The Elements of Computing Systems, Second Edition by Noam Nisan

The Elements of Computing Systems, Second Edition

Building a Modern Computer From First Principles

Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken

MIT Press · Print & ebook · June 15, 2021

A new and extensively revised edition of a popular textbook used in universities, coding boot camps, hacker clubs, and online courses.

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Who it’s for
A straightforward path into how computers are put together, with a hands-on, systems-first feel.
Genres
Computer Science, Programming Basics, Computer Engineering
Published
MIT Press, June 15, 2021

About this book

A new and extensively revised edition of a popular textbook used in universities, coding boot camps, hacker clubs, and online courses. The best way to understand how computers work is to build one from scratch, and this textbook leads learners through twelve chapters and projects that gradually build the hardware platform and software hierarchy for a simple but powerful computer system.

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In the process, learners gain hands-on knowledge of hardware, architecture, operating systems, programming languages, compilers, data structures and algorithms, and software engineering. Using this constructive approach, the book introduces readers to a significant body of computer science knowledge and synthesizes key theoretical and applied techniques into one constructive framework.The outcome is known known as Nand to Tetris: a journey that starts with the most elementary logic gate, called Nand, and ends, twelve projects later, with a general-purpose computer system capable of running Tetris and any other program that comes to your mind. The first edition of this popular textbook inspired Nand to Tetris classes in many universities, coding boot camps, hacker clubs, and online course platforms. This second edition has been extensively revised. It has been restructured into two distinct parts—Part I, hardware, and Part II, software—with six projects in each part. All chapters and projects have been rewritten, with an emphasis on separating abstraction from implementation, and many new sections, figures, and examples have been added. Substantial new appendixes offer focused presentation on technical and theoretical topics.

Systems, Simply

A straightforward path into how computers are put together, with a hands-on, systems-first feel.

Come here for

  • From-first-principles computer building
  • Classroom-friendly, practical structure

Expect

  • C programming alongside algorithms
  • Study notes that fit coursework

Where it sits

Computer Science68%
Programming Basics29%
Computer Engineering26%

Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.

Publisher categories

  • Computer Science
  • Programming Basics
  • Software Development
Authors
Noam Nisan, Shimon Schocken
Publisher
MIT Press
Published
June 15, 2021
Format
Print & ebook
Reading lane
Computer Science