COMP4330

NOTE: since this course in its current form was something of a passion project of Uwe’s, and he has now left the university, it is unclear if this course will ever run again, or what it will look like if it does. We can but hope!

If you liked the “no magic” approach to computer architecture of COMP2300, and Uwe’s fast-paced, interactive teaching in COMP2310…​ if you want answers to most questions you’ve ever had about real-time and embedded systems, as well as many you haven’t…​ real-time might be the course for you!

This course is a whirlwind of content, from the theoretical, to the practical, to the historical, to the philosophical (yes, really). As it’s a relatively small course (2019’s class was unusually large at ~40), lectures frequently evolve into discussions (or in some cases, (friendly) arguments). Lectures are the core of this course, with labs only running for the first few weeks, to make sure everyone is up to speed for the assignment, so definitely don’t plan to miss any lectures.

Speaking of which, the assessment for this course (historically) is a single hardware-based programming assignment worth 30% assessed with an interview with your tutor and Uwe, and a final oral exam with the same worth 70%. The usual warning against plagarism isn’t even necessary here, as you have to to explain your code anyway, so you’ve got no chance. For the assignment, think COMP2300 / COMP2310 scaled to final year difficulty, and you’ve got a reasonable idea. As for the interviews, to do well, you’ll need to do more than memorise — rather try to understand every piece of the course, and do speak up if something isn’t adding up — this is the epitome of “no magic”. The assignment is a great collaborative exercise with your peers, too — not plagarising doesn’t mean you won’t be helping each other fix problems and brainstorm ways around hurdles — you’ll also quickly find out who in the course owns (or is buying) a logic analyser or oscilloscope!

100% oral assessment, particularly with all assessment so close to the end of the course, may sound daunting, but it’s remarkably painless — I’d take it over a 3-hour written or computer exam any day. Your mileage may vary, though, if you find that kind of thing especially intimidating or stressful.

All in all, I can’t recommend this course highly enough — just make sure you go into it expecting to make friends, get into arguments, and spend many late nights shouting at your assignments — together.

For the engineering students out there: you can take this course, with ENGN3213 (Digital Systems and Microprocessors) as a prerequisite. This is a great idea — and much of this course’s content will be more comfortable to you than to the computer scientists — just expect to learn Ada programming and some CS terminology in a real hurry. Taking COMP2310 first is advisable, but unless you’ve taken COMP1100 / COMP1130 already, you’ll need to apply for a permission code to do that.