CS61C Machine Structures. Spring 2007, UC Berkeley
P&HK&R  
CS61C Spring 2007
MWF 1-2pm 2050 VLSB





Older News


05.11 Grading Update
All assignments have been graded. If you are missing a grade for an assignment, please email your reader and CC your TA.
05.11 Grading Update
All assignments, with the exception of a few proj1_redos, have been graded. If you are missing a grade for an assignment (and it isn't proj1_redo), please email your reader and CC your TA.
05.11 Post-Midterm Review Worksheet Solutions
Michael has posted solutions to his Post-Midterm Review Worksheet.
05.10 Final Review Session Handouts
We have now posted the materials used in the Final Review session.
05.10 Updated Final Exam Information
Your final exam is approaching in three (3) days. It will be held on Sat, May 12 from 12:30-03:30pm in 2050 VLSB. We have posted old exams. They include Dan's Spring 2004, Fall 2005, and Fall 2006 finals. Also, we have plenty of office hours remaining this week. The schedule is as follows:

Thu, 5/10 Fri, 5/11 Sat, 5/12
Aaron: 1-4pm (Moore Room, 2nd Floor Cory Courtyard)
David: 12-3pm (271 Soda)
Alex: 1-3pm (271 Soda)
Valerie: 3:45-4:45pm (343 Soda)
Michael: 9-12pm (271 Soda)

Study hard, get plenty of sleep, and good luck.

05.10 Performance Competition Extension
Because the PS2 was offline last night, we are extending the deadline for the performance competition to 11:59pm Tonight (Thu, May 10). If you already submitted, you may submit again if you wish to do so.
05.07 Performance Competition Oracles + Extension
Oracles for the performance competition have been released for the Solaris operating system. Type "GOLNormal" or "GOLUnbounded" to run them.

Also, because these oracles were posted late. We are extending the deadline for submission to be Thursday, May 10 at NOON.

05.07 Discussions for Week 17
Discussions are being held this week at their normal times. If you have a Wednesday discussion, they will be held on Wednesday, May 9. Michael will have his from 11-12pm in 320 Soda. David will have his from 12-1pm in 320 Soda.
05.07 Final Exam Information
Your final exam is approaching in six (6) days. It will be held on Sat, May 12 from 12:30-03:30pm. We have posted old exams. They include Dan's Spring 2004, Fall 2005, and Fall 2006 finals. Also, we have plenty of office hours this week. The schedule is as follows:

Mon, 5/07 Tue, 5/08 Wed, 5/09 Thu, 5/10 Fri, 5/11 Sat, 5/12
Matt: 12-1pm (511 Soda) Alex: 11-12pm (511 Soda)
Alex: 1-2pm (511 Soda)
Brian: 5-6pm (751 Soda)
Michael: 10-11a (271 Soda) Aaron: 1-2:30pm (Moore Room)
Aaron: 2:30-4pm (271 Soda)
David: 12-3pm (271 Soda)
Alex: 1-3pm (271 Soda)
Valerie: 3:45-4:45pm (343 Soda)
Michael: 9-12pm (271 Soda)

Finally, do not forget you have a Review Session this week on Wed, May 9 at 2pm in 10 Evans. Study hard, get plenty of sleep, and good luck.

05.06 Proj3 Scores
Proj3 scores are slowly trickling in. We have posted the rubric as well as the testcases.
05.03 Using Proj1 testcases
Directions on using Proj1 testcases have been added to Redo spec page.
05.02 End of the Semester Survey
Complete the course survey in lab. You can check that it was completed. This survey must be completed in order to get credit for the Week 15 lab.

Also, please complete this survey for the CS department.

05.01 Final Exams Posted Reminder
Old Final Exams have been posted. They contain Dan's finals from Spring 2004 and Fall 2006.
04.27 Proj1 XC Test Cases
Proj1 Extra Credit test cases are now available.
04.25 Proj4 Updates
There are updates to Proj4 files. Please see the spec for more details.
04.24 Proj1 Extra Credit in Redo Attempt
You may attempt extra credit and earn back 75% of the points of the difference between your original score and 33 points. If you attempt proj1 extra credit for this redo, please submit with proj1_xc_redo.

Please keep in mind that you can also do regrades in HW2, Proj1 (by itself), and Proj2.

04.19 Proj4 Spec Posted
Proj4 has now been posted. It is due Friday, April 27, 2007 at 11:59pm. Also, you may work on this project with another student if you would like.
04.16 Assignment Redo Update
We are now permitting redos for proj2. Also, a new sample board for HW2, as well as expected output of each of the autograder tests from proj2 have now been posted. See the spec for more information.
04.10 HW2/Proj1 Redo
A description of how the redo process works for HW2 and Proj1 has now been posted. Please remember the deadline for this redo process is Tuesday, May 08, 2007 at 11:59pm. No slip-days for this.
04.06 Proj3 Spec
Proj3 spec has been updated with important information. Please read the updated spec.
04.06 Old Finals
Old finals have been posted here. It does include Garcia's Sp04 and Fa06 finals.
04.04 Proj2 Grades
Proj2 grades have been entered into glookup. A description of the autograder tests can be found here. Your autograder results have been mailed to your Imail account.
03.23 Performance Competition
This year, we will be holding a performance competition. Participants will be optimizing their HW2 code under a variety of categories for the Sony Playstation 2! Student who are interested in competiting should read over the competition specifications
03.19 Project 3
Project 3 is now posted. It is due Friday, April 06.
03.14 Midterm Regrade Update
There is an update to the answer key on the C debugging question. Please update your copy of the solutions.

There is a slight change to the midterm regrade policy posted yesterday. It forgot to mention that the staff reserves the right to regrade your entire exam

Also, the rubric has been revised to not deduct points for not using the unsigned arithmetic instructions in the MIPS related questions. If you lost points because you used "add" instead of "addu" for example, submit your midterm for a regrade request. Submission of regrade for this reason will not warrant a complete midterm regrading.

03.14 Homework 6
Homework 6 is posted. It is due Wednesday, March 21. You must turn in your solution using the alu.circ file. Points may be taken off for not doing this.
03.13 Midterm Regrade Policy
Solutions and the Grading Rubric have now been posted. If you would like a regrade, on a sheet of paper attached to the front of your midterm, please explain your reasons why we have made a mistake in grading your midterm. Please cite the portions of the rubric you are disagreement with. The deadline to submit regrade requests is your next discussion (Week 10 Discussion). Please note that the staff does reserve the right to regrade your entire midterm. Therefore, please consider your decision to submit a regrade carefully.
03.07 HW5 Posted
Homework 5 is now posted. It is due Wednesday, March 14.
03.06 Midterm Statistics
Here is the distribution of the midterm:
03.05 Section 118 Discusion Moved
Because the plan this week for discussions is to go over the Midterm, Section 118 will not be held today (Monday) as scheduled. It will be held tomorrow (Tuesday) in 242 Dwinelle from 6-7pm.
03.05 Review Session Slides and Handouts
There are the documents used during the MT review session:
03.04 Midterm Review Worksheet Corrections
Courtesy of a diligent student, corrections have been made to the MT Review Worksheet Solutions to fix discrepancies in the answers. Corrections have been marked in red.
03.03 Midterm Review Worksheet Solutions and Updated Green Card
Michael has posted solutions to his MT review worksheet.

Also, the Green Card has been updated once again. Apparently, BranchAddr has been defined to already include the shift left by 2 if you look at the note #4 at the bottom of the "Core Instruction Set" section. Thus, you do not need to do an additional shift left by 2.

02.28 Midterm News
  • Michael has created a worksheet to help you prepare for your midterm.
  • You can have a single 8.5" x 11" sheet of hand-written notes. You can use both sides of the paper, but you have to use it without magnifying aides.
  • HKN will be holding an additional review session in preparation for your midterm on Sat, March 03 starting at 2:00pm in the Woz (on 4th floor Soda).
  • We have posted a corrected green sheet for students who do not have a green sheet or would like a corrected one. Please keep in mind that you can only use this if it is printed on a single sheet of paper.
02.28 Mid-Semester Survey
Complete this survey in lab this week. You need to do it to get credit for the lab. Your answers are stored anonymously, but you can check and show that you did it with this.
02.28 Extra Office Hours
Aaron will have extended office hours today (Wed) from 7:20 to 9:30pm in 271 Soda to answer questions on floating point, Project 2, and the Midterm.
02.26 Week 7 Reading Quiz
There won't be a reading quiz for week 7. Please use the time to work on the project and study for your midterm.
02.22 Green Sheet Errors
We have a list of errors on the MIPS Green Sheet. If you got a copy of the Green Sheet from the CS61C staff, some (but not all) of the errors have been fixed on it.
  • In Section (1), the Core Instruction Set, lbu, lhu, and lw do not have an opcode of 0. Their opcodes were put in the 'funct' portion, so just scratch out the '0/'
  • In Section (1), the Core Instruction Set, sll and srl shift rt, not rs. So change 'R[rs]' to 'R[rt].'
  • In Section (2), the Register Name, Use, Call Convention table has $ra listed as preserved across calls. This is not true, so change the 'Yes' to a 'No.'
02.22 Sample Midterm Posted
To assist you in studying for your Midterm on March 05, we have posted Fall 2006 Midterm. It contains a blank midterm and the midterm with explained answers.
02.22 Proj2 Released
Project 2 is now up. It's due date is Fri, March 09. However, you are encouraged to work on it before your midterm on Mon, March 05.
02.22 HW4 News
Because of a typo in the staff message that prints out when you SSH into your instructional account, we have moved the due date of HW4 to be today (Thursday, Feb 22, 2007) at 11:59:59pm.

Also, please check to see if you have the latest version of the HW4 files. They have been updated recently to fix bugs that have come up in the course of the assignment.

02.21 Setting breakpoints with SPIM
If you are having trouble setting breakpoints with a label in SPIM, the following guide should help you.
02.20 HKN Tutoring
HKN (Eta Kappa Nu), the national Electrical Engineering honor society, offers free drop-in tutoring Monday through Friday, 10-4pm for all students in taking EECS related classes in 290 Cory and 345 Soda. If you are having difficulty with the course, please use this resource available to you.
02.14 HW4 Posted
Homework 4 is now posted. It is due Feb 21 @ 11:59pm
02.14 Michael's OH This Week Canceled
Because he is feeling under the weather, Michael will not be holding office hours today (Wednesday).
02.13 HW3 Submission Process Fixed
A few of you have run into problems when submitting HW3. We have addressed these issues. You should be able to submit HW3 without problems now.
02.09 Extra Office Hours for Proj1
The TAs will have extra office hous for Proj1 in 271 Soda at the following times:
  • Fri, Feb 09 from 6pm till late (Matt)
  • Sun, Feb 11 from 3pm to 6pm (Michael)
Many of your questions may have been answered in the newsgroup. If you haven't been following the newsgroup lately, Google Groups can help you get up to speed. Note, you will not be able to post in this newsgroup. Use pine or Webnews if you want to post.
02.08 HW3 Posted
Homework 3 is now posted. It is due Wednesday, Feb 14.
01.31 Proj1 Due Date Moved
Proj1 is now due Sunday, Feb 11 at 11:59:59pm. However, we do encourage you to finish by the original due date of Friday, Feb 09 so that you will have ample time to do HW3.
01.30 Major Update to Proj1
We have updated proj1 significantly. However, these changes are not as serious as you may think they are. The primary requirements of the project still have not changed. We have reorganized and commented the code to make it easier to manage. In addition, we have added code to track your usage of malloc() and free() to assist you in developing a memory leak free project.
01.30 Proj1 released
Project 1 has been posted and you have about two weeks to complete it.
01.29 2D array examples
Brian has posted on his website some examples how to use 2D arrays as well as build them using malloc() function.
01.28 Command Line Argument Practice
Michael has posted a worksheet on his website to give you some practice on working with the command line arguments and using pointers to operate on them.
01.24 Homework 2 Posted
Homework 2 is now posted. Please start early as this assignment is more involved than Homework 1.
01.20 Week 1 and Week 2 Reading Quizzes
Reading Quizzes for Week1 and Week 2 are now up. Reading quizzes are normally due the Sunday after the week they are posted.

Note: Because Week1 quiz was posted late, it will be due Monday night instead of Sunday night.

01.17 TA Email Addresses
The email addresses for each of the TAs have been added to the website.
01.16 Section 18/118 Makeup for Week 1
Valerie will be holding her Week 1 discussion in 405 Soda from 6-7pm today (Tue, Jan 16).
01.12 TA Office Hours
The TAs will have office hours during the first week of classes in 271 Soda until rooms are assigned.
01.12 Discussions for Week 1 will be held
Although the first lecture is on Wednesday, Jan 17, we will have discussions before the first lecture. People who have signed up for discussion on Monday should attend one of the other discussions sections for that week only.
01.12 Time change for Section 117
Please note that the time for Section 117 on Wednesday morning is now 9-10am, instead of 9:30-10:30am.
01.11 CPS Class Key
The CPS Class Key for CS61c is F22859H181
01.10 New Sections
New sections 17/117 and 18/118 have been added. If you are on the waitlist or if these new sections are more convenient for you, please sign up for them through Telebears.
01.10 Welcome to CS 61C for Spring 2007