Hardware, OS, and Networks

Students receive an overview of computer hardware, software, and networking to expose them to the foundational technologies on which all computer software operates. The hardware components of a typical computer system are studied as well as system level software such as operating systems and device drivers. An introduction to assembly language programming gives students the ability to write assembly language programs, then compile and execute for performance reasons or to interact directly with hardware in ways unsupported by the higher-level languages. The essentials of networking are studied using working hardware to experiment with networking communication, resource sharing, and encryption.