nand2tetris

Building a Modern Computer from First Principles

The base of this project are both a course in Coursera and a book.

Coursera - Build a Modern Computer from First Principles: Nand to Tetris

Book - The Elements of Computing Systems: Building a Modern Computer from First Principles

Motivation

The course idea is to understand how a computer works, from the NAND logic gate to a high-level code.

Walkthrough

The course is divided in 12 weeks and a final project, as follows

Hack Hardware Plataform

• Boolean Logic - Elementary logic gates like Not, And, Or, Mux, etc.
• Boolean Arithmetic - Combinational Chips, the ALU.
• Sequential Logic - Sequential Chips, Memory.
• Machine Language - Assembly programming.
• Computer Architecture - CPU + Memory = Computer.

Software hierarchy

• Assembler - Hack Assembler in Python.
• Virtual Machine translator - Translate VM language into Hack assembly language in Python.
  • Virtual Machine I - Stack arithmetic
  • Virtual machine II - Program control
• High-Level Language - Introducing Jack programming language and coding Tetris.
• Jack Compiler - Jack Compiler in Python.
  • Compiler I - Syntax analysis
  • Compiler II - Code generation
• Operating System - Jack Operating System or Standard library.

Final Project

A Tic-Tac-Toe game made with the Jack language