Introduction to the architecture of computer systems. Topics include: central processing units, memory systems, channels and controllers, peripheral devices, interrupt systems, software versus hardware tradeoffs.
4
UnitsLetter
Grading1, 2, 3
PasstimeNone
Level LimitEngineering
CollegeI dont get all these negative reviews. Prof Balkind is so knowledgeable in his field and is a great lecturer. He makes himself open to all students and cares for us! The quizzes and final was pretty difficult, often giving me headaches. Some labs are pretty hard, others are fine. The curve was GIANT at the end I went from a B --> A-.
Overall, the class is easy if you take your time to learn. For W26 the quizzes and final were moved to the testing center which definitely made the class harder. There were a lot of gotchas / one liner questions on the quizzes and final. He is a great lecturer and the labs are informative. I learned a lot from the class and would highly recommend.
Professor Balkind's lectures are generally disconnected to his lab assignments. As a result, the labs feel much more challenging than they need to be. Other than that, however, I had no qualms with Professor Balkind. The weekly online quizzes and online final are mostly multiple choice and easy.
He is incredibly determined to be not helpful. He makes up nonsensical policies about the class with no basis and hides behind some internal numbers he won't disclose. He completely made up the grading scale at the end and most people including me got curved down. Avoid at all cost.
Not a difficult class and his lectures are thorough. You can expect to get a good grade if you put in the work, but at the cost of a professor who is not approachable and does not respect his students
As long as you are on top of your work, the class is not too difficult and the content is understandable. However, the professor gets frustrated easily and is not approachable. He sometimes takes out his frustration on his students and is not easy to deal with.