There is a relationship between software design, hardware design and the performance of a system as a whole. Those who build software systems need some understanding of this relationship, at the level of principles rather than fine detail. No prior knowledge of the subject area is required; the course begins with the basic ideas of number systems, simple electrical laws, logic functions and their electrical equivalents. The course then looks at how more complex devices can be created from these primitive building blocks. Having arrived at the principal components of a microprocessor based system, we look at the way these components interact and their roles in the execution of simple programs. The laboratory work associated with the course is designed to consolidate the lecture material using PC-based training tools.

Students successfully completing this module will have a broad functional understanding of computer architecture, an awareness of the hardware software interface, an understanding of the trade-offs between hardware and software, and an understanding of the factors that affect system performance.