Understand C on a higher level, including its memory handling, optimizations and advanced constructs.

The course gives in-depth understanding of logic behind C language. Participants would understand how commands written in C are mapped to processor instructions, memory handling, pointers and function callbacks and more advanced C constructs. Finally, the course gives practical pointers on how C programs are optimized and applied in a specific embedded environments.

Course topics:

• C data types, arrays vs pointers, casting, little vs big endian

• Declarations, variables, storage classes, types, constants, static and automatic duration, memory locations, linkage

• Function caveats, calling conventions, calling from assembly

• Pointer arithmetic, multi-dimensional arrays, function pointers, void pointers, endianness

• Input-output and I/O dangers

• Strings and safe string handling in C, structures, member alignment and padding

• Splitting a program, declaration sharing, header files

• Build process and tools, preprocessor, compiler, linker, scripting

• Memory handling, buffers, queues, lists, double buffering

• Cross-compilation, embedded targets, compiler specifics

Hardware (required): Computer with Internet connection, working speakers and microphone.

Software: Chrome browser.

Course Typically Offered: Live Online in Fall quarter (mid June - August), Winter quarter (mid January - March), Spring quarter (April - mid June) or Summer quarter (mid June - August).

Prerequisites: Students should have basic programming knowledge in C.

Next Step: To gain additional knowledge in specific domains where C language is heavily utilized, consider taking the courses from the Automotive engineering catalog (NIT-AU-XX) or Consumer electronics catalog (NIT-CE-XX).

Course Number: NIT-CE-02

Duration: 2.00 units (~20 live teaching hours, ~40 hours of individual practice and preparation work)