[Eug-lug] NAND gates to Tetris

[Mike Cherba]

Nice find Bob!

It reminds me a fair amount of this:
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072467509/

Which is the text my EECS-101 Prof (Yale Patt, now at U Texas Austin)
Co-Authored. ( http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~patt/ )  I really like the
approach of teaching CS by starting with "This is a transistor" and
building from there.  This starts a level higher, but still it is the
same approach.  I highly recommend anyone interested in learning how the
guts of a computer really work to take a look at this.

I've also found that this is a useful approach when trying to explain
what I do to non computer people.  

Might play with the exercises myself.  It's been a while since I
designed a 1bit rollover adder or a barrel shifter.  Plus The later
exercises definately help bring back the basics of compiler design and
such.  Makes me wish I was back in school.
		-Mike

We shall do a much better programming job, provided we approach the task
with a full appreciation of its tremendous difficulty, provided that we
respect the intrinsic limitations of the human mind and approach the
task as very humble programmers. --- Alan Turing


On Sat, 2008-06-07 at 07:50 -0700, Bob Miller wrote:
> Rainy Saturday diversion...
> 
> Have you guys seen this?  It's an introductory CS textbook that takes
> the student from simple boolean logic circuits up through successive
> layers of abstraction to a working game (not necessarily Tetris).  At
> the end of the term, the student has a game that he understands at
> every level all the way down to the gates.
> 
>     Boolean Logic
>     Combinatorial Chips
>     Sequential Chips
>     Machine Language
>     Computer Architecture
>     Assembler
>     Virtual Machine I: Arithmetic
>     Virtual Machine II: Machine Control
>     Programming Language
>     Compiler I: Syntax Analysis
>     Compiler II: Code Generation
>     Operating System
>     More Fun to Go (an open project?)
> 
> Verrah cool!
> 
> Some chapters of the book are on line, and all the exercises are.  I
> did the first two chapters' exercises this morning, and plan to do
> more later.  (My education is a little skimpy on the lower levels, so
> I can use it.)
> 
> There are also some videos.
> 
> Main page: http://www1.idc.ac.il/tecs/
>