Computer Fundamentals: Architecture & Data Representation

Course overview

This concise overview highlights the educational value of the Computer Fundamentals material, focusing on computer architecture, data representation, and low-level programming. Based on Dr Steven Hand’s instructional approach, the content emphasizes practical understanding of how hardware and software interact, clarifies core representation schemes for numbers and text, and introduces assembly-level programming concepts (using MIPS examples) so learners can reason about performance, memory, and system-level behavior.

Who should read this

This material is ideal for undergraduate students, self-learners, and software engineers who want a stronger foundation in how computers process and store information. It works well for beginners who need structured explanations and for practitioners who want a refresher on topics that affect performance, embedded systems, and systems programming.

Learning outcomes

• Explain the roles of processor, memory, buses, and I/O devices in modern computer organization.
• Interpret binary, signed/unsigned integers, fixed- and floating-point formats, and common pitfalls (precision and range).
• Describe text encodings (ASCII, Unicode/UTF-8) and why encoding choices matter for interoperability.
• Read and write simple assembly routines, understand assembler directives, and use system calls to interact with the OS.
• Apply basic performance-minded programming techniques informed by registers, caches, and memory layout (including endianness).

What the course explores

Rather than presenting only abstract concepts, the material connects theory to examples: how instructions flow through a CPU, how different numeric formats affect computation, and how assembler directives organize code and data. MIPS is used as a clear, educational assembly language to demonstrate label usage, data directives, and simple syscalls for input/output. Text representation is discussed with practical advice on when ASCII suffices and when Unicode/UTF-8 is required for internationalized applications.

Practical applications

Understanding these fundamentals helps you write more efficient code, design better data storage schemas, and debug low-level bugs. The course content is particularly useful for embedded systems, compiler construction, operating system internals, and any performance-critical software development where knowing what happens beneath high-level languages yields measurable benefits.

Study tips and how to use the material

Start by reading conceptual sections, then replicate short examples in a simulator or on a minimal toolchain. Work through the provided exercises and try small projects—e.g., implement an assembly "Hello" program, hand-encode integers and floats, or inspect memory layout to observe endianness. Frequent practice with short, focused tasks will build intuition more quickly than passive reading.

Suggested follow-ups

• Try simple compiler or assembler experiments to see how high-level constructs map to instructions.
• Explore floating-point edge cases and rounding behavior with small test programs.
• Compare string handling across encodings to understand portability issues.

Quick FAQs

Why learn assembly if I use high-level languages?

Assembly reveals the machine-level effects of high-level code: calling conventions, register allocation, and memory access patterns that influence performance and correctness.

When does encoding choice matter?

Encoding matters whenever text crosses systems, locales, or network boundaries—use UTF-8 for broad compatibility and ASCII only for simple, legacy contexts.