An excellent course provided by phenomenal professors! Everything is broken down into simple, easily understandable portions, and leaves you with a clear idea how to proceed to solve a given problem.
This was so much fun, so satisfying and I learned a lot. I'm a software engineer. We do so much work in high-level languages that it's great to be reminded how computing machinery gets the job done.
創建者 Prayag S
•This course is THE best course that you can take online. That is if you are interested in understanding and mastering the fundamentals of a modern computer. The course is organised in an excellent manner requiring no prior knowledge whatsoever. Though you do require a hunger to learn and persistence to do the exercises and projects. Simon and Noam are excellent teachers. They teach the concept in a such a manner that not only you understand the concept, they instill a desire to learn more. The teaching aid be it slides, tools and exercises are perfect. You will not go wrong if you take the course.
創建者 Fabrice L
•Incredible course!! I still can't believe that I was able to design all these hardware chips, including a CPU in 6 weeks, knowing nothing about it in the first place. It was exactly what I was looking for, a good introduction to hardware without having to take a 6 month class on Computer Architecture.
The material is extremely well done (book, lectures, assignment), the only part I liked less was the forum, mentors reply often by repeating what was said in the lecture which is not helpful.
I learned a great deal, I understand more computer, and I believe I will help me writing better code.
Thanks
創建者 Curt B
•While it might be argued that this course is analogous to "building a computer" in a similar way that "painting by numbers" is creating art (meaning that the author's knowledge of computer architecture is akin to the printed and numbered cells; it obscures a level of complexity the student is exposed to, but not required to generate from first principles) there is plenty to learn (and do!) in this short course. It was fun to learn about how transistors help us execute modern life, and have a chance to 'discover' the layers of complexity between Nand-gates and high level programming languages.
創建者 Peng J
•High quality! Knowledge is simple but not superficial.
The difficulty of these small projects is very appropriate, it will not make novices feel frustrated, nor will it make professional students like me blindly arrogant.
The most important thing is that through all the projects in this course, I manually completed an extremely simple computer and verified it on the simulator, which made me have a complete understanding of the architecture and feel very happy and confident.. I will also study computer architecture more deeply later, such as pipeline and cache.
Thanks these two lovely teachers.
創建者 Apar B
•I would highly recommend this course for anyone interested in any level of abstraction between Computer Architecture to Logic gates. I would highly recommend it to senior undergrad or first-year Masters Computer Science/Engineering students. Being a Masters student of Computer Engineering, I loved this course. The only problem is that we cannot use any industrial HDL (like Verilog) for most of the projects. The syntax for the HDL was a nightmare, especially the sub-bus parts. However, any programming language may be used to build the last project, Assembler. I did it in C++.
創建者 Samuel P K
•Excellent course! I have an undergrad degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering and I still feel that I got a lot out of it. It was a great refresher on what goes into making a computer. I took a similar course to this one in college. My college course was a bit more technical but it didn't cover as much breadth or do nearly as good a job of making the connections between the layers of abstraction. I preferred this one much more. I especially appreciated the perspective section at the end of each unit. It always tied a lot together and answered any lingering questions.
創建者 Shriharsh M
•Thoroughly enjoyed learning how a computer and its hardware parts are built. The course content is very close to reality and one gets to develop a computer from Nand gates. This might sound outlandish but the beauty of this course is that it shows how a complex concept can be explained with sufficient details using hardware simulation. Of course a lot of details are ignored about the hardware world and focusing on such nitty-gritty isn't needed. Thanks Shimon and Noam for building this course! I recommend this course to everyone who works on software or hardware.
創建者 Joseph B
•By constructing a computer from its foundational components, this course demystifies how computers work. You gain insight into how your code is executed by the CPU, how the CPU manipulates memory, even how it works with additional hardware components such as your monitor and keyboard. After going through the first part of the course, you'll gain a deeper understanding of how the code you write runs on hardware. If you are the curious sort and enjoy peeling back layers in order to figure out how things work, you should definitely go through this course.
創建者 Akshat A
•Fantastic course. We build up a computer, starting from the NAND gate as the smallest unit, and building all further logic gates, computational units, storage units, input-output devices present in a basic computer. We learn to write assembly language, build hardware which runs on machine language (0s and 1s), and finally finish by writing an assembler to convert the assembly language into machine language.
The assignments are hands-on through the use of multiple simulators which are pretty easy to work with, and I learned a lot through this course.
創建者 Ali A
•I love this course, I think it's one of the best I did in the past few years, most of the content are material that I read over twenty years ago, but the style and projects in this course bring the subject to another level.
The course is fun, and by the end of it I had a working virtual computer from the components I built, running machine code from the assembler I wrote. The course is fun, it's clear, simple to follow, and the instructor are great.
The truth is I felt a little sad that the course ended :). Looking forward for the second part of it.
創建者 Jack F
•Absolutely loved this course. Coming from a background of working with Python for a few years in my career, this course revealed everything I always wondered about what goes on under the hood when I run my code (apart from the compiling step, which is covered in the 2nd part!). The presentations are very clear, everything is explained well, and the satisfaction of completing the projects is brilliant. Highly recommend to anyone without formal computer science training who wants to understand the inner workings of machines.
創建者 Tim S
•This was a fantastic learning opportunity, even as someone with a degree in computer science and many years experience as a professional in the field. I loved the way this course taught from first principles and encouraged you to think about the abstraction layers behind a computer system. While the chip and assembler created here are somewhat primitive, the course leaves you understanding the principles behind more sophisticated hardware. Huge credit to the team for the thoughtful exercises: they caught me out repeatedly!
創建者 Heiko M
•Just the course I always wanted to take. I've been working for some 5 years in IT as a programmer with a background in mathematics. Since my education in university did not cover the low level details of how things really work deep down, I was always befuddled by the mystery of computers. This course helped to clear things out for me! There is a bit less mystery to it now, but even more admiration. Thank you very much Noam and Shimon for making things so accessible. I am looking forward to building a compiler in part II!
創建者 Cheryl
•Great course that teaches you the basics of the technology from which computers are built. The instructors carefully walk you through the concepts such that the problems feel relatively easy and simple compared to some other courses. If you like challenges, you might not like this approach, but I think it's appropriate for this course (as an introductory course) so that you can pick up the main points and not get frustrated from getting stuck on problems you don't have sufficient knowledge/experience to handle.
創建者 Himanshu T
•I am eternally grateful for everything you both faculty Shimon Schocken, Noam Nisan taught me.Really before the commencement of course I was thinking that this course will be boring.But after I started watching videos, the ultimate guidance and effort done by all the members of this course inspired me a lot.The course content is awesome. I am very happy that I build the computer. It was really amazing experience.Once again millions of thanks to teaching and non teaching staff.
Thank You
Himanshu Tiwari
創建者 Vishal
•This introductory course to computer architecture is just excellent.
It gives you a clean overview of the hardware and software architecture of a computer (albeit, a simple one). Everything you need is provided to you, the content (given in multiple forms) is clear and concise, the exercises give you just enough challenge to enjoy the reward of completing them. It just hits the mark between complexity, understanding and entertainment.
Thousand thanks to the professors/authors for giving this course!
創建者 Sana D
•This is a brilliant course for those who want to learn how computers really work. It takes a bottom up approach to build a computer all the way from logic gates to the CPU and the complete architecture. You get a tremendous sense of satisfaction running a program on a computer that you built.
This course is especially useful for people interested in working in computer architecture or systems, but I would recommend it for everyone studying or working in computer science and engineering.
創建者 Thassilo H
•This is one of the best CS courses I've taken so far. It's great to see how easy it is to build a simple yet powerful computer on your own, and it has given me for the first time the feeling of really understanding what's going on at the low level.
The complete course is centered about the project of building a computer, so there are no quizzes and only few theoretical background lectures here. If you want a hands-on introduction to computer engineering, this is the way to go.
創建者 Nidal F
•I think this is the greatest course ever!
Now, I can understand how the hardware layers play that divine role in our computers!
I've understood how machine languages are designed with the hardware, and a lot more!
Maybe the best thing this course introduces is: You conquer new obstacles every week which are totally new knowledge to you = you gain a lot of self confidence as well as this inner feeling that you are born to do something GREAT!
Can't wait to start the 2nd part!
創建者 Mandava K K
•I really appreciate this course as one of the best in my life. I am familiar with programming and various specializations of computer science and engineering along with information technology, but still, have a lack of knowledge on how computers are built, with practical sense. This course did take me through some interesting concepts which can be learned with hands-on experience. I admire the Professors for their hard work and dedication to offer us such a great course
創建者 Philip O
•This course was challenging. The project-oriented nature of the class is what made it interesting for me. I spent a few days learning Java (nothing like having a challenge to motivate me) so I could write the assembler, rather than just "translate by hand" assembly code. This helped solidify the connection between hardware and software by making me really think about what happens to all the bits in those A, C and L commands. I look forward to part 2 of the course.
創建者 Jim M
•This course was really well done. I do think it would be quite challenging for a non-programmer, but for those who have an education in computer science or some other technical background, it is quite doable. A really good refresher from my early training in computer science. For those who are familiar with the book with the same name, this course is a must to get the most from the book. I am looking forward to continuing on to Part 2 to complete the series.
創建者 Cesar M
•After a 20 year career in software development, this course finally made me exercise the task of building a computer from scratch, making sure a concrete understanding is obtained end to end. I enjoyed the course immensely and had a lot of fun! I recommend every person to take this course and share the knowledge with others. I'll definitely use the knowledge to teach my kids too and other people that could be interested in a career in Computer Science.
創建者 Aye A M
•Simply awesome. By no means does this course teach you everything about building a computer but it introduces you to the subject better than any other course that I have ever come across. It gives a voluminous amount of detail about low-level computing but the instructors took great pains to do so in a very accessible and easy manner. Thereby, the magic of low-level computing is made available for everyone regardless of who they are. Beautiful.
創建者 Savva
•cool and understandable, however the heart of computer –– Data Flip-Flop –– I think is must to be explained. Without it, I couldn't get fundamentals, for which we're here. If you aren't going to lie for yourself, please spend time, it's one of the most important thing that runs computer. After really understanding this, the feeling of the computer system's greatness will hold you quite enough time.
But many-many thanks. The course is awesome.