Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)
FREE
Shimon Schocken
What you’ll achieve: In this project–centered course* you will build a modern computer system, from the ground up. We’ll divide this fascinating journey into six hands–on projects that will take you from constructing elementary logic gates all the way through creating a fully functioning general purpose computer. In the process, you will learn – in the most direct and constructive way – how computers work, and how they are designed. What you’ll need: This is a self–contained course: all the knowledge necessary to succeed in the course and build the computer system will be given as part of the learning experience. Therefore, we assume no previous computer science or engineering knowledge, and all learners are welcome aboard. You will need no physical materials, since you will build the computer on your own PC, using a software–based hardware simulator, just like real computers are designed by computer engineers in the field. The hardware simulator, as well as other software tools, will be supplied freely after you enroll in the course. Course format: The course consists of six modules, each comprising a series of video lectures, and a project. You will need about 2–3 hours to watch each module’s lectures, and about 5–10 hours …
Instructor Details
Courses : 2
Specification: Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)
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62 reviews for Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)
Add a review
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Provider | |
| Duration | 19 hours |
| Year | 2016 |
| Language | English ... |
| Certificate | Yes |
| Quizzes | Yes |
FREE
Antal T –
Amazing course, thank you professor Shimon and Noam!
Maksym –
Amazing
Habibur R –
Best for ever
Jean–Michel L –
Absolutely amazing.
Jean Michel L –
Absolutely amazing.
s v –
Pluses are : Great Projects !! Like the saying “Simplicity is beauty”, both the authors’ presentations were very simple I thoroughly enjoyed the course. Minuses are : Justification for the behaviour of Half Adders & Full Adders was not covered. Magic of ALU control bits was not explicitly explained. In project6, since Assembler was not written in Binary language, the hardship of making a real assembler in machine language was not felt leaving the project a little unsatisfactory. Final Verdict : Thank you so much for making this course. You guys have written, an Assembler, Hardware emualtor, Cpu emulator etc. And the graphics that comes with “Program & Data Flow” option is simply icing on the cake. And to top this, this entire course can be audited free of cost. This is a thankless service you guys have regardlessly rendered. Great Respect & Massive Gratitude i have for you guys. Thank you so much. Much appreciated
Liu X –
This is the best basic computer lessons I have ever entered. When I finished building a hack computer, I felt proud and exited. Thank you!
Huynh N H –
so helpful!
Michael B –
I loved this course it made me think and hade a lot of fun building my own computer. just a hint the slides are on the site that the course send you too. that will help with tables
sripriya p –
I really loved this course, it helped me to get a better understanding of what’s happening under the hood of the computer.
Andrew M –
Having now taken a number of different courses across both on Coursera and elsewhere, I can honestly say that this course is perhaps the best one I’ve taken it’s comprehensive without being overly tedious, and the fact that the assignments are projects, rather than quizzes or exams, was both more engaging and helped me better understand (and appreciate) the material.
Michalis P –
One of the best courses I have taken. I am so excited about this course and the instructors are amazing. The journey in this first part of the course gave me a lot of intuition about how a computer works under the hood. 100% recommended!!
Eric B –
Excellent course. Instructors provide enough guidance for you to do most of the discovery and design on your own. The topics are covered in a logical order. It’s a lot of work, but you’ll learn a tremendous amount and feel quite accomplished.
cheng c –
Very Touch homework but as soon as you go through it, you will have a very clear big picture about computer hierarchy.
Kit B –
I’ve really enjoyed this course. It was a lot of fun and I’m looking forward to part 2. It can be a little tough to simply write HDL though and without the Nand Game (nandgame.com) I would have found this much more difficult.
Yigit A T –
Even though I knew quite a bit about the later parts of the course, I still learned a lot from them. Not to mention that HDL and hardware parts thought me a lot as I lacked some knowledge on that front. Overall a great course that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in learning everything about computers.
Herman P –
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.
daniel a m –
This is an amazing course. You really get to build a (virtual) computer by yourself and step by step. They give you the necesary guidance, but still leave you room to think by yourself when completing each step of the project. It is amazing how they manage to strike this delicate balance. The conferences and slide presentations are really good, and also the software they provide. The computer you will build is a masterpiece of simplicity, yet a full functioning universal computer. Its simplicity allows you to really understand the internal workings of any computer and truly grasp the real power of Boolean logic. Truly awesome. And the whole project of building this computer develops like a game: It’s realluy fun. I loved this course.
Joseph A –
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.
alvaro H –
The teacher with grey long hair talks to fast and seems like he gets nervous in front of the camera, its hard to follow what he says also because of his speed at talking and accent.
Dan S –
Very nice to be able to create a fully working computer simulation from scratch in just two weeks. A little less in depth than I would like, but very good content overall.
Daniel S –
This class was truly exceptional. I felt like it did an excellent job on conveying abstract concepts and I came away with a working knowledge of very basic computer architecture. I recommend this class to anyone curious about the inner workings of a computer.
Rodolpho M d S –
Amazing course, I strongly recommend!
Hidetake T –
just few weeks investment gives you an in depth understanding of computer hardware
Hemchand S –
Excellent Course!!!
Vytenis N –
This course provides a great and sight opening introduction to the very basics of computing science. Going from basic parts and seeing the system build up step by step gives a sense of accomplishment and understanding that is hard to be matched.
Joseph H –
For better or worse, this is a course designed to have the students work things out for themselves. Nearly all the non trivial parts of the course were contained in the projects, so while the projects were interesting the video lectures were largely a waste of time. I found the hardware description language syntax difficult to pick up because there were so few real examples of how to use it. Finally, covering so much ground in six weeks inevitably means that many topics must be skipped or only briefly discussed, so if you’re looking for a deep dive into digital design or computer architecture then this is not the course for you.
Chun–Hung L –
It is really insteresting. Now I have complete picture about what happened underneath the hood.
Chun Hung L –
It is really insteresting. Now I have complete picture about what happened underneath the hood.
Benjamin C –
An excellent course on computer logic and design.
Alexander S –
Awesome!
Ankit G –
The very first course that was able to provide the practical knowledge of the working of a computer without any abstraction, apart from week 6 that had a bit of programming and text processing abstraction.
SAPTARSHI D –
Love the course. Thanks.
Sergio D –
I dont recomend this course. I think it promis you to touch the sky but is not true. So much bla, bla, bla.
Sayed H –
Exceptionally well designed course. Taught me how to build a computer and assembler from the first principle and amazingly, I didn’t have any outstanding questions at the end of the course. Everything made sense. This is an excellent course for understanding the basics of the inner workings of a computer without being too bogged down into engineering details.
Farzam A F –
I have learned many new things thanks to the platform of Coursera
bilal a m –
great working experience here, everything working fine .
JUHAN P –
I think this course is mandatory for all people who build programs.
Pushkar S –
This is an incredible course. I loved it 100%. I audited the course first, and then I just wanted to complete the assignments for a certificate. I enjoyed doing that a lot especially making the assembler!!!
Hamza A –
this course really helps me and the instructors are very best
Hashir H A K –
excellent instructors!
Aric M –
Excellent introductory coverage of a wide array of deep topics. I learned a ton.
Tommaso P –
Excellent course. Instructors are very clear and all material is absolutely a delight to read. The projects are fun and complement well the theory.
Shabih O –
A very intriguing journey indeed, learned a lot… Thanks a bunch for putting up a course like this, hopefully Ill be taking the second nand2tetris in my summer break e
Shah M –
Excellent Course
Salman A –
it was amazing and adorable . I enjoyed this course
Daniel N –
Absolutely fantastic course, quite simply the best one I’ve ever taken, Highly recommended for anyone who wants to embark on a journey of understanding how computers work.
Benjamin B –
software doesn’t work. Bad vibe on the forums.
Freeman –
it’s really amaze
Kevin H –
I learned a lot from the course. It’s incredible that this course is free. FYI, I would recommend learning the basics of boolean algebra before starting the course.
Balavinayak R –
Best course I have ever taken!
Amr H G –
Amazing course
Taegun P –
Amazing course.
Molderez –
Nice project and interesting . The learning curve is not too steep for a beginner and the course itself can be considered as a solid funding block for a programmer interested in low level programming. The project which is spread over the 6 modules is an on going application of the abstraction principle.
Jinho L –
I have always wanted to know how a computer actually works. This course helped me to deep dive into the low level implementation of a computer. In the meanwhile, the projects are perfectly well organized for better understandings. Overall, I’d like to recommend this course to literally everyone who is interested in computers.
Vadim G –
It was fascinating!!! Thank you 🙂
Hyun joo K –
I graduated my university long time ago, and hard to experience very low level approach to computers in my field experiences. This course offers refreshing what I had learned very long time ago the principles and mechanisms of computer designs and low level software development with opcodes and assemblers. I think this course is very helpful for current university students and everyone interested in computer designs and software development in very low level with assemblers because nowadays there is too small chances to work in such a low level environment. For both quite experienced people and new comers in computing, I dare recommend this course. Experienced people can refresh what they had learned very long time ago, and New comers can get well designed knowledges and understandings for low level computing.
Shay L –
a great course. makes you really understand the inside of the computer, and the how software controls the hardware.
Michael A M –
I can’t describe how great this course was. For anyone wanting to learn how your computer actually works. This course is perfect.
Giada N –
Excellent course!!! I had so much fun doing it!!! 😀
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!
Tan Z –
Rank this course five stars just after first week. Very well designed in a way that beginners can completely understand. Combined with challenging but not impossible projects. I have a great time coding HDL in this course!