CS2260 Media Device Architectures Overview and Objectives

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CS2260 Media Device ArchitecturesOverview and
Objectives
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Instructors and TAs

• Michael Mateas
• My research AI-based art and entertainment,
  including game AI
• Contact
• michaelm_at_cc.gatech.edu
• AIM MichaelMateas
• Office TSRB 246 (?)
• Office hours TBA
• TAs - TBA

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Objectives

• Demystify computers
• Prior to this class many of you will have been
  working exclusively in high-level languages that
  are many layers above the machine
• In this class we want to get down to the silicon
  bits, bytes, hardware registers, assembly
  language, C
• Replaces 2110 (Computer Organization and
  Programming) and 2200 (Computer Systems and
  Networks) while specializing the material to
  people interested in computational media
• Well learn this stuff by programming the Gameboy
  Advance
• Warning The whole class wont be devoted to GBA
  programming were using the GBA as our
  architecture for low-level coding

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Textbooks and Software

• Reading
• Programming the Nintendo Gameboy Advance The
  Unofficial Guide - Jonathan Harbour
• Available as a free book downloadable from the
  course page
• The 2200 text Introduction to Systems and
  Networking
• Available as free book downloadable from 2200
  page
• Miscellaneous web resources (e.g. Wikipedia,
  etc.) that will be linked from course page
• Development environment
• Visual HAM 2.4.2 a GBA dev environment that
  comes with compiler, emulator, library and
  various graphics and sound tools
• Runs on Windows machines (I believe linux as
  well)
• Downloadable from course page will be installed
  in the STATES lab

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Webworks

• Well be using Webworks for turning in
  assignments
• More info soon!

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Evaluation

• Tests
• Homeworks
• Projects
• Final

30 20 20 30

• Two midterms during lecture
• One will happen before the drop date

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Homework

• Homework assignments will be giving roughly once
  per week
• Types of assignments
• C programming
• Assembly and machine language programming
• Paper and pencil assignments
• There will be three or four larger programming
  projects
• Collaboration is allowed on assignments and
  projects, though students must turn in individual
  assignments

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Clarifying collaboration

• Collaboration doesn't mean copying
• Collaboration is working together so that
  everyone learns the material
• You do not have to collaborate if you dont want
  to (though social learning can be fun!)
• Even though it looks like the homework doesn't
  count for many points you need to do it to do
  well in this course
• You cant do well on tests if you do not have a
  deep understanding of how the homework works and
  is coded
• Questions will be taken directly from things
  covered in homework

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Online resources

• Need to decide what Im doing about class
  announcements (newsgroup vs. class list), class
  web page (need CoC space) and Webworks

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Abstraction layers

• Human experience (e.g. games, web)
• Software architectures and algorithms
• Programming languages and OS
• Hardware architecture (assembly and machine)
• Microarchitecture
• Circuits
• Devices (semiconductor physics)

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Approach

• Start with small C programs that doing something
  on the GBA
• Dive down into lower abstraction layers,
  motivated by desire to fully understand the small
  C programs
• Move back up to more complicated C programs that
  use more features of the GBA
• Repeat

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Layers for this class

• GBA games/demos
• Main loop, graphics, input handling
• C (there is no OS in the GBA)
• Machine architecture (ARM7, assembly)
• Microarchitecture (a little bit about gates)
• Circuits
• Devices

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Demonstrate HAM
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Things to do

• Download and install the HAM environment
• Read chapters 2 and 3 of Programming the Gameboy
• Chapter 2 provides a high-level introduction to
  the Gameboy
• Chapter 3 introduces the HAM environmen
• Instead of building the ShowPicture program
  described in chapter 3, build and run the
  DrawPixel program
• Get a CoC account