment: Investigating microcontrollers

Deadline: 11. November

In this assignment we use Arduino:

  • Install Arduino IDE on your personal machine.
  • Use analog input to measure distance using proximity sensor and map it to hue.
  • Use Atmega built-in functionality for generating PWM signals to drive RGB LED.
  • Use LCD1602 shield to display current values.
  • Use interrupts to read button presses


Assignment: Designing arithmetic-logic unit

Deadline: 18. November

In this assignment we use SN7400 chips to build a 4-bit arithmetic-logic unit. Form teams of 6. You'll be given 3x breadboards, 30x SN7400 chips, jumper cables, slide switches, LED-s, resistors. Use: breadboard to connect the components; four slide switches for operand A; four slide switches for operand B; four slide switches to select ALU operation mode and four LED-s as outputs. Make sure you protect LED-s with resistors.

Deadline: TBD

Points: 4 points

Assignment steps:

  • Considering 5V power supply, voltage drop of 1.8V on LED and maximum current of 20mA what is the minimum resistance for the protective resistor?
  • Each SN7400 contains four NAND gates. Use two SN7400-s to compose a full adder. Use four full adders to compose 4-bit carry-ripple adder. Verify your adder works.
  • Add switch for toggling between adding/subtracting, you can achieve this by inverting bits of operand B and carry in. Verify that addition and subtraction works as expected.
  • Add circuitry for calculating bitwise NAND and NOR operations on operand A and operand B.
  • Add 2:1 muxes to select between NAND and NOR.
  • Add 2:1 muxes to select between NAND/NOR output and adder/subtractor output.
  • Evaluate the cost of your design? Evaluate the energy consumption of your design?
  • Document your design as VHDL or Verilog file, upload it to GitHub.

Present your solution in Tuesday session.

Assignment: Licensing your work

Deadline: 25. November

  • Add authorship information to your GitHub repositories
  • Add LICENSE file in the repository directory and commit the changes.

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.

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