Digital Design: From Bits to a Working Computer

Digital Design: From Bits to a Working ComputerYou build a working computer from its parts, starting from two voltages on a wire.By Module 8, reused parts form one machine that runs programs. For each circuit you predict, build, run, break and explain. Each idea and each name arrives when the circuit you are building raises a question that needs it. Every simulation runs the real circuit, not an animation. Everything runs and stays in your browser.Signals to computer in five stagesModule 0 comes first, before the five stages. The stages build the machine up from one wire, beginning in Module 1; two optional chapters follow them.What computers do (Module 0): Run a finished machine with a shop's program, line by line; open the machine level by level, down to one wire.

Signals (Modules 1 to 3): Turn voltages into numbers; build logic circuits with AND, OR, NOT; choose, compare, add.

Memory (Modules 4 to 6): Build circuits that remember values; count and step through sequences; store and find numbers.

Machine (Modules 7 to 9): Build the arithmetic and logic circuit; join parts into one machine; build the control for each step.

Programming (Modules 10 and 11): Learn why the machine's vocabulary is as it is; write programs for it; find their mistakes.

The whole machine (Modules 12 and 13): Make the machine respond when errors occur; run complete programs from start to end.

Beyond the machine (Optional chapters): Watch a program write a shop's line as machine lines, one at a time; let a timer swap the machine between two programs.The course assumes you can turn binary numbers to decimal and back. It assumes everyday arithmetic, but nothing about electronics, circuits or programming.This course runs a circuit simulator in your browser, so it needs JavaScript. Nothing is sent anywhere: everything runs here.