Syllabus - Computer Cons. Workshop: From Nand to Tetris - Summer Course (67926)

Course/Module description:
This course leads the students through the process of building a complete computer system, both hardware and software.

The course is comprised of 12 projects, each based on a chapter in the accompanying book. Each chapter consists of the specification and hints for implementation of a well-defined sub-system that can be built and tested in isolation.

The first four chapters focus on constructing the hardware platform of a simple modern computer. Five chapters build higher level programming possibilities for this hardware, starting from an assembler and ending with a compiler for a high level object-based programming language. Two chapters are focused on code written in that programming language: a mini operating system, and a game application.

Importantly, each chapter/project is a stand-alone unit that includes a complete description of its interface with neighboring chapters.

The complete plan is as follows:
Chapter 0: Under the hood. We illustrate a sample application - the Pong game - running on the simulated computer. This motivates the question of what is needed in order to make this application a reality. We need a programming language, an operating system, a hierarchy of software translators, and a suitable hardware platform. This sets the stage to a top-down overview of the book plan and the construction projects that lie ahead.
Chapter 1: Boolean Logic. Beginning at the Nand level, we specify and build a set of elementary logic gates, multiplexors, and their multi-bit versions. In addition, we describe how chips can be built and tested using a simple version of HDL (Hardware Description Language) and the supplied Hardware Simulator.
Chapter 2: Boolean Arithmetic. Continuing with combinational logic, we specify and build a set of adders. half-adder, full-adder, and parallel adder. Next, we specify an Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU) and describe its proposed implementation.
Chapter 3: Sequential Logic. Beginning with D-Flip-Flops, we build a ecursive hierarchy of memory systems: 1-bit register, multi-bit register, and a Random Access Memory (RAM). We also build a counter chip, which will later function as the computer's program counter.
Chapter 5: Computer Architecture. We specify a simple machine language, giving both its binary and symbolic instruction sets. Next, we guide the students through the process of integrating all the previously built chips into a unified architecture, capable of executing programs written in the specified language. We also specify how the architecture interacts with memory-mapped screen and keyboard devices. This completes the construction of the hardware platform.
Chapter 6: Assembler. Following an overview of the machine and assembly languages presented in the previous chapter, we specify an assembler. We expect the students to implement this assembler (as well as all the subsequent translators) in Java, but other object-oriented languages can also be used.
Chapters 7-8: Virtual Machine. We discuss the virtues of a virtual machine approach, and specify a stack-based VM. Next, we guide the students through the process of writing a VM implementation, which will later serve as the backend of the compiler. Chapter 7 focuses on stack arithmetic, and chapter 8 on the procedure call stack.
Chapter 9: High Level Programming. We present a simple, Java-like object-based language, called Jack. The students then write several simple Jack programs, e.g. games like Pong and Tetris. These programs are highly interactive and event-driven.
Chapters 10-11: Compilation. We specify a Jack compiler, designed to translate a collection of Jack classes into VM code. Chapter 10 focuses on syntax analysis and chapter 11 on semantics and code generation.
Chapter 12: Operating System. We use several programming examples to motivate the need for an operating system (OS). We then specify the API of a simple OS that includes math functions, string processing, input/output functionality, and memory management.