CSCI 263 — Winter 2026

This course covers basic computer arithmetic, architectures, and instruction sets; in-depth study of the central processing unit, memory and input/output organization; and microprogramming and interfacing.

Professor

• Dr. James Hughes

• jhughes at stfx.ca

• Annex 20B

GitHub Repo

• The course content is available on GitHub

• Feel free to submit issues, fork the repo, and submit pull requests

  • Follow the guidelines

• In other words, feel free to make contributions to the course content

  • In fact, I encourage this

Class Times

• Tue 09:30 – 10:20 (L1), MULH 4024

• Thr 08:30 – 09:20 (L2), MULH 4024

• Fri 10:30 – 11:20 (L3), MULH 4024

Labs

• Lab Sec 20: Wed 14:30 – 16:20 (B8-C9), MULH 4024

Office Hours

• Tue 10:30 – 11:30, Annex 20B

• Wed 10:30 – 11:30, Annex 20B

• Thr 10:30 – 11:30, Annex 20B

• Fri 11:30 – 12:30, Annex 20B

Course Notes

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Number Bases
• 3. Boolean Logic
• 4. Transistors
• 5. Logic Gates
• 6. Combinational Logic
• 7. Memory
• 8. Latches and Flip-Flops
• 9. Registers and RAM
• 10. The Bus
• 11. Half & Full Adder
• 12. Two’s Complement
• 13. Arithmetic Logic Unit and the ESAP
• 14. Address Register and RAM
• 15. Seven Segment Displays
• 16. Output Register
• 17. Program Counter
• 18. Instructions and Microcodes
• 19. Control Logic
• 20. Programming with Machine Code
• 21. Conditions
• 22. Conditional Jump Instructions
• 23. Assembly Language
• 24. Programming with Assembly

Labs

• 1. Digital
• 2. Basic Gates
• 3. Combinational Logic
• 4. Sequential Logic
• 5. Arithmetic and Logical Operations
• 6. Comparing Values
• 7. Bit Patterns as Instructions
• 8. Bit Patterns, Instructions, and Registers
• 9. Enhancing Designs
• 10. Programming

Assignments

• 1. Assignment 1

Getting Started

• Getting set up

Outline

• Computer Science 263 — Computer Organization