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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
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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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176 - 200 of 1,058 Reviews for Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: From Nand to Tetris (Project-Centered Course)

By Matt J

Mar 31, 2022

Amazing course. I've always wondered how a computer just handles "information", displaying nice images on a screen and allowing magical user interaction. We live in a physical world, so what is physically happening? This course shows you what happens under the hood. And it's very project-centered, so plenty of hands-on learning.

By Vishnu A

Jun 20, 2020

This course was amazing. Despite being a computer science student, I had no real intuition as to how the different computer abstractions worked or how the simple AND,OR gates did everything the a computer could do. I've just finished the firsst part and am already amazed at how much I've learned. I look forward to the next part!

By Robert A

Sep 24, 2017

This is an excellent course that is very well-designed to include all the essential details and exclude the inessential ones. I recommend it very highly, especially to those who have some form of technical education, but may never have learned these topics in computer design that are needed to really get from logic gate to CPU.

By Mark V M

Feb 8, 2018

This was a fantastic course. I'd bought the textbook a few years ago after reading about it on HackerNews, but never had the motivation to work through it until I discovered this class on Coursera. I feel like I now have a much better grasp of what's going on inside of a computer, after having programmed for over thirty years!

By Erik U

Feb 24, 2021

Excellent course! I was left mind-blown (in a good, exciting way) at times when I learned how different parts of the computer, such as the CPU or ALU actually work with just logic gates. The programming exercises are a great way to test understanding and they each make one think hard to reach the solution. Highly recommended!

By Jinho L

Feb 15, 2020

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.

By Himanshu V

Jul 9, 2019

One of the best courses I have ever been through. If you like learning along with getting hands-on experience and the joy of building something ground-up, this course is definitely for you. I like how the designs are so simple yet completely functional. Thoroughly enjoyed making all the projects especially week 6 (Assembler).

By Jeremy L

Jun 20, 2018

Great course, but tough. I'd suggest reading the relevant chapters from the professors' book 'The Elements of Computing Systems' (chapters available for free on the professors' course website) in addition to listening to the lectures. I also read 'Code' by Charles Petzold as I took the course and found it a useful supplement.

By Diogo A d O S

Apr 27, 2020

A wonderful course. The tasks are not very hard, but challenging enough for a student to get things working. Even for auditing students, they provide ways to verify the knowledge. I think they completely achieved their goal of demystifying how computers work and are built. Thank you for the opportunity to attend this course.

By Miroslav V

Feb 22, 2020

While some of earlier topics were a bit rushed, Week 6 videos were just about explaining the assembler algorithm to the programmer, which is something programmer should invent himself, it takes away the fun, while providing no further insight into the topic. Overall great course, but it did not go very deep into some topics.

By Richard M

Jun 17, 2016

A fantastic course that should be considered as a requirement for any one working as a software developer. The tutors did an excellent job here, the course material was clear, and the assignments were fun and rewarding.

I can honestly say I've now built my own computer from simple Nand gates and it was fun and educational.

By Balaji R

Dec 13, 2018

Excellent course, I could understand from a simple logic gate how a computer hardware is built. Very useful for both student and professionals in Computer field.

The presentation was to the point very clear and crisp. Both the faculty did an amazing job in presentng the material of the course as well as the assignments.

By Peter C

Sep 23, 2021

Quality of teaching, materials is superb. The whole course concept is quite astounding and delivered brilliantly. The projects are superbly designed. A lot of superlatives in this review, but this is streets ahead of how the subject matter was taught in my university days. It is worth getting the accompanying book.

By Antonios H

May 21, 2017

This course was amazing. I have been using computers, and programming, for 30 years (not full time). Now I finally have a deep understanding of what is going on under the hood. I have a new appreciation for the 1's and 0's that are machine language. The instructors were fantastic. I highly recommend this course.

By Luke F

Mar 13, 2021

I originally learned a lot of this in university about 8 years ago, however this course was much better in its execution, the projects were fun and well defined and the presentations were succinct. It was a great sense of accomplishment at the end to have a working computer where you understand all the moving parts.

By Yiğit A T

Nov 29, 2019

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.

By Martin M

Sep 5, 2022

Absolutely fantastic course. I have been working with low level code since the old 6502 days and I am so glad I have run across this. I did this just to see how things are taught nowadays, and I was just blown away. This is the course to take if you want to get a decent understanding of how things really work. A++

By Jonfranco S

Feb 15, 2021

Fantastic course! Very digestible and relatively well explained. I struggled a couple times with the projects but generally it was just syntax errors and I was able to find help with the course discussions. I knew very little about computer architecture before and now feel comfortable to take higher level courses.

By adelaja q

Dec 4, 2020

This is the best course i have ever taken. It satisfied my quest to understand how computers work ground up with 100% practical and recommend it to anyone that wants to also.

Adding Quiz to test the understanding of the theory will make it even better.

A very big thank you to Shimon Schocken and Noam Nisan.

By Christopher J L

Nov 30, 2020

This is such a great course.

It is very well taught and the material is thorough but understandable.

The concept of the course was so interesting to me and the execution was excellent.

This is an extremely enjoyable course and I would highly recommend it, whether you have a computer science background or not.

By Chakir M

Aug 31, 2019

Excellent course! I have taken many in Coursera, and this one is by far the one I have enjoyed the most, not only because of the topic but also because of the professors. Both are great communicators and provided very well prepared classes and materials. 100% recommended, looking forward to starting part 2.

By Damodaran R

Dec 4, 2016

It's an excellent practical approach to understand the inner workings of a computer at a very low level. The instructors teach at a comfortable pace and cover in great detail even the simplest of topics. More light could have been shone on how and why the control bits produce the desired output in the ALU.

By Shiva H

Aug 27, 2020

Absolutely superb course! It's was supremely satisfying to build an actual virtual working computer from scratch and see it play Pong! I commend the course creators for distilling something that's usually seen as mysterious and complicated into an accessible and tangible form. Can't wait to finish Part 2!

By Molderez

Feb 13, 2020

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.

By Arryk S

Feb 6, 2023

Really enjoyable course, going through it helped give me a functioning understand of how all the low level elements of a computer which I'd in the past learned separately actually end up functioning together to create a working computer. The lectures were well paced and the projects were interesting.