TEORIA ED APPLICAZIONI DELLE MACCHINE CALCOLATRICI (Theory and Applications of Computer Systems)
4 Credits	3rd year - 1st sem.
Teacher	Gianfranco Rossi gianfr@prmat.math.unipr.it
Form of teaching	Theory supported by exercises and direct experimentation of computer system usage
Prerequisites	No one
Course description	Aim An overview of modern computer systems organization and use. Contents Overall organization of computer systems: hardware, system software, application programs; Data storage and manipulation (user view): main and secondary memory, phisical supports (disks), files and directories, implementation issues; Text processing: editing, formatting, case studies (WORD, html); Spreadsheets: motivations, basic features, case study (EXCEL); Data bases: motivations, the relational model, data description and manipulation language (SQL); Operating systems: main features and overall organization, processor management (processes), memory management (paging, virtual memory), file system, operations on files, user interface (textual vs. graphical); Case study: the Macintosh O.S.; Computer architecture: information representation, main hardware components, machine language, instruction execution cycle; Computer networks: phisical organization, protocols (ISO/OSI hierarchy), local area networks, Internet, WWW, electronic mail.
Assessment method	Oral exam
Literature/Course material	Ceri, Mandrioli, Sbatella: Informatica arte e mestiere. McGraw-Hill Italia, 1999