CS 213: Introduction to Computer Systems, Fall, 2026

Instructor:Peter Dinda
Teaching Assistant: Jacob Palmer
Peer Mentors: Nick Akulov
Michael Capriotti
Sophie Fong
Henron Ruan
Daniel Shoshin
Jett Strack
Haresh Wedanayake
Ben Wong-Fodor
Arthur Zakrzewski
Leo Zhang
Raymond Zou
Lecture:Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:30-10:50am, Swift Hall 107

CS 213 is a required core course in the Computer Science curriculum in both McCormick and Weinberg. It is also a required course for CS minors in both schools. 213 can also be taken for credit within the Computer Engineering curriculum.

There are two sections of CS 213 in this quarter, Kate Smith's and mine. The TA, PMs, infrastructure, labs, and other components are shared between the two sections. Enrollment across the two sections exceeds 100.

Scheduling

Scheduling information (office hours, etc) is available on the class calendar

Communication

We will use Canvas minimally, mostly just for grades and some homework handins. For critical announcements, we will send email to the addresses that CAESAR maintains.

For discussions, we will use Piazza and Slack. Directing your questions to Piazza or Slack will likely produce the fastest response, and everyone else in the class will also benefit. Piazza is configured to allow posting that is anonymous to other students.

Accounts, Remote Access, Getting Started with Unix

  • You will have a Linux account in the CS department. This will give you remote access to a range of machines, the most important of which are the servers on which the class runs. More information is in Piazza.
  • You will also have a Linux account on private servers we have set up. These accounts will be discussed in class.
  • We recommend you use ssh (remote login) or FastX (remote graphical desktop) to access the class servers. McIT has more info about FastX in our environment. You can also use X11 tunneled over SSH. You may also find tmux to be useful when working with partners. It allows multiple people to share the same session.
  • If you haven't used Linux or Unix before, or need a refresher, please note that several resources are available on Piazza. Additionally, the first discussion session will have some material on this.

    • Handouts

  • Syllabus (pdf)

  • Physics To Logic (pdf)
  • Unix Systems Programming In A Nutshell (pdf)
  • Sockets In A Nutshell (pdf)
  • Concurency (pdf)
  • Parallelism (pdf)

    • Programming Assignments

  • Pack Lab (pdf) (Out: 9/24, In: 10/13)
  • Bomb Lab (TBD) (Out: 10/13, In: 10/29)
  • Attack Lab (TBD) (Out: 10/29, In: 11/17)
  • SETI Lab (Parallelism Lab) (TBD) (Out: 11/17, In: 12/3)

    • Homework Assignments

  • HW 1: Integer and Floating Point Number Representations (TBD) (Out: 9/29, In: 10/15)
  • HW 2: Memory and Cache (TBD) (Out: 11/3, In: 11/19)
  • HW 3: Virtual Memory and I/O (TBD) (Out: 11/19, In: 12/3)
    • We will make solution sets for these homeworks available. Homeworks are important preparation for exams.

    Exams

  • Midterm: TBD (90 minute exam)
    Covers lectures 1-10 and related reading/materials in syllabus
    Midterm Review Session: TBD (will also be on zoom and recorded)
  • Final: 12/10, 12pm (formal time, 90 minute exam)
    Covers lectures 11-end, and related reading/materials in syllabus
    Final Review Session: TBD (outside of class) (will be recorded)

    • Resources

  • The Book's Student Site
    Contains many useful FAQs, Primers, etc.
  • Lecture slides, code, videos, and other materials for the CMU version of the class
  • Lecture slides for Branden Ghena's version of this Northwestern class
  • Make Introduction (pdf)
  • Gdb commands (pdf)
  • Gdb manual (html)
  • An amazing online compiler
    This lets you easily see the assembly that results from C/C++ code
  • An amazing online disassembler
    This lets you easily decode object code back to assembly (although Intel syntax only)
  • The Intel Architecture Manuals and the AMD Architecture Manuals
  • Compare and contrast with the beautiful and much mourned DEC Alpha, the very much alive and kicking ARM architecture that powers your phone, tablet, or M1+ Mac, and the up-and-coming open source RISC-V architecture.
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux
  • Cygwin Unix Emulation Environment for Windows