Assembly language courses in transition

Abstract

Although the CS 3 course of the ACM Curriculum '78 was defined almost a decade ago, the broader perspectives that are desired for that course have not been present in many undergraduate programs. Only recently has the pivotal role of this course begun to attract the attention of computer science faculties. This development is prompted by the increasing awareness in our profession of the need to convey basic principles along with programming skills in introductory courses, and is accompanied by the increasing availability of more well-rounded textbooks. This paper describes the transition at Clemson University from a skills-oriented “assembly language course” to a principles-oriented “introduction to computer systems” course. The course that has resulted will better prepare students for subsequent studies in languages, operating systems, and applications support software.