Laws of computer organization and design for RISC architectures. Interfaces between hardware and software are studied. Influence of instruction set on performance is presented. Design of a processor with pipelining is analyzed. Computer arithmetic is studied. Memory hierarchy and their influence on performance is documented. Elements of interfacing and I/O organization are included. The course has a design, implementation, and analytical components. (Formerly offered as CIS 270)

The relational, hierarchical, and network approaches to database systems, including relational algebra and calculus, data dependencies, normal forms, data semantics, query optimization, and concurrency control on distributed database systems.

Department seminar presentations by speakers from industry and academia in addition to UMass Dartmouth faculty, and CIS Master student thesis defense presentations that are scheduled during the seminar course time slot. Students are required to attend these presentations and participate in technical discussions and write a report by the end of the semester.

Prerequisites: Completion of three core courses.   Development of a detailed, significant project in computer science under the close supervision of a faculty member, perhaps as one member of a student team. This project may be a software implementation, a design effort, or a theoretical or practical written analysis. Project report with optional oral presentation must be evaluated by three faculty members including the project supervisor.