This unit is designed for computer science students, particularly those interested in systems programming and hardware development. The students will learn about the interface between the hardware and software of a computer system. This will involve study of some aspects of computer architecture and low level interfacing to gain an insight into CPU organisation at the assembly language level. After completing this unit students will be able to write procedures in an assembly language, and use their understanding of the relationship between the instruction set architecture and the implementation of high level languages to write efficient programs.

This unit provides an introduction to the knowledge and skills required for the design, writing and support of technical software and other such functions normally falling within the role of the systems programmer. It provides for detailed study of a systems programming environment and its application to systems programming tasks.

This unit is designed for computer science students, particularly those interested in systems programming, hardware/software interfaces, and computer system performance evaluation. The topics cover memory system organisation and architecture, CPU functional organisation, pipelined and superscalar microarchitectures, multiprocessor systems, and I/O systems. After completing this unit students will understand the major issues in the state-of-the-art computer architecture, especially modern microprocessors, and will be able to use this knowledge as a basis for product choice and systems configuration.

This unit provides an introduction to the theory and practice of the internal structure, implementation and functionality of operating systems. The unit is relevant not only for systems programmers, but also for applications developers who need to understand how operating systems control computer hardware, and how they provide convenience, efficiency and security for application development and implementation.