I am a programmer without a background in computer science and the closest I have gotten to the machine has been compiled languages like Java. Because of this, everything that happened below the language I was using was a complete mystery and black box. This course clearly and concisely led me through all the steps of computing that were previously completely opaque to me. I cannot recommend this course enough. Cheers!

The course is fantastic. The teachers are both very good at explaining the concepts and the project assignments. The experience of building a computer from basic logic gates is enlightening and the course material is very good and straightforward. I also bought their book (The Elements of Computing Systems) which is also very good and I recommend. It's a very rewarding experience. We really learn how computers *work*.

This is an amazing class! The software and unitests provided worked seamlessly - just as described. The lectures excellent pedagogical expositions. The class has also made me appreciate the intellectual beauty of computer science; I used to think programming was somewhat boring and hack-ish, especially compared to mathematics. I'm looking forward to the second part. Also, the book is just as good as the lectures!

This is an amazing course. I am halfway through my undergraduate degree in CS. I highly recommend it for people who know how to program in a high level language like java, python, js, etc, and feel like everything below the compiler/interpreter is witch craft. During this course, I also used logisim (http://www.cburch.com/logisim/) to help with the hardware design, and would highly recommend that route as well.

This course is just great. I'm a third-year CS student, but I wanted to revise concepts I have seen and glue them together, because a lot of times we students have various assignatures for different "blocks of knowledge" but we don't actually connect them together, so they stay as isolated concepts. As a "midly-veteran" student, some parts of this course are basic for me, but I really liked the course overall.

I cannot recommend this course enough! Although I have developed software professionally for almost 20 years, some areas beneath the high-level languages I create software with felt like dark mysteries. This course was extremely helpful in illuminating many of those areas. If you develop software professionally but did not graduate college with a computer science degree, I highly recommend this course to you.

While I have multiple degrees in computer science, I have never felt I have a solid appreciation of how a computer works from the electrons up. This course is by far the best I have taken, and incredibly rewarding to work through. I feel I now have a first principles level grasp of how a computer works from the logic gates all the way through to the operating system. I can't recommend this course enough.

It is an excellent course. I have a bachelors degree in Computer Science and I have done some portions of what has been taught in this course in our logic design lab and assembly programming lab, but bringing all together in a single project-centered course like this one is a novel and useful idea. This course should be made compulsory in all bachelor degree courses in Computer Science and Engineering.

I only audited the course due to shortage of time. A complex topic like computer hardware architecture can't be taught as simple and nice as like in this course..I took many moocs and this is one of the best. I also loved the end of the lectures named as "perspectives" which is about the questions of students mostly ask about the relevant week's topic. Thank you lecturers a lot and a lot and a lot..

This is the best course I have ever taken. The professor Noam Nisan and Shimon Shocken are incredible. The lectures are well paced with helpful slides, and they explain concepts very clearly.

The projects are challenging yet fun so in the end it's incredibly rewarding.

I can't even begin to imagine the work and knowledge required to a course like this together.

From the bottom of my heart thank you.

Very comprehensive course that is both in-depth and broad in terms of its analysis of current computing architecture. It makes one understand how sublime modern computers are - for they complete tasks of astounding complexity despite having a much simpler internal architecture than one might suppose. Certainly, the feeling of satisfaction I felt upon finishing a task is nothing short of immense!

I am a self learner with a non-computer background, but I am a programmer by profession. I have been looking for information of how a computer is built from the inside. I have read many theoretical books, but none matches your cross-section coverage from start (gates), abstracting away to the top (user programs). I have purchased your book too and would recommend others to get it. Thank you!

Amazing course! I know how to code and stuff but the fundamentals of how things work in hardware was something I was unaware of. This course takes you from teaching about logic gates to making an assembler! Its pretty great and you will learn a lot (even if you know a thing or 2 about it). On top of this, the instructors (near the end of this course), also teach some good coding practices.

Great course! It's not impossibly difficult, but you will want to spend some time thinking things through. In the first week, I wasn't sure that the lectures completely covered the material, but YouTube exists, so I was able to find some videos on digital algebra to fill in the gaps. Week 5 was the toughest, and if you have any experience programming in higher levels, week 6 is a breeze.

This is without any doubt one of the best Coursera courses I've taken.

I always wanted to know how the computer works on hardware level. I read a lot of stuff but none of them allowed to understand truly what's inside and how and why works.

The materials and projects of the course are simply great and (from my point of view) makes you understand much more deeply the concepts of the videos.

Very nice course on how to build a computer from elementary circuits up. It's a simplified computer, but gives you a good sense of how actual computer work. It has exercises that are good for retaining the contents and making sure you understand the concepts. I definitely recommend for someone that wants to understand what happens between the assembly language and the computer circuits.

I really liked the comprehensive and bottom-up approach to this course. However, I would have liked a bit more instruction on how the schematics for the CPU and ALU were derived, as we were merely implementing it without having to understanding why the ALU and the CPU was the way it is. The same goes for the machine language.

Nonetheless, an excellent course, and well worth your time.

This is a great course that explained every thing from gates to actual PC very clearly.

I'd recommend this course to any one who try to fresh up computer science basics.

I only have a small suggestions, the four week taught about machine language, fifth week taught about the CPU-ROM-RAM architecture. From the first three weeks, (in my own opinion) I feel the order should be reversed.

I have taken many physics and computer science classes, and this is by far the best one. Not only it explains in detail how computers actually work, it also gives you tools and knowledge to implement the computer yourself. Both the book and lectures are very good at explaining things and assignments, while not being too hard, concentrate on learning and understanding the principles.

I would recommend this course and as well part 2 of the same to every computer science student no matter what year they are in. Gives a clarity how different layers are related and function together . And if the authors of this course are reading this comment then i am really grateful to you for putting in your effort in this phenomenal piece of art that you have created.Thank you .

as software student graduate this was a welcome low-level challenge to deepen my understanding of what happens "under the hood". Overall nicely explained (at least for someone familiar with the matter) and well defined goals for each week. definitely recommended for anyone that wants to understand a bit better how higher level languages work when actually working with 0 and 1.

My first course on coursera. I had a blast taking it. It was challenging and fun. I had little programming background which was not an issue until the last project; building an assembler. It was optional to code it, so I decided to learn 'c'. I wish that I picked python instead. I spent the entire week on it. If you are dedicated and interested, I highly recommend this course

Excellent introduction to building a modern computer with ample hands-on experience. Very fulfilling experience with all the programming assignments, especially the final one. To see my assembler taking any Hack assembly program and convert to a machine instruction is so satisfying. Appreciate the time that has been put in to make this course a challenging and rewarding one.

Excellent. A really eye-opening course. I learnt a lot of things in the process of completing the projects that were assigned each week. It was a great way of learning the basics of how a computer works, and it made my more conscious on how a program is ran when you make one for a project or course. In conclusion, really good course with great instructors and great content.

Really outstanding course. I learned a tremendous amount about how computers REALLY work, and got a glimpse behind the curtain to see and build some of the magic for myself. Anyone with even a passing interest in computers should take this course! The lectures are digestible, and the projects are very well designed. Only suggestion is --- WHERE IS PART TWO???? WE NEED IT!