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Back to Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course) by Hebrew University of Jerusalem

4.9
stars
3,494 ratings

About the Course

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 to complete each one of the six projects. The course can be completed in six weeks, but you are welcome to take it at your own pace. You can watch a TED talk about this course by Googling "nand2tetris TED talk". *About Project-Centered Courses: Project-centered courses are designed to help you complete a personally meaningful real-world project, with your instructor and a community of learners with similar goals providing guidance and suggestions along the way. By actively applying new concepts as you learn, you’ll master the course content more efficiently; you’ll also get a head start on using the skills you gain to make positive changes in your life and career. When you complete the course, you’ll have a finished project that you’ll be proud to use and share....

Top reviews

AI

Jun 13, 2021

Undeniably one of the best computer science courses. The advertising isn't false! This course permanently changed my perspective on hardware and software along with the relationship between the two...

MM

Feb 17, 2017

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.

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976 - 1000 of 1,058 Reviews for Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)

By Bao Y

Jun 11, 2022

perfect!

By Pyltsin M

Dec 27, 2020

Awesome!

By Alexander S

Dec 29, 2019

Awesome!

By Dimitry

Jun 29, 2019

So nice!

By Santiago C J

Apr 18, 2022

Great!!

By Abdo K

Jan 24, 2021

amazing

By SALAMI F Z

Oct 27, 2020

awesome

By Maks P

Oct 16, 2019

Amazing

By Anton a

Jan 6, 2019

Amazing

By wangsanjia

Dec 30, 2016

perfect

By Vivek P

Sep 11, 2016

awesome

By Elías G

Jul 27, 2021

Nice!

By Ariful A

Aug 7, 2022

great

By 刘宇豪

Jul 22, 2021

great

By Md. R Q S

Aug 19, 2020

great

By Sarthak D

Oct 14, 2018

Great

By Kiran A

Mar 24, 2021

nice

By Mike

Mar 26, 2019

Good

By Victor B

Aug 16, 2018

good

By S V k

Dec 11, 2017

good

By JY

Feb 8, 2020

极好!

By Jorge R

Nov 12, 2020

si

By Aalap S

May 2, 2020

Being a student of Electrical Engineering (with background in programming), this course helped me fill the gap between combinational/sequential digital circuits and a full-fledged computer that can run assembly programs. The instructors have put in a lot of effort in developing this course, and it shows in the course assignments (esp. the sheer amount of supporting software), the structure of the course, and most importantly the elegance of the computer architecture designed for this course. The assignments have a nice balance between being challenging yet completely do-able after just watching the lecture videos. I also liked the perspectives unit at the end of each week, though I wish they covered a bit more there. Maybe I'll start with Princeton's Computer Architecture course after this one.

Things that can be improved: There was some overlap of content between week 4 and 6 and also within week 6 itself (unit 6.4 and 6.5 seem like basically the same thing said by different instructors). Also, maybe a bit more focus on electronics during the first few weeks wouldn't hurt. Concepts of delay (which ultimately govern clock frequencies) could have been covered while discussing sequential circuits.

By Michael K

Aug 30, 2020

This course is amazing! I really enjoyed working on those projects and learning how to build a real computer. Even though I took Computer Organization course in the Open University, and knew most of the concepts taught in this course, it was really inspiring and exciting, to actually get to build the projects and get the feeling of building a real computer. Having said that, I believe the tooling provided, should be updated, to give a better user experience, and fix some of the UI glitches, that it has.

By James P

May 20, 2016

Fantastic course. I found it challenging enough to keep me interested, but not so difficult that I got annoyed or frustrated. However, a lot of the material I found to be a re cap of concepts I was already vaguely familiar with having worked in IT for 20 years. A true beginner would most likely find some of the concepts difficult to start with - but keep at it!