This course has four purposes. First, you will learn about the hierarchy of abstractions and implementations that comprise a modern computer system. This will

This course has four purposes. First, you will learn about the hierarchy of abstractions and implementations that comprise a modern computer system. This will provide a conceptual framework that you can then flesh out with courses such as compilers, operating systems, networks, and others. The second purpose is to demystify the machine and the tools that we use to program it. This includes telling you the little details that students usually have to learn by osmosis. In combination, these two purposes will give you the background to understand many different computer systems. The third purpose is to bring you up to speed in doing systems programming in a low-level language in the Unix environment. The final purpose is to prepare you for upper-level courses in systems. This is a learn-by-doing kind of class. You will write pieces of code, compile them, debug them, disassemble them, measure their performance, optimize them, etc. http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~bmd/cs213-f03/docs/syllabus.pdf http://www.cs.northwestern.edu/~bmd/cs213-f03/docs/syllabus....