What This Document Is
This document represents Chapter 16 from the CEG 320 Computer Organization course at Wright State University. It delves into a crucial concept for understanding how programs interact with computer memory: pointers. The material builds upon foundational knowledge of function calls and data storage, exploring the limitations of standard parameter passing methods and introducing pointers as a powerful solution. It also establishes a strong connection between pointers and the implementation of arrays, a fundamental data structure in programming.
Why This Document Matters
This chapter is essential for any student seeking a deeper understanding of computer organization and low-level programming. It’s particularly valuable for those planning to work with systems programming, embedded systems, or performance-critical applications. Understanding pointers is key to grasping concepts like dynamic memory allocation, data structures, and efficient algorithm design. If you’re struggling to understand how functions truly manipulate data or how arrays are managed in memory, this material will provide significant clarity. It’s best reviewed *after* a solid grasp of stack frames and basic C syntax.
Common Limitations or Challenges
This chapter focuses on the *concepts* behind pointers and their relationship to arrays. It does not provide a comprehensive guide to all pointer operations or advanced pointer arithmetic. It also assumes a basic familiarity with assembly language concepts related to memory access. While the material touches on potential pitfalls like buffer overflows, it doesn’t offer exhaustive security analysis or mitigation techniques. This is a building block – further study will be needed to master advanced pointer usage.
What This Document Provides
* A detailed comparison of call-by-value and call-by-reference parameter passing.
* An exploration of the challenges associated with function parameter passing using the stack.
* An introduction to the concept of a pointer as an address in memory.
* An explanation of how arrays are fundamentally related to pointer concepts.
* Illustrative code examples demonstrating the use of the address-of (&) and dereference (*) operators in C.
* Exercises designed to reinforce understanding of pointer variables and memory addresses.
