Lecture 0: Course Details
Expectations, timings, evaluation, and laboratory details.
Open slidesCourse overview
Foundations of Computing Systems
How humans made computation possible, from electrical signals and circuits to memory, machine language, and a working computer.
The lectures develop the underlying ideas; the laboratory turns those ideas into hardware components that students build and test.
View lecturesAt a glance
Course information
Class schedule, assessment, and the principal textbook.
Timings and location
- Monday
- 11:00 am-noon, A01-102
- Wednesday
- 9:00-10:00 am, A01-102
- Thursday
- 8:00-9:00 am, A01-102
- Laboratory
- Thursday, 2:00-5:00 pm, A01-109
Evaluation
CS2011 Theory
Test 1: 25% · Test 2: 25% · End-semester examination: 50%
CS2111 Laboratory
Lab work: 10% · Test 1: 25% · Test 2: 25% · End-semester examination: 40%
Each lab carries 1%; the best 10 of 11 labs are counted.Textbook
Noam Nisan and Shimon Schocken, The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles, The MIT Press.
Slides
Lectures
Use the arrow keys or the on-screen controls to move through a lecture.
Week 1
The Story
Course orientation and the human story behind chips and computation.
Lecture 1: The Story of Chips
How humans learned to control electrical signals and made computation possible.
Open slidesWeek 2
Boolean Logic
From Boolean functions to gates, Hardware Description Language, and design practice.
Lecture 2: Boolean Algebra
Boolean variables and functions, truth tables, expressions, and canonical representation.
Open slidesLecture 3: Gate Logic and Hardware Description Language
Logic gates, composite gates, gate specifications, and HDL.
Open slidesLecture 4: Boolean Laws and Logic Design Tutorial
Boolean laws, expression simplification, truth-table verification, gate diagrams, and HDL practice.
Open slidesLab 1: Basic Gates
Implement Not, And, Or, Mux, DMux, And16, Mux16, Or8Way, Mux4Way16, and DMux4Way using Nand or any previously built gates.
Open web IDEWeek 3
Boolean Arithmetic
Binary representation, arithmetic circuits, and the Arithmetic Logic Unit.
Lecture 5: Boolean Arithmetic
Binary numbers, word size, addition, and signed integers using two's complement.
Open slidesLecture 6: Building Adders
HalfAdder, FullAdder, Add16, Inc16, and the path from bit addition to an Arithmetic Logic Unit.
Open slidesLecture 7: Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU)
Control bits, the ALU specification, its eighteen functions, implementation planning, and tutorial exercises.
Open slidesLab 2: Adders and ALU
Implement HalfAdder, FullAdder, Add16, Inc16, and ALU using only the chips gradually built in this lab and chips from the previous week.
Open web IDEWeek 4
Sequential Logic
From time and state to registers, memory banks, and the Program Counter.
Lecture 8: Time, State, and Registers
Clock cycles, Data Flip-Flops, controlled feedback, Bit, and the 16-bit Register.
Open slidesLecture 9: Random Access Memory
Addresses, read and write timing, RAM8, and recursive construction through RAM16K.
Open slidesLecture 10: Program Counter
Control priority, PC construction, sequential simulation, and Chapter 3 design exercises.
Open slidesLab 3: Sequential Logic
Implement Bit, Register, RAM8, RAM64, RAM512, RAM4K, RAM16K, and PC using DFF and previously built chips.
Open web IDEWeek 5
Machine Language
From machine-language abstractions and addressing modes to Hack computation, programs, branching, symbols, and memory-mapped input/output.
Lecture 11: Machine Language
Memory, processors, registers, command families, addressing modes, and an introduction to Hack's memory spaces, A, D, M, and unconditional goto.
Open slidesLecture 12: Hack Machine Language
A- and C-instructions, computation, destination and jump fields, assembly symbols, and memory-mapped screen and keyboard access.
Open slidesLab 4: Hack Machine Language
Write and test Mult.asm and Fill.asm using the assembler and CPU emulator.
Thirteen weeks
The journey
Each layer will be built from parts created in the layer below it.
- Boolean logicGates, HDL
- ArithmeticBinary numbers, Adders, ALU
- MemoryRegisters, RAM, sequential logic
- Machine languageInstructions, assembly, I/O
- Computer architectureCPU, memory, stored programs
- Systems perspectiveHow software meets the machine