The module will be delivered via a series of lectures and tutorials / practicals.
There will be two one-hour lectures given to the entire group each week (48 lecture hours in total). Students will also receive two one-hour tutorials / practicals each week (48 tutorial/practical hours in total). The core material will be presented during the lectures and the tutorials will give students the opportunity to gain confidence and experience through practice on suitable examples. Lectures and tutorials will alternate throughout the week so that confidence can be built up before lectures move on to the next topic.
Formative tests and vivas will be used on an ad hoc basis to assess students' progress.

The module will prepare students to follow additional study to take the HP ATA Certification in Servers and Storage.

Foundation Mathematics, K. A. Stroud & D. J. Book, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009, ISBN-10: 0230579078, ISBN-13: 978-0230579071
Foundation Maths, A. Croft and R. Davidson, Prentice Hall (2006), ISBN: 0131979213
Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists, J. Truss, Addison-Wesley 1999, ISBN: 0201360616
The Principles of Computer Hardware, Alan Clements, Oxford University Press, 2006, ISBN 978-0199273133

Specialist laboratory facilities with access to digital logic tutors or equivalent

None.

Group presentation (15 minutes) based on research weighted at 20% on aspects of virtualisation and cloud computing, Learning outcome 7.

TEST weighted at 80%.
Tests comprising a series of 3 multiple choice tests (45 minutes each) and 2 short answer in-class tests assessing Learning Outcomes 1-6. This will be the final assessment.

This module explicitly focuses on significant elements required for the achievement of STAFFORDSHIRE GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES.

Use of logic circuitry including adders, memory, processors, I/O, peripherals etc.
Number systems relevant to computer systems (building from basic Number Theory covered within the mathematics elements of the module).
Computer system structure and components including Operating Systems, peripherals, services etc.
Elementary data communications and computer networks including aspects of network security.
Graphical displays including basic buffering and acceleration techniques.
Introduction to virtualisation and cloud computing
Types and relevance of Operating Systems, absence of an OS and use of schedulers. OS Security and access control.
Servers and choice of server operating system including the use of remote solutions, e.g. the cloud environment and what enhancements they offer to an enterprise network system. The potential social impact and ethical and legal implications of cloud technologies.
Principles of 'Green' computing from a hardware and systems perspective.

As part of the preparation for practical work, you will be introduced to necessary health and safety aspects of working with the specialist computing hardware computing and perform personal risk assessment.

Propositional Logic - The basics and operators, truth tables, equivalence, valid arguments.
Matrices - The basics and operators, inverse of 2 x 2 matrix, solving systems of linear equations, linear transformations in 2 dimensions.
Elements of Set Theory - The basics concept and operators, Venn diagrams, the concept of a function and inverse functions for simple polynomials.
Functions - an introduction to low order polynomial, logarithmic, exponential, and trigonometric functions. Solving simple equations involving these functions.
Probability - Rules of probability, Probability trees, Conditional Probability.
Descriptive Statistics - tabulating and charting data, averages, measures of spread. Introduction to graph theory - The basics, trees, least weight spanning tree, least weight path between two points, tree traversal.