Elective 2: The Software Developer's view of hardware. (3 Viewers)

[MysticEye]

Is anyone else having troubles with this elective? I just cant seem to understand everything behind binary multiplication, division etc. Maybe its cuz im real lousy at maths..

I mainly don't understand the shift and add method, hehe i find it alot easier to convert the numbers to decimal first then just multiply/divide and then convert back at the end, but if youv'e gotta use the "shift and add method" in the hsc i dun wanna be doing it like that. Can anyone give me any tips on how i can make it easier for myself? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[fatmuscle]

my notes don't help?

I guess they won't if you're 'real lousy at maths'

um... if you really stuggle, just convert them all the time, and hopefully you'll get the hang of binary

you're fine with adding/subtracting/multiplying yeah?

division is a mix of multiplying and subtracting

 

[MysticEye]

yes ur notes definatley do help thx for them... i guess what i need is someone to sit down and go thro it with me... but my software teacher is pathetic when it comes to this elective... whole class seems confused.

In the hsc if i do convert them all the time, will i lose marks for not having the working.. like in maths? I'm guessing i will

 

[enak]

Yes you will need to do the working. Perhaps just go through it slowly with your friends with smaller numbers then increase the length.

This topic is suprisingly easy

This is perhaps the only part of the whole exam where a little bit of thinking is required, the rest is memory work, and all you have to do is draw relationships between things and it should save you a lot of study time.

 

[Kn1ght_M4r3]

i dunno could they really make u lose marks for not working out, coz like in maths sometimes my teacher goes if u get the right answer u will get full marks as well, same applies with SDD, since it will be a bit hard to copy from the person next to u, assuming ur desks are quite a fair bit away.

And if u get the right answer it basically means u understand the whole concept of working them out, they want u to show working out because if u do a silly mistake then u will still get like 2 marks or something out of 3. So i suggest u do working out, i kn0w friends who did silly mistakes but still got marks for it

 

[ezzy85]

in our yr11 test there was a question on converting to hex, binary, decimal etc... Each part was worth 3 marks so i thought just using my calculator to get the answer is too easy for 3 marks. so just in case, i made up some working and got full marks. most of the other people who used a calculator got 1 out of the 3 marks. so for something like sdd where you hardly ever use amths, a 3 mark math question would mean show your working.

 

[enak]

Ezzy, you can't bring a calculator into the SDD exam, and yes showing working is compulsory for full marks to be awarded, look at the CSSA trial marking guidelines.

 

[ezzy85]

no calculator? shit, do we need to learn how to convert numbers if were not doing that option? is it required i the core?

 

[Fosweb]

dude... not like doing 2^7 in your head is hard...

 

[enak]

Converting numbers in the easy part, doing the operation is a little harder ie division, subtraction, but it's not that hard really. I gotta remember which gates are which .

IEEE numbers will be a little harder.

 

[Foong]

Originally posted by enak
Converting numbers in the easy part, doing the operation is a little harder ie division, subtraction, but it's not that hard really. I gotta remember which gates are which .

IEEE numbers will be a little harder.

division is easy
subtraction is a little more confusing but easy

 

[tieki]

It's all easy...I've begun thinking in binary in maths nowadays...lol

I mean seriously, there's only two numbers to work with...not too hard

 

[Maddogg]

yeah the option topic is the easiest part of software its the only place i get good marks in lol

 

[Hoadini]

I was REALLY REALLY bad at this topic and I pretty much guarantee there were few ppl in the state worse at this than me... but quite seriously i do kinda get it now and whats more i taught it to myself.. so less bitching more trying its not too bad at all once u get it

 

[jm1234567890]

this elective is soooo much easier than the other one

 

[fatmuscle]

someone b4 said 'division is easy'? or something?

When you're trying to teach poor maths students, it's HARD.

Our school taught the long division method, as it is a good method. Out of a class of 20 I was one of 3 people who actually had seen long division before.

Oh yeah, the IEEE's a fun!


If you do struggle with conversions, there's lots of online websites that you can use to convert between the different bases.
You use these of course, when you're checking your work!!!

 

[Winston]

the binary arithmetic has got to be the easiest part of the topic

as the basis is absolutely not formed from

2 u maths, 3 u or even 4 u

its formed from Primary school maths

if u remembered how to do general decimal, multiplication, division and addition, binary version makes it even easier, i mean binary only has two digit numbering system which makes it more easier


i guess one thing thats not hard but annoying is getting the numbers inline.. for example in addition, keeping them in line is certainly important, and yeah, i'd advise anyone whos stuck on binary arithmetic, to just do some basic multiplcation and division with decimals


for example

3456 multiplied by 34

etc...

try it out and then once u got the hang of it binary makes it even more easier

 

[MysticEye]

mmm i'm one of the "poor" maths students that struggles with this option topic, in my trial i did the questions in the correct way showing all the working, but got it wrong, so i just converted
them and put in the correct answers... the markers didn't notice.

Just make sure u don't put the conversion tables (if u do them) on ur answer paper hehe the markers dont like that (i didnt do that but someone else in my class did.)

 

[Winston]

Originally posted by MysticEye
mmm i'm one of the "poor" maths students that struggles with this option topic, in my trial i did the questions in the correct way showing all the working, but got it wrong, so i just converted
them and put in the correct answers... the markers didn't notice.

Just make sure u don't put the conversion tables (if u do them) on ur answer paper hehe the markers dont like that (i didnt do that but someone else in my class did.)

the rest of the arithmetic really is easy.. but the division is a little tricky, u just need to know the pattern, and most important getting your Two's Complement

 

[MysticEye]

yep.. at first i was just so overwhealmed bout it all i couldn't do any of it, but iv'e kept practicing and practicing, now im getting the hang of it, if anyone else is having troubles just keep at it u'll get used to it... if i can do it trust me anyone can!