Overview

Students will become familiar with the design, programming, operation, and design constraints of computing hardware.

Requisites

Teaching periods
Location
Start and end dates
Last self-enrolment date
Census date
Last withdraw without fail date
Results released date
Pathways Teaching 3
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
20-October-2025
30-January-2026
Last self-enrolment date
02-November-2025
Census date
14-November-2025
Last withdraw without fail date
12-December-2025
Results released date
10-February-2026
Pathways Teaching 1
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
23-February-2026
29-May-2026
Last self-enrolment date
08-March-2026
Census date
24-March-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
14-April-2026
Results released date
09-June-2026
Pathways Teaching 2
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
22-June-2026
25-September-2026
Last self-enrolment date
05-July-2026
Census date
21-July-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
11-August-2026
Results released date
06-October-2026
Pathways Teaching 3
Location
Hawthorn
Start and end dates
19-October-2026
29-January-2027
Last self-enrolment date
01-November-2026
Census date
17-November-2026
Last withdraw without fail date
15-December-2026
Results released date
09-February-2027

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this unit will be able to:

  • Read and write assembly language programs for a simple microcomputer
  • Identify the hardware components of a computer and the functions they perform
  • Describe the overall behaviour of compilers, assemblers, linkers and interpreters
  • Argue some of the trade-offs between hardware and software that occur in computer system design

Teaching methods

All applicable locations

Type Hours per week Number of weeks Total (number of hours)

On-campus
Lecture

 2 12 weeks 24
On-campus
Class		 4 12 weeks 48
Unspecified Activities 
Independent Learning		 6.5 12 weeks 78
Total     150

Assessment

Type Task Weighting ULO's
Assignment Individual/Group  50-60% 1,2,3
Laboratory Practicals Individual  5-15% 1,2
Test Individual  35-45% 1,2,3,4

Content

  • Assembly language programming 
  • An introduction to program timing considerations and interrupts 
  • Serial and parallel input /output 
  • Memory types and organisation 
  • Basic computer organisation: Von Neumann and Harvard architectures 
  • The internals of a microcomputer using a RISC CPU 
  • An introduction to interfacing to the analogue world 
  • A block diagram of a complete CPU 
  • An introduction to data storage technologies

Study resources

Reading materials

A list of reading materials and/or required textbooks will be available in the Unit Outline on Canvas.