Degree | Type | Year | Semester |
---|---|---|---|
2502441 Computer Engineering | FB | 1 | 2 |
You can check it through this link. To consult the language you will need to enter the CODE of the subject. Please note that this information is provisional until 30 November 2023.
There are no prerequisites. However, it is recommended for students to have previously taken the courses “Fundamentals of Computing” and “Electricity and Electronics”.
This is a basic training course, taught during the second semester of the first academic year. Computer Fundamentals is the bridge between the courses of Electricity and Electronics and Fundamentals of Computing, in the first year, and Computer Organization in the second year.
The objectives of this course are for students to understand the role of digital systems in the computer world, be capable of designing low-to-medium complexity digital systems using logic gates and reconfigurable devices, and understand that a computer is simply a digital system of a certain complexity.
In the last part of the course, methodologies based on "Process Unit – Control Unit (UP-UC)" architectures are addressed to solve digital systems of a certain complexity by introducing the basic concepts of these architectures both in their "wired" version (UC made with gates and logic blocks) and "microprogrammed" (UC based on ROM + sequencer). Finally a simple computer open source (RISC-V) is presented in order for the students to understand the concepts of process-unit, control-unit, instruction set, microinstructions, microorders and microprogramming and applying the previous UP-UC architectures.
Block 1: Combinational Circuits (CC)
Block 2: Sequential Circuits (SC)
Block 3: Process Unit-Control Unit (PU-CU) architecture and processors
The subject is organized in three blocks. Blocks 1 and 2 use a Coursera free access MOOC developed by the teachers of the subject. The materials offered through the MOOC include a series of videos that students must view before attending class and that contain the theoretical-practical knowledge needed for the design of digital systems, interactive self-correction exercises and a simulation environment of digital systems. Block 3 materials include a series of videos that are available through the UAB virtual campus. Block 3 uses the same work methodology indicated in the previous paragraph, without the Coursera environment.
The subject is taught in "classroom problems" mode. All face-to-face classes are treated as problem-based sessions. The classes are dedicated to solving questions and doubts in the videos, and cases proposed by the teacher. Students must actively participate in these classes; these are not conventional "theory" classes. They take place in small groups (of the order of 40-50 students), an indispensable condition to reach the necessary degree of interactivity in a subject of eminently practical character.
The course is completed with laboratory practices where students physically implement the circuits, which until then had been limited to design "on paper". Each session accommodates 20-25 students working in groups of 2 and lasts 2 hours.
Tutoring sessions may be individual or in small groups and will be done on demand and in coordination between each teacher and the related students. There may also be open tutoring sessions for all interested students that may be proposed by the teaching staff; but these will require prior submission to the corresponding forum of the Virtual Campus (CV) those specific questions about concepts or exercises that must be addressed in order for the teachers to plan and carry out that tutoring properly.
The following transversal skills are addressed and assessed during the course:
Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.
Title | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|
Type: Directed | |||
Exercise-based classes | 30 | 1.2 | 6, 3, 5, 1, 2, 4 |
Laboratory practices | 12 | 0.48 | 5 |
Type: Supervised | |||
Case study | 12 | 0.48 | 6, 5, 2, 7 |
Laboratory practice assignments | 10 | 0.4 | 5 |
Type: Autonomous | |||
Autonomous work | 40 | 1.6 | 6, 3, 5, 1, 4, 7 |
Preparing and solving exercises | 16 | 0.64 | 2, 7 |
Videos viewing | 12 | 0.48 | 6, 3, 5, 1, 2, 4, 7 |
This course does not include single assessment.
a) Assessment activities
Student assessment includes the following activities:
The mark of the course by continued assessment (CA) is obtained from:
according to the formula: CA = PT · 0,5 + Pb · 0,2 + LT · 0,3
where: PT = (PT1+PT2+PT3)/3
To pass the course by continued assessment (CA) the following conditions must be met:
b) Assessment activities: scheduling
Dates of the assessment tests and the submission of exercises are published in the Virtual Campus (VC) and may be subject to changes in programming due to unforeseeneventualities.Any modification will be reported through this platform.
It is important to bear in mind that no assessment activities will be permitted for any student at a different date or time to that established, unless for justified causes duly advised before the activity and with the lecturer’s previous consent. In all other cases, if an activity has not been carried out, this cannot be re-assessed.
c) Recovery process
The evaluation activity 1 corresponding to the theory can be recovered in the final test. The student can present himself to the recovery as long as he has presented himself to 1 of the 3 partials of theory.
1) If the grade obtained in one or two of the partial tests PP1, PP2 or PP3 is < 4, this qualification must be passed by taking a recovery exam of the corresponding block/s. To pass the course the grade obtained in this exam must be ≥ 5 (it will be a global note of the two partials to recover), and the new average PP of the partials must be ≥ 5.
2) If a student has obtained a mark < 4 in three partial tests, the student must take a new exam that will include the entire course. The grade obtained will be the new PP, which must be ≥ 5 to pass the course.
Activities 2 and 3 (delivery of exercises, class attendance and tests) which corresponds to 20% of the final grade cannot be recovered.
Activity 4 can be recovered by carrying out a specific recovery activity related to the practices.
If PT < 5 or LT < 5 after retaking these new tests, the final score of the course will be the lowest number between CA and 4.5.
d) Grades review
Grades obtained by students in each test are published in the VC. Once the grades are published, students will be informed of the procedure to follow to review their exam. Studentsmust request, through the VC, an exam review, and will receive a call with the day and time to do it through TEAMS.
Any student who does not follow this procedure, within the time frame established, may not request a new review.
e) Special grades
f)Irregularities committed by the student, copy and plagiarism
Notwithstanding other disciplinary measures deemed appropriate, and in accordance with the academic regulations in force, assessment activities will receive a zero whenever a student commits academic irregularities that may alter such assessment. Assessment activities graded in this way and by this procedure will not be re-assessable. If passing the assessment activity or activities in question is required to pass the subject, the awarding of a zero for disciplinary measures will also entail a direct fail for the subject, with no opportunity to re-assess this in the same academic year.
Irregularities contemplated in this procedure include, among others:
g) Assessment of students who followed the subject last year but do not successfully passed it
Students who completed and passed the laboratory practices in in one of the previous two years but did not pass the course, may choose not to repeat them again during the current academic year. In that case, the laboratory practices grade (LT) will be 5, regardless of the grade reached the previous year.
The list of students who can choose this option will be published at the beginning of the course in the VC. If, anyway, the student wants to make the laboratory practices again, he/she must communicate it by mail to the practice Coordinator.
If a student has committed irregularities (copies/plagiarism) in any evaluation activity in a previous call of the subject he will not have the right to have his practices validated (if he had approved them).
From the second matriculation and if the student has the approved practices and chooses to validate them, you can choose that the evaluation system is:
final grade = 0.5 * final test + 0.3 * grade of the practices of the previous course (a 5) + 0.2 * note previous course exercises (maximum a 5)
If the student fails he has a second chance in this alternative 2) which would be to do again a final exam of the whole subject on the dates of the final recovery, maintaining the same conditions for the practices and the exercices (maximum a 5)
To be eligible for this differentiated evaluation (2),repeating students must request it from the person responsible for thesubject by email no later than 15 days after the start of classes.
Title | Weighting | Hours | ECTS | Learning Outcomes |
---|---|---|---|---|
Assessable practice activities | 30% | 2 | 0.08 | 5, 2, 4, 7 |
Exercises delivering | 20% | 8 | 0.32 | 2, 7 |
Three partial tests and/or final test | 50% | 8 | 0.32 | 6, 3, 5, 1, 2, 4, 7 |