Computation Structures – Part 2: Computer Architecture - Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Digital systems are at the heart of the information age in which we live, allowing us to store, communicate and manipulate information quickly and reliably. This computer science course is a bottom-up exploration of the abstractions, principles, and techniques used in the design of digital and computer systems. If you have a rudimentary knowledge of electricity and some exposure to programming, roll up your sleeves, join in and design a computer system! Using your browser for design entry and simulation, you’ll implement a 32-bit computer using our gate library and write assembly language programs to explore the hardware/software interface. This is Part 2 of a 3-part program on digital systems.

What you'll learn

• The design of an instruction set for computer systems
• How to translate high-level programs into sequences of computer instructions
• The design of the datapath and control logic for a 32-bit computer
• The role of caches in the memory hierarchy